1620
oil
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
St. Albert of Louvain is a 1620 oil by Peter Paul Rubens, a Baroque work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a saint floating on a cloud, his body tilted so his feet point toward you while his head drifts upward. His robes swirl around him like he’s caught in a gentle wind. Rubens painted this as a test run—one of 39 small panels he made to show church leaders what the ceiling would look like. The sharp angle makes the saint feel like he’s really hovering above you, not just stuck on a flat wall. Look up *glazing* to see how thin layers of oil paint can make light glow like that.
Peter Paul Rubens executed this study and 38 more as he prepared to decorate the ceiling of the Jesuit church in Antwerp. He presented such highly finished sketches to his patrons as proposals for major projects. This work shows a dramatically foreshortened saint gliding majestically on a cloud. The bold perspective would have furthered the illusion that the painting was a window in the ceiling of the church, offering a view to the open sky above. The man depicted here is the 12th-century martyr Albert of Louvain, patron saint of Archduke Albert, governor of the Spanish Netherlands.
Matthäus Merian d. Ä., Basel, to 1650; by descent in Merian family to 1796; sold Basel, 1796, no. 27, for F10. Grazio Enea Lanfranconi, Bratislava, by 1895; sold Lempertz, Cologne, 21–23 October 1895, no. 174 as St. Jerome. Dr. Leo Cohn, Paris [according to Puyvelde 1940, no. 38]. Dr. Leo Charles Collins, New York [he lent the picture to Schaeffer and Brandt 1942; a Collins, an émigré, who was active both as a lawyer and art historian, was probably identical with Dr. Leo Cohn, originally of Vienna; see the introduction to Leo C. Collins, Hercules Seghers, Chicago, 1953]. E. and A. Silberman…
New York, Schaeffer and Brandt, Inc., “Peter Paul Rubens,” November 23–December 19, 1942, cat. 16. New York, E. and A. Silberman Galleries, “An Exhibition of Paintings for the benefit of the Research Fund of Art and Archeology,” The Spanish Institute, Inc., October 12–November 1, 1955, p. 7, cat. 17, ill. p. 29.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ROO-bənz; Dutch: ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat.
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