Workshop Of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Adoration Of The Shepherds

Oil painting on wood of high quality value, work attributable to the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577- Antwerp 1640)

Nativity with Adoration of the Shepherds - Flemish painter of the first half of the 17th century
Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (1577- 1640)

Early 17th century
Oil painting on wood - 104 x 74 cm. - with frame 105 x 136 cm

Details of the artwork:https://www.antichitacastelbarco.it/it/prodotto/bottega-di-peter-paul-rubens--adorazione-pastori

The proposed painting, a work of excellent pictorial quality, depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds, is ascribed without hesitation to the flourishing workshop of Peter Paul Rubens and is therefore datable to the first half of the seventeenth century. There are few doubts about this attribution, both for the material of the pigments used, and for the presence of the clear and unmistakable gestures of the master, a pillar of Flemish Baroque painting, grandiose and triumphal in the overall composition.
The painting is derived, although with the scene taken in symmetry, from an invention that Pietro Paolo Rubens made between 1617 and 1619 (oil on panel 67 x 102 cm, https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images / 57989), commissioned for the church of Saint-Jean de Malines, in Belgium. It was stolen in 1794 by the French where it still was and brought to the Louvre Museum until 1803, when it was sold to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille.

Although it is a panel of important dimensions (the same as the prototype), the expressive force with which the faces and bodies of the characters were reproduced, rendered with technical mastery, which induce the lucky observer to scrutinize every nuance of the characters, deserve to be mentioned. details. The theatricality of the scene, like the Rubensian prototype, is supported by the vivid, intense and brilliant colors, as well as by the strength of the light strokes that pierce the darkness of the background.

From a technical point of view we will be induced to consider our work as an interesting work from the workshop, presumably performed by the workers to satisfy the numerous requests for this subject.

Following his return from Italy, in 1608, and the great fame he achieved, Pieter Paul Rubens founded in Antwerp one of the most flourishing workshops in Europe, organized with criteria of small industry, where he used a large number of collaborators and students. , each expert in individual specializations.

With regard to our painting, several preparatory drawings were found (a part is now kept at the Albertina in Vienna), evidence that in Rubens's workshop there were already numerous variations after the prototype was made. Moreover, it was typical to keep prototypes of the works destined for important clients, in order to be able to make quick replicas in case of need.

A similar composition is registered in the Barbara Piasecka Johnson collection of Princeton (New Jersey) and coming from an auction at Christie's London, 13 July 2001 lot 20 (https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-attributed-to- willem-van-herp-1614-1677-the-2097186 /? from = salesumm ...), hesitated with attribution to the painter Willen Van Herp, active in Antwerp after having conducted a pupil with the famous master, whose style will later influence its production. In addition to Van Herp, there are many Flemish artists who could refer to our painting, even if it is difficult to trace it and one in particular; among these Jacob Jordaens, Gerard and Daniel Seghers, Frans Snyders, Jan Boeckhorst, Hendrick van Balen, Erasmus Quellinus the Younger, Gaspar de Crayer and Artus Wolffor, faithful collaborators who absorbed the same richness of the aesthetic vocabulary conceived by Rubens.

The work is in excellent condition. With Flemish frame in black lacquered wood.

For more information on the work, you are welcome to contact us, without obligation.
Painting accompanied by a certificate of photographic authenticity in accordance with the law (FIMA)