Peter Paul Rubens

Selected work

From the studio

5 works, from the studio to here.

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  The Feast of Herod (recto); Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso)

  The Feast of Herod (recto); Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso)

  Peter Paul Rubens · pen and brown ink, with black and red chalk, touched with white gouache · 1637

  Peter Paul Rubens had a large studio in Antwerp and used drawing to prepare for large paintings as well as to direct the many pupils who assisted him. Striking in its immediacy, the drawing on the recto of this sheet of paper is a preparatory study for the Feast of Herod painting now at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Herod, wearing a large cap and wrapped in a mantle, shrinks back in horror as Salome uncovers a charger that holds the head of Saint John the Baptist. Smiling, Herodias grabs the platter with her left hand and, in a chilling detail, gestures toward the charger with a fork. Rubens wrote what is usually interpreted as “Herodias somewhat higher” at the top of the sheet. The verso of the sheet depicts a sketch for another story featuring a change of fortune at the hands of a vengeful woman, Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus. Rubens made two paintings of the subject (now in Paris and Boston). A rare theme, the story tells of Queen Tomyris who, avenging the death of her son in battle, collects the head of his murderer Cyrus in a bag of human blood. Tomyris is shown seated under a canopy holding a scepter, while the servants before her handle Cyrus’s head. Rubens wrote “plus spatij” (more space) in the center of the sheet. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  Study for "The Bear Hunt" (for the Alcázar, Madrid)

  Study for "The Bear Hunt" (for the Alcázar, Madrid)

  Peter Paul Rubens · oil on wood · 1634

  On June 22, 1639, King Philip IV of Spain received a letter from his younger brother Ferdinand (1609–1641). The letter explained that the artist Peter Paul Rubens had recently completed all of the sketches for a series of paintings that were to hang in the halls of the Alcázar Palace in Madrid. Bear Hunt is one of seven surviving studies out of the original eighteen. In this scene, a bear attacks a hunter and a companion comes to his aide The others work to stave off a second angry bear. The sketch was completed in the last year Rubens's life, and the paintings for the series were never completed. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  The Triumph of the Church

  The Triumph of the Church

  Peter Paul Rubens · oil on wood · 1628

  This work is likely a copy after Rubens’s oil sketch for the Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series. Isabella, daughter of King Phillip II of Spain, commissioned the tapestries for a royal monastery in Madrid. The finished tapestries still hang there today, and the original oil sketch is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  Portrait of Isabella Brant

  Portrait of Isabella Brant

  Peter Paul Rubens · oil on wood · 1620

  Isabella Brant was Rubens’s first wife. He painted her many times in many different ways before she died at the age of 35 (she is a model for a nymph in the other work by Rubens in this room). This intimate portrait, painted at least five years before her death, suggests the close relationship between the painter and sitter through the warm palette, the luscious brushstrokes, and her lively expression. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  Saint Catherine in the Clouds

  Saint Catherine in the Clouds

  Peter Paul Rubens · etching · 1615

  Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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