File:LIE 1976 MiNr0657 mt B002a.jpg

Stamp of the Principality of Liechtenstein; 1976; commemorative stamp of the issue "400th Anniversary of Birth of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)"; stamp issue with paintings by Peter Paul Rubens from the Princely Art Collections of Liechtenstein; stamp motive with the painting "The discovery of the infant Erichthonius" (painting name on the stamp: "The daughters of the Cecrops"), created in 1616; Erichthonius = the later King of Athens = Mother: the Goddess Athena, Father: the Smith God Hephaestos (one variant of the ancient Greek mythos); the three daughters are Herse, Aglaurus, and Pandrosus; (to the pictured story see below); painting in the style of the Flemish Baroque; mint stamp

Peter Paul Rubens  (1577–1640)
	Alternative names	Rubens, Pierre Paul Rubens, Pieter Paul Rubens, Sir Peter Paul Rubens
	Description	Flemish painter, sculptor, drawer and printmaker
	Date of birth/death	28 June 1577	30 May 1640
	Location of birth/death	Siegen	Antwerp
	Work period	16th century date QS:P,+1550-00-00T00:00:00Z/7
	Work location	Antwerp (1589-1600), Mantua (9 May 1600-1608), Spain (1603), Antwerp (1608-1640), Netherlands (1612), Paris (23 May 1623-29 June 1623, 4 February 1625-9 June 1625), Calais (November 1626), Paris (December 1626), City of Brussels (1627), Netherlands (10 July 1627-6 August 1627), Spain (26 August 1628-29 April 1629), London (18 May 1629-23 March 1630), City of Brussels (1631), Netherlands (November 1631), Affligem (September 1634)
	Authority file	: Q5599 VIAF: 56647196 ISNI: 0000000121341267 ULAN: 500002921 LCCN: n79055561 NLA: 36442606 WorldCat

Note: Quotation from the catalogue of the Princely Art Collections: "...Rubens chose a rarely depicted subject for his Discovery of the Infant Erichthonius, A cruel story precedes the erotic depiction of the daughters of Cecrops: Vulcan tried to rape the virgin Minerva who managed to escape, however. The god’s semen fell on the ground, impregnating the earth goddess Gaia, who bore the infant Erichthonius who had the form of a serpent. Minerva had to hide this little monster in a basket that she handed over for safekeeping to the daughters of the Athenian king Cecrops, Aglaurus, Herse and Pandrosus who disobeyed the goddess’s orders that the basket should not be opened and so uncovered its secret. Rubens followed Ovid, who leaves the daughters’ curiosity unpunished in his Metamorphoses, while other ancient authors report that the disobedient women went mad at their discovery and threw themselves off the Acropolis. Pictorial elements like the fountain figure of Daphne, the dolphins and the herm of Pan, the god of the fields, are to be read as symbols of fertility and sensuality, and allude to the tale just related and its consequences. For the beauty of Herse, which Ovid describes so eloquently, Rubens went back to Praxiteles’s famous statue of Aphrodite (40 BC). Although the original is lost, its form is familiar from countless copies. Its magic lies in the ambivalent expressiveness of her gestures, which make it uncertain whether the goddess is revealing herself or covering herself up. But Rubens also reused his own figures and facial types, which he often took from his head studies: the gracious face of Herse with the almond-shaped, slanting eyes is reminiscent of those of the bacchante in the painting Maid with Fruit Basket..."
Stamp: Michel: No. 657; Yvert et Tellier: No. 598; Scott: Scott: No. 597
Color: multicolored with gold
Watermark: none
Nominal value: 1.00 (Franken, Franc)
Postage validity: from 9 September 1976 until 31 December 2001