Theagenes and Chariclea Amidst Slain Pirates on the Bank of the Nile Estuary (‘After the Shipwreck’)

Author: Albert J. Elen

Depicted is the first scene from the love story of Theagenes and Chariclea, an ancient romance related in the novel Historia Aethiopica (An Ethiopian Story) by the third-century (AD) greek writer Heliodorus of Emesa, which was first published in print in 1534 and was very popular since, though rarely depicted by artists.¹ Chariclea was an Ethiopian princess, though unaware of this. Because she had a white skin at birth the queen, fearing accusation of adultery by her husband, exposed her as a baby. The royal foundling was raised by a priest of Apollo called Charicles, who took her first to Egypt and then to Delphi in Greece. Grown up she there fell in love with Theagenes, descendant of the famous Greec hero Achilles, during the Pythian Games (a precursor of the Olympic Games). They ran off together and after several adventures, Chariclea being pursued by other men and desperately trying to protect her virginity, they were eventually married.

The novel actually starts in the middle of the story, when at sunrise Egyptian robbers are looking for their daily prey from a cliff on the shores the Nile estuary, called Heracleot. When they look down to the beach they are surprised by a fascinating scene unfolding before their eyes: among men lying dead or mortally wounded a beautiful young lady is ministering to a wounded young man. They are the sole survivors of a fierce fight with their revolting crew which suddenly started during a banquet on the beach, after their ship had been blown off course during a storm and had been cast upon this shore. Dishes are still on the table, precious tableware is lying around. The ship, carrying the rich possessions of Theagenes and Charicleia that tempted their crew, is lying on the beach in the background.

Bloemaert closely followed the detailed description of this extraordinary scene in the first two paragraphs of the first chapter of the novel, depicting Chariclea with quiver and bow, with which she had just slain their assailants. Bloemaert has also drawn the second group of thieves in the distance, who already started looting the ship, which at that moment was yet to happen. That group of thieves then scared off the other group of robbers on the cliff and subsequently took Theagenes and Chariclea as prisoners. In the distance, on the slope of the hill, a figure is seated with hands wrought together; this is their companion Calasiris praying to the gods for help, a detail actually not mentioned at that point in the novel.

This drawing is the only surviving preparatory drawing for one of three paintings depicting scenes of the love story of Theagenes and Chariclea, which Bloemaert painted between 1625 and 1628 for Stadholder Frederik Hendrik's country estate of Huis Honselaarsdijk just south of The Hague, which was then still under construction. The painting, dated 1625, is now in Potsdam (ill. 1).² The three canvases, which do not have the same dimensions, the Shipwreck being the smallest, were probably intended as chimney-pieces in different rooms, as a recurring theme alluding to the prince and his wife Amalia van Solms.³ Thus they are not an actual cycle, which, moreover, would only have been complete if the closing theme of the marriage of the love couple had also been painted.⁴ The two other paintings depict other scenes from the love story: Theagenes Receiving the Palm of Honour from Chariclea, dated 1626 (Mauritshuis, The Hague)⁵ and Theagenes and Chariclea Arriving at the Pythian Games, dated 1628 (formerly Schloss Schwed, lost during WW II).⁶ These two scenes chronologically precede our scene, but are recounted later on in the novel, which starts half way. ⁷

The Rotterdam sheet is the vidimus for the painting, which is the finished composition drawing presented to the patron for approval.⁸ Bloemaert must also have made studies for parts of the composition and, in addition, may have drawn on figure studies in his workshop portfolios. This is particularly likely to be true of the sprawled figures, which appear in similar but slightly different poses in numerous drawings and prints, such as a study sheet produced thirty years earlier in Bremen.⁹ At the start of his career Bloemaert had painted a similar scene of carnage in the monumental Slaying of the Niobids (1591), which he must have had in mind, possibly having the old figure studies of lying male nudes ready to hand, when composing the Shipwreck scene.¹⁰

The composition of the vidimus was largely reproduced in the painting, but the sail above the table was eliminated, the sailing ship in the background was modernised (probably at the patron's request) and vegetation was added to the bare cliff. Smaller details such as shells replaced the jar in the foreground. Adding the shells Bloemaert on second reading decided to follow closer Heliodorus’ description “another [brigand lying dead] was hurt with the shells of fishes, whereof on the shore there was great plenty” and he also added arrows (“most of all were slain with arrows”), which are also lacking in the drawing.¹¹ Bloemaert undoubtedly based the minor elements of the composition on separate preparatory studies that are no. longer known to us and he relied on his studio repertory.