Aeneas fleeing Troy (after Andrea Schiavone)
- Artist: David Teniers II
- Date: 1650-56
- Medium: oil on panel
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is “Aeneas fleeing Troy (after Andrea Schiavone)” by David Teniers II. The small oil on panel was painted between 1650 and 1656, a period when Teniers was busy preparing his landmark catalogue, the Theatrum Pictorium. That publication, released in 1660, was the first printed and illustrated catalogue of a major art collection. It documented the holdings of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, the governor of the Southern Netherlands, who had amassed more than 1,300 paintings spanning two centuries.
Teniers made meticulous copies of the originals directly on small wooden panels. These copies were then sent to specialist engravers, whose prints appeared in the catalogue. The result was a visual record of the collection that preserved works which have since been altered or lost. The painting here exemplifies Teniers’ remarkable skill in rendering the composition of the Italian Renaissance master Andrea Schiavone while also highlighting his role in promoting the appreciation of older art.
The Courtauld Institute holds fourteen of these copies, the largest number in any public collection, underscoring their importance as historical documents. The work itself captures the dramatic moment of Aeneas’s escape, blending Teniers’ lively brushwork with the dramatic storytelling of the original. It is a fine example of 17th‑century Flemish copyists’ devotion to the past and their contribution to the early modern art market.
See it in person
Aeneas fleeing Troy (after Andrea Schiavone) hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
