Theseus discovering his father's sword

The subject of the present painting is taken from Plutarch (Lives, I, 3-6) and the iconography may derive from Pausanias' account of a relief on the Acropolis (Book I, Attica, XXVII, 8). When Aeginus, King of Athens, left his wife Aethra, he buried his sword and sandals under a boulder and informed her of their location. Their son Theseus was to join his father only when he was strong enough to lift the boulder and retrieve the arms.

Dr. Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco has suggested an attribution to Lemaire, suggesting that the figures may be by Jacques Stella (private communication, 1997).