Peter Paul Rubens
Rest on the flight into Egypt
The drawing was intended as a model for a woodcut by Christoffel Jegher (1596-1652/53). The composition was based on Rubens' painting depicting Madonna and Child in a Landscape with Saint George and Other Saints, dated 1632-1635 and preserved in Prado (inventory number P01640).
The artist introduced several changes and omitted several figures in order to focus on landscape which interested him much more in the last years of his work. The maternal affection and putti playing with a sheep are the focal point. Joseph is barely visible asleep against a tree in the right center. The artist emphasized the figure of Mary with blue color, indicating in this way the areas which should be lightened in the final woodcut executed around 1633-1634. Rubens prepared a drawing in black chalk, which was later filled with brown ink by Jegher and then retouched by the artist with white and blue color.
Just as in the original painting in Prado, Rubens is mixing religious biblical scenes in narrative character with intellectual burden, to include characters originally unrelated to the story. Only putti playing with the Lamb, symbol of the future sacrifice of Christ, are interrupting the calmness of the scene and Child's sleep.
The drawing came into possession of the last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, from the collection of Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774). In 1810 it was acquired by Count Atanazy Raczyński and deposited by the Raczyński family to the National Museum in Poznań in 1903.
The artist introduced several changes and omitted several figures in order to focus on landscape which interested him much more in the last years of his work. The maternal affection and putti playing with a sheep are the focal point. Joseph is barely visible asleep against a tree in the right center. The artist emphasized the figure of Mary with blue color, indicating in this way the areas which should be lightened in the final woodcut executed around 1633-1634. Rubens prepared a drawing in black chalk, which was later filled with brown ink by Jegher and then retouched by the artist with white and blue color.
Just as in the original painting in Prado, Rubens is mixing religious biblical scenes in narrative character with intellectual burden, to include characters originally unrelated to the story. Only putti playing with the Lamb, symbol of the future sacrifice of Christ, are interrupting the calmness of the scene and Child's sleep.
The drawing came into possession of the last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, from the collection of Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774). In 1810 it was acquired by Count Atanazy Raczyński and deposited by the Raczyński family to the National Museum in Poznań in 1903.
ink and chalk on paper, c. 1633-1635, 47.4 × 61.5 cm (18.7 × 24.2 in), inventory number MNP FR 396, currently not on permanent display, Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu (MNP)
© Marcin Latka
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