(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
Hygeia, Goddess of Health,
inscribed lower right: ..LUSTRISSIMO/Duca Ollivarès./Ministro.,
oil on canvas, 105 x 80 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Collection of Gaspar de Guzmán, 3rd Count-Duke of Olivares (1587–1685) (according to an inscription);  
sale, Gonnelli, Florence, 15 October 2011, lot 148 (as Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens);
where acquired by the present owner

Exhibited:
Salemi, Castello Normano, I miti e il territorio nella Sicilia dalle mille culture: l'influenza di Caravaggio e dei Fiamminghi nella pittura meridionale, 9 August – 25 October 2015, no. 49, p. 138 – 141

Literature:
N. Büttner, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XVII, Allegories and Subjects from Literature, 2018, under no. 39, copy 4., p. 312

The present painting relates to the two versions of this composition by Peter Paul Rubens in the Detroit Institute of Arts (inv. no. 44.266) and in the Lobkowicz Collection, Nelahozeves Castle, Czech Republic (inv. no. LR11563).

Didier Bodart examined the present picture in the original and suggested it was executed in Rubens’s workshop between 1614–1615, with finishing touches by the master himself. A copy of his certificate dated 4th November 2007 accompanies the lot. Bodart notes that the inscription on the picture suggests a provenance from the collection of Gaspar de Guzmán, 3rd Count-Duke of Olivares (1587–1685), King Philip IV of Spain’s Prime Minister from 1621–1644. In a letter, dated 6th August 1626, Olivares sent his condolences to Rubens after the death of the artist’s first wife and thanked him for the portrait engraving of Olivares by Paulus Pontius from a design by Rubens (Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. no. 2018.839.107), further giving credence to the present work’s possible provenance.