Prometheus Being Chained by Vulcan
Also titled Prometheus door Vulcanus geketend
Dirck van Baburen (ca. –1624)
1623
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- support: height 201 cm x width 182 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Gift of J. von Loehr, Caïro
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
About this work
Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind. As punishment, Vulcan chained him to a rock, where an eagle pecked out his liver causing him excruciating pain. Here we see Prometheus being chained, his face contorted with fear, while Mercury laughs at him. Van Baburen borrowed the dramatic illumination and the figure’s sunburned hands and faces from his great model Caravaggio.
