2017 The Rubenianum Quarterly 3 Peter Paul Rubens: The Power of Transformation Drawn to drawings: a new collaborative project Mythological dramas and biblical miracles, intimate portraits and vast landscapes – Although the Rubenianum seldom seeks the Peter Paul Rubens’s creative power knew no limits. His ingenuity seems inexhaustible, public spotlight for its scholarship, specialists and his imagination boundless. The special exhibition ‘Kraft der Verwandlung’ institutions in the field know very well where to turn (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 17 October 2017–21 January 2018) sets out to to for broad, grounded and reliable art-historical explore this spirit of innovation, taking an in-depth look at the sources on which the expertise. Earlier this year, the Flemish Government Flemish master drew and how he made them his own. approached us with a view to a possible assignment Rubens had an unrivalled ability to apply his examples freely and creatively. concerning 17th-century drawings. Given that Ignoring the boundaries of genre, he studied the small-scale art of printmaking as well another of the Rubenianum’s unmistakable as monumental oil paintings. The artist’s extensive library provided a further source trademarks is its open and generous attitude to of inspiration, as did antique coins. He took three-dimensional sculptures – bronze statuettes, casts from nature and marble statues – and brought them to life in his collaboration, this task was indeed assigned to paintings. us thanks to a thoroughly prepared partnership Rubens drew, copied and interpreted as he saw fit throughout his life. Existing with the Royal Library of Belgium. We are proud, sources were transformed by his hand into something entirely new. The same dynamic therefore, to announce that from this autumn, and process of continuous development fed into his own compositions too. It was not together with colleagues at the Royal Library’s unusual for him to enlarge his paintings, physically extending them to accommodate Prints Department, we will be conducting a critical his overflowing creativity. The Vienna Stormy Landscape with Philemon and Baucis, and complete survey of the heritage of 17th-century which has been thoroughly researched and restored with the assistance of the draughtsmanship on Flemish territory. Getty Panel Paintings Initiative, is a particularly imposing example of this dynamism. The framework for this task is the legislative Rubens twice increased the size of the central support, altering not only the painting’s instrument by which the Flemish government in format but also its content. X-radiography reveals that having enlarged the work for 2003 laid down specific and stringent criteria for a final time, he added a group of horsemen on the right edge, before subsequently the selection and protection of works of exceptional overpainting them. It was only at the last stage that he decided to embellish the importance in all fields of heritage – the so-called landscape with the mythological theme. Topstukkendecreet. In 2004 our institution Rubens drew on a wide variety of sources, the residue of which can be traced in compiled a long-list of 17th-century paintings as the each of the paintings on display. The exhibition invites visitors to follow the works basis for the final selection of heritage masterpieces. back to their origin and to experience their visual creation in a unique way. | Gerlinde Gruber, Curator Flemish Baroque Painting, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien Now the time has come for a long-list of 17th-century drawings. This is a significant challenge: there are many collections rich with drawings, but they are generally not as easily accessed. Furthermore, besides museums and public collections there are less visible drawings in archives, church treasuries and private hands. Thankfully, those working on the project will be able to draw upon the Rubenianum’s reference library, documentation and connections, as well as on the profound understanding of the technical and material aspects of draughtsmanship and the research collections of the Royal Library’s Prints Department. We look forward to a mutually enriching collaboration with our colleagues in Brussels, with the two enthusiastic project assistants, and not least with a project steering committee that brings matchless experience to the table. Above all, we are happy to be able to contribute to the better understanding and protection of our magnificent 17th-century heritage. | Véronique Van de Kerckhof Rubens, Stormy Landscape with Philemon and Baucis. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Corpus Rubenianum The Rubenianum Fund Field Trip to Princely Rome, October 2017 Michel Ceuterick Adriaen de Bie meets Caravaggio: The Saint Eligius Altarpiece, Lier Upon entering the Sint-Gummaruskerk in by Joannes Bocquet – prior of the Antwerp Frans Pourbus II, who first saw it in 1607 in Lier, one is confronted by a large triptych monastery and instigator of their Fifteen Naples in the possession of Louis Finson and in bold colours [fig. 1]. The central panel Mysteries of the Rosary painting cycle the Abraham Vinck, was to judge by his letters depicts the titular bishop preaching from a following decade. While Lier was no artistic evidently smitten, and later reworked the entire pulpit, surrounded by an eager congregation backwater, De Bie was no ignoramus and no composition in an altarpiece (Saint-Nicolas-des- assembled within a lofty gothic nave, plausibly doubt swiftly learned of the Caravaggio’s Champs, Paris). Rubens himself paraphrased representing the Gummaruskerk itself. Signed existence upon his return from Italy in 1623. it in the Proclamation of the Regency for the and dated 1628, it was painted by Adriaen If the original was De Bie’s first point of Medici cycle (Louvre, Paris), to witty effect. Here de Bie, father of Cornelis de Bie, author of reference, why are the figures reproduced in the enthroned Marie de’ Medici is surrounded Het Gulden Cabinet (1662). Here it is praised as reverse, like a print? Around the same year, by courtiers, who kneel and gesticulate in a paradigm of Adriaen’s ‘fulfilling art’, which Lucas Vorsterman published an engraved adulation, the dirty feet of Caravaggio’s pilgrims ‘with reason preserved his fame and name’. reproduction of Caravaggio’s ‘rare piece inside replaced by silk stockings and spurs. Evidently The altarpiece does not interest me Antwerp’ [fig. 2]. This large-scale prestige not of the same calibre, despite his son’s dutiful for its aesthetic properties, but rather its engraving – dedicated to Antoon Triest, bishop hyperbole, De Bie’s opportunistic quotation relationship to another, highly resonant of Ghent, and sporting his superimposed is nevertheless indicative of the Roman work that used to hang in nearby Antwerp: portrait – was made soon after Vorsterman altarpiece’s widespread popularity and fame. Caravaggio’s Madonna of the Rosary, had left Rubens’s workshop amid some Thus concludes my musings on the Lier today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, acrimony. Having recently acquired his own altarpiece, possibly the first in print since Vienna. Comparing the two, De Bie’s magpie privilege, Vorsterman’s purpose was to attract Hans Vlieghe’s album amicorum contribution borrowings are immediately apparent. In the new patronage. While later referred to as a from 1973. An entire section of my thesis will foreground kneels a mother and son, cut and ‘Maecenas’, Triest is known to have patronized be devoted to Caravaggio’s altarpiece. The The entire field trip party in the Medici gardens. The statues are copies after an antique Niobe group. pasted from the fervent pilgrims clamouring the young Van Dyck when still bishop of Bruges. first chapter concerns its status as a ‘sacred Rubens copied one of the sculptures in his Massacre of the Innocents (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto) to fondle the rosary beads offered by Saint The print was a self-conscious demonstration commodity’, rejected by Roman Dominicans Dominic in Caravaggio’s altarpiece. Behind of what Sandrart described, with some and accumulating in value as it travelled across 12 October, 7 pm, Palazzo Eitch-Borromini, drenched terraces with fabulous views the parish church to Rubens and to many her, on the composition’s right-hand edge, exaggeration, as Vorsterman’s ‘astonishing Europe to Amsterdam, where it was purchased Piazza Navona: exhilarated Rubenianum of Rome’s historic centre. The afternoon’s of the northern artists that resided in stand three men. Two are conversing, while brilliance’ of chiaroscuro. While detailed and for 1,800 gulden. The second chapter concerns Fund members gathered at our Roman programme continued with visits to the Rome, we took special interest in the the other, dressed in black with an aristocratic largely faithful, it is by no means mechanical the circle of the four liefhebbers who ‘procured’ field trip HQ for an eye-opening Archivio Secreto and the Torre dei Venti Caravaggio paintings for the Cerasi chapel. ruff, looks out at us directly. Seem familiar? or unmediated. Speaking Italian with a thick it, namely their working friendships and I was alerted to the altarpiece’s existence Flemish accent, the pronouncedly sculptural participation in elite Antwerp circles, including introductory talk by Ben van Beneden at the Vatican; the private residence The Conversion of Saint Paul, seen the by Bert Schepers of the Rubenianum, where quality of Caravaggio’s figures is somewhat the Romanists confraternity and Violieren on the manifold inspirations the young of Principessa Nicoletta Odescalchi at previous day at the private residence of I had been based for the previous two lost in translation from paint to intaglio matrix, chamber of rhetoric. After an analysis of the Rubens drew from his early years in the Palazzo Odescalchi, boasting an Principessa Odescalchi, had been the first months in fulfilment of my PhD research at their rendering communicated with noticeable print and its dedication to Triest, the section the Eternal City. The 54 Fund members extraordinary painting of the Conversion version of a commission to Caravaggio the University of York.