The Nuptials of Thetis and Peleus

Around 1606 to 1609, when this copper was painted, Hendrick de Clerck was court painter in Brussels to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, who ruled the Spanish Netherlands. The couple being celebrated are Thetis and Peleus, but the figure to watch is Eris, goddess of discord and the one guest left off the list. She swoops in at the upper right with an apple in her hand. Thrown among the gods, it will lead to the judgement of Paris and in the end to the Trojan War. Apollo plays his harp among the Muses above the table. De Clerck painted the figures and Jan Brueghel the Elder the landscape. By 1746 the picture was in Spain, listed in the inventory of La Granja, the palace of Queen Elisabeth Farnese near Segovia.