Corpus Rubenianum Part IV
The Holy Trinity, The Life of the Virgin, Madonnas, and The Holy Family: The Holy Trinity and The Life of the Virgin
By (author) Fiona Healy Edited by Brecht Vanoppen
The book deals with the Virgin’s pre-Annunciation life, as those episodes involving her son – the Annunciation itself, Mary’s suffering during Christ’s passion, her assumption, and coronation.
Whereas other volumes in the Corpus Rubenianum series address a single topic, Part IV (The Holy Trinity, The Life of the Virgin, Madonnas and The Holy Family) deals with very distinct topics, two of which, The Trinity and The Life of the Virgin, form the subject of the present book. More precisely, the book deals with the Virgin’s pre-Annunciation life, as those episodes involving her son – the Annunciation itself, Mary’s suffering during Christ’s passion, her assumption, and coronation – have been treated in the parts of the Corpus that deal with Christ’s life. The focus here is on Mary’s birth, upbringing and marriage, events described in varying detail in Early Christian and medieval texts. Not all the works discussed are by Rubens himself, but all show his artistic ingenuity, evident in his novel treatment of well-known subjects, often with a long visual tradition, as well as in his ability to devise new ones. Also catalogued here are such important altarpieces as The Immaculate Conception once owned by Philip IV of Spain and the magnificent Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse. The very different theme of The Holy Trinity comprises just four entries, which, however, constitute half the volume. During the occupation of Mantua by Napoleonic troops, the three enormous paintings which Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga had commissioned from Rubens were removed from the Church of Santissima Trinita. The Transfiguration and The Baptism of Christ, both prime examples of the Trinity’s manifestation on earth, have survived intact. The Gonzaga Family in Adoration of The Trinity was, by contrast, cut into fragments. The large central section with the portraits of Vincenzo, his wife and parents looking up at the angels displaying a tapestry with the Trinity was, however, rescued for Mantua. Other fragments, primarily with portraits of the children and halberdiers, were dispersed, though some have since resurfaced. The analysis of this commission offers the first comprehensive treatment of the material in English and highlights this project as the earliest indication of Rubens’s creative potential in designing large-scale decorative programmes.
- By (author) Fiona Healy
- Edited by Brecht Vanoppen
Other Titles in this Series
Portraits of Unidentified and Newly Identified Sitters Painted in Antwerp
Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard XIX.3
Volume 19.3
Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard
Copies and Adaptations from Renaissance and Later Artists: Italian Masters. Titian and North Italian Art
Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard
Copies and Adaptations from Renaissance and Later Artists: Italian Masters. Artists Working in Central Italy and France
Copies and Adaptations from Renaissance and Later Artists
German and Netherlandish Artists
Volume 26.1
Similar Books
A Collaborative Tapestry in Honour of Shirley Ann Brown / Une fresque brodée en l’honneur de Shirley Ann Brown
The Bayeux Tapestry Seen by her Colleagues and Friends / La Tapisserie de Bayeux vue par ses collègues et amis
A Companion to Christianity and Sport in Europe and North America (19th-21st centuries)
Volume 1: Western and Eastern Europe
A Connecting Polemic in the Medieval Mediterranean
The Correspondence of Leo III and ʿUmar II
Volume 6
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Balthasar Caymox of Nuremberg
Early Modern German Print Publishers: Popular Prints of the Seventeenth Century
Creating the Woman in Antiquity
Proceedings of the 16th Melammu Workshop, Innsbruck, 2–3 June 2022
Volume 13
Cultic Kisses
Fruitful Encounters Between Deities and Humans. Festschrift for Angelika Berlejung on the Occasion of Her 65th Birthday
De/colonizing Theologies
Glocal Histories, Contemporary Challenges, Theoretical Reflections
Volume 4
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
