Peter Paul Rubens DPG125
DPG125 – St Barbara fleeing from her Father
1620; oak panel, 32.6 x 46.2 cm
PROVENANCE
?Joseph Sansot sale, Brussels, 20 July 1739 (Lugt 505), lot 222;1 ?Anthoni and Stephanus de Groot sale, The Hague, 20 March 1771 (Lugt 1906), lot 8, bt Schuller;2 ?Charles Joseph, graaf van Lichtervelde sale, Christie’s, 29 May 1801 (Lugt 6276), lot 27 (‘A Sketch for the Ceiling of the Jesuits’ Church at Antwerp’), 3 bt Morris [perhaps a relation of Mrs Desenfans?], £3.3); Desenfans sale, Skinner and Dyke, 18 March 1802 (Lugt 6380), lot 126; Desenfans 1802, no. 84;4 handwritten note in copy of catalogue in The Hague, RKD: ‘1412.’ (i.e. 14 x 12), £6.12; bt in; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 22, no. 220 (‘Drawing Room / no. 8, Female Saint – with another figure: a Tower – P[anel] Rubens’; 2'2" x 1'10").
REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 10, no. 173 (‘SECOND ROOM – East side; Saint Barbara fleeing from her Persecutors; Rubens’); Haydon 1817, p. 387, no. 173;5 Cat. 1820, p. 10, no. 173; Patmore 1823, p. 69;6 Hazlitt 1824, p. 35;7 Patmore 1824a, p. 195, no. 149;8 Patmore 1824b, pp. 41–2, no. 14;9 Cat. 1830, no. 204 (St Barbara); not in Smith 1829–42, ii (1830);10 Jameson 1842, ii, pp. 475–6, no. 204;11 Hazlitt 1843, p. 28;12 Jameson 1850, p. 110;13 Denning 1858, no. 204;14 not in Denning 1859; Sparkes 1876, pp. 152–3, no. 204; Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 142, no. 204 (Rubens; sketch for the decoration of a ceiling […] probably […] for […] the Jesuits’ church at Antwerp); Rooses 1886–92, i (1886), p. 38, no. 31bis;15 Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 32, no. 125; Rooses 1903, p. 241; Dillon 1909, pp. 134, 215, pl. 196; Rosenberg 1911, pp. 202 (fig.), 476; Cook 1914, p. 73, no. 125; Oldenbourg 1921, pp. 210, 463; Cook 1926, p. 69, no. 125; Van Puyvelde 1940, pp. 26 (under no. 15), 75, under fig. 33 (Related works, no. 1a); Van Puyvelde 1947, pp. 27 (under no. 15), 77, under fig. 33 (Related works, no. 1a); Paintings 1951, under no. 382; Cat. 1953, p. 35, no. 125; Paintings 1954, pp. 22, [60]; Haverkamp-Begemann 1967, p. 106, pl. 14,2; Martin 1968a, pp. 37, 161–3, no. 31b, fig. 164; Haverkamp-Begemann 1971, pp. 59, 61 (fig.); Morawińska 1974, p. 41, no. 23, fig. 42; Biavati 1977, p. 273 (note 27); Murray 1980a, pp. 112–13; Murray 1980b, p. 25; Held 1980, i, pp. 35, 56–7, no. 30, ii, pl. 31; Lecaldano 1980, ii, pp. 90–91, no. 512 (1620); Held 1981, p. 50, fig. 16; Bodart 1985, p. 177, no. 511a; Cleaver, White & Wood 1988, p. 90, under no. 27 (C. White); Jaffé 1989, p. 259, no. 625 (1620); Warner 1994, p. 343–4 (fig.);16 Beresford 1998, p. 208; White 1999a, p. 111, fig. 12, under no. A157 (Related works, no. 1a); Shawe-Taylor 2000, pp. 42–3; Sutton 2004, pp. 26–7 (fig. 14); Casley, Harrison & Whiteley 2004, p. 195, under no. A157 (Related works, no. 1a); Tyers 2014, pp. 19–21; Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 187–9, 212–13; RKD, no. 24774: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/24774 (July 18, 2019).
EXHIBITIONS
London/Leeds 1947–53, n.p., no. 43 (L. Burchard); Rotterdam 1953–4, p. 57, no. 29, pl. 35 (E. Haverkamp-Begemann); London 1977, p. 108, no. 147 (J. Rowlands); London 1999b (no cat. no.), c. 1620; London 2003–4, p. 81, no. 21 (S.-S. Durante).
TECHNICAL NOTES
The oak panel is made from two vertical members, rare for a landscape format, indicating the panel may have been modified or reused.17 It has suffered from woodworm, particularly at the right side, which has been weakened as a result. There is a vertical break running up through the figure of the father. A left-to-right convex warp affects the entire panel. The bottom-right corner has suffered damage in the past and has a large chip of wood missing. The original composition was painted in an octagonal shape, with the corners unpainted apart from the light brown layer of thin underpaint. At a later date these corners were painted over (possibly by Bourgeois). A photograph taken in 1949 for Leeds City Art Gallery shows that this overpaint was still present; it was removed subsequently, presumably by Dr Hell. The blue areas in the sky behind the father and to the left of St Barbara do not seem to be original. There is a grey-coloured imprimatura beneath the flesh areas; this is particularly noticeable in St Barbara’s arms and face, where it gives the flesh a cool caste.
Dendrochronology provides a felling date range of 1606–22. The left-hand board gives a very good match to a board in a panel described at the time it was analysed as a Young Lady by or after Rubens (Private collection).18
Previous recorded treatment: 1911, lining suggested by Fisseld but no action was taken; 1936, panel lightly paraffined to treat for woodworm; 1950s(?), conserved, Dr Hell; 1967(?), new frame after burglary; 2003, conserved, S. Plender.
RELATED WORKS
1a) (bozzetto; grisaille) Peter Paul Rubens, St Barbara fleeing from her Father, panel, 15.5 x 20.9 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, WA1855.178 [1].19
1b) Prime version: Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and other assistants, St Barbara fleeing from her Father, canvas, c. 300 x 420 cm, ceiling painting in the south aisle of the Jesuit Church in Antwerp, destroyed in 1718.20
2) Copy: Christian-Benjamin Müller after Peter Paul Rubens (1b), St Barbara, inscriptions, red chalk and grey wash, 188 x 295 mm (oval). Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp, PK.OT.00438 | A.20.6 [2].21
3a.I) Copy: Jacob de Wit after Peter Paul Rubens (1b), St Barbara (from a group of 36 drawings after Rubens’s ceiling decorations in the Jesuit Church, Antwerp, for engraving and publication by Jan Punt); red chalk, 290 x 393 mm (oval). BM, London, 1921,0411.62 [3].22
3a.II) Copy: Jacob de Wit after Peter Paul Rubens (1b), St Barbara, watercolour, 180 x 225 mm (oval). Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London, Princes Gate Bequest, D.1978.PG.428.25 [4].23
3a.III) Copy: Jacob de Wit after Peter Paul Rubens (1b), St Barbara fleeing from her Father, watercolour, 126 x 168 mm (oval). Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp, PK.OT.00471 | D.7.5.24
3b) Print after 3a.I (in the same direction): Jan Punt after Jacob de Wit (3c; in reverse) after Peter Paul Rubens (1b), The Flight of St Barbara, 1751, etching and engraving, 304 (trimmed) x 393 mm (oval; pl. 36 of the book with the ceiling paintings). BM, London, 1875,0710.3015.25
3c) Copy (partial, in reverse, reworked counterproof?): Jacob de Wit after Peter Paul Rubens, St Barbara, black and red chalk, grey and brown wash, (octagonal) 190 x 254 mm. RPK, RM, Amsterdam, RP-T-1951-306.26
4a) Copy (detail): Postage stamp of Antigua and Barbuda, Christmas 1978 (25 cents).
4b) Copy (detail): Postage stamp of Sierra Leone, Easter 1991 (10 Le).27
Another composition by Rubens
5) Peter Paul Rubens, The Martyrdom of St Ursula, panel, 49 x 39 cm. KMSKB, Brussels, 1198.28
Depictions of the interior of the Jesuit Church before the fire of 1718
6a) Pieter Neeffs I and Sebastian Vrancx (figs), Interior of the Jesuit Church, Antwerp, c. 1630, signed S. Vrancx, panel, 52 x 70.7 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, GG_1051.29
6b) Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg and Hieronymus Janssens (figs), Interior of the Church of the Jesuits, Antwerp, signed and dated W.S. von / Ehrenberg fec / 1667, canvas, 118.5 x 145 cm. KMSKB, Brussels, 3603.30
6c) Antoon Gheringh, Interior of the Church of the Jesuits, Antwerp, canvas, 107 x 142 cm. Martin-von-Wagner-Museum der Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, 349.31
6d) Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg, Interior of the Antwerp Jesuit Church, canvas, 115 x 127 cm. Rubenshuis, Antwerp, RH.S.175 [5].32
Other di sotto in su compositions
7a) Paolo Veronese, Esther crowned by Ahasverus, 1556, canvas, 450 x 370 cm. San Sebastiano, Venice.33
7b) Paolo Veronese, Justice and Peace before Venice enthroned on the Globe, 1575–8, canvas, 250 x 180 cm. Sala del Collegio, Palazzo Ducale, Venice.34
7c) Modello for 7d: Peter Paul Rubens, Esther before Ahasverus, 1620, panel, 50.1 x 47.2 cm. Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London, Princes Gate Bequest, P.1978.PG.367.35
7d) Prime version: Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and other assistants, Esther before Ahasverus, canvas, c. 300 x 420 cm (octagonal), ceiling painting in the Jesuit Church, destroyed in 1718.36
8) Titian, David and Goliath, 1542–4, canvas, 292 x 282 cm. Santa Maria della Salute, Venice (originally in Santo Spirito in Isola).37
9) Jacob de Wit, Capricorn, 1718, canvas, no dimensions known (one of a series of ceiling paintings with signs of the Zodiac, in the Cromhouthuizen, Herengracht 366, Amsterdam.38
DPG125
Peter Paul Rubens
Flight of Saint Barbara, to be dated 1620
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery
1
Peter Paul Rubens
Flight of Saint Barbara, to be dated 1620
Oxford (England), Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, inv./cat.nr. 382; WA1855.178
2
Christian Benjamin Müller after Peter Paul Rubens
Flight of Saint Barbara, to be dated 1718
Antwerp, Museum Plantin-Moretus – Prentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. PK.OT.00438 | A.20.6
3
Jacob de Wit after Peter Paul Rubens
Flight of Saint Barbara
London (England), British Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1921,0411.62
4
Jacob de Wit after Peter Paul Rubens
Flight of Saint Barbara
London (England), Courtauld Institute of Art, inv./cat.nr. D.1978.PG.428.25
5
Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg
Interior of the Church of the Jesuits in Antwerp (now Saint Carolus Borromeus Church)
Antwerp, Rubenshuis, inv./cat.nr. RH.S.175
DPG125 is one of a series of modelli made by Rubens in preparation of the decoration of the Jesuit Church in Antwerp (now St Charles Borromeo), on which work started in 1615.39 Rubens was involved in the sculptural decoration of the façade, the high altar and the ceiling of the Lady Chapel. In 1617–18 he also painted the interchangeable altarpieces of the Miracles of St Francis Xavier and the Miracles of St Ignatius of Loyola.40 Both Francis and Ignatius were at the time still blessed; both became saints in 1622, and the paintings were probably meant to support and accelerate the process. The two altarpieces are now in Vienna (for both see under DPG148). On 29 March 1620 a contract was drawn up in which Rubens was asked to paint 39 canvases with Old and New Testament scenes for the ceilings of the galleries, and a series with scenes of the lives of the saints for the aisles.41 The Counter-Reformation message is about the triumph of orthodoxy over heresy, and the Jesuits took the steadfastness of the Early Christian saints as their example.42 In the end the ceiling scenes alternated between oval and octagonal shapes, and seemed to hover illusionistically above the viewer.43 DPG125 is part of the last series, located between depictions of the Name of Mary and St Augustine [6].44 Rubens was to make the designs himself and submit them for approval; the final versions would be executed by Anthony van Dyck and other assistants, but Rubens himself would then retouch them. He was to receive 7,000 guilders for the work.45 He had to give the modelli to the patron; if he kept them, he had to paint an additional altarpiece.46 Rubens chose the latter option.
In 1718 large parts of the Jesuit Church were destroyed by fire, and the ceiling paintings were lost. What the church looked like before the fire is recorded in some images made in the 17th and early 18th century by Antwerp painters including Pieter Neefs I (c. 1578/90– 1656/61), Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg (1630–in or after 1687) and Antoon Gheringh (1630/37–68) (Related works, nos 6a–d).47 Paintings of church interiors were a distinctive genre in Antwerp, mainly intended to give a good view of a church, often with decorative figures in contemporary dress. The view is taken in the middle of the nave, with the aisles on left and right (see for instance DPG141, Pieter Neefs I). Only rarely do they show the ceilings of the aisles and the galleries. In a picture by Schubert van Ehrenberg dated 1668 we see a little bit more (Related works, no. 6d) [5], but not the part where the picture with St Barbara was located. Several modelli and bozzetti by Rubens have survived, for instance in Vienna (six) and in the Courtauld Institute (five and a fragment).48 In addition, the 18th-century Amsterdam painter Jacob de Wit, a great admirer of Rubens, made drawings of 36 of 39 scenes when he was in Antwerp in 1711–12, aged only seventeen.49 After the fire in 1718 De Wit made a fresh set of drawings in red chalk on a larger scale, based on the earlier ones. He then made several series of the drawn copies; at least two series were present in his studio at the time of his death, one in red and black chalk and one in colours.50 Nowadays one set is in the British Museum (36 drawings in red chalk, with a titlepage), one in the Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp (36 drawings in watercolour), and one in the Courtauld Institute, London (35 drawings in an album, with a titlepage).51 De Wit also made eleven etchings after the British Museum series; the work was continued by his pupil Jan Punt (1711–79); Punt’s etchings are dated 1747–63, but the letterpress was printed in 1751, in both Dutch and French versions. It is not clear which models Punt used, as some of them resemble the Antwerp watercolours and some the drawings in the British Museum. We have to realize that all the drawings by De Wit are really copies after copies, of which the original set was lost.52 A second copyist is Christian Benjamin Müller (1690–1758) from Dresden, where he later became court painter. In 1718, just before the fire, he made a complete set of drawings after Rubens’s ceiling paintings in red chalk and grey wash, of which 37 have survived. They have been in the Museum Plantin-Moretus since 1887.53 Müller gave these drawings to Johann Justin Preissler (1698–1771) from Nuremberg; in 1735 he published 19 of the 39 scenes, of the north gallery and north aisle.54 St Barbara was depicted on one of the ceilings in the south aisle, so her scene is not included.
The Dulwich picture was preceded by a bozzetto in grisaille, now in Oxford (Related works, no. 1a) [1], whose rounded lines at the top corners suggest that at some point while making that bozzetto Rubens had more of an oval shape in mind: in the church oval and octagonal shapes alternated. Pentimenti in the Oxford sketch suggest that Rubens originally placed the saint’s arms considerably higher, one hand touching the upper edge of the panel, in a pose similar to that of St Ursula (Related works, no. 5); the final bozzetto shows them lower, as does DPG125. In addition to the use of colour, and a clear octagonal shape, the differences between the Oxford sketch and DPG125 include the more threatening figure of the father, whose hand is raised higher to form an X with the palm branch that his daughter holds. His body is leaning further in, and St Barbara’s gown is given more volume. Finally the tower is taller, but also seems further away.
It is not clear whether Rubens made the modello from the start as an octagon or first as a rectangle, as Martin in 1968, citing Burchard, contends.55 It seems for instance that Rubens had painted the tower on the left completely at first, but then painted over it partly to give the scene an octagonal shape. DPG125 was then made into a rectangle again, and the four corners were painted again, probably by Bourgeois. According to Martin those corners were overcleaned by someone who assumed them to be later additions to the painting.56 However according to conservator Sophie Plender the original composition was painted in an octagonal shape from the start, and the corners were unpainted apart from a light brown layer of thin underpaint.57 The restorers disagree with the art historians on this point. In a photograph taken in 1949 the paint in the corners applied by Bourgeois (?) was still present. Is there any paint by Rubens in the corners, or is it indeed so overcleaned that everything has disappeared? According to Sophie Plender in 2020 there is no paint left.
DPG125 depicts a scene from the life of St Barbara when she was pursued by her pagan father Dioscorus for her Christian beliefs. In the contract that Rubens signed on 29 March 1620 it is referred to as ‘15 Sancta Barbara’.58 According to Martin the scene depicted is the moment just before the saint meets her death at her father’s hands on a hilltop. According to Held, however, it is an earlier scene: Barbara tried to flee from her father to the top of the tower, where she was rescued by angels.59 DPG125 (and the preceding bozzetto), with steps, seems to depict the earlier episode in the legend, and the ceiling painting in the south aisle to show the end of the saint’s life, just before she was beheaded on a hill. Warner includes St Barbara in an overview of Christian and disobedient daughters who drove their fathers to murder and thus brought themselves to martyrdom and saintliness.60
Since the final paintings have been destroyed it is not clear exactly what they looked like, but the St Barbara would have been c. 300 x 420 cm. There are differences between the copies by Jacob de Wit, Jan Punt and Johann Justin Preissler, for instance in the way the hand of the father and the palm branch in the hand of his daughter are depicted: in some they form an X (as in DPG125 and Related works, no. 2; nos 3a.II–III) [2-4], but in others they do not touch (as in the Ashmolean bozzetto, Related works, no. 1a [1]; Related works, nos 3a.I, 3b and 3c). Is it possible that the bozzetto or other preparatory sketches were available in Antwerp or elsewhere where they could be used by the 18th-century copyists?
When we compare the two copies drawn by Christian Benjamin Müller and Jacob de Wit they show further differences (Related works, nos 2 and 3a.I). For instance the round window of the castle is covered by bars in De Wit; Müller shows Dioscorus with trousers above his boot while De Wit gives him a bare knee, and with a scabbard at his hip, omitted by De Wit. Martin considers Müller’s version to be more reliable than De Wit’s as it it closer to the Dulwich painting.61 That is of course debatable, because we know that Rubens always made changes and never simply followed his earlier sketches. In any case, both copies show that the octagonal shape of the modello was made into an oval. The tower was reduced in size, the father’s sword changed into a scimitar, the father lowered, and the stone steps replaced by hilly ground. Martin suggested in 1968 that this last modification may have been done to reduce similarities between the composition and another of Rubens’s ceiling paintings, St Elizabeth of Hungary. It could also allude to a different episode in the legend of the saint (see above).
For the di sotto in su compositions for the Antwerp Jesuit Church in general it seems that Rubens had looked at similar ceiling compositions in Venice by Titian in Santo Spirito in Isola (since the mid-17th century in Santa Maria della Salute; Related works, no. 8),62 and was especially inspired by Paolo Veronese’s ceiling compositions. For his Esther before Ahasverus in the Jesuit Church Rubens combined Veronese’s Esther before Ahasverus in San Sebastiano with a scene in the Sala del Collegio in the Doge’s Palace (Justice and Peace before Venice enthroned, 1575–8) (Related works, nos 7a–c).63 In San Sebastiano there were also ceiling paintings with the Four Evangelists, which may have been a source of inspiration for Rubens’s scenes with the saints in the Jesuit Church. In the same year as the fire in the church (1718) Jacob de Wit finished his ceiling decorations with the signs of the Zodiac in the Cromhouthuizen on Herengracht in Amsterdam – di sotto in su scenes for which de Wit had certainly looked closely at Rubens’s Antwerp paintings (Related works, no. 9).
The image with the fleeing Barbara has been popular: we find her on postage stamps, CD covers, and on the cover of the first Corpus volume, of 1968, where the ceilings of the Jesuit Church are discussed by Martin.
DPG125
Peter Paul Rubens
Flight of Saint Barbara, to be dated 1620
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery
6
Ground plan of the church of the Jesuits with the location of St Barbara, no. 31. Martin 1968a, p. 35 (fig. C)
1
Peter Paul Rubens
Flight of Saint Barbara, to be dated 1620
Oxford (England), Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, inv./cat.nr. 382; WA1855.178
2
Christian Benjamin Müller after Peter Paul Rubens
Flight of Saint Barbara, to be dated 1718
Antwerp, Museum Plantin-Moretus – Prentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. PK.OT.00438 | A.20.6
3
Jacob de Wit after Peter Paul Rubens
Flight of Saint Barbara
London (England), British Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1921,0411.62
4
Jacob de Wit after Peter Paul Rubens
Flight of Saint Barbara
London (England), Courtauld Institute of Art, inv./cat.nr. D.1978.PG.428.25
5
Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg
Interior of the Church of the Jesuits in Antwerp (now Saint Carolus Borromeus Church)
Antwerp, Rubenshuis, inv./cat.nr. RH.S.175
Notes
1 GPID (14 June 2014); see also Martin 1968a, p. 162: Un des plafonds des Jesuites à Anvers, par Rubbens, représentant le Martyre de Ste Barbe; haut 1 pied 1 pouce, large 1 pied & demi (One of the ceilings of the Jesuits [their church] in Antwerp, by Rubens, depicting the Martyrdom of St Barbara, 1 foot [French] 1 inch high, 1½ feet wide) (= c. 29.9 x 41.4 cm). According to a note in the Rubenianum (RUB LB no. 36/2 file) it measured 30 x 32 cm.
2 Not in GPID (14 June 2014).
3 GPID (14 June 2014). This is of course a very general description: any of the studies for the Jesuit ceiling could be meant here.
4 248 ‘St. Barbara is in the centre of the picture, ascending the leads of the fatal tower in which she is to be sacrificed. She is dressed in blue and purple, and her light drapery and beautiful flaxen hair float in the wind. Her right arm is extended, and she holds in her left hand the palm of martyrdom, which in turning, she appears to shew in triumph to her executioner who is immediately following her. He is dressed in red and green, a turban on his head, armed with a drawn sword in one hand, and his other uplifted with violence and visible impatience to seize his victim.’
5 ‘DITTO [= Sir P. P. Rubens]. St. Barbe fleeing from her Persecutors. A sketch for a ceiling, in which the fore-shortening, or what the Italian critics call the sotto-in-su, is well preserved.’
6 ‘Returning for a moment to the second room, I would point out two pictures that are among the very finest in this collection. One of them (149) is by Rubens, and is (strangely enough) called “Saint Barbara fleeing from her Persecutors.” It is very small, and a mere sketch; and it represents a female figure ascending some steps, followed by a man. But what I would particularly point out is the effect of motion which is given to the two figures – or which they are, in fact, so contrived as to give to each other. No one could manage this like Rubens, and he has nowhere managed it more finely than in this little sketch – struck off, no doubt, in a few happy moments, and as a mere study or amusement. You may look at this picture till you fairly see the figures move, and expect that they will presently disappear. – The other (144) is one of Rembrandt’s very finest efforts’ (now Arent de Gelder, DPG126).
7 ‘a noble design, as if she were scaling the steps of some high overhanging turret, moving majestically on, with Fear before her, Death behind her, and Martyrdom crowning her’.
8 Same text as Patmore 1823, see note 6 above.
9 ‘This picture is called (gratuitously enough) Saint Barbara fleeing from her Pursuers. It is very small, and a mere sketch; and represents a female figure ascending some steps, followed by a man. But what I would particularly point out is, the effect of motion that is given to the two figures – or which they are, in fact, so contrived as to give to each other. No one could manage this like Rubens, and he has no where managed it more finely than in this little sketch – struck off, no doubt, in a few happy moments, and as a mere study or amusement. You may look at this picture till you fairly see the figures move, and expect that they will presently disappear. Let the reader try.’
10 Prints made by Preissler and Punt [after Jacob de Wit] are mentioned in pt ix, 1842, p. 247, no. 19 (see Related works, no. 3b and note 25 below). Preissler however did not make a print after the St Barbara scene. The print by Lucas Vorsterman I, with a standing St Barbara, is after a different composition by Rubens: see ibid., p. 335, no. 341, BM, London, R,4.39.
11 ‘the sketch, which is very spirited; full of life and air. The idea of height is very well expressed.’
12 See note 7 above, to which the number is added ‘[204]’.
13 ‘3. Rubens. St. Barbara flies from her father to the top of a tower; he, in the likeness of a “turbaned Turk,” is seen pursuing her, sword in hand: a small sketch.’
14 ‘A Sketch. St. Barbara flying from her Father […] In the Gallery at Potsdam, there is a larger picture of St. Barbara, which has been engraved by Bolswert, but not painted from this sketch.’
15 According to Rooses St Barbara rests on one knee, but he is wrong: see Martin 1968a, p. 159.
16 Caption of DPG125: ‘Daughters defy family arrangements in the name of Christ in many legends of the virgin martyrs: Saint Barbara is another who provokes murderous rage by her recalcitrance.’
17 Tyers 2014, p. 19.
18 ibid., pp. 19–21.
19 RKD, no. 24776: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/24776 (Aug. 22, 2019); see also https://www.ashmoleanprints.com/image/410896/sir-peter-paul-rubens-st-barbara-pursued-by-her-father (Aug. 21, 2019); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, p. 188, fig. 15, under DPG125; Casley, Harrison & Whiteley 2004, p. 185, no. 157; White 1999a, pp. 110–11, no. A 157; C. White in Cleaver, White & Wood 1988, p. 90, no. 27; Martin 1968a, pp. 160–61, no. 31a, fig. 163.
20 RKD, no. 241109: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/241109 (Aug. 22, 2019); Martin 1968a, pp. 159–60, no. 31.
21 RKD, no. 241593: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/241593 (Aug. 22, 2019), dated 1718(?); see also https://search.museumplantinmoretus.be/details/collect/277179 (Aug. 22, 2019); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, p. 189, fig. 17, under DPG125 (NB: the captions of fig. 16 on p. 188 and fig. 17 on p. 189 have been switched); Delen 1938, i, p. 74, no. 37. About the artist, Christian Benjamin Muller from Dresden, see Held (1980, i, p. 33), Martin (1968a, pp. 159–60), and the RKD website.
22 RKD, no. 241147: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/241147 (Aug. 22, 2019); see also https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1921-0411-62 (Aug. 2, 2020); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, p. 188, fig. 16, under DPG125 (NB: the captions of fig. 16 on p. 188 and fig. 17 on p. 189 have been switched).
23 RKD, no. 242046: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/242046 (19 July 2014); http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/gallery/ce90ce76.html (July 1, 2019).
24 RKD, no. 241149: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/241149 (July 19, 2014); https://search.museumplantinmoretus.be/Details/collect/277216 (July 11, 2019); Delen 1938, i, p. 71, no. 31.
25 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1875-0710-3015 (Aug. 2, 2020); see also RKD, no. 24427: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/24427 (July 11, 2019; ex. Teylers Museum, Haarlem); Smith 1829–42, ix (1842), p. 247, no. 19: ‘St Barbara holding a palm branch, and approaching a prison. Engraved by Preissler [sic] and Punt.’ In the same volume (p. 335, no. 341) another St Barbara is mentioned, engraved by L. Vosterman [Vorsterman], where St Barbara is standing next to a tower, with a palm branch in her hand: see BM, R,4.39; https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_R-4-39 (Aug. 2, 2020). See also note 10 above.
26 RKD, no. 294678: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/294678 (Aug. 22, 2019); see also http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.174226 (Aug. 18, 2020).
27 Letter from H. Butterwege, Bochum, to DPG, 10 Aug. 1992 (DPG125 file).
28 RKD, no. 184454: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/184454 (July 13, 2019); see also https://www.fine-arts-museum.be/nl/de-collectie/peter-paul-rubens-de-marteling-van-de-heilige-ursula (July 13, 2019); Lammertse & Vergara 2018, pp. 164–6, no. 50; Vander Auwera, Van Sprang & Rossi-Schrimpf 2007, pp. 95–7, no. 17 (T. Meganck); KMSKB 1984, p. 249, no. 1198; Held 1980, i, pp. 590–92, no. 430, ii, pl. 417, 418A; Vlieghe 1972–3, ii (1973), pp. 172–4, no. 159, fig. 132; D’Hulst 1968, p. 94, no. 10, fig. 5.
29 RKD, no. 232782: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/232782 (July 13, 2019); see also www.khm.at/de/object/8232e119d8/ (July 13, 2019); Baudouin 2005, p. 157 (fig. 5); Donovan 2004, p. 15 (fig. 6); Downes 1980, p. 77 (fig. 50).
30 RKD, no. 240220: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/240220 (July 13, 2019); Meganck 2007, p. 222, no. 80. For another view in a picture by Schubert van Ehrenberg of which the whereabouts are unknown see Fabri & Lombaerde 2018, p. 62, text ill. 13.
31 RKD, no. 106319: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/106319 (Aug. 22, 2019).
32 RKD, no. 106471: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/106471 (Aug. 27, 2019); see also https://search.rubenshuis.be/details/collect/6654 (Aug. 27, 2019); De Rynck 2009, pp. 78–80 (fig. on p. 79); with thanks to Nico Van Hout.
33 Salomon 2014, p. 80 (fig. 50); Pignatti 1976, i, pp. 112–13, no. 58, ii, fig. 114–16; Pignatti 1966, pp. 30–32 (figs 20–22, col. pl. II), 79.
34 Pignatti 1976, i, p. 139, no. 194, pl. XVII, ii, figs 494, 496.
35 http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/gallery/2674ae61.html (July 13, 2019); Braham 1988, pp. 5 (fig.)–6, no. 3.
36 RKD, no. 240841: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/240841 (July 13, 2019); Martin 1968a, pp. 109–16, nos 17–17b.
37 Part of the ensemble of ceiling paintings in Santo Spirito in Isola, Venice, consisting of three rectangles and eight roundels: Humfrey 2007, pp. 237–41, no. 176D (300 x 285 cm); the reconstruction of the ensemble is on p. 238; see also Wethey 1969–75, i (1969), pp. 120–21, no. 84; fig. 159. See also Jaffé 1977, p. 34R, 108 (note 22) (Rubens’s drawing after Titian’s Sacrifice of Isaac in Santo Spirito, Isola); see also under Related works, no. 8; Wood 2010b, i, pp. 105–11, no. 110, ii, fig. 28.
38 http://www.amsterdamsebinnenstad.nl/binnenstad/182/plafond4.html (July 13, 2019); Bakker 2000, pp. 33, 35 (fig. 13). De Wit must also have studied the ceiling paintings by Jacques Jordaens with the signs of the Zodiac, then in Antwerp in the home of Jordaens (now in Paris): G. van den Hout in Boonstra & Van den Hout 2000, pp. 51–4 (figs 8–10).
39 For an overview of Rubens’s ceilings paintings for the Jesuit Church see Martin 1968a; for the sketches Held 1980, i, pp. 31–62, cat. nos 5–38, ii, pl. 6–39.
40 There was a mechanism to change them: Heinen 1996, pp. 77, 277 (note 376). About the architecture and the sculpture of the church see Fabri & Lombaerde 2018.
41 Meganck 2007, p. 218; Devisscher 2004, p. 254; Held 1980, i, pp. 33–8; Martin 1968a, pp. 31–3. For the (copy of the) contract itself ibid., pp. 213–19 (Appendix I).
42 Durante 2003, p. 76.
43 ibid.
44 Martin 1968a, p. 35 (fig. C).
45 Meganck 2007, p. 215; according to Martin (1968a, pp. 32, 40) it was 10,000 guilders for the whole – the ceiling paintings and the two altarpieces.
46 Devisscher 2004, p. 254; Martin 1968a, p. 38, note 23 (Return of the Holy Family from Egypt for the altar of St Joseph).
47 See also the photographic reconstruction in Knaap 2006, p. 170 (fig. 15).
48 In general: Held 1980, i, pp. 31–62, cat. nos 5–38, ii, pl. 6–39; for Vienna, Trnek 2000, pp. 54–67, nos 10–15; for the Courtauld Institute, Braham 1988, pp. 1–9, nos 1–6.
49 Martin 1968a, p. 47, note 42.
50 ibid., pp. 47–8.
51 ibid.
52 However Braham (1988, pp. 2, 3 and 9) asserts that De Wit’s colours are very useful as a record, more than the uncoloured drawings by Müller.
53 Two are lost, but copies exist, Martin 1968a, p. 52.
54 Martin 1968a, p. 53.
55 ibid., p. 162. In the Burchard material in the Rubenianum (RUB LB no. 36/2 file) there is a note by a restorer: ‘The present sketch of St Barbara was intended as an octagon, and its corners were indicated by straight lines with no paint outside these borders. The corners are now filled in with paint by a later hand.’ In the margin Ludwig Burchard wrote: stimmt nicht [3 times underlined in red]. Das ist die Behauptung des Restaurator u. nicht meine Beobachtung (that is not true [3 times underlined in red]. This is the statement of the restorer and not my observation).
56 ibid., p. 163.
57 Conservation Record, Aug. 2003 (DPG125 file).
58 Martin 1968a, p. 216.
59 Martin 1968a, p. 159 does not discuss that possibility; for him it is the scene just before she was killed; Held 1980, i, 1980, p. 36.
60 See note 16 above (Warner).
61 Martin 1968a, p. 160. Moreover he speaks of misunderstandings in De Wit’s drawings, ‘neither of which was made directly from the original’. But they were De Wit’s copies after his now lost copies after Rubens. See also note 52 above about the reliability of the colours of the copies drawn by the two artists.
62 Wood 2010b, i, pp. 105–11, no. 110, ii, fig. 28.
63 He used the combination again for The Benefits of the Wise Government of James I on the ceiling of the Banqueting House in London; see Donovan 2004, pp. 109–11; Jaffé 1989, p. 321, no. 1011; Jaffé 1977, p. 38L–R.