The J. Paul Getty Museum

The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse

Object Details

Title:

The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse

Artist/Maker:

Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640)

Culture:

Flemish

Date:

about 1623–1624

Medium:

Oil on panel

Object Number:

85.PB.146

Dimensions:

64.5 × 49.8 cm (25 3/8 × 19 5/8 in.)

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Object Description

This oil sketch or modello was commissioned by Prince-Bishop Viet Adam for the main altarpiece of Freising Cathedral in southern Germany. In the center the Virgin Mary holds the Christ Child while trampling the serpent of sin, who curls around the moon at her feet. To the left the Archangel Michael and angels cast out Satan, the "great red dragon with seven heads," and other ghoulish demons. Above, God the Father instructs an angel to place a pair of wings on the Virgin's shoulders.

Peter Paul Rubens contrasted good with evil by juxtaposing the agony and gruesomeness of the demons as they fall into hell with the Virgin and Child rising heavenward at the right. Rapid and gestural brushstrokes lend immediacy and drama to the scene.

Provenance
Provenance
about 1623/1624 - 1803

Kloster Neustift (Freising, Germany)

- 1820

Benjamin West, American, 1738 - 1820 (London, England) [sold, West sale, Christie's, London, June 24, 1820, lot 75, to Baker.]

1820 -

Baker (London, England)

1822

Private Collection [unsold, Christie's, June 10, 1822.]

1824

Private Collection [sold, West sale, Christie's, London, May 28, 1824, lot 70.]

by 1868 - 1887

Edmund M. Blood (London, England), sold through Wilhelm von Bode (Berlin, Germany) to Eduard Friedrich Weber.

1887 - 1912

Eduard Friedrich Weber, German, 1830 - 1907 (Hamburg, Germany) [sold, Weber sale, Lepke, Berlin, February 20, 1912, lot 191, to Marczell de Nemes von Janoshaza.]

1912 - 1913

Marczell de Nemes von Janoshaza, Hungarian, 1866 - 1930 (Budapest, Hungary; Munich, Germany) [sold, Marczell de Nemes sale, Lair-Dubreuil, Baudoin, at Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Paris, June 17, 1913, lot 72.]

by 1917 -

Federico Gentili di Giuseppe, 1868 - 1940 (Paris, France)

by 1919 -

Bousquart (Paris, France)

- 1938

Walter M. Feilchenfeldt (Berlin, Germany; London, England; Zurich, Switzerland) and Galerie Paul Cassirer (Berlin, Germany; London, England; Zurich, Switzerland), sold to Alfred Hausamann, 1938.

1938 - 1984

Alfred Hausamann (Zürich, Switzerland), sold through Walter Feilchenfeldt (Zurich, Switzerland) to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
National Exhibition of Works of Art (1868)
  • Leeds City Museum and Galleries (Leeds), 1868
Kunsthistorische Ausstellung (1904)
  • Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1904
Sammlung Marczell von Nemes (July to December 1912)
  • Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, July to December 1912
Olieverfschetsen van Rubens (December 19, 1953 to February 14, 1954)
  • Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), December 19, 1953 to February 14, 1954
Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz (May 18 to August 4, 1968)
  • Kunsthalle Köln (Cologne), May 18 to August 4, 1968
Rubens and His Time (November 5, 1998 to June 27, 1999)
  • Museo Nacional de San Carlos (Mexico City), November 5, 1998 to February 28, 1999
  • Palazzo dei Diamanti (Ferrara), March 28 to June 27, 1999
Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens (October 2, 2004 to September 11, 2005)
  • Bruce Museum (Greenwich), October 2, 2004 to January 30, 2005
  • University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley), March 2 to May 22, 2005
  • Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati), June 14 to September 11, 2005
American Adversaries: West and Copley in a Transatlantic World (October 6, 2013 to January 19, 2014)
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 6, 2013 to January 19, 2014
Bibliography
Bibliography

Meichelbeck, Carolus. Kurtze Freyingische Chronica oder Historia (Freysing: 1724), vol. 1, p. 288.

Christie's, London. A Catalogue of the Truly Capital Collection of Italian, French, Flemish and Dutch Pictures  [...] Benjamin West. June 23-24, 1820, p. 19, no. 75.

Christie's, London. A Catalogue of the Remaining and Reserved Part of the Very Valuable Collection of Italian, French, Flemish, and Dutch Pictures of Benjamin West. May 28, 1824, p. 7, no. 70.

National Exhibition of Works of Art, at Leeds, 1868: Official Catalogue, exh. cat., under revision (Leeds: Edward Baines and Sons, 1868), p. 56, no. 827.

Rooses, Max. L'Oeuvre de P. P. Rubens: Histoire et description de ses tableaux et dessins. 5 vols. (Antwerp: Jos. Maes, 1886-92), vol. 5 (1892), p. 331, no. 384bis.

Woermann, Karl. Wissenschafliches Verseichnis der älteren Gemälde der Galerie Weber in Hamburg (Dresden: Druck von Wilhelm Hoffmann,1892; 2nd ed. Dresden: Hoffman, 1907), pp. 136-37, no. 165; 2nd ed., no. 191, pp. 164-65.

Gemälde alter Meister der Sammlung Weber (Lübeck: 1898; 2nd ed., Leipzig: K. F. Koehler, 1923), p. 17.

Kunsthistorische Ausstellung Düsseldorf 1904, exh. cat. 2nd ed. (Düsseldorf: Schmitz & Olbertz, 1904), p. 119, no. 271.

Rosenberg, Adolf. P.P. Rubens-Des Meisters Gemälde. 1st ed. (Stuttgart and Leipzig: Deutsche Verlag-Anstalt, 1905), p. 52, ill.

Rosenberg, Adolf. P.P. Rubens-Des Meisters Gemälde. 2nd ed. (Stuttgart and Leipzig: Deutsche Verlag-Anstalt, 1906), pp. 52, 466, 490, ill.

Dillon, Edward. Rubens (London: Methuen and Co., 1909), p. 218, pl. XLV.

Rosenberg, Adolf. P.P. Rubens-Des Meisters Gemälde. 3rd ed. (Stuttgart and Leipzig: Deutsche Verlag-Anstalt, 1911), pp. 52, 468, 491, ill.

Katalog der Königliche älteren Pinakothek (Munich: Elfte Auflage, 1911), pp. 134-35, no. 739.

Lepke, Berlin. Galerie Weber Hamburg, Austellung und Versteigerung. February 20-22, 1912, p. 83, lot 191, ill.

Burchard, Ludwig. "Anmerkungen zu den Rubens-Bilder der Älten Pinakothek in München." Kunstchronik 22, no. 17 (February 23, 1912), p. 260, no. 739.

Glaser, Curt. "Die Sammlung Weber." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 35 (1912), p. 94.

Schaeffer, Emil. "La Vendita della Collezione Weber a Berlino." Rassegna d'Arte 12, nos. 4-5. (April-May 1912), p. 76, ill.

Katalog der aus der Sammlung des kgl. Rates Marczell von Nemes-Budapest ausgestellten Gemälde, exh. cat. (Düsseldorf: Städt. Kunsthalle, with A. Bagel, 1912), unpaginated, no. 29, ill.

Galerie Manzi, Joyant, Paris. Catalogue des tableaux modernes [...] composant la collection de M. Marczell de Nemes de Budapest [...]. June 18, 1913, unpaginated, lot 72, ill.

Mourey, Gabriel. "La Collection Marczell de Nemes." Les Arts 11, no. 138 (June 1913), p. 23.

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Katalog der Älteren Pinakothek zu München. 14th ed. (Munich: Die Pinakothek, 1922), pp. 142-43, no. 891.

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