Fight with Amazons 1587 - 1680

Curator: Here we have "Fight with Amazons," a dynamic oil on canvas attributed to Hans I Jordaens, likely created sometime between 1587 and 1680. Editor: My immediate sense is one of utter chaos. There’s a frenetic energy; figures tumbling, horses rearing. A real sense of violence and… theatricality. Curator: Absolutely. Jordaens presents a history painting rooted in classical mythology, echoing similar scenes popular in the Baroque era. Think Rubens! We see the Amazons, a mythical race of warrior women, locked in combat. Editor: The very idea of Amazons—fierce, independent women challenging patriarchal structures—has always been fraught with projection and anxiety. How do we interpret this violent clash in that light? Is it celebratory, cautionary, or something else? Curator: That’s precisely the complexity here. Paintings of this kind reinforced existing social orders while, perhaps inadvertently, acknowledging female power, albeit in a negative light. The battle itself becomes a spectacle that simultaneously titillates and reinforces gendered hierarchies. Editor: Note, too, who's dominating the canvas—who has agency and who is relegated to the ground, fallen and defeated. The arrangement itself, the spatial dynamics, contributes to the painting’s ideological work. Curator: Considering the period when Jordaens was active, it’s also interesting to reflect upon who was commissioning this type of work, and in which cultural environments these would be consumed. This was certainly a period of great societal change, in the midst of colonial projects and challenges to traditional sources of authority. Editor: I agree. It makes you think about what that kind of theatrical violence can mean. There is so much packed into the narrative that the painting almost reads as an historical-cultural artifact that we can study. Curator: Yes, and I would just emphasize how considering who was looking and what their expectations were, reveals the work of art to be far more complicated than just face value, and a lens into a complicated and changing period. Editor: Precisely, and that critical lens invites us to reexamine not only history but our present.