Part IV (1) The Holy Trinity, The Life of the Virgin, Madonnas, and The Holy Family
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Book Series
Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, vol. 27.2
Works in Collaboration
Frans Snijders and Other Masters
Anne T. Woollett, Nils Büttner, Elizabeth McGrath, Alexandra N. Bauer
- Pages: 290 p.
- Size:175 x 260 mm
- Illustrations:65 b/w, 42 col.
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2025
- € 160,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-1-915487-58-2
- Hardback
- Available
The present volume is devoted to Rubens's fruitful partnership with Frans Snijders, as well as to his collaborations with Paul de Vos and Cornelis Saftleven.
Subject(s)
BIO
Anne T. Woollett is Curator of Paintings, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA;
Nils Büttner is Professor of Art History at the State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart;
Elizabeth McGrath is Professor Emerita of Art History and Honorary Fellow of the Warburg Institute, University of London;
Alexandra Nina Engel is Curator of German, Dutch and Flemish Paintings, Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg (SPSG), Potsdam, Germany.
Summary
Peter Paul Rubens already had assistants working for him in his studio when he first gained admission to the Antwerp Guild of St Luke in 1598. At this period too he began to co-operate with other masters, such as Jan Brueghel the Elder; a separate volume, dedicated to that collaboration, was published in 2016 (Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XXVII (1): Jan Brueghel I & II). On his return from Italy in 1609, not only did Rubens’s studio assistants increase in number, so too did the co-operative projects that the artist undertook. Rubens continued to work with Jan Brueghel the Elder until 1621. When Brueghel died in 1625, his son Jan continued the partnership with Rubens until the latter’s death in 1640.
Similarly productive was the collaboration between Rubens and the still life and animal painter Frans Snijders. It began shortly after Rubens's return to Antwerp and is reflected in various large-format works for the courts of Brussels and Madrid [?], but also in smaller ‘cabinet’ paintings, some of which were executed by members of the respective workshops of the two masters. The collaboration soon extended to the studio of the animal painter Paul de Vos, whose sister Margriete had married Snijders in 1611. One such joint painting was still in Rubens’s possession at the time of his death and was listed in the 1640 catalogue of the works for sale from the artist’s estate. This document also reveals that, among the paintings by other masters that he owned, Rubens possessed a surprisingly large quantity by the Dutch landscape and genre painter Cornelis Saftleven. Rubens had worked with Saftleven during his stay in Antwerp at the beginning of the 1630s, and evidently appreciated his talent, even if this collaboration can be represented only by a single painting.
The present is devoted to Rubens’s fruitful partnership with Frans Snijders, as well as to his collaborations with Paul de Vos and Cornelis Saftleven. It thus contributes not only to the documentation of Rubens’s oeuvre, but also to the understanding of workshop practices and the lives and social networks of painters in the city of Antwerp.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments
Catalogue Raisonné
Rubens and Snijders: An Enduring Alliance
Rubens and Paul de Vos
Rubens and Cornelis Saftleven
Appendix: Documents Relating to The Recognition of Philopoemen (No. 1)
Figures
Bibliography
Indexes
I: Collections
II: Subjects
III: Other Works by Rubens Mentioned in the Text
IV: Names and Places
