RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel (b. 1577, Siegen, d. 1640, Antwerpen) Pan and Syrinx 1617-19 Oil on oak panel, 40 x 61 cm Staatliche Museen, Kassel This is a joint work by Rubens an Jan Brueghel the Elder for which Brueghel painted the landscape and Rubens the figures. The painting represents a scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The lustful shepherd-god Pan pursued the shy, virginal nymph Syrinx, who ran to a river to escape him, calling on her 'sisters of the stream' to turn her into a reed. Just as Pan attempted to seize the nymph, she was transformed and he was left holding not a beautiful maiden but a bunch of reeds. From these he made his pipes, ever since called the syrinx, whose lovely tones reminded him of his lost love. Rubens, for whom Pan and the nymphs symbolise positive forces of nature, has based his Syrinx - modestly covering her loins with one hand and seemingly fending off the fast-closing Pan with the other - on the ancient Medici Venus, famous since the 16th century. Jan Brueghel the Elder, renowned for his life-like depiction of plants and animals, nestles the scene in a lively and luxuriant landscape. --- Keywords: -------------- Author: RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel Title: Pan and Syrinx Time-line: 1601-1650 School: Flemish Form: painting Type: mythological