London, Department of Prints and Drawings of the British Museum,
Inv. No.
1895.9.1050.
P
rovenance: Blackwood, sale, London (?), 1748/49, lot 60; Sir Thomas Lawrence
(London, 1769-1830); G. Leembrugghen Jzn. (Hillegom, 1801-1865); John Malcolm
(Poltalloch, Argyleshire, Scotland, and London, 1805-1893); purchased by the British
Museum in 1895 from John Wingfield Malcolm.
L i t e r a t u r e : Rooses, v, p. 64; Hind, 11, p. 45,
No.
12 0 ; Glüch-Haberditzl, p. 32,No.
39» ph
395
Evers, 1943,p. 2x2;
Burchard-d’Hulft, 1963,1, pp.
1 1 3 - 1 1 5 ,No. 68;
ChriSt, crucified, is in profile to the left of center with Mary Magdalene kneeling at the foot of the Cross and looking up at Him. The Bad Thief is also shown in profile and placed along the left margin. The Good Thief is to the right in a frontal view and beneath him are the Virgin, St. John and a third weeping figure, Mary Cleophas, cut off by the right margin.
The Virgin and St. John bring to mind similar figures on the left wing of The
Raising of the Cross in the Antwerp Cathedral.1 The weeping Mary Cleophas
recalls a similar mourner in the right background of Rubens’s copy after Caravaggio’s Entombment now in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.2 Mary Magdalene’s position at the foot of the Cross with one arm upraised and the other delicately touching Christ’s foot is a variation on the Magdalene in the modello for The Descent from the Cross, Courtauld Institute of Art, Lee Collection, London,3 or the altarpiece in the Church of Our Lady, Antwerp.4 Although Rubens’s design for The Crucifixion with the Two Thieves is lifted among the payments for drawings executed for the 1614 Breviarium
Romanum (Appendix III, p. 447 [ i ] ) , 5 it is impossible that the sheet was
originally meant for that publication.6 On a number of occasions Moretus’s accounts list payments which include designs that were executed and published on different dates. Furthermore, this theme was not usually illustrated in earlier editions of the Breviarium but only in the Missale Romanum. It is moSt likely that The Crucifixion with the Two Thieves was considered for the 1616
Missale and in the end The Christ Dead on the Cross (No. 34; Fig. 116 ) was
chosen because it was more traditional for such a publication.7
1 Burchard-d’HulSi, 19 6 3 ,1, p. 114 .
2
K .d X .,p. 81, left.
3 Illustrated in
Haverkamp Begemann,1933, p. 41, No. 10, pi. 14.
4
K J .K .,p. 52.
5
The ChriSt Dead on the Crossis also listed.
6
Evers, 1943, p.212, suggested that it was a discarded design for the
Breviariumof
1614.
7 For earlier examples from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries see
Evers, 1943,figs. 151,152.
36. TITLE-PAGE FOR C. VAN DER STEEN, COMMENTARIA IN PENTATEUCHUM MOSIS.
Antwerp, 1616 (Fig. 118 )
C o p y exam in ed : Washington, D.C., Library of Congress, No. BS 1225, L 35.
L
iterature:
Hecquet,p. 97,
No.10;
Basan,p. 172,
No.11;
V.S.,p. 195,
No.12;
Rooses, V,
p. 89
(as not conceived by Rubens); M. Jaffé, Two Rubens DrawingsRediscovered, The Art Quarterly, xvi,
1953, pp. 132, 135;
[Cat. Exh.] Drawings & Oil Sketches by P.P. Rubens from American Colleâions, Cambridge, Mass.,1956,
pp. 19, 20,
No.15;
Held, i960,p. 264; B.
Fredlund, Architektur i Rubens’ Mâleri.Form och funktion, Göteborg,
1974, pp. 21, 191,
fig,45.
The publication contains a learned commentary on the firft five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch of Moses, by Father Cornelis van der Steen (Bocholt, 1566 - Rome, 1637), a Jesuit and Professor of Holy Scriptures and Hebrew at the University of Louvain, and later, from ca. 16 17 onwards, in Rome.
Folios 2 - f of the Commentaria in Pentateuchum Mosis contain the dedi cation to the Very Venerable and Illustrious Hendrik Frans van der Burch, Archbishop and Prelate of Cambray, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Folio 8 includes privileges and permissions to publish. The earliest privilege was granted by the Emperor on September 7, 16 13, in Regensburg. The King of France bestowed one on Oftober 10 ,16 15 , in Bordeaux while the Archduke Albert and his wife, Isabella, gave theirs through Steenhuyse on May 2 5 ,16 15 , in Brussels. Three permissions were signed by the following men: Mutius Vitellescus, General of the Jesuit Order in Rome, on January 9, 1616; Carolus Scribani, Provincial of the Jesuit Order for the Belgian province, dated AuguSt 23, 1 616, in Antwerp; Egbertus Spitholdius, licentiate in Theology, Canon and PrieSt of the Cathedral of Antwerp and censor of books in Antwerp. These approbations are followed by 1,062 pages of text. The firft twenty-four pages are divided into three parts and serve as a Preface and eulogy to the sacred text. The main body of the text, pp. 25-1,062, concerns itself with observations on the Pentateuch. The author explains that the Pentateuch is the chronicle of the world from the Creation to the death of Moses, and that it is composed of five Books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The reader is then informed that Moses is the author, but that the annotations are by another, perhaps Joshua. Pages 26-31 lifts forty-two preliminary rules on how to correftly underftand the five Books. On page 32, there is a table with the dates of the moft important events of world hiftory prior to the birth of Chrift. Pages 33-231 are concerned with remarks about the
Book of Genesis. Van der Steen deals with each chapter and annotates the text. Pages 322-323 present an historical summary and chronology of the entire creation, and on pages 324-325 we have a doxology praising God as the Creator, based on the book of Genesis. Pages 326-609 are a commentary on Exodus and close with a short hymn on page 610 praising God as the Saviour, founded on the book of Exodus and also a brief summary of this book. Pages 6 11-771 contain a commentary on Leviticus and on page 772 there is a doxology to the Holy Father, Stating how He muSt be held in honour, as written in Leviticus. The book of Numbers is discussed on pages 773-939, and this closes with a two page, 940-941, song praising God as the Leader and Lord as Stated in the Book of Numbers. There is also a short summary of the book. Deutero nomy is commented upon on pages 941-1,062 and on pages 1,063-1,064, there is a hymn to God as the giver of law and also concerning his commandments. These commentaries, doxologies and summaries are followed by two more chapters. One summarizes the commandments which God gave to Moses as collected from the Pentateuch (pp. 1,065-1,075) and a second discusses the weights and measures of the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans and Spaniards. This volume concludes with three indexes.
In the title-page, Moses is enthroned on a pedestal containing the title and address of the book. The Stone juSt beneath the throne is incribed Dedit illi
legem vitae et disciplinae (To him he has given the law of life and discipline).
In his right hand Moses holds two tablets, inscribed with quotations from the Ten Commandements: Ego sum Dominus tuus, Deus aemulator etc. (I am the Lord thy God, the jealous God, etc.)1 and Honora patrem &c. Non occides,
non moechaberis &c. (Honour thy father etc. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt
not commit adultery). 2 The pediment and architrave with their antique motifs enframe Moses. JuSt above his head, Holy Light emanates and is encircled by four heads as described by Ezechiel.3 There it is written that the “ four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side, they four also had the face of an eagle” . These symbols form a modified circle, in the center of which one finds the Hebrew word for y a h w e h . The engraver has included vowel points to warn the reader againSt pronouncing the word / h v h (modern y a h w e h ) , but instead to read
it as Lord because Jews do not pronounce but only read the Holy Tetra- grammaton. Above the pediment on the right and left sides, there are winged angels. The architrave is supported on either side by two Corinthian columns,
each decorated with two hanging medallions. These four medallions and the cartouche below depift scenes from the five Boob of Moses. The illustrations begin in the upper left with the Lord dividing “the light from the darkness” and other works of creation as described in Genesis.4 The figure of the Lord recalls Raphael’s in the Loggie.5 In the upper right is The Passage Through
the Red Sea as described in Exodus. * The scene in the lower left illustrates The High Prie ft Sacrificing a Fowl from Leviticus, 1 and that in the lower right The Ark of the Covenant Covered by a Tent as described in Numbers.8 Deu-
eronomy is represented in the cartouche by Moses Preaching to the People of
Israel on the Plain,9 There is a counter-proof in the Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris of the 16 16 title-page (Fig. 12 0 ).10 A second edition of the Commentaria appeared two years later (Fig. 12 1) , but by this time Van Meurs had become Balthasar Moretus’s partner in the Plantin Press.11 This is the reason why only Nutius’s name appears on the address of the 1618 frontispiece. Nutius published a third edition in 1623, a fourth in 16 30 ,12 and Still another appeared in 1648, but on this occasion it was printed by the Van Meurs family.