"With an Eagle"

The Philadelphia Museum announced last week that it had bought a Rubens masterpiece, Prometheus Bound, to help celebrate its diamond jubilee. Purchased from a London dealer for a price estimated at somewhere between $65,000 and $100,000, the picture had belonged to the Dukes of Manchester for almost three centuries. Philadelphia Museum Director Fiske Kimball called it "one of the supreme examples" of Rubens' "dynamic energy and bold plasticity."

Rubens, who was fond of the picture himself, once described it more modestly in a letter offering it for sale to a 17th Century collector: "A Prometheus bound on Mount Caucasus; with an Eagle which pecks his liver. Original, by my hand, and the Eagle done by Snyders.* Nine feet high by eight feet wide." Rubens' asking price was also modest: 500 florins (about $145).

* Frans Snyders' collaboration improved the canvas. Lacking Rubens' genius for figure-painting, as well as his grand style, Snyders surpassed the youthful master in picturing birds, animals and fruit.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.