2013 The Rubenianum Quarterly 2 First international exhibition opens in Louvre-Lens Boosting the Corpus Rubenianum with works by ... Peter Paul Rubens Our efforts to complete the Corpus Rubenianum Born in Siegen near Cologne, living in Antwerp after a long period in Italy, go hand in hand with our ambition to enhance and active in the courts of Spain, France and England, Rubens was an artist of and make fully accessible the Rubens expertise European dimension. presently available. A big step in this direction is The exhibition ‘ The Europe of Rubens’ focuses on Rubens’s life and works the project ‘Digitizing the Corpus Rubenianum in a European context through over 170 works by the artist, his artistic Ludwig Burchard’, which will be launched in examples and some of his contemporaries (such as Van Dyck and Bernini), September, thanks to the support of a Kress Digital from the Louvre’s collections and from leading European and American Resources Grant. museums. The exhibition includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and In the first phase of this project, every volume of the decorative arts divided into six sections. Corpus that appeared before 1999 will be digitized ‘The Europe of the Courts’ shows his work for the Duke of Mantua, and published online, which will greatly increase its portraits of the Spanish Habsburgs, Marie de Médicis etc. ‘Religious Emotion accessibility. A cumulative digital index of all the and Baroque Faith’ is represented by various altarpieces and works for private volumes will facilitate searching through the entire devotion. ‘Festivals, Pomp and Ceremonies’ is a demonstration of Rubens’s series. New provenance, bibliographic and other excellence in creating spectacular settings for joyous entries and festivals. information on the works of art in the Corpus The section on ‘Emulation and Competition’ refers to Rubens’s sources of volumes on The Ceiling Paintings for the Jesuit inspiration from Antiquity to the Italian Renaissance and includes works by Church in Antwerp, The Eucharist Series, such masters as Michelangelo, Leonardo and Titian. and The Old Testament will be imported into Rubens was also a diplomat, an indefatigable letter writer and entrepreneur. RKDimages. From 2014 onwards, this data will The ‘Republic of Letters’ shows his open-mindedness and curiosity, nourished appear also on the Rubenianum’s website, where it by a European network of correspondents. Rubens wrote in Dutch, Italian, will be linked to the digital Corpus entries. French, German, Spanish and Latin and his correspondence with friends, The advantages for researchers and Rubens scholars and artists all over Europe is evidence of the prominent place he devotees worldwide are numerous. As the project occupied among the elite of his time. advances, the treasure trove of up-to-date and The ‘Private Life of a permanently accessible data on Rubens’s oeuvre Flemish Cosmopolitan’, will continue to grow. The database will have finally, focuses on the the ability to illustrate systematically the copies charming portraits of after Rubens’s paintings, which is not possible in the printed series. The project requires a his two wives and his careful reorganization of Burchard’s archive, children. which provides the scholarly underpinnings of The exhibition is the Corpus. Thus, for the first time, visitors to curated by Blaise Ducos, the reading room will gradually be able to access curator of seventeenth- this rich source material. In fact, the boxes on the and eighteenth-century Ceiling Paintings are already accessible. Flemish and Dutch We are grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Paintings at the Musée for supporting this undertaking, as well as to du Louvre, and lasts the Rubenianum Fund, whose ties with the King until 23 September. Baudouin Foundation United States have allowed No admirer of the great it to play an indispensable role in the successful Antwerp master should launch of this project. miss the opportunity to make the trip to Lens. Véronique Van de Kerckhof www.louvrelens.fr Director of the Rubenianum Corpus Rubenianum Scholarly assistant Marieke D’Hooghe on her activities at the Rubenianum While reading the portraits that appeared unknown paintings; little by little these on page two of the previous issues of the contribute to our knowledge of a versatile Rubenianum Quarterly, it doesn’t come painter who is unfortunately still far too as a surprise to me that my in-house unknown. colleagues and I share a common feeling: While working on my thesis, my adviser, appreciation for the privilege of being part Professor Katlijne Van der Stighelen, guided of the Rubenianum community. Indeed, me towards an internship at the Rubens working at the offices in Kolveniersstraat House – a suggestion for which I am very means being in a place that offers the grateful. That one-month placement not only chance of working together and sharing gave an insight into the everyday museum thoughts with an incredibly talented and practice, but also opened the door to the committed team, as well as working alongside art of Rubens, in particular to the master’s academics, art dealers, curators, scholars architectural designs and his ideas about and other professionals focusing on Rubens architecture. By reading literature on the and the Flemish Baroque. Moreover, there subject and collecting documentation on is the benefit of having direct access to the loans in preparation for the exhibition the specialized reference library and rich ‘Palazzo Rubens. The Master as Architect’ photographic documentation. For me, the (2011), I steadily learned more about this long- location in the heart of Antwerp, with its neglected aspect of Rubens’s career. Great panoramic views on the façade of the historic was my joy when, shortly after graduating, Kolveniershof and adjacent garden of the I could join the exhibition team on a voluntary Rubens House, is just icing on the cake. basis, in order to gain relevant professional All this tends to make me forget the time it work experience in my field of interest. In the orders, handling copyrights, compiling the takes to commute by train from picturesque capacity of curatorial assistant to Ben van final list of illustrations and marking up prints Bruges to vibrant Antwerp. Beneden, my main responsibilities included for the typesetter. With the help of Prisca’s I have to confess I never thought I would assisting the research committee members, detailed guidelines on image editing and the one day be employed in the centre of the managing the secretarial work and doing directions of Bert Schepers and Carl Van de Flemish Baroque, mainly devoting attention picture research. During that time, I gratefully Velde, I quickly mastered the details of the job. to the highly erudite oeuvre of Rubens. availed myself of the opportunity to learn Thanks to the benevolent support of the As I was born and raised in Bruges, it goes from Ben, who willingly shared his knowledge Rubenianum Fund, I have the opportunity without saying that the first art to catch and expertise, always with inexhaustible also to contribute to the next volumes of the my attention was the early Netherlandish enthusiasm and often with a witty twist. Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard. While painting in the collection of the Groeninge There is no doubt we will continue joining my closest colleagues (see the Rubenianum Museum. Fascinated from childhood on by forces to organize future Rubens House Quarterly 2011/2) are currently involved with the detail in Jan van Eyck’s Madonna with projects, starting with a small exhibition the first of three upcoming Corpus volumes Canon van der Paele, the mourning expressed devoted to Rubens’s theoretical notebook on Rubens’s mythological subjects, I am in Van der Goes’s Death of the Virgin and (opening this autumn) and a comprehensive entrusted with Arnout Balis’s volume on the cruelty depicted in Gerard David’s exhibition for the summer of 2015 on Rubens’s Theoretical Notebook, a lost but most Judgement of Cambyses, I did not pay the Rubens’s intimate family portraits. Sadly, intriguing manuscript of which four copies are slightest attention to the fine paintings by this commitment leaves me little room to known. Since early 2012, I have been assisting Jacob van Oost the Elder, the leading painter devote the required attention to my current him, among other things, by transcribing parts in seventeenth-century Bruges, whose work freelance research project, i.e. cataloguing a of the hand-copied manuscripts, by exploring I now particularly admire. Eager to learn more privately owned collection of sixteenth- and the written and visual sources of its content, about art-historical research, I decided to seventeenth-century portraits. and by bringing the visual motifs from the study art history at the University of Leuven, I began working for the Centrum four manuscripts together in a comparative where some inspiring lectures soon awakened Rubenianum in July 2011 as research and presentation. Remaining tasks on my to-do my interest in Flemish Baroque painting. editorial assistant ad interim, replacing list range from drawing up a bibliography of Subsequently, I wrote a Master’s thesis on Prisca Valkeneers who was about to go on books on the subject to sorting out the list the Brussels-based painter Charles Wautier maternity leave. I joined the staff at the very of illustrations, ordering photographs and (1609–1703), comprising a catalogue raisonné moment they were in the grip of publication handling copyright matters. It is a privilege of his eclectic oeuvre which, despite being fever: Koenraad Brosens’s volume on The to work closely with someone who knows dominated by portraiture, covers nearly all Constantine Series had reached the final stage Rubens inside out and to experience how genres. Ever since, I have been intrigued of publication, leaving me no other choice his working hypothesis evolves into a theory by the missing pieces in his biography and than to take a running start.