ATELIER OF PETER PAUL RUBENS (Siegen, 1577 - Antwerp, 1640)

Christ crucified

Oil on panel, cm. 105,5x73,5. Framed

On the back, engraved on the wood, brand of the Antwerp carpenters' guild with the castle and the two hands.
The painting can be traced back to Rubens' production of the second decade of the 17th century. The compositional layout of this superb panel painting, repeatedly taken up by Rubens and his atelier, was translated into print by Paul Pontius in 1631 (in arched format, with the view of Jerusalem in the background and the addition, on the sides of the cross, of angels who cast out demons) using a preparatory drawing today at the Boymans van Beuningen museum in Rotterdam. An autograph drawing in pen and brown watercolor testifies to the genesis of the typology to which our painting also corresponds, of which other more or less extensively autograph versions are known, subtly varied between them. Of particular note are the editorial offices of the Wallace Collection in London, the Koninklijk Museum voor schinen Kunsten in Antwerp, the Bob Jones University in Greenville and the Gemeentemuseum Hof ​​van Busleyden in Malines.
The high quality of this version allows it to be placed within the Rubens workshop under the strict control of the master and to hypothesize even his direct intervention in the happiest pieces.
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Rome.
LITERATURE: Il dipingere di Fiandra. Cento dipinti fiamminghi dal '400 al '700, catalogue of the exhibition, Ed. by D. Bodart, Roma 1999, n.88, pp 188 - 189.