Apollo and Aurora

Lairesse left his native Liège in 1664 and settled in Amsterdam the following year. He found work immediately with the art dealer Gerrit Uylenburgh and through him became acquainted with Rembrandt, who painted Lairesse's portrait in about 1665–1667 (Robert Lehman Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art). As a painter and (after he became blind about 1690) as an art theorist, Lairesse favored idealized decorations influenced by artists of the French Academy. The Museum's painting, an early work, was probably intended as a chimney-piece for a large house in Amsterdam. The sun god Apollo and his occasional companion, Aurora, goddess of the dawn, are familiar figures in Baroque art but unusually in this case appear to have been given the features of a young couple, perhaps at the time of their marriage. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)