Deianira Listens to Fame

By 1638 Rubens was in his early sixties, slowed by gout, and painting mostly for himself and a few grand patrons from his house outside Antwerp. This is one of a pair he made in those late years, and it catches a Greek myth at its worst possible moment. Deianira, the wife of Hercules, leans in to listen to Fame, the winged figure of rumour, who has just told her that her husband loves another woman. What she does next is the tragedy. Believing an old gift will win him back, she will send Hercules a tunic soaked in the blood of the centaur Nessus, not knowing it is a poison that will kill him. That bloody cloth is already in the picture, held ready at her side.