(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
The Martyrdom of Saint Livinus of Ghent,
oil on panel, 68 x 52 cm, framed

On the reverse, stamped mark of the Antwerp Guild of Panel Makers and that of Rubens’s panel maker Michiel Claessens.

We are grateful to Hans Vlieghe, who confirmed the painting’s origins in the workshop of Rubens on the basis of a photograph (correspondence of December 2014).

This previously unpublished painting was unknown to Hans Vlieghe, the author of the relevant volume of the Corpus Rubenianum (Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, vol. VIII, Saints, Antwerp, 1972/73). The painting was certainly executed before 1637, the year of the death of Michiel Claessens. Vlieghe points out that it must have been made at a time when the large altarpiece on which it is based was still in Rubens’s workshop, for the colours correspond exactly to those of the prototype. This suggests a date around 1633, the year when the Livinus altarpiece, donated by the township of Ghent to the Jesuit church of St. Livinus, was executed. For this altarpiece, which was influenced by a now lost painting by Titian, there exist two studies, which, however, differ from the present work: an autograph study by Rubens in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (inv. 1139) and a modello in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam (inv. 2515).

A version on paper, heavily trimmed on the left side and now lost, which was probably made by Jacob Jordaens and sold at auction in Ghent in 1777, might prove helpful in identifying the author of the present painting. The height of the surviving part of this painting corresponds exactly to that of the present work. The catalogue of 1777 states: ‘62. Jordaens, L’Esquisse du tableau de P. P. Rubens représentant Martyre de St. Liévin, fort bien rendue, Papier collé sur bois, 2T“ x i ‘8’ (67.5 x 54 cm). In terms of dimensions, these two works would thus be almost identical.

On the one hand, Peter Paul Rubens was highly innovative in the layout of his works, but on the other hand he frequently dealt with a certain composition over a long period of time – the artist is known for having developed his works in extensive processes – before it was used for a final painting. When Rubens was satisfied with one of his compositions he would reuse it in subsequent projects, completed with the assistance of his workshop, as an object for further study, or as a model for his prints. In his Rubens biography published in 1920, Emile Verhaegen wrote about the Brussels altarpiece: ‘In the Martyrdom of Saint Livinus in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the frightening aspect of the drama is transformed into triumph. The painter’s fierce and furious brush gladly paints the lines in what resembles wild chaos and enlivens the tones and colours in such an exaggerated manner that one would believe to witness some kind of amusement […]; in a surge of lyricism and frenzy, the laughing, chubby angels and the gigantic white horse rising against the clouds wipe away all the fear, all the sorrow caused by the events. Again: Rubens knows neither true pain nor tragic grief.’

Additional picture
Peter Paul Rubens, The Martyrdom of Saint Livinus of Ghent, Brussels, Musées des Beaux-Arts