Artemisia drinking the ashes of her husband Mausolous
Artemisia II of Caria was a curious character admired for her extreme measures of mourning. She married her brother Mausolus, who ruled over the Anatolian south western area of Caria from 377-353 BCE in the capacity of satrap of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Upon his death, Artemisia, known as an able naval strategist, ruled in her brother-husband’s place for two years. During that time she remained so grief-stricken over her husband’s death that every day she imbibed a drink containing part of his ashes. For this she was perceived as a widow deserving the highest praise. She is shown in the painting surrounded by her attendants and holding the sacred cup into which a young man pours the ashes. As she gazes towards the heavens, her tear-stained eyes are apparent.
Scholars, conservators, and curators have long been baffled about the precise authorship of this painting. Is it Rubens alone, by Rubens and his workshop, or was it copied by an able follower or assistant? It came into possession of the Club in 1928 as a donation by the distinguished member and art collector, Sidney Corning Eastman, who inherited it from his father, Zebina Eastman. Most scholars agree that the painting displays passages of high artistic bravura associated with the hand of Peter Paul Rubens, a master of Northern Baroque art second to none. However, the unevenness visible in some of the composition, perhaps partially on account of previous restorations, results in an ongoing conundrum of definitive attribution. There is another version of this composition—considered in literature to be by Rubens and his workshop-- in the Sansoucci Palace collection in Potsdam, Germany. A further remarkably similar composition, attributed not to Rubens but contemporary Gerard Seghers, exists in the collection of the Fundación Casa de Alba, Liria Palace, Madrid. This work may well indeed hold the clue in determining the Union League Club’s painting mystery. Yet another contemporary of Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, has also been mentioned as the artist of the Madrid version, and indeed the Club painting may be associated with Jordaens as it presents a shiny smoothness of the flesh associated with his work.
Between 2006-2008 the Club’s painting underwent an extensive examination and restoration by then Curator Marianne Richter and Conservator Elyse Klein. They traveled to Potsdam and Madrid to compare the other versions and carry out sedulous scholarly research and scientific study. Among their findings was that the Union League Club painting represents an intermediary position between the other works---in that the style relates to the Madrid version and the technique more to the Potsdam example. In addition, expert dating of the wood placed the panel at the time of Rubens. The future may bring new evidence to solve this ongoing, baffling mystery of attribution, but in the meanwhile, Artemisia drinking the Ashes of her husband Mausolus remains a precious artefact of Club history.
