ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: PETER PAUL RUBENS’ DANIEL IN THE LIONS’ DEN: ITS SOURCES AND ITS POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE Rachel Aviva Pollack, Ph.D., 2015 Dissertation directed by: Prof. Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. Department of Art History and Archaeology This dissertation evaluates Rubens’ Daniel in the Lions’ Den (ca. 1614-1618) through an examination of the visual and emblematic sources that likely inspired the artist, as well as the political meaning that it held to Rubens and to its early owners. In my analysis, I reevaluate the all’antica and antique sources that Rubens likely studied to explain how the artist imbued his lions with impressive qualities that exceed naturalism. Through the lens of Josephus’ Antiquity of the Jews and Marco Polo’s description of the Dry Tree— the legendary site where Alexander the Great defeated Darius III—I reexamine the spiritual and humanist implications of Rubens’ adaptation of the antique bust The Dying Alexander for his depiction of Daniel. I also argue that Rubens’ visual vocabulary included political imagery related to the Leo Belgicus, the personification of the Netherlands during the Eighty Years’ War, and that Rubens’ painting reflects the political agenda of the Spanish Habsburgs to maintain control over the Netherlands. It is unclear whether Rubens created Daniel in the Lions’ Den first as a studio showpiece or for an unknown patron. Nevertheless, the painting’s later life in the collections of Dudley Carleton, English Ambassador to The Hague, Charles I, King of England, and James Hamilton-Douglas, 1st Duke of Hamilton, a courtier to Charles I, reveals that these later owners appropriated Rubens’ leonine imagery for their own political ends. Carleton likely gave it to Charles I in 1628 to secure career preferment in the Stuart court. Charles I hung Daniel in the Lions’ Den in the Bear Gallery at Whitehall Palace, from 1628 to 1641, to enhance His Majesty’s regal authority. In my appraisal of Daniel in the Lions’ Den’s function in this gallery, I reconstruct the installation of the paintings according to Abraham van der Doort’s ca. 1639 inventory, and show how this painting functioned as a pendant to Rubens’ Peace and War at the time of Rubens’ diplomatic visit to London from May 1629 to March 1630. Finally, I explore the heraldic function of Daniel in the Lions’ Den in Hamilton’s collection during the Bishops’ War. PETER PAUL RUBENS’ DANIEL IN THE LIONS’ DEN: ITS SOURCES AND ITS POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE By Rachel Aviva Pollack Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Advisory Committee: Professor Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Chair Professor Anthony Colantuono Professor Meredith Gill Professor Barbara von Barghahn Professor J. Robert Dorfman © Copyright by Rachel Aviva Pollack 2015 Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been possible without the kind and generous support of my advisor Arthur Wheelock, my dear friends David Jaffé and Raquel Bromberg, and my mother Beatrix Marguerre. ii Table of Contents: List of Illustrations…………………………………………………………………….viii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 The Prophet Daniel in the Old Testament…………………………………………………4 Earlier Depictions of Daniel in the Lions’ Den…………………………………………...7 A Masterpiece without a Known Patron…………………………………………………..7 Overview of Dissertation Chapters…………………………………………………........11 Part 1: The Visual and Iconographical Sources of Rubens’ Daniel in the Lions’ Den Introduction: Daniel in the Lions’ Den’s and Rubens’ Early Career…………………..14 Chapter 1: Rubens’ Lion Sources Introduction…………………………………………………………………………........17 Rubens’ Lion Drawings………………………………………………………………….18 Rubens’ Lion Sculptural Models……………………………………………………........22 Rubens and Roman Cameos……………………………………………………………...27 Daniel in the Lions’ Den Earlier Print Sources…………………………………………..29 Chapter 2: Rubens’ Sources for the Prophet Daniel Introduction........................................................................................................................32 Rubens’ Drawing of A Seated Male Youth........................................................................33 Rubens and Neo-Stoicism..................................................................................................34 Earlier Depictions of the Prophet Daniel in Daniel in the Lions’ Den..............................36 Rubens’ Ancient Sculptural Sources for The Prophet Daniel...........................................39 The Dying Alexander: Daniel & Alexander the Great.......................................................42 The Dry Tree and Alexander the Great..............................................................................50 Daniel’s Gestural Sources..................................................................................................54 Theological Implications of Daniel’s Pose........................................................................56 Chapter 3: The Political Implications of the Leo Belgicus in Rubens’ Daniel in the Lions’ Den Introduction........................................................................................................................60 The History of the Leo Belgicus Map................................................................................60 The Leo Belgicus in Political Prints..................................................................................63 Rubens’ Daniel in the Lions’ Den: A Political Allegory...................................................72 Earlier Depictions of Daniel in the Lions’ Den.................................................................74 Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder: Potential Collaborations in Rubens’ Studio............77 Daniel in the Lions’ Den: A Commissioned Painting or Studio Showpiece.....................81 The Appeal of Rubens’ Lions’ to His Spanish Patrons.....................................................83 Later Adaptations of Rubens’ Lions from Rubens’ Studio...............................................85 iii Part 2: Rubens’s Daniel in the Lions’ Den: The Exchange of A Royal Gift Introduction......................................................................................................................89 Chapter 4: Dudley Carleton—The First Owner of Daniel in the Lions’ Den Carleton’s Early Career......................................................................................................92 The 1618 Rubens Exchange...............................................................................................97 Carleton’s Diplomatic “Gift” to the King of Denmark....................................................100 Carleton’s Gift to Charles I, King of England.................................................................108 Dudley Carleton: The Gift Giver.....................................................................................115 Lions in the Royal House: A Gift Fit for The King of England......................................123 Chapter 5: Rubens’ Lions in the Bear Gallery at Whitehall Introduction......................................................................................................................134 The Bear Gallery or Tiltyard Gallery...............................................................................136 Tournaments in the Tiltyard.............................................................................................139 The Bear Gallery: A Stately Entrance.............................................................................142 A Reconstruction of The Bear Gallery............................................................................144 The Tiltyard Side of the Bear Gallery..............................................................................149 Rubens’ Peace & War.....................................................................................................157 Daniel in the Lions Den in The Bear Gallery..................................................................162 Chapter 6: Rubens’ Lions in the Collection of James Hamilton Introduction......................................................................................................................166 James Hamilton’s Introduction at Court..........................................................................168 Early Portraits of Hamilton..............................................................................................174 Hamilton and the German Campaign..............................................................................176 Hamilton’s Gifts to the King............................................................................................181 Hamilton’s Art Collection................................................................................................186 Charles I’s Gift of Daniel in the Lions’ Den....................................................................189 The Bishops’ War............................................................................................................191 Hamilton’s Fall from Grace.............................................................................................195 Hamilton’s End................................................................................................................196 Hamilton’s Later Portrait.................................................................................................198 Conclusion......................................................................................................................200