A Faun Grasping a Bunch of Grapes
Peter Paul Rubens
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The Story
Diana and Her Nymphs Departing for the Hunt, c. 1615. Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), and Workshop. Oil on canvas; framed: 261 x 225 x 11 cm (102 3/4 x 88 9/16 x 4 5/16 in.); unframed: 216 x 178.7 cm (85 1/16 x 70 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1959.190
Created in 1615 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Peter Paul Rubens worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
The physical object — oil on canvas, Framed: 261 x 225 x 11 cm (102 3/4 x 88 9/16 x 4 5/16 in.); Unframed: 216 x 178.7 cm (85 1/16 x 70 3/8 in.) — carries its own history of handling and restoration. Peter Paul Rubens's brushwork here moves between exacting description and looser, more suggestive passages, a balance typical of Baroque studio practice.
Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. What looks like straightforward narrative is layered with typology: episodes chosen and staged to rhyme with older stories the original audience already knew.
Today the painting is held by Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, where it remains a touchstone for understanding Peter Paul Rubens's contribution to Western art. It has been studied, copied, restored, and argued over for centuries — proof that great paintings keep generating new readings long after their creators have gone.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
