Cornelis van Haarlem, 'Two Followers of Cadmus devoured by a Dragon', 1588

Two Followers of Cadmus devoured by a Dragon

Cornelis van Haarlem

Room 24

About the work

Overview

Cadmus, a prince of Tyre, travelled to the Delphic Oracle after his sister was stolen away by Zeus, chief of the Greek gods. There he was told that, instead of searching for his sister, he should ‘follow the cow outside and wherever it rests, build a new city’.

When the cow stopped Cadmus’s followers went in search of water. A dragon was guarding the spring they found; it slaughtered them all. Cadmus managed to kill it, and the goddess Athena told him to sow its teeth in the ground. Armed men sprang from them – and fought each other. Five survived to help Cadmus build the city of Thebes.

Here, the dragon sinks its teeth into a man’s cheek. Its claws seem to tear his flesh, but a closer look reveals that the legs and torso belong to a second person flung across his hips. A glimmer of hope is offered by a distant view of Cadmus fighting the dragon.

In-depth

Cadmus, a prince of Tyre, travelled to the Delphic Oracle after his sister was stolen away by Zeus. He asked where to find her but was told that, instead of searching for his sister, he should ‘follow the cow outside and wherever it rests, build a new city’.

This Cadmus did. When the cow collapsed from fatigue, he sent his followers to search for water so he could sacrifice it to the goddess Athena. But the spring they found was guarded by a fierce dragon, the son of Ares, and it slaughtered them all. When his men failed to return, Cadmus set out after them and came face to face with the monster. After a fierce struggle he killed it, and was told by Athena to sow its teeth in the ground. Armed men sprang up from the earth as soon as the teeth touched it – and began to fight each other. Five were left alive. They swore allegiance to Cadmus and helped him build the city that later became known as Thebes.

Here, a man reaches up to wrestle the dragon away as it sinks its foul teeth – described by the Roman poet Ovid as shining like gold, though van Haarlem imagines them otherwise – into his cheek. The dragon’s tail curls and clings down past the man’s shoulder, the livid pink tip obscenely probing his curls. Its claws seem to tear his torso and legs, but a closer look reveals that they belong to another person, already dead and flung across his hips. A severed head is on the ground, the throat revealed behind the first man’s muscular back and contorted arm. The bones of other victims are scattered about. The dragon’s black wings are outlined against a thundery sky, but a glimmer of hope is offered by a distant view of Cadmus fighting it to its death. This collapsing of time – showing two scenes from a story in one painting – was a favourite device of artists like van Haarlem, working in the Manneriststyle.

The story of Cadmus is told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses with as much gory detail as van Haarlem shows in his painting. Biblical and classical stories gave Mannerist painters scope for studies of the nude in contorted poses with exaggerated facial expressions. Karel van Mander, an artist and influential writer on art in Haarlem in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, was van Haarlem’s mentor. Together with the painter and printmaker Hendrick Goltzius, who made a print after van Haarlem’s painting, they furthered the Mannerist style in the city, with Michelangelo and more muscular examples of classical sculpture as their ideal exemplars. Not for them the cosy Dutch interior or elegant flower arrangement. Their ambitions were far wider than the Haarlem market and they sought to align themselves with international developments in painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Two Followers of Cadmus devoured by a Dragon
Artist: Cornelis van Haarlem
Artist dates: 1562 - 1638
Date made: 1588
Medium and support: oil on canvas, mounted on wood
Dimensions: 148.5 × 195.5 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit: Presented by the Duke of Northumberland, 1838
Inventory number: NG1893
Location: Room 24
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland
Frame: 20th-century Replica Frame

Provenance

Perhaps in the collection of Jacob Rauwart, Amsterdam, in 1588 and sold from the estate of Claes Rauwart, Amsterdam, 1612; collection of the Earl of Northumberland at Syon House by 1671; presented by the Duke of Northumberland in 1838.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2012

‘The Dutch Michelangelo’ Cornelis van Haarlem (1562–1638)

Frans Hals Museum

29 September 2012 - 20 January 2013

Bibliography

1671

Brentford, Syon House: Inventory of the Collection of Syon House, 1671
1803

J. von Bartsch, Le peinture graveur, 21 vols, Vienna 1803
1885

H. Hymans, Le livre des peintres de Carel van Mander, Paris 1885
1929

National Gallery, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square: Catalogue, 86th edn, London 1929
1952

J. Frederiks, Dutch Silver, Amsterdam 1952
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1961

E.J. Reznicek, Die Zeichnungen von Hendrick Goltzius: Mit einem beschreibenden Katalog, Orbis artium: Utrechtse kunsthistorische studiën 6, Utrecht 1961
1965

P.J.J. van Thiel, 'Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem as a Draughtsman', Master Drawings, III/2, 1965, pp. 123-54, 185-99
1966

A. Mayer-Meintschel, Niederländische Malerei. 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, Dresden 1966
1970

G. Kauffman, Die Kunst des 16. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 1970
1970

J. Bialostocki, 'Malerei', in G. Kauffman (ed.), Die Kunst des 16. Jahrhundert, Berlin 1970, pp. 155-208
1972

E.K.J. Reznicek, 'Hont Horstiana', Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, XXIII, 1972, pp. 167-89
1973

The National Gallery, The National Gallery: January 1971 - December 1972, London 1973
1977

C. Brown, 'A Rediscovered Painting by Cornelis van Haarlem', The Burlington Magazine, CXIX, 1977, pp. 564-7
1978

J. von Bartsch, The Illustrated Bartsch, ed. W.L. Strauss, New York 1978-
1978

E.K.J. Reznicek, 'Review: W. Strauss (ed.), Hendrick Goltzius, 1558-1617, The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, 2 Vols, 1977', Simiolus, X, 1978, pp. 200-6
1985

A. de Bosque, Mythologie en maniërisme in de Nederlanden, 1570-1630, Amsterdam 1985
1985

P. van Thiel, 'Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem: His First Ten Years as a Painter', in G. Cavalli-Björkman (ed.), Netherlandish Mannerism: Papers given at a Symposium in Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, September 21-22, 1984, Stockholm 1985, pp. 73-84
1986

E.J. Sluijter, De 'Heydensche Fabulen' in de Noordnederlandse schilderkunst, circa 1590-1670. Een proeve van beschrijving en interpretatie van schilderijen met verhalende onderwerpen uit de klassicke mythologie, Phd Thesis, Leiden University 1986
1986

C. Christensen and L. Nichols, 'Cadmus, His Companions and the Dragon: A Newly-Discovered Painting by Hendrick Goltzius', Hoogsteder-Naumann Mercury, III, 1986, pp. 3-19
1986

P.J.J. van Thiel, 'La rehabilitation du maniérisme hollandaise: Deux tableaux de Cornelis van Haarlem', Revue du Louvre, XXXVI, 1986, pp. 111-20
1988

F. Woolf, Myths and Legends: Paintings in the National Gallery, London 1988
1990

A.W. Lowenthal, Netherlandish Mannerism in British Collections, London 1990
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1991

J. McGee, Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem (1562-1638): Patrons, Friends and Dutch Humanists, Nieuwkoop 1991
1993

M. Leesberg, 'Karel van Mander as a Painter', Simiolus, XXII, 1993, pp. 5-57
1993

G. Luijten and A. van Suchtelen, Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlandish art, 1580-1620, (exh. cat. Rijksmuseum, 11 December 1993 - 6 March 1994), Zwolle 1993
1994

A. Thomas, An Illustrated Dictionary of Narrative Painting, London 1994
1998

P. Taylor, 'The Glow in late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Dutch Painting', Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, XI, 1998, pp. 159-78
1998

A. Boersma and J. Giltaij, 'The Intriguing Changes Through Restoration of a Newly Discovered Painting by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem', Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, XI, 1998, pp. 147-58
1998

C. Brown, 'Revising the Canon: The Collector's Point of View', Simiolus, XXVI/3, 1998, pp. 201-12
1998

H. Keazor, 'Thedore de Bry's Images for America', Print Quarterly, XV, 1998
1999

P. van Thiel, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, 1562-1638: A Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné, trans. D. Webb, Doornspijk 1999
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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