(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
Saint Ildefonso Receiving the Chasuble from the Virgin,
oil on copper, 58 x 42.5 cm, framed

The present painting on copper was probably created in the context of the altarpiece Rubens painted for the Ildefonso Brotherhood of Saint Jacob in Brussels, which is commonly dated to 1630–32, i.e., the period immediately after the master’s return from Spain. The painting was delivered to the brotherhood and installed on the altar of their church in 1632. Today it is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and considered one of the masterpieces from Rubens’s late period. An earlier record of this pictorial invention, if not yet in the form of a triptych, is the preliminary design now preserved in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The fact that several workshop collaborators are believed to have participated in the execution of the altarpiece suggests that several versions of the composition were made. Around 1630, such renowned artists as Erasmus Quellinus, Theodoor van Thulden, and Jan van den Hoecke were members of Rubens’s workshop, which produced numerous small-sized replicas of the master’s compositions. These repetitions were executed by such collaborators as Abraham van Diepenbeeck and Willem van Herp. Today it is difficult to differentiate between the various hands of these painters, who later worked successfully as independent artists.