Achelous Defeated by Hercules. The Origin of the Cornucopia. (Allegory of Fruitfulness)
Jacob Jordaens
1649
Voluptuous women, capering satyrs and an abundance of flowers, fruit, and muscle. Everything is plentiful here, which is hardly surprising given that the subject of the painting is the origins of the cornucopia, the horn of plenty. Jordaens based the painting on a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses in which the river god Achelous relates the tale of how he transformed into a bull in order to vanquish Heracles. However, Heracles bested him and broke off the horn that would be come the cornucopia. The painting shows Achelous in his bull form. He is watching the deities of nature alongside Heracles, who is clad in a lion pelt. In 1604 the Dutch artist Karel van Mander published his interpretation of Ovid.
SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen · Image: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Public domain · Text: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark (text: Peter Nørgaard Larsen) (adapted), CC0