THE TROJAN SAGA AND THE ILIAD^465
Hector and Achilles. By Eunice Pinney (1770-1849); watercolor on paper, 1809-1826, 16 X
20 in. Eunice Pinney, a member of a prominent Connecticut family, took up painting
when she was thirty-nine years old. Her work has more vigor and originality than that
of less mature artists in the early Republic. Here Achilles thrusts his spear into Hector's
neck (Iliad 22. 326-329), while Athena encourages him from above. In the background are
the walls and the people of Troy and, to the left, the springs of the river Scamander
"where the wives and daughters of the Trojans used to wash their clothes" (Iliad 22.
154-155). Note the elaborate clothing of the warriors, the miniature Gorgon's head on
Athena's robe, and the owl that accompanies her. All three of the major figures are left-
handed, as sometimes happens with designs for engravings or tapestries, for which the
final product would be reversed. In fact this painting was copied from an engraving of
the oil sketch by Peter Paul Rubens of "The Death of Hector" for his tapestry series on
"The Life of Achilles" (now in Rotterdam). Pinney has dispensed with the herms and
putti of the sketch, substituting trees for the former. In the center she has kept the promi-
nent shield of Achilles (the subject of much of Book 18 of the Iliad) and on the left, be-
yond the tree and the Scamander, the white horses and charioteer who will drag the
corpse of Hector around the tomb of Patroclus. (Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collec-
tion, Williamsburg, Virginia.)