Gallery Label This sketch for an altarpiece and its sculpted frame has a program that centers on the Eucharist. The risen Christ crushes a serpent, symbolizing sin, and a skeleton, symbolizing death. In his raised hand are the chalice and the wafer of the Eucharist. The choice of the four figures flanking Christ, Melchisedek, Elijah, Saint Paul, and Saint Cyril of Alexandria, was dictated by their associations with the Eucharist. The angels carry utensils for the Mass.
Notes This oil sketch is Rubens's design for the altarpiece ensemble formerly on the high altar of the Carmelite church in Antwerp. The altar was erected by the sculptor Hans van Mildert shortly before his death in 1638, and the altarpiece was painted by Gerard Seghers in 1637–38. The date of our oil sketch has been the subject of much conjecture, but a date between 1630 and 1632 seems most acceptable. The iconography is discussed by Father John de la Croix [see Ref. 1969, and Ref. Liedtke 1984]. The four figures flanking Christ are, from left to right, the high priest Melchizedek, the prophet Elijah, Saint Paul, and Saint Cyril of Alexandria.
Provenance John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll (until d. 1770; his estate sale, Langford and Son, London, March 19–23, 1771, no. 71, as a sketch of the Ascension); ?John Pratt, Bayham Abbey, Lamberhurst, Kent (until d. 1797); John Jeffreys Pratt, 2nd Earl and 1st Marquess Camden, Bayham Abbey (until d. 1840; his estate sale, Christie's, London, June 12, 1841, no. 65, for £442, to Bredel); Charles A. Bredel, London (1841–d. 1851); his daughters, the Misses Bredel, London (1851–75; posthumous sale, Christie's, London, May 1, 1875, no. 123, for £430, to Grant); Leopold II, King of Belgium, Brussels (by 1879–1909; sold to Kleinberger); [Kleinberger, Paris, 1909; sold to Ridder for Fr 150,000]; August de Ridder, Schönberg, Frankfurt (1909–d. 1911; his widow, Frau August de Ridder, 1911–at least 1913 [on loan to Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt]; cat., 1913, pl. 74; sale of his sequestered property, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 2, 1924, no. 57); [Pietro Stettiner, Rome, from 1924]; Ogden Mills, New York (until d. 1929; life interest to his son, Ogden L. Mills, 1929–d. 1937)
Exhibition History London. British Institution. June 1843, no. 98.
Manchester. Museum of Ornamental Art. "Art Treasures of the United Kingdom," May 5–October 17, 1857, no. 567.
Washington. Phillips Memorial Gallery. "Emotional Design in Painting," April 7–May 5, 1940, no. 60.
New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc.. "A Loan Exhibition of Rubens," February 20–March 31, 1951, no. 20.
Cambridge, Mass. Fogg Art Museum. "Drawings & Oil Sketches by P. P. Rubens from American Collections," January 14–February 29, 1956, no. 38.
New York. Pierpont Morgan Library. "Drawings & Oil Sketches by P. P. Rubens from American Collections," March 20–April 28, 1956, no. 38.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Flemish Drawings and Prints," September 19–November 12, 1989, no catalogue.
Greenwich, Conn. Bruce Museum of Arts and Science. "Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens," October 2, 2004–January 30, 2005, no. 33.
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. "Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens," March 2–May 15, 2005, no. 33.
Cincinnati Art Museum. "Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens," June 11–September 11, 2005, no. 33.
References François Mols. État des tableaux de Pierre Paul Rubens . 1775, p. 71 [Koninklijk Bibliotheek, Brussels, Handschriftenkabinet, nr. 5735; see Ref. Wieseman 2004].A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters . 9, London, 1842, p. 245, no. 7.Treasures of Art in Great Britain . London, 1854, vol. 2, p. 292.Trésors d'art exposés à Manchester en 1857 . Paris, 1857, p. 197 [reprinted as "Trésors d'art en Angleterre," Brussels, 1860, with same pagination].L'art 17 (1879), pp. 111–12.L'Oeuvre de P. P. Rubens . 2, Antwerp, 1888, pp. 203–4, no. 380.La Peinture en Europe: La Belgique . Paris, [1895], p. 134.Rubens . London, 1904, vol. 1, p. 252 [French ed., "Rubens, sa vie et ses oeuvres," (1900–1903), p. 251].Burlington Magazine 15 (July 1909), p. 238, ill. p. 242.Der Cicerone 1 (1909), p. 334.Connoisseur 24 (August 1909), pp. 204–5.The Collection of Pictures of the late Herr A. de Ridder in his Villa at Schönberg near Cronberg in the Taunus . Berlin, 1913, p. 17, pl. 74 [catalogue section unpaginated].Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century . 3, London, 1921, p. 120.P. P. Rubens, des Meisters Gemälde . 4th ed. [1st ed. 1905]. Stuttgart, 1921, p. 467, ill. p. 291.Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 33 (February 1938), pp. 34–36, ill.Art Quarterly 9 (Spring 1946), p. 164, no. 103.Rubens in America . New York, 1947, p. 34, no. 56, pl. 51.New Yorker (May 13, 1950), p. 58 [reprinted as "Portrait of Hemingway," New York, 1961, p. 58].A Loan Exhibition of Rubens . Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 1951, p. 20, no. 20, ill. p. 46.Burlington Magazine 98 (November 1956), p. 415.Tekeningen van P. P. Rubens . Exh. cat., Rubenshuis. Antwerp, 1956, p. 115, under no. 142.in Drawings & Oil Sketches by P. P. Rubens from American Collections . Exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum. Cambridge, Mass., 1956, pp. 33–34, no. 38, pl. XXX.Rubens Drawings . Brussels, 1963, vol. 1, pp. 223–25, under nos. 143–44.Master Drawings 4 (1966), p. 452, under nos. 143–44.Metropolitan Museum Journal 2 (1969), pp. 179, 185–91, fig. 1.Rubens Before 1620 . Princeton, 1972, pp. 88–89 n. 80.Liber Amicorum Karel G. Boon . Amsterdam, 1974, p. 86 n. 8.Iconography of the Counter Reformation in the Netherlands: Heaven on Earth . Nieuwkoop, The Netherlands, 1974, vol. 2, p. 303.Burlington Magazine 119 (September 1977), p. 613, fig. 19.Master Drawings 15 (Winter 1977), p. 404.in "Rubens som tecknare." Rubens i Sverige . Stockholm, 1977, pp. 117, 155, fig. 94.Nationalmuseum Bulletin 1, no. 2 (1977), pp. 81–82, fig. 12.Die Rubenszeichnungen der Albertina . Exh. cat., Graphische Sammlung Albertina. Vienna, 1977, p. 76, under no. 32, p. 110, under no. 47, p. 114, under no. 48, ill. p. 113.Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard . part 2, 2 vols., London, 1978, vol. 1, pp. 195, 303 n. 4; vol. 2, fig. 55.Rubens, ses maîtres, ses élèves . Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 1978, p. 85, under no. 81.The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens . Princeton, 1980, vol. 1, pp. 149, 529–31, 534, no. 392; vol. 2, pl. 383, colorpl. 19.Tableau 6 (November/December 1983), pp. 87–88 n. 33.Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard . part 7, London, 1984, pp. 72–81, no. 17a, fig. 40.Flemish Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 146–51; vol. 2, pl. 60.Rubens: catalogo completo . Milan, 1989, p. 310, no. 949, ill.De Zeventiende eeuw 5, no. 1 (1989), p. 37, fig. 4.Academiae Analecta 51, no. 1 (1991), pp. 25–27, 29 n. 26, pp. 30, 38, 49–53, 58–59, fig. 2.in Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America . Antwerp, 1992, pp. 25, 362, no. 413, ill.in Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens . Exh. cat., Bruce Museum of Arts and Science. New Haven, 2004, pp. 46, 117, 226–29, no. 33, ill. (color).Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 87, no. 2 (2005), pp. 86, 90.
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