2016 The Rubenianum Quarterly 1 Announcing project Collection Ludwig Burchard II Dear friends, colleagues and benefactors, We are pleased to announce that through a generous donation the Rubenianum will be I have the pleasure to inform you of the able to dedicate another project to Ludwig Burchard’s scholarly legacy. The project entails imminent publication of the first part of two main components, both building on previous undertakings that have been carried the mythology volumes in the Corpus out to preserve the Rubenianum’s core collection and at the same time ensure enhanced Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard. The accessibility to the scholarly community of the wealth of Rubens documentation. Digitizing the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, launched in 2013 and successfully two volumes are going to press as we extended until May 2016, will be continued for all Corpus volumes published before 2003, speak and will be truly impressive. abiding by the moving wall of 15 years, that was agreed upon with Brepols Publishers, for the Consisting of nearly 1000 pages and over years 2016–18. 400 images, they will be a monumental The second and larger component of the project builds on the enterprise titled A treasure addition to our ever-growing catalogue trove of study material. Disclosure and valorization of the Collection Ludwig Burchard, raisonné of Rubens’s oeuvre and constitute successfully executed in 2014–15. An archival description of Rubenianum objects originating from Burchard’s library and documentation has since allowed for a virtual reconstruction a wonderful Easter present. of the expert’s scholarly legacy. Much emphasis was placed on the Rubens files during In the meantime, volume xix, 4 on Peter this project, while the collection contains many other resources that are of considerable Paul Rubens’s many portrait copies, importance to Rubens research. For instance, Burchard frequently scribbled his thoughts the volume on the famous Decius Mus on attribution in the margins of his own catalogues while scrutinizing a painting on site. series (xiii, 2) and volume xvii on his His notebooks and appointment diaries reveal carefully planned travel details. Burchard’s collaborations with Jan Brueghel have correspondence attests to his international network of scholars and art dealers. Each and every one of these objects makes for a unique resource on Rubens research, but has only been translated and are in the process of been roughly inventoried so far. This present project includes a more detailed description being edited. The photo editing advances of these archival documents, which will allow the research community, and Corpus diligently as well. We expect all of these authors specifically, to delve further into the archive and benefit from Burchard’s accurate volumes to come out before the end of observations. Another part this year. In sum, we are proceeding at of the project involves the conservation and description cruising speed now and have the ambition of engraved reproductions and to keep up this pace until this gigantic original drawings, some dating project is finished in 2020. back to the 17th century, that The Corpus Rubenianum has proven form an interesting part of to be an Odyssey – to stay on topic – but Burchard’s Rubens files. Ithaca is in sight. This announcement does not allow me to describe all the Let me also take this occasion to warmly separate parts of the project, thank the two team members who have dubbed Project Collection recently left us, Marieke and Prisca. Ludwig Burchard II, but interim They both played a crucial role in the results will be published publication of several volumes in the regularly through the past years. Rubenianum’s newsletter and website. Close collaboration with Koen Jonckheere the RKD and Illuminare will ensure a fruitful exchange of Director of Publications expertise. The project’s final results should be presented at a conference devoted to < A gem from Ludwig Burchard’s archive: archival best practices that Pieter Soutman’s drawing of The Consecration of St Eloi as Bishop of Noyen, 1618–24. Pen and the Rubenianum is planning brown ink and wash (published in Barrett 2012, for 2018. | Lieneke Nijkamp cat. dl–18). Corpus Rubenianum Elizabeth McGrath interviewed by Gregory Martin New staff member archival and documentary collections You must be glad that the first Mythology Rubens seems to be an acquired taste for Elise Gacoms introduces herself and her activities at the Rubenianum volume is soon to be out; can you say what many people, even in his homeland. But were your trials and tribulations as editor? the Centrum Rubenianum has played a ‘Rien au monde ne me vaudrait l’immense much-appreciated help from our volunteer crucial role, especially in recent years, in Which brings me to the third part of my job. Mythology 1 is unlike any previous Corpus plaisir d’avoir pu toucher du doigt et examiner Sare Fierens, work has started on the recently introducing some very gifted young scholars Apart from my work on the Rubenianum volume in that it has several authors – six in to Rubens and the artists in his entourage. de tout près ces magnifiques coulées de donated collection of Jean-Pierre De Bruyn, archives, I will also contribute to the online fact, ourselves included – so this has led to So the future looks promising for Rubens couleur pleines d’or et d’azur, des coups de expert on Erasmus Quellinus II and curator interesting complications; that’s the phrase description of Flemish works of art in the research. brosse magiques, … C’est une des plus belles of the Antwerp Keizerskapel. In the next few RKDimages database as well as assist in training I would use rather than your ‘trials and tribulations’. At an early stage we decided The Centrum Rubenianum – as it has come leçons de peinture que j’aie reçues de ma vie … years, I will also focus my attention on the temporary cataloguers and following up other that it was best not to attempt to impose to be called – can only have been a glimmer c’est aussi ma plus grande jouissance.…’ collections of Ludwig Burchard, Marguerite aspects with regard to the collaboration with a uniform style but to allow variations of in the eyes of Roger d’Hulst and Frans In his discourse Pourquoi j’aime l’Art (1948), Casteels, Roger-A. d’Hulst, Hans Gerhard Evers, the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History. emphasis within the established Corpus Baudouin when you were young; I wonder Antwerp artist Emile Vloors (1871–1952) Fritz Grossmann, Marie-Louise Hairs, (Charles) Lastly, together with my colleague, structure. One of the hardest things was to try how you first became aware of the artist? interrupts the enumerating nature of his Van Herck auctioneers, Max Rooses, Pierre to stop the timetable from slipping too much librarian Ute Staes, I will be responsible for Well, in my childhood home in the west survey on remarkable painters to reveal his de Séjournet and the former Iconographic – quite difficult given the other commitments the storage room that is to be created on of Scotland, we had a book about art: personal sensation about Rubens’s work. that our collaborators had. This meant too Institute of Antwerp. the Rubenianum premises. This includes The Hundred Best Paintings, which my that I was writing the Introduction to the In 2012 I acquired my Master’s degree in art Each and every one of these collections is designing the designated space, preparing and father had acquired by collecting cigarette book before I had seen many of the entries … history with a thesis on Emile Vloors. My a unique resource for art-historical research: coupons. In it there was only one Rubens, coordinating the relocation of the archives, but So I made my essay more of an introduction specialization therefore lies in academic art they contain a wealth of documentation on the National Gallery Susanna Fourment. also the equipment of an adjacent room for to the subject, suggesting something of of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. I liked this lady. When I was about twelve, the oeuvre of 16th- and 17th-century artists, the preliminary handling and storage of new what classical mythology meant to educated I saw her again on the cover of a booklet Nonetheless, the above quote goes to show including photographs, annotated documents people of the time, as well as outlining how acquisitions. on a shelf in our local newsagent. The that these artists were very much touched and correspondence of the creator. the ancient gods and their stories were In short, I very much look forward to shopkeeper refused to let me undo the on this topic for the Corpus. Otherwise, by the old masters. Besides, they built on a depicted before Rubens as well as by him. Though some of the information found in contributing to the increased accessibility wrapper to peek inside, but I decided it I suppose my thesis might have become rich tradition that found its origin in the 17th these collections has already been published, of the Rubenianum archives and revealing I think all our texts benefited from your was just right as a birthday present for my a book rather than a couple of articles. century. Therefore, one might say that with I am certain that many unknown gems are editing – you are a ‘natural’ with a blue pencil. father. I was distinctly embarrassed when its hidden gems to a wider audience on the You have known the Rubenianum over my arrival at the Rubenianum I’m going ‘back still to be found there. While working on I found reproductions inside of lots of naked one hand and getting to know the research One way or another I have had quite a lot several decades; do you look back on the and near-naked women – The Three Graces, to basics’.