Charikleia and Theagenes

This rare subject was taken from the Aethiopica, a Greek novel of A.D. 240 written by a Phoenician, Heliodorus, and devoted to an Ethiopian adventure that takes place in the Nile Delta. Attacked by pirates (at the upper right), the heroine, the Grecian maiden Charikleia, kneels over her wounded mate Theagenes. In realizing the figures, Bloemaert followed Venetian models, but the landscape style and sophisticated colours are his own.