Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Stormy Landscape with Philemon and Baucis
date disputed, c.1625
Collection of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm
© Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

In his Metamorphoses, Ovid tells of an aged married couple, Philemon and Baucis, who alone offered hospitality to Jupiter and Mercury travelling incognito in the world. While the gods caused a terrible flood to submerge the corrupt world, the aged couple - depicted in the centre on the right - are saved; later each turned into a tree. However, the main subject of the painting are the elemental forces unleashed in this natural disaster, nature herself in all her primeval power with skies breaking, torrential rains, powerful torrents, and people and animals drowning or already drowned. This devastation is contrasted with the Paradise-like peaceful pastures in the background on the left and the protected ledge on the right. Rubens' work is part of a Flemish tradition of this particular type of overview landscapes; however, the artist was also influenced by Venetian examples and the work of Elsheimer, a German artist active in Rome around 1600.