An undated letter from Jan van de Wouwer to Balthasar Moretus concerning the former’s book about Father Simón mentions a portrait of Simon being made by Rubens for an engraving by Cornelis Galle (Appendix I, p. 428 [15 6 ]). It is difficult to date Rubens’s design with precision. It could have been finished late in 16 13 or early in 16 14 before the Inquisition prohibited the halo in portraits of Father Simón. In any case the entire design appears to be by Rubens. The direft and engaging quality of the sitter has all of the animation that one associates with the mafter. The treatment of the hand, which curves up from the wrift and contains long delicate fingers, is typical of Rubens and brings to mind Nicolaas Rockox’s right hand in his portrait on the left wing of the Doubting Thomas, Royal Museum, Antwerp.1
From Van de Wouwer’s letter, one may conclude that Rubens made Father Simón’s portrait after a prototype, very probably an engraving, provided by the author.
1
K J . K . ,p. 85.
18*28.
TITLE-PAGE AND ILLUSTRATIONS FOR THE BREVIARIUM ROMANUM.
Antwerp, 16 14Co p y e x a m in e d: New
York
Public Library, 42nd. Street & Fifth Avenue, Spencer Colleftion, No. Neth. 16 14 , Catholic.Prior to 1614, the laft Plantin publication in-folio of the Breviarium Romanum had appeared in 1575 and included seven old-fashioned woodcuts designed by P. Van der Borcht and cut by A. Van Leeft representing David Poenitens, The Nati
vity, The Resumption of Christ, PentecoSt, The LaSt Supper, The Assump tion of the Virgin and A ll Saints. Moretus commissioned Rubens to design eight
new compositions and a title-page. The latter also slightly reworked The
Adoration of the Magi (No. 8; Fig. 51) and re-used, without change, The Ascension (No. 9; Fig. 53), both of which had appeared a year earlier in the Missale Romanum.
In the Accounts of the Plantin Press from the years 1610-18, there is a payment to Rubens of 132 guilders for having made the drawings for the eight illuftrations and frontispiece of the 16 14 Breviarium Romanum. The 132 guilders also included two drawings of the Crucifixion which were not used in the 1614 Breviarium (Appendix III, p. 447 [ 1 ] ) . All of the drawings for
the Breviarium were designed by Rubens before March 10, 1614, as Stated in a letter from Jan Moretus II to Jan Hasrey in Madrid (Appendix I, p. 399 [87]). The documents also inform us that Theodore Galle was paid 75 guilders on February 10, 1614, for cutting the plate representing David Poenitens and 65 guilders on April 12, 1614, for each of the following : The Nativity, The
Resurrection of Christ, PentecoSt, The Assumption of the Virgin; further 75
guilders on May 15 ,16 14 , for the title-page and The Annunciation and on the same day 65 guilders for The LaSt Supper and A ll Saints (Appendix III, pp. 454-456 [15 , 17, 20]). The documents also State that on Oftober 16, 1614, the title-page and the other ten illustrations were printed and that 1,275 sheets were made of each which amounted to a grand total of 14,025 at a coSt of 24 Stuivers the hundred or 168 guilders and 6 Stuivers (Appendix III, p. 458 [25J) . A copy of the Breviarium containing 303 sheets and with eleven
engraved illustrations, printed on “mediaen” paper was sold to the public for 16
guilders and for two more guilders one could have the book printed on Stronger (“double mediaen”) paper (Appendix II, p. 432 [4 ]).
18.
TITLE-PAGE FOR THE BREVIARIUM ROMANUM.
Antwerp, 1614 (Fig. 71)Engraving; 348 : 225 mm.; below on the left: Theodorus Galle sculpsit.
C o p y : Engraving by J. Hanzelet, title-page for Missale Romanum, Toul, 16 2 1, in-f°; lit.: Basan, pp. i 8 i, 182, No. 38bis; V S., p. 200, No. 46; Rooses, v, pp. 67, 353; Bouchery-Van den Wijngaert, p. 64, note 1.
E x h ib ite d : Paris, 1954, No. 366.
L i t e r a t u r e : Rooses, Rubens-Moretus, /882-83, II, pp. 53, 54, 56; Rooses, Rubens- Moretus, 1884, pp. 48, 49, 5 1; Rooses, v, pp. 58, 59, 64, 65, note 3, No. 1250 ; M. Rooses, in Rubens-Bulletijn, iv, 1896, p. 2 16 ; Van den Wijngaert, p. 57, No. 294 ( 1 ) ; Bouchery-Van den Wijngaert, pp. 62, 109, 122, 13 2 ; Evers, 1943, pp. 4 1, 118 , 17 3 ; Benesch, Book Illustration, p. 7; Burchard-d’ HulSi, 1936, p. 56; Held, I, p. 14 8; Held, i960, pp. 262, 263; Hellinga, p. 183, No. 70, repr.; Burchard-d'HulSt, 1963, 1, p. 1 1 4 ; Renger, 1, pp. 12 8 ,12 9 .
Ecclesia is seated on the pedestal and is crowned with the papal tiara. In her
left hand she holds the Pope’s Staff and with her right hand supports an open book on her knee. The book’s text is taken from Psalms 149: 1, and reads as follows:
CANTATE DOMINO CANTICVM NOWM: LAVS EIVS IN ECCLESIA SANC-
TORVM
(Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints). A powerful light glows behind Ecclesia’s head - perhaps indicating the light of the Holy GhoSt She is flanked by angels who fly out of the clouds swinging censers. The smoke from the censers contains lines from Psalms 140: 2. On the left side one reads Dirigatur Domine oratio mea and on the rightsicut incensum in conspefîu tuo (Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy
sight). Below, and to the left of the plinth containing the book title, one finds St. Peter with the following inscription beneath his feet from I Peter 4: 7: estote
PRVDENTES,
et vigilateIN
o r a tio nIB
vs (Be ye sober, and watch under prayer). On the opposite side St. Paul Stands with his head bent down. Under St. Paul’s feet there is a verse from Colossians 4:2:
o r a tio n i in st a te,
v igilan tes in ea in gratiarvm a ctio n e (Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving). The pedeStal of the title-page is divided into three sections. Underneath St. Peter there is an opening before a landscape containing musical instruments—organ pipes, a lute and what might be a variety of flutes. The margin contains the following text from Psalms 150: 4:Laudate Dominum in chordis et organo (Praise him with Stringed instruments
and organs). The center section displays a cartouche with the device of Pope Paul V while on the right side there is an opening on to a landscape in front of which one finds a harp and a turban with a crown referring to King David. The harp is inscribed with a text taken from Psalms 150: 3: Laudate Dominum
in psalterio et cithara (Praise the Lord with the psaltery and harp). The Biblical
texts have been identified by Held.1
The arrangement of this title-page seems to have been inspired by Italian papal tomb sculpture. Although a specific model cannot be identified, this title- page, with Ecclesia seated on a plinth and with Saints on either side in a subordinate position, brings to mind sculptures such as Baccio Bandinelli’s
Monument of Pope Leo X , Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, or Domenico
Fontana’s and Leonardo da Sarzana’s Tomb of Pope Nicholas IV, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome.2 Rubens’s Ecclesia is a type found all over Italy as a single image seated on a plinth and placed in a Cathedral square.3 The same type is also part of much grander ensembles such as Domenico Fontana’s Tomb of
Pope Pius V or Flaminio Ponzio’s Tomb of Pope Clement VIII, both in Santa
Maria Maggiore, Rome.4 Although Rubens’s type appears to go back to sixteenth and early seventeenth-century papal commemorative and tomb sculp ture, there is a marked difference in the placement of the main figure. Bandi-
nelli, Fontana and Ponzio set their figures either in niches or arches. Rubens, following the single-figured commemorative papal Statue type, does not confine his figures within architectural memberings.5 They Stand free in space and the principal allegorical figure is surrounded by holy light and clouds. This arrangement is found in L. Dolce’s Italian translation of Ovid’s Metamor
phoses, published in Venice in 1553 (Fig. 54) . 6 However, the Italian publication
is conceived as a maniera ensemble which Rubens has translated into an impressive Baroque monumentality. His combination of the painterly and the architectural has something of the spirit of later tomb sculptures by Bernini. 1
The presence of the angels surrounded by clouds imparts a greater sense of depth to the composition and reflects Rubens’s interest in Venetian painting.8 Venetian illusionism was experiencing a Strong revival at the end of the sixteenth century in the works of artists like Lodovico Carracci, whom Rubens Studied and admired. Lodovico’s 1588 Madonna dei Bargellini, Pinacoteca, Bologna,9 contains angels flying about in clouds, one of which swings a censer. Actually Rubens has used this type of illusionism in a number of his Italian compositions such as the Holy Trinity, fragment, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua.
The monumental figures of Saints Peter and Paul, enveloped in heavy draperies, are full-length adaptations of his ca. 16 12 half-length ApoStles in the Prado, Madrid10 and his Study of fully draped figures painted by Italian artists of the sixteenth century.11 Saints Peter and Paul will appear again in somewhat altered positions in the ca. 16 15 oil sketch of Saints Peter and Paul, private collection, Brussels,12 for a lost altarpiece in the Capuchin Church, Antwerp. St. Paul, in the Breviarium Romanum, is also the source for the figure of
St. Simon in Rubens’s drawing in the Print Room, Statens Museum, Copen
hagen 13 and the St. Andrew in Rubens’s Two Studies for St. Andrew and an
Ancient Priefl, also in Copenhagen.14 This sheet can also be connected with
St. Paul in the 1623 title-page for the Summa Conciliorum Omnium (No. 50; Fig. 172).
Theodore Galle was paid 75 guilders on May 15 ,16 14 , for cutting the plate for the title-page (Appendix III, p. 456 [20]).
In 1628 the Breviarium was reprinted and the frontispiece was modified.15 Paul V ’s device was replaced by Urban V III’s and the date in the cartouche was altered to read m.d c.x x v i i i. On August 31, 1628, Theodore Galle was paid three guilders for making the change.14 The copper plate is preserved in the Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp.17
1 Held, i, p. 148.
2 For illustrations see J. Pope-Hennessy, Italian High Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture,
I, London, 19 6 3, Figs. 6 5 ,14 8 .
3 Cf. Vincenzo Danti, Statue of Julius III, Perugia or Antonio Calcagni’s Statue of Sixtus V, Loreto ( Venturi, x, 2, figs. 4 15, 6 15 ).
4 Illustrated in J. Pope-Hennessy, op, cit., n, Figs. 1 5 0 ,1 5 1 .
5 This is also evident in the 16 13 title-page for F. Aguilon, Optic or um Libri sex (No. 10 ; Fig. 55) which is the prototype for the Breviarum Romanum (Bouchery-Van den Wijngaert, p. 12 2 ).
« Mortimer, Italian, 11, p. 494, No. 342, repr.
2 See Held, i960, pp. 2 6 1-26 3, for possible connexions between Rubens’s title-pages and Bernini's tomb sculpture.
8 See Titian’s 1 5 1 6 - 1 8 Assumption of the Virgin, Santa Maria dei Frari, Venice. 9 Illustrated in [Cat. Exh.~\ Moftra dei Carracci, Bologna, 1956, No. 8.
10 See Vlieghe, Saints, 1, pp. 63-66, Nos. 49, 50, Figs. 89-91.
11 See drawings illustrated in Burchard-d’HulB, 1963, il, pis. 22, 23, 164, and the discussion in Held, 1, pp. 52, 53.
12 Vlieghe, Saints, 1, pp. 65, 66, No. 49-5oa, Fig. 91.
13 Inv. No. 13 .2 3 4 ; Burchard-d’HulB, 19 6 3 ,1, p. 160 , No. 95; 11, pi. 95.
14 Inv. No. 13 .2 3 5 ; Held, 1, p. 109; 11, pi. 37; Burchard-d’HulB, 1963, 1, pp. 160, 16 1, No. 96; II, pi. 96.
15 Hecquet, p. 96, No. 6; Basan, p. 17 1 , No. 9; Smith, Catalogue Raisonné, 11, p. 335, No. 1279; V S., p. 194, No. 9; Rooses, Rubens-Moretus, 1882-83, 11, p. 54; Rooses, Rubens-Moretus, 1884, p. 49; Rooses, V, p. 59; Bouchery-Van den Wijngaert, pp. 63, J 3 2> % • 33; Evers, 1943, fig. 76.
18 “ Den 3 1 AuguSto vuijt gedaen inden tytel vanden brevier in folio het waepen vanden paus, ende hersneden ... 3 - .” (Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum, Archives, No. 12 3, f° 6 4T) .
17 Inv. No. K P 16 7 D ; 352 : 227 mm.; Hellinga, p. 183, No. 68, repr. The date has been changed to 1628.
18a.
TITLE-PAGE FOR THE BREVIARIUM ROMANUM: DRAWING
(Fig. 72)Pen and brown ink and brown wash, heightened with white, over pencil or black chalk; 340 : 223 mm.; traced for transfer.
London, Department of Prints and Drawings of the British 'Museum. Inv. No.
18 8 1.6 .11.3 0 .
P r o v e n a n c e : ? Sale, Paris (Basan), 1 3 December 17 6 5 et seqq., lot 1 3 3 (“ Un titre de livre, composé de 5 figures, où se trouvent Saint Grégoire, Saint Pierre & Saint Paul, par P.P. Rubens; ce Dessin eSt lavé & touché avec un esprit infini digne du grand artiste qui en eSt l’Auteur” ) ; A.F.E. Nogaret, sale, Paris (Regnault & Félix), 30 January
un pape assis e§t encensé par deux anges. On a placé, sur la face du piede§tal, un sujet représentant i’Enfant-Jésus conduit par saint Joseph. Petit dessin de Franc. Albano. Le dessin de Rubens, composé pour servir de titre à un missel, e§t fait à la plume, lavé au biâtre, rehaussé de blanc... H. 12 p. 71., Larg. 8 p. 21.” ) ; purchased in 18 8 1.
L ite ra tu re :
M. Rooses, in Rubens-Bulletijn,iv,
1896, pp. 216, 289, No. 12 5 0 ; Rooses, Vie, p. 208; Hind, 11, p. 17, No. 35; Gläck-Haberditzl, p. 36, No. 67, pl. 67; Bouchery- Van den Wijngaert, pp. 62, 122, 129, 132 , 134, fig. 34; Burchard-d’HulSi, 1936, p. 56; Held,I, pp.
4, 38, 39, 108, 109, 148, 164, No. 140, pl. 15 5 ; HelUnga, p. 183, No. 67, repr,; Burchard-d’HuW, 1963, 1, pp. 114 , 160; Held, 1974, P- 252 ! Ringer, 1, pp. 128, 129.This drawing is the design in reverse for the title-page of the Breviarium
Romanum (No. 18; Fig. 71) engraved by Theodore Galle. Galle repeated the
inscription beneath the Saints and on the musical instruments. He did, however, make one change. In the drawing the book held by Ecclesia contains a text on one page while Galle placed the text on both pages.1
The original plans for the title-page were designed by Balthasar Moretus and are preserved on three sheets of paper in the Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp (Figs. 75-77).2 Rubens followed Moretus’s third scheme (Fig. 77) very closely, but he did make some changes. Originally’ Moretus depicted
St. Cecilia Playing the Organ in the lower-right comer and David Playing the Harp in the lower left. Rubens replaced them with musical instruments.
Sometime between March 16 13 and July 1616 Rubens was paid 132 guilders by Jan Moretus II for the complete set of drawings for the Breviarium and two designs of Christ on the Cross for a Missale3 (Appendix III, p. 447 [ 1 ] ) . It is moSt likely that Rubens executed this title-page design prior to March 10, 16 14 (Appendix I, p. 399 [87]).
1 For the inscriptions see pp. 1 1 9 ,1 2 0 , under No. 18.
2 For the documentation see Bouchery-Van den Wijngaert, p. 62, figs. 3 1, 32 ; Hellirtga, pp. 18 2 ,18 3 , Nos. 64-66, repr.
3 See below, pp. 17 0 -17 3 , Nos. 34, 35.
18b.
TITLE-PAGE FOR THE BREVIARIUM ROMANUM: RETOUCHED ENGRAVING
(Fig. 73)Engraving; 34 1 : 220 mm., margin; pen and brush and dark brown ink, white body colour.
P
rovenance:
P.-]. Mariette (Paris,1694-1774);
purchased in1775
from the latter’s estate by Hugues-Adrien Joly, Keeper of the Cabinet des EStampes.L i t e r a t u r e : Rooses, v, p. 67; Bouchery-Van den Wijngaert, p. 63; Held, 1, p. 148; Hellinga, p. 183, No. 69, repr.; Renger, 1, pp. 12 9 ,13 0 .
Rubens used brush and pen with dark-brown ink in the following places: the arms and face of the angel in the upper left; Ecclesia’s left shoulder, hand and book held by her; the shoulders and arms of the angel in the upper right; the hair, beard, drapery and foot of St. Peter; the hair, face, foot and drapery of St. Paul. White body colour heightenings were brushed into the drapery hanging over St. Peter’s arm and the hair on top of his head. It was also used to highlight the upper part of St. Paul’s elbow, the drapery juSt beneath it and that covering his left leg. White body colour is also used to accentuate the right-arm muscle of the angel on the left.
19.
DAVID POENITENS: ILLUSTRATION FOR THE BREVIARIUM ROMANUM.
Antwerp, 1614, opposite p. i (Fig. 78)Engraving; 305 : 198 mm.
Copy:
Engraving in Breviarium Romanum, in-40, Antwerp, 1636, Pars Aeitiva, opposite p. 1 ; 1 7 1 : 12 3 mm.L i t e r a t u r e : Hecquet, p. 107, No. 6; Rooses, Rubens-Moretus, 1882-83, 11, p. 56; Rooses, Rubens-Moretus, 1884, p. 5 1; Rooses, V, pp. 59, 64, No. 1 2 5 1 ; Van den Wijngaert, p. 57, No. 294 (2 ); Bouchery-Van den Wijngaert, pp. 62, 63; Evers, 1943, pp. 41, 119 , 202--205, fig. 136.
King David is placed opposite page
1
with its text entitled psa lteriv m dispo-
sitvm per hebdomadam.
He kneels in the center foreground and looks up at a flying angel carrying a sword and surrounded by clouds. In the middle distance dead people lie about on the ground while others flee the avenging angel. There is a farm house juSt below and behind the angel and in the distance a walled city. Rubens has illustrated an episode from the laSt years of David’s life as related in Samuel.1 After sinning against his people, David is allowed by God to choose between three types of punishment: seven years of famine for hispeople, flight from his enemies for three months while they pursue him or three days of peftilence in his land. The Lord sent a pestilence and seventy thousand people died. Rubens alludes to the latter by including the dead and fleeing in the middle distance. When the angel was about to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord said that the punishment was enough and commanded him to Stay his hand. The angel appeared over the threshing place of Araunah, the Jebusite, which is represented in the left-middle distance. Jerusalem is also indicated in the background.
Rubens follows pictorial tradition by placing the kneeling David in the foreground, the angel flying above and imaginary architecture in the distance.2 However, he also changes the composition considerably. He places David in profile but with his back to the spectator and omits the harp. David is dressed in rich flowing drapery and his hands, aided by the use of light and shadow, are extremely expressive of emotion which is also subtly hinted at by the up turned head. The angel does not hover above David as in the Van der Borcht and De Vos versions but rushes down toward the lower zone. This effeCt is aided by the powerful shaft of descending white light and the bright opening surrounded by dark clouds. The movement is carried on below by the fleeing citizens who rush out of the picture to the right. This sense of aCtion is achieved by the dramatic light and shadow which is new for the North at this time. David’s kneeling position, his upturned gaze at an apparition and the dramatic light effeCts might well reflect Rubens’s interest in late sixteenth-century Italian art. 3 The threshing shed had been included earlier but with no reference to the pestilence or Jerusalem.4
On February io, 1614, Theodore Galle was paid 75 guilders for cutting the plate (Appendix III, p. 454 [ 15 ] ) . It was used again in the 1628 edition of the Breviarium published by the Plantin Press. The copper plate is preserved in the Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp.s