PETER PAUL RUBENS IN THE PRINCELY COLLECTIONS With the opening of the LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM not only has one of the most important private collections in the world returned to its erstwhile home: this additional museum has put Vienna firmly on the map as a centre for lovers of art in general and Rubens enthusiasts in particular. With 33 autograph paintings by the Flemish artist, the Princely Collections possess remarkably large holdings of Rubens, most of which have now been made accessible again to the general public after more than 60 years with the reopening of the LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM in March 2004. The opening exhibition of the museum did not include some of the oil sketches from the Rubens collection of the Prince von und zu Liechtenstein, as well as a number of other important paintings by the Flemish artist. These remained in the depot in Vaduz either because they were still being restored or did not fit thematically into the concept of the opening exhibition. Now they are all being brought together within the framework of the RUBENS IN WIEN exhibition and displayed in the Library, the Hercules Hall and the three Rubens galleries of the LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM, together with the paintings and oil sketches already on display, paintings by artists associated with Rubens, his forerunners and immediate successors, as well as engravings executed after works by Rubens. THE FOUNDATION OF THE RUBENS COLLECTION We owe this magnificent collection of Rubens paintings above all to Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein (1662–1712), who succeeded in only one generation in amassing a body of works which today form the core of the Princely Collections. As well as these paintings Johann Adam Andreas I also acquired other major works by Rubens for the gallery which were however later sold and today are the pride of many European or American museums. Nonetheless, the holdings of the LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM still include examples from all phases of the artist’s oeuvre, from early works such as the “Conversion of St Paul” (c. 1601/02) to late works such as the monumental “Assumption of the Virgin Mary”, which was painted in 1635, only a few years before the artist’s death, and is documented as hav- ing been in the possession of the Liechtenstein family since 1643. Astonishingly, the reigning Prince, Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein, has been able to acquire several works by Rubens, including sketches, “modelli” and even one monumental painting, “The Triumph of Christ over Sin and Death”. THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY (C. 1637) The “Assumption of the Virgin Mary”, Peter Paul Rubens’ last and most monumental treatment of this subject, was the first painting by the Flemish master to be acquired for the Princely Collections. The spontaneous fluency of the brushwork testifies to the impressive assurance Rubens achieved in his later years. The consistent bravura of the painterly execution indicates that all parts of the picture were painted by the master himself. For the duration of the RUBENS IN WIEN exhibition a “modello” of this Assumption by Peter Paul Rubens has been loaned by the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, USA, allowing us to trace the path taken by the artist from his preliminary studies to the finished monumental painting. THE DECIUS MUS CYCLE (1616/17) Following lengthy negotiations which had started in 1692, Johann Adam Andreas I eventually acquired the monumental “Decius Mus Cycle” in 1693, thus considerably broadening the basis of the continually expanding collection of works by Rubens. Rubens executed this cycle of eight paintings as cartoons for tapestries. The artist himself recorded that his patron was a ’Genoese noble’. The contract dated 9 November 1616 and drawn up between the Brussels weavers Jan Raes and Frans Sweerts and the Genoese trader Franco Cattaneo has been preserved. The first two weavings of the Decius Mus series done at the Brussels manufactory of Jan Raes the Elder were evidently so successful that in the 17th century a further 20 series were manufactured at various studios and in different dimensions. The Princely Collections have possessed several tapestries since the 19th century which are assumed to derive from the “editiones principes” of Jan Raes; two of them have recently been restored and can be seen in the exhibition (displayed in the Hercules Hall). Shortly after they were acquired, a special room in the newly-built Liechtenstein city palace in Bankgasse was set aside for the “Decius Mus” series. Giovanni Giuliani was commissioned to make the frames and their elaborately carved and gilded cartouches. From 1807, when the Garden Palace in Rossau was opened to the public as a paintings gallery, to 1938 this monumental cycle formed the centrepiece of the gallery in which it is now once again on display. The monumentality of the almost life-size figures draws onlookers naturally into the picture, virtually making them part of the dramatic events depicted. Surrounded by all the pictures in the cycle hung in close proximity to one another and within the single enclosed space of the Grand Gallery, visitors themselves become part of the depiction. For this exhibition the LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM has succeeded in securing the loan of two “modelli” used for the execution of the cycle from the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. They are displayed opposite the finished work and together with the tapestries enrich our understanding of Rubens’ monumental cycle. THE CHILD PORTRAITS One of Rubens’ most famous portraits, that of his daughter Clara Serena, was originally part of the collection of paintings owned by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (1614–1662) in Brussels, which today forms the core of the imperial collections in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein acquired it in exchange for one of his famous horses from the princely stud at Eisgrub/Lednice. Painted around 1616, this small panel shows Rubens’ five-year-old daughter from his marriage to Isabella Brant. The disarming directness with which the child confronts the onlooker is an eloquent testimony to the relationship between father and daughter. The bright rosy cheeks and the highlights on nose and brow imbue the portrait with an intense vitality. Rubens also painted his two sons, Albert and Nikolaus, in a double portrait around 1626/27. Like the portrait of Clara Serena, this painting also bears a seal dated 1733, the year that the collection of Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein, who had died in 1712, was entailed long after his death, thus becoming part of the inalienable holdings of art owned by the Liechtenstein family. THE ORGAN CASE DOORS One of the major new paintings in the gallery of the LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM are two organ case doors painted on both sides which have until recently been preserved in the depot in Vaduz and have been restored specially for this exhibition. Rubens’ creative genius is evident in the heads of the music-making angels – with loose, virtuoso brushwork he endows each of them with an individual character. On the reverse of the panels the artist has depicted two monumental niche figures executed in grisaille, a traditional feature of the winged altarpiece. GANYMEDE (C. 1611/12) AND SATYR (C. 1615) The exhibition in the LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM has been enhanced by loans from two major aristocratic collections in Vienna: Prince Karl zu Schwarzenberg has placed the magnificent painting of “Ganymede” (1611/12) at the disposal of the exhibition, and from the Schönborn-Buchheim collection comes the “Satyr with Maiden and Basket of Fruit” (c. 1615). These two works perfectly complement the large holdings of paintings representing subjects from classical mythology in the Liechtenstein collections; hung on the same wall as “Venus in front of the Mirror” from the Princely Collections, they touch off a thought-provoking dialogue. VENUS IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR (C. 1613/14) Executed around 1613/14, this painting depicts the goddess of love at her toilet, with her back towards the viewer. She gazes at the onlooker in a mirror which frames her face like a portrait. A large part of the pictorial space is devoted to the rendering of her skin and silken, glossy hair, features heightened by the contrast with her dark-skinned maidservant. The mirror image of Venus, revealing the beauty of her countenance to the viewer, becomes a symbol of painting itself, vying with Nature to produce the truest likeness. This painting is one of the most important works by Rubens in the Princely Collections and is remarkable above all for the way the goddess of love directs her gaze at the onlooker. THE SKETCHES IN THE LIECHTENSTEIN COLLECTION The numerous oil sketches in the Princely Collections are masterpieces of painterly virtuosity. As other artists use pencil and paper, Rubens committed his initial draughts in oils with rapid strokes of the brush to small prepared wooden panels. Nowhere can Rubens be experienced more authentically than in these swiftly-executed masterpieces. In “Psyche Taken Up into Olympus” (1621) for example, he succeeds in capturing the whole cosmos, the eternal interplay between heaven and earth in this one, small sketch. From 1616 Rubens had his own highly-organised studio without which he would not have been in a position to fulfil the multitude of his commissions. The working process from sketch – almost always painted in oil on small thin wooden panels – via an already precisely worked-out “modello”, which was also executed by Rubens himself, to the completed work on which his studio artists collaborated and to which Rubens put the finishing touches, was clearly marked out. The juxtaposition of the sketch “Mars and Rhea Silvia” (c. 1616/17) and the completed painting (c.