The 2011 4 Rubenianum Quarterly

Launch of the next Corpus volume: Signing off, looking forward The Constantine series by Koenraad Brosens Looking back on 2011, the united Rubens partners in In 1622, Rubens designed his second tapestry series, the Story of Constantine, for which can be proud of last year’s results. Every he executed twelve oil sketches, all of which are currently preserved in public and event, from the book presentation in February to private collections in America and Europe. Tapestries produced after the lost cartoons, our very first research workshop on animal painting which were in turn painted after the oil sketches, were woven in the tapestry factories in last December, could welcome an enthusiastic the faubourgs of Saint-Marcel and Saint-Germain in Paris. response. The ‘Rubenianum Lectures’ have become an Based on new archival research and a critical examination of the literature on the established tradition. The exhibition ‘Palazzo Rubens’ Constantine series, this book firmly embeds the genesis, and iconographical and stylistic turned the attention to a lesser-known aspect of the features of the set in its specific artistic, manufactural, and commercial matrix, and thus master. A major highlight was obviously the launch develops the first truly inclusive approach to Rubens’s Story of Constantine. Analysis of of the final volumes of Jeremy Wood’s Corpus part the entrepreneurial strategy of Marc Comans and François de la Planche, directors of on Rubens’s copies after Italian Masters, in early July the factory in the faubourg of Saint-Marcel, the correspondence between Rubens and in London. Peiresc, the provenance of the twelve oil sketches, and the iconographical programme For the Rubenianum, one recent event rose above reveals that the series was not commissioned by the French king Louis XIII, as has long the others in terms of scale and impact. From 1 to been believed, but by Comans and La Planche. A close reading of Rubens’s primary 3 December, we organized, along with the Department literary source, Caesar Baronius’s Annales Ecclesiastici, shows that the artist must have of Design Sciences of Antwerp University College, intended the twelve scenes to hang in a sequence different from the generally accepted the colloquium ‘The Notion of the Painter-Architect in one, though seventeenth-century buyers and viewers could have seen and interpreted Italy and the Southern Netherlands’. 178 participants the Constantine series quite differently, as their view was distorted by the jumble of registered, among them a remarkable number Constantinian legends and motifs that had lodged in the cultural memory of Latin of young scholars and students. The programme Christianity. Finally, the book explores the area of tension between the set’s austere included seventeen lectures, two exclusive evening monumentality and highly sophisticated aesthetic, which was rooted in Rubens’s visits and an architectural city tour to a number of profound knowledge of classical and Renaissance art and in his earlier forays into magnificent historic locations, some difficult to access. the free and creative application of these sources, contemporary French and Brussels We may expect the proceedings by 2013 in the tapestry sets, and the pictorial and decorative qualities, possibilities and challenges series ‘Architectura Moderna’ (Brepols Publishers). inherent in the medium itself. This publication will substantiate the colloquium’s This book will be presented on 30 January at the most suitable location of the findings and thus hopefully add to the research done Mobilier national in Paris. for the Corpus part on Rubens’s architecture and architectural sculpture. For now, we particularly Rubens, The Entry into Rome remember the agreeable and stimulating atmosphere (detail). Indianapolis during the event: the Kolveniershof, the stunning Museum of Art House Delbeke, the homes of Rockox and Rubens – all served as inspiring settings for learning and exchange of ideas. Let there be no doubt: the Rubenianum is a vibrant place full of plans. For 2012 we look forward to some major collaboration projects on which you will read more in this newsletter. The launch of a next Corpus part in January will immediately mark 2012 as another Rubens year. From The Rubenianum Quarterly to all our friends and colleagues: our warmest wishes for a happy New Year!

Véronique Van de Kerckhof Curator of the Rubenianum Corpus Rubenianum Rubens’s Letters

Carl Van de Velde

Interview with Viviane Verbraeken, Leading Lady of the Reading Room Rubens was not only the most successful so since the nineteenth century. Many of another incident in Antwerp. He claims that painter of his age, he was also a prominent them have been transcribed or translated. in the course of his visit to Father Schotte, Cécile Kruyfhooft participant in political and cultural life. The most complete publication remains the he met Hugo Grotius, the famous Dutch This is most apparent in his extensive Correspondance de Rubens by Max Rooses lawyer, who proceeded to tell him in great In the depths of time, somewhere in 1976, I stepped for the first time into the reading room of the In 1968 Nora De Poorter stepped in as correspondence. It has been estimated in and Charles Ruelens, published between detail about his recent escape from Slot Rubenianum, which was then housed on the top floor of the Museum Ridder Smidt van Gelder curator together with Hans Vlieghe, Nelly the past that he wrote some 8000 letters, 1887 and 1913. Since then, a number of Loevenstein, where he had been imprisoned on Belgiëlei. In that stately house, visitors strutted on creaking floors among velvet and satin Verreydt and myself. We have a particular filing but more recent calculations suggest a figure hitherto unknown letters have surfaced by the Dutch authorities. The telling point here is that while Grotius did indeed stop draperies, French furniture, Chinese porcelain collections and the like towards an Arts and Crafts system for books and it is very convenient as the somewhere between 3000 and 5000, which and it is not unreasonable to hope that still more await discovery. It would certainly in Antwerp, he did so on 23 March and lift that led them to the inner sanctum of Flemish Art studies. Those were the days! books are stored systematically by subject. It was is still a large number. The text of only just about 250 of these letters is known; in most be useful to prepare an updated edition departed for France on 3 April – well before I was introduced to this new and silent world of filing indexes, photo documentation boxes and conceived by Vincent Rutten with the substantial cases Rubens’s originals have survived, using new transcriptions and incorporating Sperling’s arrival. Sperling must have heard endless bookshelves by Viviane Verbraeken, whose natural kindness immediately put me at ease. cooperation of Hans Vlieghe. Every book was but sometimes only copies, translations codicological research, a method which was about Grotius’s visit, possibly from Schotte, Always quick-witted and sharp as she was, half a word was all she needed to solve my numerous given a number plus several filing cards and a or summaries have come down to us. The only in its infancy in the early twentieth but he cannot have met him. Deliberately questions and problems. At that time I was studying the animals in Rubens’s oeuvre for Antwerp’s handwritten label was glued on its back. Due to letters were written to some fifty different century. A first step would be to examine or otherwise, Sperling conflates fact and Royal Zoological Society and thus also ran into Arnout Balis who was then working on his Corpus the great number of books constantly arriving, correspondents in the Low Countries, France, the writing paper for possible watermarks. fantasy, either because his memory failed book about Rubens’s Hunting Scenes. We were all three young and fresh and enthusiastic in those I must regularly move them around to make Germany, Italy, Spain and England. Two Since most of the letters have a precise date, him, or, more probably, because he wanted days. We still are now, 35 years on, while we have also gained in wisdom and knowledge and perhaps room for new ones. The boxes with photos are hundred are in Italian, thirty-five in French, this could also be used as an aid to dating to add credibility to his story by making a little in weight. also increasing in quantity and weight. So I don’t fifteen in Dutch and one in Latin. No letters those drawings executed by Rubens on himself an eye-witness. Viviane is the tower of strength visitors to the Rubenianum first run into and this interview sets feel the need to go to the gym, there’s plenty of in English, German or Spanish are known. paper containing the same watermarks. If we take Sperling’s account at face out to enlighten TRQ readers on her numerous tasks among other things. fitness possibilities in this reading room. The choice of Italian was to be expected We have one almost contemporary value, we must believe that at least on that Nora was quite quick to introduce digital as it was the lingua franca of the European written source which describes how occasion Rubens dictated a letter, and we CK: The Rubenianum moved to the premises technology into the library and we stopped intelligentsia. The Italian used by Rubens Rubens dealt with his correspondence. could even suppose that this was his usual of the Kolveniershof in 1981. Wasn’t that a big making filing cards by the end of 1988. Hans was not the Tuscan variant that was the Unfortunately, it is completely unreliable, practice. This, however, is contradicted by change? Devisscher was of great support in exploring usual choice in seventeenth-century Italian and since many authors continue to quote the facts. As far as we can assess, Rubens VV: Yes, the new premises were much more this new medium. To Simon Zakowski fell the literature, but appears instead to be a mix of from it, I would like to explain in some detail wrote and signed all his own letters. Many practical and like Mao said ‘a great leap painstaking task of entering the thousands the different influences he picked up in the why the account of this ‘witness’ cannot be of the extant examples contain his insertions forward’. We now had a more easily accessible of references into the computer. Now he is various cities he visited between 1600 and 1608 trusted. and corrections, as is well illustrated by his reading room, easy book-trolleys, better devoted to the enlargement of the photographic (mainly Mantua, Genoa and Rome). Thanks The incriminating text is found in letter of 11 May 1611 to the engraver Jacob de storing facilities and a more direct contact documentation. Annick Melis, who joined the to his humanistic schooling in Antwerp, he the autobiography of Otto Sperling Bie (fig. 1), in which he declines the latter’s (1602–1673), a physician from Hamburg request to accept a young man as a pupil in with the visitors, who were no longer working staff two years ago, works alongside me in the wrote Latin and French fluently. He must also have had some knowledge of German, who served the Danish king Frederick III his studio. After he had finished and signed on the same large table with the staff hidden reading room. until he was charged in 1664 with being this letter, he added a postscript in which in small rooms behind. This reading room, Spanish and English, but as far as we know, he never corresponded in these languages. Even involved in a conspiracy to murder the he apologized to De Bie for not being able which was refurbished and enlarged only What about the visitors? with French correspondents such as Nicolas monarch and imprisoned for life. While to send him a particular painting because it recently, is above all functional, with adequate Fortunately, I have always worked with very Claude Fabri de Peiresc, Palamède Valavez in captivity Sperling wrote the story of had been bought by a person so influential lighting and heating and other utilities. But of motivated curators like Nora De Poorter, Marc and Pierre Dupuy, Rubens preferred to his life, presumably relying only on his he could not refuse to sell it to him. It is course it lacks the old-fashioned charm of the Vandenven and now Véronique Van de Kerckhof. write in Italian. While he frequently included recollections. The passage which interests generally accepted that the painting in previous location. I have to admit that I still This is beneficial to a friendly and stimulating quotations from Latin authors such as Virgil, us here describes the visit he paid to question is the Juno and Argus, today in feel a kind of nostalgia for the Museum Smidt atmosphere. I have met all the Corpus authors. Ovid and Seneca in his letters, the corpus of Antwerp in the company of a young lawyer the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, van Gelder and I chuckle to myself when Some contacts were very brief, others I got Rubens’s letters contains only one letter that he had met while studying at the University but which is known to have been in the Balbi I think of some colourful characters there to know more closely. I will never forget our is entirely in Latin. Rubens felt he could not be of Leiden. The pair arrived in the city two collection in Genoa in 1658, and may have like the janitor who welcomed us with her first author, John Rupert Martin, who was compared to true humanists like his brother days before 31 May 1621, just in time to see been sold to a member of that family by head full of curlers and her collie-dog peeing such a fine gentleman. Other very attentive Philip or Gaspar Gevartius, and when the the famous Corpus Christi procession, the artist himself as early as 1611. against the bookshelves. people I’d like to mention are David Freedberg, latter wrote to him in Latin in 1628, he humbly which Sperling describes most vividly. Rubens sometimes refers to his own J. R. Judson, Wolfgang Adler, Kristin Belkin, and admitted he did not deserve such an honour He then recalls that in the next few days handwriting in his letters, for example I remember the very complicated procedure information and advice. We have all kinds not forgetting recent and future authors such as and replied in Dutch (fig. 2). they visited several of Antwerp’s most when in his reply of 29 December 1628 back then for obtaining such simple things as of visitors, from students to university Fiona Healy, Liz McGrath, Gregory Martin and Our knowledge of Rubens’s correspon­ renowned citizens, including Jan Brant, the to Gaspar Gevartius’s aforementioned a photocopy … professors, collectors, art dealers, museum our young Belgian crew. dence is derived mostly from those examples city registrar and Rubens’s father-in-law; letter in Latin (fig. 2), he apologizes for his Oh yes, this sounds unbelievable nowadays and exhibition curators and they come from During all those years I also met fine scholars of his letters that are preserved in various the humanist Gaspar Gevartius; the Jesuit sloppiness – ‘Desen brief is seer gheclat ende but we had to go outside to a school nearby everywhere, even from Cuba. Requests for such as Julius Held, Anne-Marie Logan, Ursula libraries and archives. None of the letters he priest Andreas Schotte and Rubens himself. (negligentius quam ad te) geschreven’ – for which he blames his illness. In the light of and kindly ask the officials there if we could information vary widely – from complicated Härting, Horst Vey, Oliver Millar, Pierre de received have survived, although the contents Sperling describes how they were led into of some are known because they were printed the artist’s studio and found him working all this information, Sperling’s story about please make a few copies.During the school matters of attribution to the philatelist who Séjournet, Susan Barnes, Ria Fabri, Natasja in later publications (e.g. letters in Latin from (‘an der Arbeit’), presumably painting, while Rubens’s dictating a letter becomes less holidays we even had to go to the Town Hall. wants to know all about a Flemish painting on Peeters and so many others, too numerous his brother Philip and a few other humanist simultaneously listening to a reading from trustworthy. Once, when the police came for information a stamp or the quizmaster looking for tricky to name them all. Hors concours I retain fond authors) or because the sender kept a copy or Tacitus and dictating a letter. Moreover, But why would he have invented the concerning a stolen painting, I had to join questions. memories of R.-A. d’Hulst and especially Frans summary, as is the case with those written by when Rubens noticed that his visitors did story of Rubens showing off his skills? them in their van – like a criminal – on our Baudouin who came nearly every day; he had his Peiresc. In his Vita Rubenii, Rubens’s oldest not wish to disturb him, he himself began Sperling did not particularly like Rubens How were these valuable holdings collected? way to and from a xerox-machine. office here after his retirement. biography, his nephew Philip boasts that he conversing with them and answered all their and insists that the artist sought to impress In fact the library started in the Rubenshuis found among the papers left by his uncle questions while continuing to work and to his visitors by displaying his intellectual What are visitors most interested in? Museum in the 1950s under Frans Viviane, I’ve always been under the impression letters from famous princes and noblemen, listen to his lector. This account would seem qualities (‘indem er uns hierdurch sein It is always heart-warming to realize that Baudouin. In 1960, Carl Van de Velde that you love your work here … including the Count-Duke Olivares, the to be corroborated by , who grosses Ingenium zeigen wollte’). While people who come here for the first time are so joined the Centrum and shortly afterwards Oh yes, it’s even more enjoyable now than in the Marquis of Leganés and Ambrogio Spinola. confirmed that his uncle had indeed a lector acknowledging Rubens’s undeniable impressed by the amount of documentation the Burchard documentation came to early days when I was ignorant as all beginners This correspondence is clearly related to who read ancient texts to him, yet somehow versatility, he criticizes his ostentation. we have here. Photographs of paintings and Antwerp. It was housed in the Smidt van are. The reading room is not exactly a beehive Rubens’s diplomatic activities and may have the combination of all these activities does Likewise, when he wants to expose Rubens drawings as well as excerpts from catalogues, Gelder Museum. G. J. De Landtsheer and but I meet such enthusiastic people and it is formed a separate part of his archives, which not make much sense. as having become rich by passing off the copies of articles, auction catalogues, Vincent Rutten joined the staff and the always great fun and so motivating when one sadly have been lost. Sperling’s reliability can really be works of his pupils as his own, he describes periodicals and thousands of books. Even Rubenianum and the Centrum became can be helpful to young students as well as to For obvious reasons, Rubens’s letters have called into question when we catch him them as sitting together in one of the researchers are at their disposal for further really operational. habitués for over 35 years … like you, Cécile. always attracted attention, but increasingly deliberately distorting the truth about rooms of the house, which does not seem

2 3 particularly suitable for such activities, since it had no windows. Accordingly, we must Rubeniana conclude that not every detail of Sperling’s account of his visit to Rubens is to be trusted. Fortunately, the physical properties and content of Rubens’s actual letters provide more reliable information and bear witness Jesuits or Carmelites? to the multiplicity of his intellectual interests. Their subject-matter follows the evolution In 1985 the Rubens House proudly of his career and, to a lesser extent, of his announced the acquisition of an oil sketch personal life. Few letters have survived by . It had been exhibited from his Italian years (1600–08) apart from twice before and on both occasions was the reports and questions which Rubens presented as a model for the upper part of the addressed to the Duke of Mantua via his high altar of the Antwerp Jesuits (c. 1619–21). secretary Annibale Chieppio; of these, the It was suggested that the sketch was the most revealing are those written during his work Jacob de Wit had seen in 1710 ‘in the mission to Spain (1603–04). Little is known possession of the Antwerp Jesuits’. Frans about Rubens’s contacts with Antwerp Baudouin accepted this identification and during this time, but he was certainly kept dated it to about 1617. Julius Held, in turn, informed by his family and friends of what recognized the early style of Rubens in the Rubens, Model for the upper was happening in his hometown. painting and – albeit with circumspection – section of an altar frame. Only a small number of the letters dating also associated it with the Jesuit altar, which © Rubenshuis, from the early years after Rubens’s return to confirmed Baudouin in his belief. photo: Lowie De Peuter Antwerp have survived. We know that he kept What De Wit saw will no doubt have in touch with his friends in Rome; the German Fig. 1 Letter to Jacob de Bie, 11 May 1611. Fig. 2 Letter to Gaspar Gevartius, 29 December 1628. been a model, but it remains impossible to high altar than to the Jesuit retable seems to unpublished make unique sources for doctor Johann Faber, for example, informed Brussels, Royal Library Brussels, Royal Library determine whether or not it was identical suggest yet another possibility, namely that it scholars, containing numerous references him in 1610 of the death of their mutual friend with the sketch discussed here. As Held was first intended for another altar (e.g. that to the archival documents she found during Adam Elsheimer. Most of the letters written was intended to allow for the publication ancient artists. This, however, is exactly the correctly stated, its association with the Jesuit of the Antwerp Jesuits), and ended up decades her research. by the artist between 1610 and 1620 relate to of Rubens’s letter in a later edition of the opposite of what Rubens wanted, who instead church is only based upon an early dating later as a – reworked – preliminary model for The photos have now been restored his professional activities, as exemplified by book. A reprint of the Latin version does not insists that more attention be paid to the scant on stylistic grounds. Held also pointed at the Carmelites. Indeed, the possibility that and transferred to a professional system the letter to De Bie discussed above. They seem to have been planned (in fact, it was remains of ancient Roman painting, even if similarities with Rubens’s modello for the a Rubens design might have played a part in of acid-free boxes, while an inventory of concern paintings commissioned from him, only published in 1694, long after Junius’s these were rather disappointing. In one of his high altar of the Antwerp Calced Carmelites the genesis of different commissions, would their contents has been drawn up. The or his plans to promote knowledge of his death), but an English translation appeared letters to Peiresc he criticized the ancients’ (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), fit in well with another example. The Berlin collection is expected back in the beginning compositions by having them engraved. These already in 1639, followed in 1640 by one in lack of knowledge of the laws of perspective. which was executed in 1637–38 by Hans drawing of a Standing angel with candelabrum of 2012. In the meantime the Rubenianum letters provide a useful insight into Rubens’s Dutch, in which Rubens’s letter was indeed His admiration for surviving examples of van Mildert (lost). Subsequently, Ulrich was definitely used for the high altar of the has already selected another collection for studio practice in this early stage of his career. printed in extenso. The choice of the two famous antique sculpture such as the Laocoön Becker raised strong arguments against an Antwerp Jesuits, while it also served years later, conservation and digitization… More news The most extensive and best-known part languages seems particularly appropriate for or the Farnese Hercules is evident from the early dating of the sketch, among which its in 1627, for the high altar of Bruges Cathedral, soon in TRQ! of Rubens’s correspondence coincides with the audience this translation aimed to reach, ample use he made of them in his own work. resemblance to the Carmelites’ high altar. also executed by Van Mildert. Véronique Van de Kerckhof his years of diplomatic activity. These letters and it seems probable that the letter was Clearly, Rubens’s use of ‘Itali’ must refer to the Formal analysis of seventeenth-century It should be clear from the above that only show the artist as an active participant on precisely meant for that purpose. We know inhabitants of ancient – not modern – Italy. altar frames demonstrates that the elevation additional, irrefutable arguments regarding the the European stage in a number of different that Junius was working on his treatise as early Rubens’s letter was addressed to of the Carmelite high altar shows unique dating of the sketch would enable us to sort out areas. His truly diplomatic role is attested to as 1628 and he may well have asked Rubens Junius, but obviously intended to be read features not shared by the Jesuit altar. This is this problem once and for all. by his correspondence with Balthasar Gerbier, to participate in the project when he met him by a larger audience. This may be true due to two highly original motives: the two Rubenianum Lectures 2012 Valérie Herremans Count-Duke Olivares and the Marquis in London in 1629–30. Rubens was fulsome for a number of his letters, including his stretched volutes serving as pedestals for the Spinola, to name but a few. Other letters in his praise of the book, but he also included diplomatic correspondence. But even in seraphim and the entablature of the portico, In 2012 we continue our lectures relate to his artistic activities or to different the recommendation that in addition to the his more personal letters, we should not which has taken on a segmental shape as if it Rubenianum Archives series with a varied and interesting aspects of intellectual life: literature, art and encyclopaedia of ancient artists, sculptors and be misled by the romantic notion that they were pushed upwards by the altarpiece below. programme. Three newly scheduled architecture; there is a notable increase in such painters and their works, there ought to be a reveal, deliberately or unintentionally, If these two elements are already exceptional lectures will present the public with letters following his introduction to the French similar treatise on the ‘pictures of the Italians’ the inner soul of the artist. When, as in an in themselves, their combination is found In previous issues of this newsletter the new research results in the field of court, and Rubens corresponded extensively (‘de Picturis Italorum’), examples of which often-quoted letter, he comments upon the only in the Rubens House and Metropolitan Rubenianum reported on newly acquired with the famous antiquarian Nicolas Claude were still to be seen in public collections recent death of his first wife, his words are sketches. This strongly suggests a close art-historical archives, such as Dr Vey’s seventeenth-century Flemish art. Fabri de Peiresc, with his brother Palamède (‘publicé’) up to the present day (‘adhuc those his correspondent would expect from relationship between the Carmelite altar and documentation on Van Dyck’s Antwerp period 25 March 2012, 11 am and the vast photographic documentation Valavez, and with the librarian to the French hodié’). It was necessary, Rubens repeated, him. They were not intended to divulge his both sketches, confirming Held’s and Becker’s Prof. Dr Koenraad Brosens views. and library of Pierre de Séjournet. But many court Pierre Dupuy. Accordingly, these letters to come to the works themselves (‘oportet innermost thoughts or feelings, but rather The Constantine series. Rubens and the art provide important insights into the intellectual venire ad individua’; fig. 3). ‘Picturae’ means all to convey a certain image of himself to his In spite of the kinship between these more such personal archives have been kept of tapestry life and the exchange of information in early works of painting and sculpture, as in the title correspondents. In this respect they are three works, however, there are some striking in the Rubenianum for years, often waiting seventeenth-century Europe. of Junius’s book. Rubens’s advice has often comparable to the artist’s self-portraits in that differences between the Rubens House for a conservation treatment in order to make 24 June 2012, 11 am The observation that Rubens penned his been interpreted as an invitation to Junius they too portray him as an intelligent, reliable sketch and both the Carmelite and the Jesuit them fit for research to our readers. In 2010, Dr Timothy De Paepe the documentation of Marguérite Casteels letters personally is not to imply they were to write a book on modern, i.e. sixteenth- and self-confident man, who is acutely aware altars (which encouraged both Held and ‘Twee susters syn versaemt’. The unity of Baudouin to consider the latter a ‘preliminary’ was chosen as the first to be treated by the written in an impromptu manner. While century Italian painting, which, by studying of his rank in society. painting and theater in the Grand Painters’ the letter to De Bie, and certainly that to Michelangelo, Raphael and , would design). One of the most notable differences Department of Restoration of Visual Media Room of the Antwerp Guild of Saint-Luke Gevartius, appears to be quite spontaneous provide a surrogate for the lost works of the Carl Van de Velde is the presence in the sketch of a highly of Artesis (Antwerp University College). (1664–1762) in style, others were undoubtedly carefully exceptional pagan motive. In fact, no Marguérite Casteels was a Brussels- composed in many drafts before finally being other instance is known in the Southern based art historian specializing in Flemish 23 September 2012, 11 am Renaissance and sculpture. She dispatched. A good example is Rubens’s long Netherlands of the rams’ heads that can be Bert Schepers seen underneath the feet of the Holy Virgin. collected hundreds of photographs of works by letter to Franciscus Junius containing his Monkey Madness in seventeenth-century appreciation of the latter’s De Pictura Veterum, What, then, is the status of the Rubens Quellinus, Verbruggen, Kerricx and many more Antwerp. Genesis and dissemination of published in London in 1636. The author sent House sketch? To our knowledge, an altar that sculptors in well-organized albums per artist. a painterly genre a copy to Rubens on 24 May 1637, and only entirely corresponds to it does not exist. It is Another part of this collection consists of a number of monographic articles in typescript. two months later, on 1 August, the painter therefore entirely conceivable that the sketch All lectures take place in the was meant as a model for either an unknown Whereas her studies on Hans van Mildert delivered a eulogy and a critical review of the Kolveniershof and are in Dutch. (lost?) retable or an altar frame that was never and the De Nole family were published in the book, partly in Dutch, partly in Latin. It has We look forward to meeting you been suggested that this unusual combination realized. However, the fact that it is more Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse closely related in appearance to the Carmelite Academie, other articles that remained on one of these occasions! Fig. 3 Letter to Franciscus Junius, 1 August 1637. London, British Library, detail 4 5 Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard

PA TRon

H S H Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein

Rubenianum Fund board Thomas Leysen (Chairman), Dominique Allard, Arnout Balis, Michel Ceuterick, Gregory Martin, Ben van Beneden

BENET FAC ORS Fonds InBev-Baillet Latour Fonds Courtin-Bouché

allaert-d’hulst family Bob Haboldt Thomas and Nancy Leysen annette bühler Jules-André Hayen Otto Naumann michel Ceuterick Steven Heinz Natan Saban herman de bode Baroness Paul Janssen Johnny Van Haeften georges de Jonckheere David Koetser Eric Verbeeck antoine Friling David Kowitz Juan Miguel Villar Mir Mark Weiss

DONORS ingrid Ceusters D ov Gottesman Pierre Macharis Jean-marie de Coster Stéphane Holvoet Patrick Maselis baron bernard de giey Baron Daniel Janssen Baron Jean-Albert Moorkens Joseph de gruyter Baron Paul-Emmanuel Janssen Philip Mould Jan de maere Jean-Louis and Martine Juliard-Reynaers Cliff Schorer michel demoortel Gijs Keij Eric Turquin François de Visscher Eric Le Jeune Rafael Valls eric dorhout mees Christian Levett Philippe Van de Vyvere Count ghislain d’ursel Christian and Brigitte Leysen Matthew Weatherbie Jacqueline gillion Anne-Marie Logan Morris Zukerman

C OrporaTE BENEFACTORS Sotheby’s Telenet NV

Lazard Frères Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA KBC Group NV Christie’s Dorotheum Crop’s NV Lhoist SA Noortman Master Paintings Rosy Blue NV Pierre Bergé & Associés Sibelco – SCR NV Dexia Bank The Michael Marks Charitable Trust

and a number of benefactors and donors who wish to remain anonymous

Centrum voor de Vlaamse kunst van de V.U.: Thomas Leysen 16e en de 17e eeuw With thanks to Anagram, Ghent