(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
The Defenders of the Eucharist
oil on panel, 49.2 x 62.6 cm, framed

The brand of the city of Antwerp on the reverse.

Provenance:
Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial (according to the Phillips catalogue of 1821);
John Webb collection, London;
his sale, Phillips, London, 31st May 1821, lot 173 (100 guineas, as Peter Paul Rubens, “the famous sketch entirely by his own hand, from the Escurial”);
Edward Gray (1751–1838) collection, London;
Frederick Alexander Szarvasky (1875–1948) collection, London;
sale, Christie’s, Manson & Woods, London, 10th December 1948, lot 49;
sale, Christie’s, London, 17th November 1950, lot 39 (for 130 guineas to Paez, as Sir P. P. Rubens).
Private collection;
sale, Christie’s, New York, 31st January 2013, lot 229 (as ‘Studio of Peter Paul Rubens’);

Literature:
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, vol. II, London, 1830 (“the original study, admirably painted”);
M. Rooses, L’Oeuvre de Peter Paul Rubens, 1886, p. 69, cat. no. 51 (as an autograph study);
V. Elbern, Peter Paul Rubens – Triumph der Eucharistie, exhib. cat., Villa Hügel, Essen, 1954/55;
J. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens: A Critical Catalogue, Princeton, 1980, pp. 158/59, under cat. no. 110 (as a copy);
N. de Poorter, The Eucharist Series, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, London-New York, 1978, vols. I and II, p. 368, under no. 15c (as a copy)

The composition of the present painting, which according to dendrochronological findings dates from the first third of the 17th century, correlates to a work painted in 1624 that is now preserved in the Prado in Madrid (see fig. 1, a high resolution photograph of this painting is available on request in the Old Masters Department).

The Prado painting has previously been regarded as a modello for the tapestry of the same subject. However, due to the high quality of the painting formerly in the Escorial, research now assumes that it is an autograph work by Peter Paul Rubens that is much superior to the Prado painting. The difference in quality and the provenance (Escorial) were well known to such 19th century scholars as Smith and Rooses, who published the present painting as an autograph work. Max Rooses and Victor Elbern considered the Prado version a copy based on a lost original. Nora de Poorter pointed out the poor condition of the painting preserved in the Prado, maintaining that it possibly adulterated the painting’s character.

Additional image
Peter Paul Rubens, The Defenders of the Eucharist, 65.5 x 68 cm, circa 1625
© Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

The brand of the city of Antwerp on the reverse.

Provenance:
Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial (according to the Phillips catalogue of 1821);
John Webb collection, London;
his sale, Phillips, London, 31 May 1821, lot 173 (100 guineas, as Peter Paul Rubens, “the famous sketch entirely by his own hand, from the Escurial”);
Edward Gray (1751–1838) collection, London;
Frederick Alexander Szarvasky (1875–1948) collection, London;
sale, Christie’s, Manson & Woods, London, 10th December 1948, lot 49;
sale, Christie’s, London, 17th November 1950, lot 39 (for 130 guineas to Paez, as Sir P. P. Rubens).
Private collection;
sale, Christie’s, New York, 31st January 2013, lot 229 (as ‘Studio of Peter Paul Rubens’);

Literature:
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, vol. II, London, 1830 (“the original study, admirably painted”);
M. Rooses, L’Oeuvre de Peter Paul Rubens, 1886, p. 69, cat. no. 51 (as an autograph study);
V. Elbern, Peter Paul Rubens – Triumph der Eucharistie, exhib. cat., Villa Hügel, Essen, 1954/55;
J. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens: A Critical Catalogue, Princeton, 1980, pp. 158/59, under cat. no. 110 (as a copy);
N. de Poorter, The Eucharist Series, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, London-New York, 1978, vols. I and II, p. 368, under no. 15c (as a copy)

The composition of the present painting, which according to dendrochronological findings dates from the first third of the 17th century, correlates to a work painted in 1624 that is now preserved in the Prado in Madrid (see fig. 1, a high resolution photograph of this painting is available on request in the Old Masters Department).

The Prado painting has previously been regarded as a modello for the tapestry of the same subject. However, due to the high quality of the painting formerly in the Escorial, research now assumes that it is an autograph work by Peter Paul Rubens that is much superior to the Prado painting. The difference in quality and the provenance (Escorial) were well known to such 19th century scholars as Smith and Rooses, who published the present painting as an autograph work. Max Rooses and Victor Elbern considered the Prado version a copy based on a lost original. Nora de Poorter pointed out the poor condition of the painting preserved in the Prado, maintaining that it possibly adulterated the painting’s character.

Additional image
Peter Paul Rubens, The Defenders of the Eucharist, 65.5 x 68 cm, circa 1625
© Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado