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CORPUS RUBENIANUM LUDWIG BURCHARD PART XXII HERBERT W. ROTT PALAZZI DI GENOVA ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS AND ENGRAVINGS VOLUME ONE CORPUS RUBENIANUM LUDWIG BURCHARD PART XXII (1) PALAZZI DI GENOVA HERBERT W. ROTT In 1622 Rubens published a splendid volume on Genoese Renaissance architecture, with precise engravings depicting façades and plans of a dozen villas and palaces, reproduced from the original architectural drawings which were in the master’s own collection. He followed this publication some time later with further editions to which he added plans and elevations of another twenty-three Genoese buildings. In publishing famous exam­ ples of ‘modern’ architecture, Rubens intended to trace the development of architecture in his own country and all over Europe. He believed that the true principles of good building, both aestheti­ cally and functionally, were discovered by the Ancients and rediscovered in Renaissance Italy. He published his book at the height o f his fame, and thus succeeded in presenting himself not only as a great painter, but also as a connoisseur and authoritative teacher in the field o f architecture. The present publication explains the history of Rubens’s book and analyses in detail his com ­ ments and interpretations of the original plans. The illustrations show the engravings and original drawings in juxtaposition, and there are additional comparative illustrations in the Catalogue Raison­ né, reproducing photographs of the actual build­ ings as well as other later engravings and plans. Rubens regarded his volume of engravings as a collection of patterns for use by architects and patrons in his home country. But for us today it stands for much more: it throws light on Rubens’s concern for finding an artistic identity for the Southern Netherlands and moreover it offers us an aspect of Rubens’s personality not found else­ where in his art - his role as an editor. Two volumes, 588 pages, 372 illustrations ISB N 1872501338 HARVEY MILLER PUBLISHERS An Imprint of Bnpols Publishers CORPUS RUBENIANUM LUDWIG BURCHARD PART XXII ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 1. PALAZZI DI GENOVA IN TWO VOLUMES CORPUS RUBENIANUM LUDWIG BURCHARD AN ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ OF THE WORK OF PETER PAUL RUBENS BASED ON THE MATERIAL ASSEMBLED BY THE LATE DR LUDWIG BURCHARD IN TWENTY-SEVEN PARTS SPONSORED BY THE CITY OF ANTWERP AND EDITED BY THE CENTRUM VOOR DE VLAAMSE KUNST VAN DE 16L' EN DE 17e EEUW C. VAN DE VELDE, President ■ N. DE POORTER, Secretary ■ A. BALIS, Treasurer F. BAUDOUIN ■ L. DE PAUW-DEVEEN ■ A. DE SCHRYVER ■ H. DEVISSCHER P. HUVENNE • H. NIEUWDORP ■ M. VANDENVEN • H. VLIEGHE RUBENS PALAZZI DI GENOVA ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS AND ENGRAVINGS BY HERBERT W. ROTT VOLUME ONE TEXT AND CATALOGUE HARVEY MILLER PUBLISHERS HARVEY MILLER PUBLISHERS An Imprint ofBrepols Publishers London/Turnhout Translated from the German by MICHAEL ROBERTSON Edited by FRANS BAUDOUIN and ARNOUT BALIS © 2002 Centrum voor de Vlaamse Kunst van de 16e en de 17e Eeuw British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 1 872501 33 8 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Harvey Miller Publishers Printed and bound by BAS Printers Ltd • Over Wallop • Stockbridge • Hampshire Manufactured in Great Britain CONTENTS Author's Preface Page 7 Abbreviations 11 Introduction 17 I. Rubens, the Book and the Drawings 27 II. The Drawings of the Palazzi di Genova and Genoese Renaissance Architecture 57 III. Rubens 1622: The Palazzi di Genova and its Artistic and Historical Context 85 C atalogue Introduction to the Catalogue 111 'Palazzi Antichi' - Catalogue Nos. 1-72 117 'Palazzi Moderni' - Catalogue Nos. 73-139 1 84 A ppendix I 253 1.1 Rubens's Dedication -1.2 Foreword -1.3 Imprimatur Appendix II 258 11.1 Rubens's Letter to Pieter van Veen II.2-9 Peiresc's Letters to Rubens Appendix III 263 Editions of the 'Palazzi di Genova' AUTHOR'S PREFACE HE VOLUME of engravings entitled Palazzi di Genova is unique both Twithin Rubens's oeuvre and among the architectural books of the period. To some, it may appear marginal among the artist's works - in part because Rubens himself apparently had so little to do with it. He did not draw the originals himself, and he delegated the execution of the engravings to others. He did not even produce one of his evocative, opulent designs for the title page, and instead simply had it set in plain lettering. Nevertheless, the work as a whole unmistakably bears his hallmark, and the volume of engravings has proved to represent a significant part of Rubens's artistic world. It is the only book that Rubens published. His preface - short, but carefully conceived and formulated, and richly expressive - is the only coherent text on issues of art theory that Rubens wrote and also published. In addition, the drawings he used for the engravings are of considerable interest. Since 1908 they have been held in the Drawings Collection at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London - the same collection in which the major part of Palladio's surviving drawings are preserved. These plans are an invaluable source for the history of Renaissance architecture in Genoa. They are among the few collections of Italian architectural drawings from the Renaissance that have come down to us as a complete historical unit. In the present work, an attempt is made to investigate the various conditions in which this book of engravings arose and to gather together the issues that arise. Rubens as a person remains the focus of interest throughout. It was he who incorporated the Genoese plans into his collection and thereby probably preserved them from later dispersal or destruction, and it was he who turned the drawings into an impressive volume of engravings, that immediately declares itself as the artist's work through the superb quality of the engravings and through the grand scale of the approach it takes. In view of the comparatively minor 'personal' share that Rubens had in this project, one cannot necessarily take it for granted that the work should be included as part of the Catalogue Raisonné, and moreover to have a separate volume in the Corpus Rubenianum devoted to it. For example, Max Rooses lists the Palazzi di Genova in volume 5 of his catalogue among the 'Dessins pour graveurs, architectes et sculpteurs', numbering it subsequent to the Apostles series, the antique busts, the cameos, and the 'Livre à dessiner'. The way in which Ludwig Burchard conceived its treatment within his corpus is not entirely clear from the generally sparse and apparently rather casually 7 AUTHOR'S PREFACE assembled collection of material concerning the Palazzi di Genova. He was aware both of the existence of the London drawings and of the proof sheets in Amsterdam. However, due to the difficulties he faced as a result of historical and personal circumstances, he was unable to travel to Genoa to develop his own impression of conditions. In addition, research into the architectural history of Genoa was at that time still in its beginnings. The aim of this volume of the Corpus, which is to include all material connected with Rubens's publication, made it necessary to conduct a fresh review of the London drawings. These were already dealt with in 1976 in the RIBA catalogue, in which they were discussed carefully and thoroughly. However, the publication included practically no illustrations. For the present volume, the drawings were catalogued with almost full tran­ scriptions of inscriptions, and for the first time they are illustrated here in their entirety. I was also concerned to give more extensive attention to the historical conditions in which the collection came into being and how it gained its significance. If the view that this collection of drawings is unique and that its composition is highly unusual should meet with wider acceptance, the effort will have been worthwhile. A German version of the manuscript was accepted as a doctoral dissertation in 1994 by the University of Augsburg. Hanno-Walter Kruft - unforgettable in his intellectual discipline and fertile sense of curiosity - provided encouragement for the study and supervised it until his untimely death in 1993. The role of supervisors was taken overby Elisabeth Kieven and Thomas Raff, to whom I am most grateful. The study was supported by grants from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes in Bonn and by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung in Düsseldorf. Hubertus Günther was of assistance here in providing an expert report, for which my thanks are also due to him. Dietrich Erben was an invaluable interlocutor, with his amicable frankness and unerring judgement. The study received vital input from a continual exchange of views with both him, as well as with Thomas Eser and Thomas Weidner. I was frequently absent from my family to complete both the dissertation and the book, and I am grateful to Sabine, Adrian and Leon Paul for the patience and understanding with which they helped bear this burden. I am also grateful to the late Roger d'Hulst and Frans Baudouin for their willingness to include the study in the Corpus Rubenianum. Frans Baudouin checked the manuscript thoroughly and contributed a series of important additional points. Michael Robertson translated the text into English with particular care and attention. Susan Klaiber translated the texts included in AUTHOR'S PREFACE the Appendix - postponing work on her own projects to do so, for which I am particularly grateful. The Government of Flanders supported the publication by covering the translation costs; in this respect, André Leysen also kindly provided financial assistance.

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