(Wallerstein 1683-1761 Vienna)
Ansegisus and his spouse, saint Bega of Brabant, c. 1732, after Peter Paul Rubens, preliminary drawing for the engraving after the painting, signed v. Prenner del., inscribed Petrus Paulus Rubens pinx., red chalk on laid paper, 23 x 17 cm, in an old mount fixed to support, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Private collection, Austria.

The present drawing is a preliminary study for the engraving by Anton Joseph von Prenner after the portrait painting by Peter Paul Rubens showing Ansegisus and his wife, St. Bega (c. 1612/1615), which is kept in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (Inv. No. 521). The engraving is dated 1732 and was part of the series "Theatrum artis pictoriae", which was published in four volumes between 1728-1733. The two sitters are figures from the Frankish-Merovingian history of the late 7th century, whose portraits Rubens probably made in connection with a dynastically oriented series of the Dukes of Brabant, which was conceived but never executed. The drawing largely corresponds to the painting and the engraving, except that Ansegisus' gaze is not directed at his wife but directly at the viewer. There is also an engraving by Frans van der Steen after the painting by Rubens, which, however, reproduces the composition as a mirror image.