Support The panel consists of two horizontally grained oak planks (approx. 21 and 24.1 cm), approx. 1 cm thick. Wooden strips at the top and bottom (approx. 1 cm) were added at a later date, presumably to fit the panel into a frame. The reverse has bevels on all sides with only a narrow one at the top, and regularly spaced saw marks. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1629. The panel could have been ready for use by 1640, but a date in or after 1646 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The single, thin, off-white ground extends over the edges of the support on the left and right, but not over the ones at the top and bottom. It consists of a solid mass with just a few coarse white and some black pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends over the edges of the support on the left and right, but not over the ones at the top and bottom. The composition was loosely laid in with a fluid, reddish-brown undermodelling and built up from the back to the front with reserves for the figures in the foreground. The paint was smoothly applied, wet in wet, generally without blending and with visible brushwork. The undermodelling was left exposed in large parts of the landscape and in the figures in the background. Impasto was used only for the bright yellow highlights on the woman’s yellow-red drapery and on some metal objects in the foreground. Infrared photography showed numerous adjustments to the positions of hands, feet and legs, most of which have become visible to the naked eye due to the increased transparency of the upper paint layer. The dagger in the foreground, for example, initially pointed to the front, Theagenes’ right hand rested higher on his chest, Chariclea’s right hand was longer, and the figures in the background were depicted almost full length before being partly painted out with the rock.
Willem de Ridder [publication date 2026]

Fair. The grain of the wood has become visible, especially in the lighter areas. The paint layer has many small losses and shows a whitish efflorescence in the trees. It has become locally transparent and is abraded throughout, especially in the figure of Chariclea and in the dark grey cloud. Some of the retouchings are discoloured, particularly in the sky. The varnish has yellowed, turned dull, saturates moderately and has a matte streak in the sky with scratches around it.

…; ? probate inventory, Daniel Wulfraet, Amsterdam, 13 February 1673 (‘een Theagenes en Chariklea van Daniel Tievaert’), fl. 18;¹¹Note RMA.…; ? anonymous sale, London (Robinson, Fisher and Harding), 11 November 1937, no. 99, as B. Cuyp;²²A note on the mount in the RKD states that this is the painting in the Rijksmuseum. Daan Cevat wrote a letter on 16 October 1977 stating that he bought the panel in London; file RMA.…; with the dealer N. Cevat, Amsterdam, 1938, 1939;³³Note RMA; Hofstede de Groot in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXXIII, Leipzig 1939, p. 38. ? from whom, to Maassen;⁴⁴Letter Daan Cevat, 16 October 1977; file RMA.…; from G. van Marselius Hartsinck-Veldhuizen van Zanten, Haarlem, fl. 7,000, to the museum, 1975

Object number: SK-A-4668

The amorous adventures of Theagenes and Chariclea were described by Heliodorus in the fourth century CE in his Historiae Aethiopica. The emotive but chaste love story was extremely popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and was repeatedly published in various translations, including Dutch ones in 1610 and 1634.⁸⁸Heliodorus, De beschrijvinghe Heliodori vande Moorenlandtsche gheschiedenissen, vervaet in thien boecken: Inhoudende de eerbare, cuyssche, ende ghetrouwe liefde van Theagenes van Thessalien, ende Chariclea van Ethiopien: Eerst int Griecx beschreven ende nu uut het Francoysche int Nederlandts vertaelt door C.K., trans. C. Quina, Amsterdam 1610; Heliodorus, De thien Boecken van Heliodorus, vervattende de ghetrouwe, langhdurige, cuysche liefde van Theagenes, Ridder van Thessalien, ende Chariclea konings dochter van Ethiopien: Nu op een nieu met Figuren verciert, ende uyt het Griecx tot vermaeck ende leeringhe van alle Ionghe Minnaers vertaelt door C. Kina, trans. C. Quina, Haarlem 1634. The romantic entanglement only played a role of any significance in Dutch painting of the first half of the seventeenth century, most notably in Utrecht.⁹⁹W. Stechow, ‘Heliodorus’ Aethiopica in Art’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 16 (1953), pp. 144-52, esp. p. 146; J. Spicer, ‘Heliodorus’s An Ethiopian Story in Seventeenth-Century European Art’, in H.L. Gates and D. Bindman (eds.), Images of the Black in 17th-Century European Art, Cambridge 2010, pp. 1-29. Daniel Thivart stayed very close to the text in this depiction of the narrative’s opening episode. Chariclea, a beautiful Ethiopian princess and priestess of Artemis, is abducted with her beloved, the Greek Theagenes. They are captured at sea by a band of pirates, whose leader is smitten by Chariclea. The bandits later quarrel during a banquet at the mouth of the Nile and kill each other. In Thivart’s painting Chariclea, with a laurel wreath and bow, gazes adoringly at Theagenes, who has been badly wounded in the fighting. They are approached by another band of robbers who are unsure whether Chariclea is a goddess, a priestess or an ordinary mortal. Thivart has rendered their confusion in their agitated gestures. Theagenes raises himself up and speaks of his affection for Chariclea, whereupon they make an impassioned mutual declaration of love, which is the overture to the rest of the novel. The detail of Chariclea resting her cheek on her right hand is described by Heliodorus.¹⁰¹⁰Heliodorus, Historiae Aethiopica, I.

This was not the only time that Thivart took his inspiration from a love story, and in this he reflected a general interest in literary subjects and pastoral plays that had its origins in the stadholder’s court in the 1620s.¹¹¹¹See P. van den Brink, ‘Het gedroomde land – Inleiding’, in P. van den Brink and J. de Meyere (eds.), Het gedroomde land: Pastorale schilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Frankfurt (Schirn Kunsthalle)/Luxembourg (Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art) 1993-94, pp. 9-22, esp. pp. 17-22. Among a handful of cabinet pieces that are currently attributed to him are three amorous scenes featuring Silvio and Dorinda from Giovanni Battista Giuarini’s Il pastor fido.¹²¹²The Sacrificial Ritual, private collection (photo RKD); mentioned in P. van den Brink and J. de Meyere (eds.), Het gedroomde land: Pastorale schilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Frankfurt (Schirn Kunsthalle)/Luxembourg (Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art) 1993-94, p. 312. Silvio with Dorinda after Wounding her, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, IV, Landau/Pfalz 1989, p. 2774. Silvio with Dorinda after Wounding her, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Amsterdam (Christie’s), 10 May 2005, no. 4. The latter is related to a painting that Herman Saftleven and Abraham Bloemaert made for Honselaarsdijk Palace in 1635 that is now in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie; illustrated in Van den Brink and De Meyere (op cit.), p. 254.

The earliest known depiction of Theagenes and Chariclea in the Dutch Republic was painted by Abraham Bloemaert in 1625 for Stadholder Frederik Hendrik as one of a series of episodes from the Aethiopica.¹³¹³Potsdam, Verwaltung der Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten, Sanssouci; illustrated in M.G. Roethlisberger and M.J. Bok, Abraham Bloemaert and his Sons: Paintings and Prints, II, Doornspijk 1993, ill. 594, no. 424. On the Aethiopica in the visual arts see F. Bonger-Van der Borch van Verwolde, ‘De invloed van den Theagenes- en Chariclea roman op de beeldende kunsten’, Maandblad voor beeldende kunsten 18 (1941), pp. 114-24; W. Stechow, ‘Heliodorus’ Aethiopica in Art’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 16 (1953), pp. 144-52; J. Crewe, ‘Drawn in Color: Aethiopika in European Painting’, Word & Image 25 (2009), pp. 129-142. It influenced later versions by Gerard van Honthorst (1635),¹⁴¹⁴Elsinore, Kronborg Castle; illustrated in J.R. Judson and R.E.O. Ekkart, Gerrit van Honthorst, 1592-1656, Doornspijk 1999, pl. 62, no. 138. Nicolaes Knupfer (late 1630s)¹⁵¹⁵Stockholm, Högskolas Tafvelsamling; illustrated in J. Saxton, Nicolaus Knupfer: An Original Artist: Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Drawings, Doornspijk 2005, pl. XXVI, no. 72. and Thivart as well.¹⁶¹⁶On Dutch representations of Theagenes and Chariclea see J. Spicer, ‘Heliodorus’s An Ethiopian Story in Seventeenth-Century European Art’, in H.L. Gates and D. Bindman (eds.), Images of the Black in 17th-Century European Art, Cambridge 2010, pp. 1-29. In contrast to Bloemaert’s visually overloaded scene, Thivart has placed the main actors in the foreground and included fewer corpses and allusions to the banquet – a feature that it shares with Knupfer’s treatment.¹⁷¹⁷An engraving of this scene after Crispijn van de Passe II is included in a 1623 French edition of Les Amours de Theagene et Chariclee; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450-1700, XVI, Amsterdam 1974, no. 185. Illustrated in J. Spicer, ‘Heliodorus’s An Ethiopian Story in Seventeenth-Century European Art’, in H.L. Gates and D. Bindman (eds.), Images of the Black in 17th-Century European Art, Cambridge 2010, pp. 1-29, esp. p. 8. Van de Passe’s composition has little in common with Thivart’s. The muted palette, touches of brighter colour here and there and the simple manner of Thivart’s picture are typical of his small-figured history pieces, but the colouring of the clothes of the principal characters is also close to Knupfer’s. It is impossible to place the Rijksmuseum’s painting in the chronology of Thivart’s oeuvre, since no dated works by him are known. Dendrochronology has shown that it could have been made in or after 1646, so it must have been executed between then and the artist’s death some time before 1657.

Gerbrand Korevaar [publication date 2026]

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

W. Stechow, ‘Heliodorus’ Aethiopica in Art’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 16 (1953), pp. 144-52, esp. p. 150; J.I. Kuznetzow, ‘Nikolaus Knupfer (1603?-1655)’, Oud Holland 88 (1974), pp. 169-219, esp. p. 178, note 42

1976, p. 909, no. A 4668; 1992, p. 87, no. A 4668

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2026, 'Daniël Thivart, Theagenes and Chariclea on the Beach (Heliodorus, Historiae Aethiopica, I), c. 1646 - c. 1657', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20026404