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Saint Peter
Peter Paul Rubens·c. 1616/1618
Historical Context
This painting of Saint Peter from the studio of Peter Paul Rubens, produced around 1616-18, represents the collaborative production methods of the most successful workshop in 17th-century Europe. Rubens' studio, which employed numerous skilled assistants including Anthony van Dyck, produced religious and mythological paintings on an industrial scale for churches, courts, and collectors across Europe. The apostle Peter was a particularly common subject in Counter-Reformation art.
Technical Analysis
The oil-on-panel demonstrates the Rubens workshop's characteristic warm palette and dynamic brushwork, with the apostle's figure rendered with the solid physicality and emotional directness that defined Rubens' approach to religious subjects.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the solid, three-dimensional quality of the apostle's figure — Rubens's workshop rendered bodies with sculptural conviction.
- ◆Look at the warm palette and dynamic brushwork that characterize Rubens's approach to religious figures.
- ◆Observe the apostle's attributes and expression, which convey both authority and spiritual presence.
- ◆The oil on panel gives the surface a dense, richly worked quality typical of Rubens workshop productions.
- ◆Find the Counter-Reformation emotional directness — Peter is rendered as a figure of authority accessible to the faithful.
Provenance
Eugen Boross, Larchmont, New York, by 1914;[1] William R. Timken [1866-1949], New York, by 1936; by inheritance to his widow, Lillian Guyer Timken [1881-1959], New York; bequest 1960 to NGA. [1] In an unidentified dealer's prospectus given to the Timkens (in NGA curatorial files), the earlier provenance of the painting is given as follows: from the collection of Cardinal Joseph Fesch, Archbishop of Lyons, France (1763-1839), afterwards in that of Leopold II, King of the Belgians (1835-1909), who bequeathed it to the Countess Vaughan. The 1841 catalogue of Cardinal Fesch's collection (_Catalogue des Tableaux Composant la Galerie de feu son eminence le Cardinal Fesch_, Rome, 1841) includes, as number 1195, 'Tête de saint Pierre, de grandeur naturelle; le ton en est fort et d'une grande vérité, hauteur: 1 pieds, 6 pouces, largeur: 1 pieds, 2 pouces." These dimensions, however, do not coincide with the Gallery's painting. The connection to Leopold II and Countess Vaughan seems dubious.
