Assumption of the Virgin

by-nc

Maker


1577-1640

Title

Assumption of the Virgin

Date of Production

1635

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

Height: 48.7 cm (panel)
Width: 34.6 cm (panel)

Object Number

P.1978.PG.378

Mode of Acquisition

Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978

Credit

Courtauld Gallery, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Rubens created this sketch in preparation for a monumental altarpiece commissioned by the Carthusian church in Brussels.
This was his last and greatest interpretation of the Virgin’s Assumption, a favoured theme. Here Rubens depicts the moment when the Apostles gather at the Virgin’s empty tomb and witness her triumphant rise to heaven, as related by the apocryphal books of the Bible and Jacopo da Voragine’s Golden Legend (13th century). Unusually, Mary is wearing white, rather than the more traditional blue.

Provenance

Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Exhibition History

Peter Paul Rubens - A Touch of Brilliance, Courtauld Gallery, London, 20/09/2003-08/02/2004

Literature

Peter Paul Rubens - A Touch of Brilliance, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2003-2004
cat. no. 9
Fig. p. pl. 9

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