The young Achilles, on the right, brings a dead boar to his tutor, the centaur Chiron, on the left; behind them a river-god and a nymph lie on the bank of a stream, with the nymph expressing milk from her breast. The role of the centaur Chiron in the education of Achilles is described by Statius and Philostratus, amongst others, but no text supplies all of the details found here. This is one of four paintings in the Royal Collection thought to have belonged to a series of between sixteen and eighteen panels of similar dimensions by Giulio Romano. The original location and precise theme of the series is uncertain; Giulio was court artist to Federico Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and it is possible that they were painted to decorate a room in the Palazzo Ducale, perhaps the Sala di Giove. They may equally have decorated another Gonzaga palace, or even Giulio’s own palace. The panels depict mythological subjects drawn from a diverse range of classical texts; although the decorative programme is likely to reflect a single source this has yet to be identified, making it difficult to establish the precise meaning, sequence and extent of the series.