Sketch of the front of the triumphal arch of the Cardinal-Infant Ferdinand

This panel sketch for the triumphal arch of Cardinal-Infant Ferdinand's 1635 Antwerp entry depicts the front face of the arch dedicated to the Cardinal-Infant himself — the most prominent structure of the entire processional programme. Like the companion sketch of Philip IV's arch, this panel is a working document from the most ambitious decorative programme in seventeenth-century Antwerp, designed by Rubens and executed by a team including Van Thulden. The Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi publication (1641/42), for which Van Thulden provided engravings after these paintings, disseminated the entry's imagery across Europe, making the programme a model for subsequent Baroque court celebrations. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp's holding of these sketches preserves them as primary documents of the collaboration.

The panel sketch captures the arch's decorative programme with the clarity of a working design: architectural structure precisely delineated, painted allegorical scenes in the niches and bays, sculptural elements rendered with sufficient detail for the engraver to follow. Van Thulden's speed and accuracy in translating Rubens's designs into painted sketches reflects his training in the master's workshop and his long collaboration with Rubens on decorative projects.