RESEARCH PROJECT ON THE WOODEN SUPPORTS OF LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS BY PETER PAUL RUBENS (1577–1640)
Introduction
Landscape paintings by Peter Paul Rubens are counted amongst some of his most beautiful and personal paintings. They are considered to have been painted, in the main, for his own enjoyment and, more often than not, on wooden rather than canvas supports.
Status of current research
The Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard XVIII Landscapes and Hunting Scenes I Landscapes by Wolfgang Adler was published as long ago as 1982. Corina Kleinert published an updated catalogue of accepted landscape attributions in 2014 in Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and his Landscapes: Ideas on Nature and Art.
The supports of some landscape paintings were explored by Christopher Brown in Making and Meaning: Rubens’s Landscapes (1996) in the context of an exhibition at the National Gallery, London. Further exploration of two paintings are contained in Lucy Davis’s Rubens: The Two Great Landscapes (2020). Gerlinde Gruber and Elke Oberthaler published discoveries made during their restoration of Landscape with Philemon and Baucis in Rubens’s Great Landscape with a Tempest (2020)
The Research Questions
The publications above and exhibition symposiums such as that held in Vienna in 2018, ‘Rubens. The Power of Transformation’, have partially considered the supports of Rubens’s landscape paintings but they have yet to be studied comprehensively. One important question has emerged in academic circles around Rubens scholarship – did Rubens paint on pre-prepared wooden panels of an already defined size or did he expand the size of his panels through wooden additions in the course of painting his landscapes? The answer to this question, through a comprehensive review and study of his landscape paintings, would shed important insights on Rubens’s painting practices. Also, his use of wooden supports in the studio for his paintings.
The Research Project will undertake a comprehensive study of the supports of Rubens’s landscape paintings, including replicas and possible studio versions. There are 40 landscape paintings on panel, or transferred to panel, included in Kleinert’s 2014 publication as by Rubens or his studio. Such a review will include:
- An online listing of Rubens’s landscape paintings that are painted or were originally painted on panel
- Determination of their sizes, whether cradled or uncradled, the proposed dates for painting and the locations of the paintings
- With specific regards to the supports, determining how many planks constitute the panel and establishing diagrams of the same
- Determining the presence of panel maker’s and/or Guild of Saint Luke Antwerp brand marks on the reverse of uncradled panels, in accordance with the regulations for panel marking enshrined in the Antwerp Ordinance of 11 December 1617
- Establishing whether the panels are Antwerp ‘standard sizes’ or not, or whether partially so, in accordance with the sizes established in the Antwerp Ordinance of 11 December 1617
Such a comprehensive survey, allied with a study of previously published secondary and new research into published primary sources such as Erik Duverger’s 12 volumes (1984–2002) recording paintings in Antwerp 17th century inventories, will allow a thorough and fundamental analysis in order to address the research question above.
Deliverables from the Research
The expected deliverables from the research project include:
- A major research paper, with appendices, detailing the outcomes of the research and the analysis with regards to the research questions
- A paper on Rubens’s landscapes supports, to be published in an academic art historical journal
- A seminar/conference in February 2027 around the results of the research project’s findings and discussing the same, attended by art historians, curators and academics
- Publication of the research and its results online on this website, throughout the course of the project and with a summary of findings at its conclusion.