Assumption of the Virgin
Copyright
Work in the public domain
Image: Courtauld
Image: Courtauld
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)
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.
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
cat. no. 9
Fig. p. pl. 9
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