2014 The

Rubenianum Quarterly 4

The Rubenianum Fund field trip to Dear Friends of the Rubenianum,

The fifth edition of our field trip brought our participating patrons quite literally In this issue of the Rubenianum Quarterly, we are ‘in the footsteps of Rubens’ to the north Italian port city of Genoa. Soon were we delighted to report on a splendid trip for our donors to discover how deservedly this city is nicknamed ‘La Superba’ during a weekend- and benefactors which took us in the footsteps of Peter long breathtaking tour of its palaces. Paul Rubens into a series of stunning and atmospheric Professor Arnout Balis first brushed a vivid account of Rubens’s visit to and ‘’. Once again, this field trip proved infatuation with this city state and its mansions (see page 4 for an account of his an unforgettable experience, in no small measure lecture). Bolstered by Arnout’s discourse, we set off on a city walk and visit to thanks to the tireless efforts and diplomatic skills the Chiesa del Gesù and the San Donato, led by Professor Maria Galassi of the of our coordinator, Lieve Vandeputte. University of Genoa. The most impressively decorated Gesù boasts no fewer than We are equally indebted to Cécile Kruyfhooft. This two major altarpieces by Rubens, both painted for this Jesuit church, as well as year, she once more conceived four splendid RQs, which masterpieces by and Guido Reni among others. A wonderful example continue to be eagerly awaited by our members and by of a much earlier patronage of Flemish artists by Genovesi can still be seen in the art enthusiasts around the world. beautifully preserved triptych by Joos van Cleve at the Chiesa di San Donato. 2015 brings many new exciting prospects. We expect Later that afternoon Principe Domenico Pallavicino kindly welcomed us at his to publish three and hopefully four new volumes of the private residence. With Rubens’s publication on the Palazzi di Genova at hand, Corpus Rubenianum. Indeed, thanks to the support it was easy to verify how the palace entrance hall and majestic staircase were still of the Rubenianum Fund, we are now making real preserved as they had been published in 1622. The day was concluded with the visit progress towards completing the whole Corpus by to another hidden gem, a palazzo beautifully restored by Giacomo and Emanuela 2020. Cattaneo Adorno and hung with an impressive combination of old master paintings We will also be able to visit an exceptional exhibition and contemporary art. in the , which will bring together many of On Saturday morning Piero Boccardo, director of the Musei di Strada Nuova, Rubens’s tender and moving family portraits. Literally, guided us personally through the Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Rosso, both gifted they will be coming back home. Therefore we actually to the city of Genoa by Maria Brignole Sale, Duchess of Galliera, in 1889. As the decided to organize our next field trip in June 2015 municipal collections own several impressive Genovese portraits by Anthony to . We hope to welcome as many as possible van Dyck, this was a most appropriate time for Ben van Beneden to present the of you at that time! participants with an address on Van Dyck in Genoa. A résumé can be found on page 5. Thomas Leysen What better setting for lunch than the magnificent dining room at the Palazzo Chairman, Rubenianum Fund Giambattista e Andrea Spinola, where we were the guests of Professor Pallestrini at Circolo Tunnel, the private club that occupies this palace on the Strada Nuova. All this extraordinary architecture, however, did little to prepare us for the magnificence we were to discover that afternoon as guests of Marchesa Sandra Cattaneo Adorno at the Palazzo Durazzo Pallavicini. A jaw-dropping staircase led us to a piano nobile in every sense of the word. It won’t be only the delicate child portraits by Van Dyck that will have left a lasting impression on all those present in this magnificent picture gallery. The day was concluded with dinner at the sixteenth- century Palazzo della Meridiana, adorned with dazzling ceiling frescoes. Sunday morning we were welcomed by Signora Elena Bruzzo in her private apartments and stunning gardens of the Palazzo Nicolosio Lomellino, a rare survival of garden architecture dating back to around 1600. We concluded our awe-inspiring ‘quest for Rubens’ at the Palazzo Angelo Giovanni Spinola with a visit to the piano nobile, followed by a lunch in its stately dining room. Our sincere thanks go out to Lieve Vandeputte who, after perfectly organized visits to Vienna, Madrid, Paris and London in previous years, managed to outdo Principe Domenico Pallavicin0 and Margrave Alfonso herself once again. | Michel Ceuterick Pallavicini welcoming the Rubenianum Fund at the Palazzo Pallavicini

Corpus Rubenianum The Rubenianum Fund on the move Field trips to Madrid, Chatsworth, Vienna, Lens & Paris and Genoa

Karen De Meyst on her activities at the Rubenianum

by April 2015. I hope to continue work on the project during a third and final project phase, from May 2015 to April 2016. A grant proposal has been submitted but the decision is still pending. You may think that my job is all about solitary endurance but in fact I am rarely working alone. I can count on students on summer jobs, volunteers and interns to assist me with online image research. Maja Neerman, Eurydice Van Durme, Marie Grappasonni and Jos Beerens’s contributions have allowed me to work faster and more efficiently. Though my physical workplace is here in Antwerp, I am in constant contact 2010: Madrid. Rubens’s Samson and the Lion, one of the highlights 2011: Chatsworth with the rkd in The Hague, where Willem of Mr Juan Miguel Villar Mir’s collection ter Velde and Erik Löffler are always available to settle technical problems or to resolve a glitch in the network. I share an office with my Antwerp colleagues Lieneke Nijkamp, Ute Staes and Bert Watteeuw, so I’m I studied Art History at Ghent University website. In the coming years, further seldom toiling away in solitude. I also work and obtained my master’s degree with a volumes will become available. In January closely with Dirk Buelens, introduced in the thesis on Catharina Backer (1689–1766). for example, part VI, The Passion of Christ previous issue of the Rubenianum Quarterly. Female artists, their education, and the by J. Richard Judson, will be added. Rather As Dirk is completing the repackaging of context in which they deployed their than simply offering the books online, the Rubens documentation, it is crucially professional activities were at the core we wanted to improve on them where important for us to coordinate workflows so of my research. During my studies I also possible. Through our collaboration with I can easily harvest data from our paper files completed an internship in the Rubenshuis, the rkd (Netherlands Institute for Art for digital publication. Besides, conferences, where I assisted the staff during the History) I create image-records in our seminars, viewings and other events held preparations for the ‘Palazzo Rubens’ shared database which I then link to the at the Rubenianum regularly drag me away exhibition by sending out loan requests pdf files. These image-records allow me to from the computer screens to which I am and by carrying out bibliographic research update bibliography and provenance since glued most of the time. 2012: Vienna 2013: Louvre – Lens. Blaise Ducos and Her Majesty the Queen admiring Rubens’s for the catalogue. As the Rubenshuis was print publication, as well as to add colour I am much enjoying my work here as this Borghese Entombment. the very first museum I visited as a child illustrations. They also allow me to add project allows me to familiarize myself with – my father and I vividly remember how my images of copies which were mentioned Rubens’s impressive output in a systematic pointing finger triggered an alarm – I was in the crlb but not illustrated. way. I’ve always been interested in Rubens, glad to be able to gain my first professional During the first phase of the project, but only now can I truly gauge the breadth experience there. I then jumped the running to April 2014, I created 1175 online and depth of his oeuvre, from designs for garden wall and worked as a volunteer at image-records for the first three parts massive tapestries and ceiling paintings the Rubenianum from November 2012 to of the crlb (I. The Ceiling Paintings for to intimate sketches and drawings. When June 2013. Under the guidance of Lieneke the Jesuit Church; II. The Eucharist Series; abstract bits and bytes, technical issues or Nijkamp, I partially inventoried the Van III. The Old Testament). This involved a the tracking down of images in obscure Herck collection, answered queries on lot of online image research: scouring collections weigh me down, a quick glance Flemish paintings from private owners and museum websites and databases to obtain over my shoulder into Rubens’s garden museums, and took part in the day-to-day good colour images of Rubens’s work. reminds me that all the images I am adding activities of the Rubenianum. For images of copies mentioned but not to the database were in fact produced very When the project ‘Digitizing the Corpus illustrated in the crlb, I make scans from close to where I am sitting. A comforting Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard’ was the extensive photographic documentation thought. These are challenging times for awarded a digital resources grant from the held at the Rubenianum. A renewed grant art historians, who are operating in a hybrid Samuel H. Kress Foundation, my earlier from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and environment where paper documentation, commitment as an intern and later as a matching funds provided by the City of published books and digital resources volunteer was rewarded, as I was asked to Antwerp allowed me to embark on a second complement each other. The growing become project associate in November project phase from May 2014, running to importance of digital resources for art 2013. I happily obliged. Primary goal of the April 2015. This phase is more ambitious historians is pushing institutes like the project is to offer downloadable and fully in scope, with seven parts in ten volumes Rubenianum to revise and adapt old policies. searchable pdf files of thecrlb volumes up for digitization. I have now completed Playing my role in that shifting landscape published prior to 2000 online. These have 2111 records and am glad to report that we is exciting, as is increasing Rubens’s online been made available on the Rubenianum are on schedule and will meet our target presence. 2014: Genoa, the participants at the Palazzo della Meridiana

2 3 Rubens and Genoa Anthony van Dyck in Genoa

Arnout Balis Ben van Beneden

Peter Paul Rubens will always be associated What do we know about Rubens’s stay(s) On 3 October 1621 the young Anthony van In a sketchbook – a real ‘pocket book’ that with the proud city of Genoa, thanks to in Genoa? Not much, so it appears. We Dyck left his native Antwerp on horseback he carried around with him – he recorded the lavish publication he dedicated to the know that he was in Italy between 1600 for Genoa, where he arrived by 20 November. everything that caught his eye: street scenes magnificent palaces he had so admired and 1608, the best documented locations He was fortunate to settle in this harbour and strange costumes in Rome, the courtesans there: Palazzi di Genova (1622). Some being Mantua and Rome. None of his city at a time when the Ligurian Republic was of and a witch (‘una striga’) in Palermo. thirty-five buildings were presented to the letters appear to have been written from the foremost centre of European finance. He was also eager to copy compositions by the public by way of engravings. The drawings Genoa. But we do have his own words, With its luxury-loving aristocracy and ‘new leading Italian artists, and these copies reveal on which those engravings were based were written some twenty years after his return nobility’, it provided a rich mine of patronage a distinct preference for Venetian painters, not made by Rubens himself. He must have to Antwerp, that ‘I have been several times for any artist. Less than twenty years before, in particular Titian. He was only moderately acquired them while in Genoa or through in Genoa and remain on very intimate terms Rubens had created a furore in the same interested, however, in the monumental ruins his contacts there. One suspects a cultural with several eminent personages in that city as a history painter and portraitist, of ancient Rome that Rubens had copied so ideology behind this endeavour. Rubens republic.’ Bellori, one of his first biographers despite having painted very few portraits in enthusiastically during his years in Italy. makes this clear in his preface. He urges (1672), even claims that Rubens stayed Antwerp. The most prodigiously imaginative In the spring of 1624, Van Dyck travelled to his compatriots to abandon the ‘Barbaric there longer than in any other Italian town. and powerful portraits of Van Dyck’s career Palermo, where he received one of his most or Gothic’ ways of building, and to embrace Oh yes, he certainly visited that proud city, originated in Italy, particularly in Genoa, important Italian commissions: The Madonna the ‘true symmetry of that which conforms and maybe several times. But when? and it was here that he was first confronted of the Rosary (Oratorio del SS. Rosario di to the rules of the ancients, Greeks and Rubens, it is sometimes argued, might with Rubens’s exceptional qualities as a San Domenico, Palermo). This magnificent Romans’. These he found in the Genoese have started his Italian career in Genoa portraitist. Rubens’s Genoese portraits altarpiece – in which the Virgin Mary is palaces, but what added to his fervour to upon his arrival from Antwerp (1600), presented him with a true artistic challenge, portrayed as mediatrix in the battle against promote those, was that these buildings but there is nothing to substantiate this. one he fervently embraced. the plague – was executed almost wholly in Fig. 1 Anthony van Dyck, Portrait of an Unknown Lady. were suitable to ‘private gentlemen’, rather Apparently, on his way back from a journey One of the first portraits Van Dyck Private collection, USA Genoa, however, for soon after Van Dyck’s than princes. Rubens himself built his own to Spain, he landed in Genoa, early in 1604, painted in Genoa is an elegant but rather arrival in the Sicilian capital, the city was hit private palace in Antwerp, and it could be where Nicolò Pallavicino, one of the bankers conventional three-quarter view of a by one of Italy’s most devastating plague argued that it was there that some of these of Federigo Gonzaga (Rubens’s Mantuan Genoese lady (fig. 1). Its most striking aspect epidemics of the seventeenth century. The ideals did find their expression. But: look boss at that time), gave him the commission is the speed and bravura with which it Spanish viceroy Emanuele Filiberto, Duke around in Antwerp. Nothing there, in the for an important altarpiece with The was executed. Stimulated by the example of Savoy and ruler of Sicily, was one of the architecture of the seventeenth century, Circumcision­ (which still figures in the of Rubens, Van Dyck quickly developed plague’s most prominent victims. He died can be compared, either in style or in scale, former Jesuit church as the high altar). And adviser of the Infanta Isabella. Both, the into an exceptionally inventive portraitist on 3 August 1624, shortly after Van Dyck had to the Genoese palaces. his presence in Genoa is best documented painter and the general, assisted Isabella with a virtuoso technique, psychological painted his portrait (Dulwich Picture Gallery, for the years 1606 and 1607, when he in her endeavour to establish peace in the insight and unerring empathy. In Venice and London). painted quite a few portraits of the highest Netherlands. Rubens wrote: ‘He is the Rome he painted portraits that are among During his stay in Palermo, Van Dyck also strata of Genoese society. It may be claimed most prudent and sagacious man I have the absolute highlights of seventeenth- paid a visit to the ninety-six-year-old painter that these portraits (the females in opulent ever known, very cautious in all his plans.’ century portraiture, such as the incredibly Sofonisba Anguissola, who was renowned dress, the one male, Giancarlo Doria, on his In 1630, receiving notice of his decease, he dynamic, three-quarter-length portrait of in her day. His Italian sketchbook (British high horse) did set new standards for the concluded: ‘In him, I have lost one of the the merchant and collector Lucas van Uffel Museum, London) contains her portrait, portraiture of the conspicuously rich and greatest friends and patrons I had in the (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) accompanied by numerous notes. He listened mighty. Rubens thus certainly left his mark world – as I can prove by a hundred letters and the life-size likeness of Cardinal Guido in fascination to the advice she gave him, and in Genoa. from him’ (none of which have come down Bentivoglio (Palazzo Pitti, ). His heeded her request not to take the light too When he left Italy (1608), he no longer to us). Their relationship did not include most enduring and influential innovations, high when sketching her portrait, so that the had the opportunity to visit the Genoese artistic matters: ‘He [Spinola] has no taste however, can be seen in the full-length shadows in her wrinkles would not be too friends in the palaces he seems to have for painting, and understands no more works he made for Genoese patrons. In 1623 strong. frequented before. But even back in about it than a street-porter.’ Van Dyck painted the portrait of Marchesa Van Dyck probably managed in the Antwerp, there were a lot of contacts Even some twenty years after Rubens Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo, one of the most autumn of 1625 to return to Genoa, where between the painter and the Genoese. had left Italy forever, Genoa was still on his brilliant and accomplished inventions of Fig. 2 Anthony van Dyck, Marchesa Elena Grimaldi he continued to work for the wealthy local mind and he was very well informed about his Italian period (fig. 2). Even though the Cattaneo. National Gallery of Art, Washington, aristocracy. Because his Italian patrons Rubens wrote in 1618 that the designs Widener Collection 1942.9.91 he had made for a tapestry series devoted what happened there. Regarding a populist portrait is manifestly indebted to sixteenth- preferred portraits, Van Dyck seems to have to the life of the Roman general Decius revolution in 1630 he wrote: ‘The Genoa century Venetian examples, Paolo Veronese painted relatively few religious subjects while Mus had been commissioned by ‘certain conspiracy was terrible. … The discontent in particular, Ludwig Burchard was the he was there. Most of them are small canvases Genoese gentlemen’, and shortly before of those people is certainly justified, as first to point out thatElena Grimaldi was the two paintings leave no room for doubt for personal devotion, such as the Man of 1620 Marcello Pallavicino (brother of the many Genoese gentlemen of the most directly inspired by Rubens’s portrait of that Van Dyck painted Elena Grimaldi in Sorrows, an image of profound sadness and aforementioned Nicolò) paid for a second moderate opinions have confessed to me, Brigida Spinola Doria (National Gallery direct competition with Rubens’s painting, humility based on a composition by Titian altarpiece by Rubens for the Jesuit church in and it will never come to an end, except of Art, Washington), painted in Genoa in which he attempted to surpass in the spirit (Barber Institute of Arts, Birmingham). Genoa, depicting The Miracles of Ignatius of by the transformation or the ruin of that 1606. Rubens’s masterpiece was originally of artistic emulation. Van Dyck’s picture was It was in Genoa that Van Dyck’s seminal Loyola. It is clear that the Genoese had not republic. The nobility has, in fact, assumed a full-length portrait in an architectural innovative in that it successfully conveyed a contributions to the history of portraiture forgotten Rubens. a tyrannical domination …’, after which setting, with a view to a distant landscape sense of graceful forward movement, giving took shape. As his first biographer, Gian Pietro In Brussels Rubens was in close contact words follows a lucid analysis of the social at the left. However, when the painting the scene an extraordinary spontaneity that Bellori, wrote in 1672: ‘Travelling in other parts with another very important Genoese tensions in that proud city that he had was cut down on all four sides, at some was unprecedented in Western portraiture. of Italy, he [Van Dyck] always came back to nobleman, Ambrogio Spinola, who was the clearly come to love. Rubens did not forget point after 1848, an important architectural Although the harbour city of Genoa Genoa as if it were his own country, where he , The Circumcision. commander in chief of the Spanish troops Genoa, and Genoa has never forgotten this element – a terrace balustrade – was lost. remained Van Dyck’s base during his six-year was known and loved by everyone’ (‘… dove Chiesa del Gesù, Genoa in the Southern Netherlands and trusted great fiammingo. Even so, the striking similarities between stay in Italy, he also travelled extensively. era amato e riputato da ciascuno’).

4 5 The Rubenianum Fund in Genoa Rubeniana

Rubens’s family portraits reunited at the Rubens House The Rubenianum Lectures Although Rubens never developed Next lecture: Sunday, a particular fondness for portraiture, 29 March 2015, 11 am. he was one of the best portraitists of his time. His most beautiful and most dr nico van hout surprising portraits are of his immediate Royal Museum of Fine Arts family; he valued works of this type very Antwerp highly indeed. Nearly four hundred years after they were painted, Rubens’s family 1 Rubens, Rembrandt and Watteau portraits are still full of life. ‘Rubens in Private: The Master Portrays His Family’ Dr Van Hout is curator of the (28 March–28 June 2015) brings together exhibition ‘Rubens and his Legacy’ some fifty first-rate pieces from museums in Bozar, Brussels, and The Royal Lieve Vandeputte and Thomas Leysen. Arnout Balis discussing with Jan Huyghebaert whilst Stéphane Holvoet, around the world. Academy of Arts, London. In his Bob Haboldt and Eric Turquin are examining Rubens’s Venus and Mars lecture, he will explore the different at Palazzo Bianco. ways in which Rembrandt and Rubens documentation disclosed Watteau emulated Rubens’s work.

Monday 5 January 2015 is a historic day The lecture is in Dutch and will take place Tijo van Marle in conversation with Ben van Beneden, Dominique Holvoet, for the Rubenianum. The extended at the Rubenianum. Thomas, Sabine and Nancy Leysen, Damien Wigny and Michel Ceuterick as Lecture by Ben van Beneden for the Rubenianum Fund Rubens documentation – including guests of Principe Domenico Pallavicino. patrons at the Palazzo Rosso. original documents by Ludwig Burchard Peter Paul Rubens, Clara Serena Rubens (detail). (1886–1960) – has, with the support of © Liechtenstein. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna the Flemish government, finally been reorganized, inventoried and repacked, and may be viewed in the Rubenianum Art Evaluation Day our institute, but it has a wider relevance reading room. too: some attendees travelled from The donation of the library and On 5 December last, the Rubenianum The Netherlands, the United Kingdom papers of Rubens scholar Ludwig organized its second evaluation day for and even Spain to obtain an opinion on Burchard in 1962 jump-started the works of art. Thirty-one owners of sixty- their paintings. The works presented Rubenianum collections and has eight paintings, drawings, statuettes and included some very fine pieces, some remained the core collection ever since. engravings had their collection items of which could be situated in a specific The German scholar had amassed viewed by a team of experts, including school or even workshop. An agreeable a vast amount of documentation on colleagues from the Royal Museum of meeting of people, art and knowledge, European art in the course of his Fine Arts, the Antwerp Print Room and this young tradition clearly meets the 6 extensive research on Rubens, resulting several Corpus authors. This event is an need for information from an art-loving in folders filled with photographs, exceptional occasion for the local public to public and will therefore be continued newspaper clippings, correspondence get acquainted with the expertise present in in 2015. | Véronique Van de Kerckhof and scrap notes. His Rubens files in particular still serve as a primary source for Rubens research. Moreover, with thanks to the ongoing research for the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard the Rubens documentation has been enriched and doubled in size over the last fifty years. The reorganization of the Rubens documentation is a work in progress. Files with regard to Rubens works that still await publication in forthcoming 6 CRLB volumes, will gradually be reorganized following the publication Lunch at the private club Circolo Tunnel in the Palazzo Giambattista Bénédicte Hannecart, Nancy Leysen and Dominique Holvoet enjoying schedule. Meanwhile, a large part of and Andrea Spinola. the view of Genoa from the stunning gardens at the Palazzo Nicolosio Lomellino, as guests of Signora Elena Bruzzo. all Rubens documentation is already available for on-site research. Users will be able to easily navigate this collection using the extensive searchable index. Our reading room staff are on hand to help. | Lieneke Nijkamp

6 7 CORPUS RUBENIANUM LUDWIG BURCHARD

PATRON 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

BENEFACTORS Fonds Inbev-Baillet Latour Fonds Courtin-Bouché Demergon Foundation Kress Foundation The Michael Marks Charitable Trust

Allaert-d’Hulst family Gaëtan and Bénédicte Hannecart Stichting Liedts-Meessen 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 Bob Haboldt Bettina Leysen Mark Weiss Thomas and Nancy Leysen

DONORS Ingrid Ceusters Stéphane Holvoet Patrick Maselis Manny and Brigitta Davidson Christophe Janet Baron Jean-Albert Moorkens Jean-Marie De Coster Baron Daniel Janssen Philip Mould Baron Bernard de Giey Baron Paul-Emmanuel Janssen Simon and Elena Mumford Joseph de Gruyter Jean-Louis and Martine Juliard-Reynaers Cliff Schorer Philip de Haseth-Möller Gijs Keij Léon Seynaeve Jan De Maere Cécile Kruyfhooft Eric Turquin Michel Demoortel Eric Le Jeune Rafael Valls Elisabeth de Rothschild Christian Levett Lieve Vandeputte Bernard Descheemaeker Christian and Brigitte Leysen Philippe Van de Vyvere François de Visscher Sabina Leysen Tijo and Christine van Marle Eric Dorhout Mees Anne-Marie Logan Rijnhard and Elsbeth van Tets Count Ghislain d’Ursel Pierre Macharis Axel Vervoordt Jacqueline Gillion Gregory Martin Matthew Weatherbie Dov Gottesman Morris Zukerman

CORPORATE BENEFACTORS Sotheby’s Telenet NV Lazard Frères Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA KBC Group NV Christie’s Dorotheum Crop’s NV Lhoist SA Koller Auktionen AG Rosy Blue NV Noortman Master Paintings Belfius Bank Sibelco – SCR NV

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

V.U.: Thomas Leysen CENTRUM RUBENIANUM With thanks to Anagram, Ghent