SAMPLE PAGES The Drawings of Peter Paul Rubens, A Critical Catalogue, Volume One (1590–1608)

The

Anne-Marie Logan in collaboration with Kristin Lohse Belkin

PART

Author’s Preface 6 History of the Project 6 | Acknowledgments 8 | Note to the Reader 9

Introduction Rubens Drawings: The History of Scholarship, 1892–2018 10

Introduction to the Catalogue 19

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640): Timeline 1577–1608 21

Catalogue Entries 24

PART

Catalogue Illustrations 6

Bibliography 229

of Illustrations

The idea to publish all of Rubens’s drawings chronologically goes back to 1965, when Professor Roger-A. d’Hulst (1917–96) at the University of Ghent and founder of the Centrum Rubenianum in Antwerp teamed up with Professor Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann (1923–2017), then at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, to join forces and undertake this large project.1 In August 1972 Professor Begemann invited me into the Rubens drawings project to gather data, order photographs and assist in writing catalogue entries since I had recently collaborated with him on the Catalogue of European Drawings and Watercolors, 1500–1900, in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven/London (Yale University Press), 1970. To me it was a challenging and worthwhile project that would keep me busy for many years. Much of my early knowledge about Rubens and his drawings was gained from working with Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann.

A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to Yale University supported my research while the Kress Foundation financed the acquisition of black and white pho tographs of all the Rubens drawings. The material was collected in Professor Begemann’s Yale office. When he left Yale in 1978 for a Professorship at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York, it remained with me at the Yale Center for British Art, where I was working as the Head of the Art Reference Library and Photo Archive and supervisor of the Computerized Index of British Art (October 1977–99). I plan to transfer the documentation to the Rubenianum in Antwerp upon completion of the present catalogue.

In 2016, I had the great good fortune that Kristin Lohse Belkin, a Rubens scholar in her own right, joined my project as editor and critical reader of my texts. At that point it also was decided that the format of the catalogue entries should follow those in the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard. Not only did this seem to be a reasonable solution to the organization of the vast material, but Kristin is well versed in the guidelines of the Corpus, having published two volumes in the series and translated a third one (Reinhold Baumstark on the Decius Mus cycle). In the course of her work on the material collected and processed by me, her role as editor progressed to that of assistant in research and contributor of ideas, making her a collaborator in the project. I would like to point out, however, that the compilation of the drawings I consider to be autograph is entirely my work. I also would like to thank Kristin’s husband, Sergei Erofeev, for his valuable techni cal assistance and for helping with the checking of bibliographic references.

The same year, 2016, another good fortune brought me into contact with Veronika Korbei (née Kopecky) who offered to manage the illustrations, downloading the digital color images and collaborating with the publisher Brepols. Veronika made up the third, though considerably younger member of the Rubens triumvirate, having written her doc toral dissertation at the University of Hamburg on the inscriptions on Rubens’s drawings (2012). A grant from the Historians of Netherlandish Art and a generous contribution from Kit Smyth Basquin greatly helped in the acquisition of color images for the catalogue for which I am most appreciative. I also would like to thank Veronika’s husband in assisting with the payment of the photographs in the various currencies.

Much of my time at the beginning of the Rubens drawings project was spent travel ing to the various museums, studying the originals and discussing them with Professor Begemann. The collected material eventually was transferred to the computer and the black and white photographs were exchanged for color images. The first publication that re flected my work on Flemish drawings was the catalogue of the exhibition Flemish Drawings in the Age of Rubens, to celebrate the opening of the new Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, in 1993, shown the following year at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Much progress happened from 2000 until 2005, when in 2000, I received

Folio 1 The Coat of Arms of Death

Whereabouts unknown; presumably lost.

copy Anonymous drawing (Fig. 1). Pen and brown and some black ink, 102 × 82 mm with borderline; pasted down on a sheet 199 × 139 mm. Numbered with pen and black ink at bottom

left: 1; with red ink on the mount at top: 3638; annotated with pencil on the mount at lower right: Les armoiriers de la Mort. Bound with the present album.

Copied after the final scene in the 1538 Images of Death edition and penultimate scene in the 1562 edition. The drawing is a later addition likely copied after a lost Rubens sketch that may still have been part of the volume when Mariette saw it in 1741. The drawing differs in execution from the rest in being rendered with a heavier pen with very dense parallel lines not found elsewhere. Possibly, the elaborate costumes of the shield bearers already caught the attention of the young Rubens. Much later he acquired and retouched such a drawing of a woman wearing a similar dress.1

Folio 2 The Fall of Man Fig. 2

Pen and brown and black ink over traces of black chalk, no borderline, 100 × 71 mm. Numbered with pen and black ink at bottom right: 2; with red ink on the mount at top: 3639; annotated with pencil on the mount lower right: L’Ancien Testament, Le fruit defendu and 2.

Copied after fol. 3v in the 1562 Images of Death edition. Rubens tilted Eve’s head a little more toward the snake to stress a direct connection between the two.

Folio 3 The Ploughman and Death Fig. 3

Pen and lighter and darker brown and black ink over traces of black chalk, 102 × 76 mm. Numbered with pen and black ink at bottom right: 3; with red ink on the mount at top: 3640; annotated with pencil on the mount lower right: Le Laboureur Inscribed by Rubens along the lower edge with pen and brown ink: Commedes de terra & laborabis omnibus diebus vitae tuae Gen: III (“You will eat of the earth and work all the days of your life,” freely after Gen: III , 17: “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life”).

Copied after fol. 21v in the 1562 Images of Death edition. Not in the original 1538 edition. The Latin inscription is a literal translation of the French. Rubens likely quoted it from memory. According to Belkin, this is one of the earliest drawings in the series, done in pen and ink only.

Folio 4 The Soldier and Death Fig. 4

Pen and brown and black ink, some brown wash, part of borderline, 99 × 75 mm. Numbered with pen and black ink at bottom right: 4; with red ink on the mount at top: 3641; annotated with pencil on the mount lower right: Le Soldat and 30.

Copied after fol. 22v in the 1562 Images of Death edition. Not in the original 1538 edition.

Folio 5 The Knight and Death Fig. 5

Pen and brown and black ink, grayish-brown wash, 100 × 73 mm. Numbered with pen and black ink at bottom right: 5; with red ink on the mount at top: 3642; annotated with pencil and with black ink on the mount lower right: Le Chevalier.

Copied after fol. 18 in the 1562 Images of Death edition. Not in the original 1538 edition.

Folio 6 The Count and Death Fig. 6

Pen and brown ink, gray wash, 98 × 77 mm. Numbered with pen and black ink at bottom right: 6; with red ink on the mount at top: 3643; annotated with pencil and with black ink on the mount lower right: Le Comte. Inscribed by Rubens in gray ink along the lower edge: Stemmata quid faciunt (“What help are coat-of-arms?”).

Copied after fol. 18v in the 1562 Images of Death edition (Fig. 6a). The source for Rubens’s satirical rather than biblical inscription comes from the Satires of Juvenal (Satires, v III , 1) Rubens may have been familiar with Juvenal, who was to become a lifelong favorite, already at this early age but since the opening line of Satire v III was well known, he may have been acquainted with it as a proverbial saying. Death picks up the shield, symbol of high social standing, to use it as a weapon.

Folio 7 The Emperor and Death Fig. 7

Pen and brown and a few lines in black ink, gray wash, 102 × 73 mm. Numbered with pen and black ink at bottom right: 7; with red ink on the mount at top: 3644; annotated with pencil on the mount lower right: L’Empereur and the number 10.

Copied after fol. 6 in the 1562 Images of Death edition. As Gregory Martin notes, Rubens may have recalled the figure of Death removing the emperor’s crown when he painted the child holding the crown of King James I in The Wise Rule of King James I on the Banqueting Hall ceiling though the two images are separated by over four decades.2

Folio 8 The Duke and Death Fig. 8

Pen and black ink, brush and gray ink and gray wash, 100 × 73 mm. Numbered with pen and black ink at bottom right: 8; with red ink on the mount at top: 3645; annotated with pencil on the mount lower right: L’Electeur and 13.

Copied after fol. 9 in the 1562 Images of Death edition.

Folio 9 The Pope and Death Fig. 9

Pen and brown ink, black ink to strengthen details, gray wash, 103 × 80 mm. Numbered with pen and black ink at bottom right: 9; with red ink on the mount at top: 3646; annotated with pencil on the mount lower right: Le Pape and 17.

Copied after fol. 5v in the 1562 Images of Death edition (Fig. 9a). This is quite a suc cessful drawing where Rubens’s use of wash clarifies part of Holbein’s design, es pecially in the kneeling figure of the emperor. It obviously did not escape young Rubens that Holbein showed two devils alongside the pope, one holding a papal bull or letter of indulgence. He must have been particularly conscious of this since he gave the sphinx-like creature holding up the arm of the papal chair a pair of horns, thus turning it into a sphinx cum devil.

Folio 10 The Astrologer and Death Fig. 10

Pen and brown ink, darker and lighter gray wash over traces of black chalk, 102 × 77 mm. Numbered with pen and black ink at bottom right: 10; with red ink on the mount at top: 3647; annotated with pencil on the mount lower right: L’Astrologue.

Copied after fol. 16 in the 1562 Images of Death edition.

Anne-Marie Logan in collaboration with Kristin Lohse Belkin

PART

Author's Preface

History of the Project 6

Introduction

Acknowledgments 8 | Note to the Reader 9

Rubens Drawings: The History of Scholarship, 1892–2018 10

Introduction to the Catalogue

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640): Timeline 1577–1608 21

Catalogue

PART

Catalogue Illustrations

Bibliography

List

Illustrations

COPIES

■ Fig. 45 Rubens after Tobias Stimmer, A Man on a Donkey and a Study of Another Donkey [ 2 ]. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques.

Fig. 45b Tobias Stimmer, The Unfaithful Prophet, woodcut.

Fig. 45a Tobias Stimmer, The Prophet Balaam on His Obstinate Mule, woodcut.

■

Fig. 47 After Rubens after Jost Amman, Horses and Riders [ 4, copy ]. Hamburg, Kunsthalle.

Fig. 48a Tobias Stimmer, Eve Under the Tree of Sin, woodcut.

Fig. 48b Tobias Stimmer, The Creation of Eve, woodcut.

Fig. 48c Tobias Stimmer, The Expulsion from Paradise, woodcut.

COPIES AFTER TOBIAS STIMMER, JOST AMMAN, NICCOLÒ VICENTINO & HENDRICK GOLTZIUS

■ Fig. 58 Rubens after Tobias Stimmer and Hendrick Goltzius, A Man Bending Forward, Seen from the Back, and Three Other Male Figures [ 15 ] Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques.

Fig. 65a Conrad Meit. Venus, bronze statuette. Cologne, Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln.

■ Fig. 65 Rubens after Conrad Meit, Standing Female Nude Turned Left [ 22 ] Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett.

Fig. 124a Michelangelo, The Libyan Sibyl, fresco. Vatican City, Sistine Chapel.

■ Fig. 124 Rubens after Michelangelo, The Libyan Sibyl [ 77 ] Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques.

Fig. 170d Rubens, The Gonzaga Family in Adoration of the Holy Trinity, painting, reconstruction.

Fig. 171b Attributed to Rubens, Portrait of Ferdinando Gonzaga, painting, sold London, Christie’s, January 26, 2011, lot 17.

■ Fig. 171 Rubens, Portrait of Ferdinando Gonzaga [ 122 ] Stockholm, Nationalmuseum.

Fig. 171a Rubens, Portrait of Ferdinando Gonzaga, painting, fragment. Fondazione Magnani-Rocca, Traversetolo, Italy.

■ Fig. 239 Rubens after the Antique, Centaur Tormented by Cupid, Seen from the Back Turned to the Left [ 185 ] Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud.

■ Fig. 254 Rubens, St. Gregory the Great, St. Domitilla and Other Saints [ 199, recto ]. Whereabouts unknown, formerly Farnham, Surrey.

■  Fig. 256 After Rubens, Saints Gregory, Domitilla, Maurus, Papianus, Nereus and Achilleus, drawing [ 200, Copy ]. Montpellier, Musée Fabre.