Achilles as Pyrrha with Cupid 1659

Jan Thomas made this etching, ‘Achilles as Pyrrha with Cupid’ in 1659. It shows the Greek hero Achilles disguised as a woman to avoid being sent to war, a scene popular in seventeenth-century art, when cross-dressing was a common motif in plays and courtly entertainments. Thomas was a Flemish artist working in the Holy Roman Empire, which at this time was still recovering from the Thirty Years' War. The image perhaps comments on the longing for peace and the disruption of traditional gender roles in the wake of conflict. It also reflects the influence of classical literature and mythology on European art. The inscription at the bottom dedicating the etching to Ludovico Malo suggests this was produced within a network of aristocratic patronage. To fully understand this image, we can research the history of gender, war, and artistic patronage in the seventeenth century. Art historical interpretation relies on contextual understanding to reveal its full meaning.