Rubens and Architecture

Author(s): Anthony Blunt

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 119, No. 894, Special Issue Devoted to Peter Paul Rubens
(Sep., 1977), pp. 609-619+621
Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
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 ANTHONY BLUNT

Rubens and Architecture*

RUBENS was only once directly concerned with actual During the quarter-century before Rubens left for Italy in
building in brick and stone, when he enlarged and modified 16oo building activity in Flanders had been almost com-
his house in Antwerp, but it is clear from his paintings and pletely interrupted by the civil and religious disturbances, and
drawings, and above all from his designs for title-pages and the last major building to be erected was the Town Hall of
for the triumphal arches of the Pompa Introitus that he was Antwerp, built between 1561 and 1565 by Cornelis Floris,
deeply interested in the subject.1 the grandest building in what is usually called - rightly or
His decorative idiom - strictly speaking - as we see it in wrongly - the Flemish Mannerist style, the theory and
the design of shields, cartouches or other details of his compo- practice of which was set forth in the treatise on architecture
sitions, owes much to what may be loosely called the Late by Vredeman de Vries. By the time Rubens left for Italy the
Mannerist style as it had developed in the last decades of the style of the Italian High Renaissance had hardly penetrated
sixteenth century in Italy (Florence, Venice and to a lesser the southern Netherlands, the single exception being the
extent Rome), France and the Low Countries,2 but in his palace built in Brussels for Cardinal Granvelle, probably by
treatment of architectural features he shows far greater Sebastian van Noyen who spent many years in Rome and had
originality. made drawings after Roman antiquities. The design for the
To define this originality Rubens's treatment of archi- facade of the palace is an adaptation of Antonio da San-
tecture must be examined in two different contexts: the gallo's two lower floors of the courtyard of the Palazzo
architecture of his native Flanders and that of Italy where Farnese.
his taste was largely formed. Among the architects who were Rubens's near-contem-
poraries Wenzel Cobergher (c.I560-I634) and his brother-
in-law Jacob Francart (1583-1651) both visited Italy, but
neither of them came back to Flanders before Rubens left,3
* I am very grateful to Professor Michael Jaff6 for reading a first draft of this and he would not therefore have had any knowledge of
article and for making a number of useful corrections and suggestions, and recent architectural developments in Italy through them;
particularly for lending me the page-proofs of his book Rubensand Italy which
is published by the Phaidon Press at about the same time as this article. nor do their works show much more than a rudimentary
I am also indebted to Dr David Freedberg of the Courtauld Institute with
whom I have discussed many of the general problems involved in this article
understanding of what they must have seen in Italy. In his
and who has given me invaluable help in pursuing all sorts of details, which first work built after his return from Rome in 1604, the
would have escaped one not versed in Rubens scholarship. Carmelite church at Brussels,4 begun in 1607, Cobergher
1 BELLORI (Vite, p.247) mentions a manuscript in which Rubens had made followed the current Roman type of church fa?ade fairly
notes on all sorts of artistic subjects, including architecture. Many writers on
Rubens have touched on his interest in architecture, whether real, painted, accurately and thus introduced into Flanders a form which
drawn or engraved. H. EVERsin Rubensundsein Werk.Neue Forschungen,Brussels was to be widely imitated. However when two years later he
[19431 (pp.I66ff.) gives a detailed account of his designs for title-pages (with a came to build his most ambitious work, the church of Notre-
complete set of small reproductions). Further information about them is to be Dame de Montaigu,5 it became clear that he was not capable
found in the catalogue of the exhibition P. P. Rubensals Boekillustratorheld in
Antwerp earlier this year, and this theme is being taken up again by J. R. of solving the - admittedly difficult - structural and aesthetic
JUDSON in the volume which he is contributing to the CorpusRubenianum. problems raised by the fact that it was designed on a
J. R. MARTINhas dealt with the designs for the PompaIntroitusin a volume for
the same series, and Bj6rn Friedlund has discussed the symbolism of the heptagonal plan, to symbolize the Seven Sorroxvs of the
architecture which Rubens introduces into his compositions in Arkitekturi Virgin; parts of it collapsed during construction and the
RubensMdleri.Formochfunktion,Gothenberg [1974] (with an English summary), final building is, by general consent, heavy and clumsy. In
but none of these writers examines the problem which concerns me in this the windows of the tower Cobergher introduced some forms
article, namely the sources of Rubens's architectural style and its position in the
development of the Baroque. of pediments and mouldings which were new in Flanders,
2 I have in mind such features as the strap work cartouches in the designs for but he disposed them with a neglect of symmetry which is
title-pages for Frans Verhaer's AnnalesDucumBrabantiaeof x622 (British Museum)
and GelrescheRechtendes Ruremondtschen Quartiers(162o, von Regteren Altena quite foreign to the style of architecture which he was trying
Collection), the Breviarum Romanum (1614, British Museum), Scribani's to imitate. His third church, that of the Augustinians in
Politico Christianus(1624, Hermitage), the rustic arch in that for the works of
Antwerp,6 is more mature in its treatment of classical detail
Justus Lipsius (1637, Plantin Museum, Antwerp), or the designs for frames on in the interior, but the faqade is in a local, one might almost
the verso of the drawings for the Creationand The Temptationof Eve in the
collection of Count Antoine Seilern. In the cartouche framing the sketch for
the Battle of Coutras(Liechtenstein Collection) Rubens uses an advanced form
of the Ohrmuschelstil developed in Florence by Buontalenti and his followers
and spread over the whole of Europe through engravings such as those by
Lukas Kilian (cf. R. BERLINER: OrnamentaleVorlagebliitter,Leipzig [1926], 3 Cobergher returned to Flanders for a short time in 16oi and settled there
Nos.236ff.), but this seems to be a unique example in his work. Sometimes, as finally in 1604; Francart returned at about the same time as Rubens, probably
in the portrait of Bucquoy (Hermitage) and in certain title-pages (Hemelaers's in i6o8.
Imperatorum romanorum numismataaureaof 1615 and Lessius's Dejusticia etjure of 4 Destroyed but known from an engraving, cf. J. H. PLANTENGA: L'Architecture
I6I7) he uses a simple classical band of laurel leaves. In Hugo's ObsidiaBredana religieusedans l'ancienduchkdu Brabant,The Hague [1926], Fig.49.
of 1626 both elements appear, the strap-work in the cartouche and the laurel- 5 Ibid. Figs.52, 55, and plate 3-
band in the frame. 6 Ibid.
pl.4, Fig.59.

609
 RUBENS AND ARCHITECTURE

say 'folk' tradition; and by this time, it must be remembered, many of them, though perhaps not as many as after ancient
Huyssens'sJesuit church at Antwerp was in building in a sculpture. There are, however, surprisinglyfew instances of
much more advanced style. such buildings appearing in his paintings in anything like
Francart, who came back to the north at about the same precisely recognizable form. It has been pointed out that in
time as Rubens, was a more accomplished architect, and his the Adorationof the Magi in the Boymans-van Beuningen
PremierLivred'Architecture, published in I616, which consists Museum the scene takes place in the ruins of the Temple of
of designsfor doors, showssome of the novel decorative motifs Vesta at Tivoli which was later converted into a church
which Rubens was to develop, but used in a much less dedicated to the Virgin. Another instance which, however,
sophisticated manner, and combined with elements derived does not seem to have any iconographicalsignificance, is the
from the vocabularyof Flemish Mannerism.7His firstchurch, circular building which appears in the background of the
for the Jesuits of Brussels, now destroyed but known from Hermitage sketch for the S. Ildefonso altar-piece (Fig.8) of
paintings,8was a bolder version of Cobergher'sAugustinian which the lower storey is based, fairly exactly, on the Roman
church, but its faCadeshows what was to become a charac- tomb beside the Via Appia near Capua, which was called in
teristic of later Flemish church fronts, the extension upwards later times I Carceri(Fig.9). Since Rubens did not, as far as
of the middle section by a whole storey, which created an we know, go so far south, it is likely that he knew the building
emphasis on the vertical quite contrary to the spirit of the from a drawing.14
Roman facadeson which it was based.9Francart'sambiguous Many of his paintings contain buildings which are in
positionis furthershown by the designfor the tower,10ofwhich general terms 'antique', but are not exact copies of any that
the lower storeysare articulated with the three Greek orders, Rubens would have seen in Italy. For instance in the back-
rather chastely treated, but which ends in a lantern almost ground of the so-called Triumphof Caesarin the National
Gothic in its silhouette. The same proportions appear in Gallery, based on Mantegna, we see a circular temple, like
Francart'schurch of the B6guinageat Malines (begun 1629), the Pantheon but with niches separated by buttresses, and
but in the fa?ade of the Augustinian church in Brussels, behind it a ruin of which the central niche recalls the Temple
begun I620,11 he used more normal Roman proportions, of Venus and Rome, though the coffering is not clearly
though the heavy Doric Order of the lower storey and enough indicated to be certain that it is an actual repre-
certain details such as the oval window above the door, sentation of this building. In the Rapeof the Sabines,also in
suggest that he had been influenced by features in the Jesuit the National Gallery, Rubens introduced a portico composed
church at Antwerp. Perhaps his boldest design is for the of columns supporting an entablature which is interrupted
door of the Sodality of the Jesuits at Brussels,12the date of by an arch as in the temple of Hadrian at Ephesus or the
which is not exactly known, but which appears to show the Canopaeum of Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. Neither of these
direct influence of Rubens. buildings, however, could have been known to Rubens,
In short Cobergher and Francart brought back certain since, as far as we know, no drawingsof Ephesus had reached
'words' from the vocabulary of Italian architecture of their the west by this time and the relevant part of Hadrian's
time but they never succeeded in writing a Tuscan sentence Villa had not been excavated.
- as Rubens literally did - and, if they had tried to speak it, The explanation may lie in the fact that Rubens, like many
their accent would have been heavily guttural. artists before and after him, relied to a great extent on the
Rubens's approach to Italian architecture was more reconstructionsof ancient buildings made by Italian - and
eclectic, more sophisticatedand more imaginative. He visited French - archaeologist-architects in the late sixteenth
many parts of Italy13 and no doubt studied the buildings century, and sometimes mixed these 'reconstructions'with
which he saw there, but apart from Rome the only town imitations of original works by architects of the same period.
where there is precise evidence of this study is Genoa, where In the Munich Massacreof theInnocents, forinstance (Fig. Io)
he obtained or had made the drawings, now in the RIBA, Rubens introduceson the left a circular building reminiscent
which were later published in the Palazzi di Genovawhich of the Pantheon, but with a dome supported by large
appeared in 1622; but curiously enough with one exception scrolls which recall Labacco's engraving after Antonio da
which will be discussed below, the architecture of the city Sangallo's design for S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini.15 On the
does not seem to have influenced his own designs. It was from right is a temple with a portico on an almost square plan,
what he saw in Rome that he drew his inspiration. Here he unlike any actual temple surviving from ancient Rome, but
studied everything available, from the buildings of classical closely resembling several in sixteenth-century 'reconstruc-
antiquity to those of his own day.
Although no drawings by him after ancient buildings are
known to survive, it is almost certain that he must have made

14He may have seen a drawing in Rome (e.g. in the Barberini Codex, pl.2),
but it is also possible that he was shown one by Cobergher who had studied and
drawn the antiquities of Campania (cf. PLANTENGA,Op.Cit.,p.9). In the altar-
piece as executed this building is replaced by a sort of niche-throne, the archi-
'Some are illustrated by PLANTENGA, ibid., Figs.64-66. tectural features of which are largely obscured by clouds and a flight ofputti.
8 Ibid. Figs.75-77. 15 PROFESSOR
JAFFPa ('Rubens and Optics',Journal of the Warburgand Courtauld
9 The best known of these later
fagades is that of Hesius's Jesuit church at Institutes,XXXIV, g197, p.362) has called attention to the fact that Rubens
Louvain (ibid. pl.Ig). used Labacco's engraving in a painting of Philosopherssurveyingan ideal city, but
0oIbid. Fig.79. there he alters it by giving it four porticos instead of one. It is just worth
axIbid. pl.6. noticing that Longhena's Salute, which is also connected with Labacco's
a2Ibid. Fig.78. engraving, was designed in 1630-31, that is to say slightly before the date
a3A full account of his itinerary is given by ProfessorJaff6 in Rubensand Italy. usually assigned to Rubens's painting.
61o
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8. Stud- for the S. Ildefonso A\ltar-piece, by Peter Paul Rubens. (Hermitage, Leningrad).

Io. The of the Innocents, by Peter Paul Rubens. (Alte Pinakothek. Mlunich). I .Reconistrulction of a Rmnan) Temple
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12. Title-page to Aguilon's Optica. Engraving 13. Canephori.Engraving after G. B. 14. The Conclusionof Peace (Marie de Medicis Series), by
after Rubens. Montano. Peter Paul Rubens. (Musee du Louvre).

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16. Screen and loggia in Rubens's house, Antwerp. Engraving.
17. Villa Giulia, Rome. Loggia.
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18. Porta Pia, Rome.

 RUBENS AND ARCHITECTURE

tion' engravings, for instance the Temple of Mercury in the garden of his house in Antwerp (Fig. 16) is closely remini-
Jacopo Lauri's Antiquae urbis splendoror one in Montano's scent of that in the nymphaeum in the same villa (Fig.I 7).
Cinquelibri di Architettura(Fig. i I).xe In some instances Rubens In both these cases, however, he may have combined what
copies features from Montano almost exactly; for instance he learnt from Vignola with ideas borrowed from the
the canephoriin the drawing for the title-page to Aguilon's treatise of Serlio, the sixth book of which shows many varia-
treatise on optics (1613; Fig. 12) are strikingly close to those in tions of rustication which are close to those used by Rubens
Montano (Fig. 13) in the exact form of the basket and even in in his paintings, and the loggia is based on the 'Serliana'
the pose, although the artist has transformed Montano's which takes its name from Serlio, and which, although he
complete figure into a herm. In other cases the resemblance did not invent it, he used repeatedly in his designs for
is less exact, but a direct connection is probable. For instance palaces in the fourth book. The fact that the two real loggias
the very unusual circular building in the background of the both have circular niches, whereas the Serlio engravings
Conclusionof Peace in the Marie de Medicis series (Fig.I4) is appear to show round openings, brings Rubens's design
strongly reminiscent of a plate in Montano (Fig.I5).17 closer to Vignola than to Serlio; but the little 'eye-brows'
Rubens also made frequent use of one motif which was which he adds to the niches are alien to both these sources,
considered antique but in a different sense: the twisted as are the complex forms of the scrolls on the terrace above
columns which were believed to come from the Temple of the loggia. These will be considered later in a different
Solomon and which stood in his time in front of the temporary context.
altar under the crossing of St Peter's.18 This fact is more Rubens was also aware of what was being built while he
significant than might appear at first sight because, although himself was in Rome, particularly of the work of Maderno.
the columns became a favourite theme with Baroque archi- For instance the painted frame in the oil-sketch of the
tects, they were rarely used - in either architecture or painting Triumphof the Sacrament,in the Metropolitan Museum, New
- between the moment when Raphael introduced them in York (Fig. 19), has an unusual form of depressed arch with an
his Healing of the Lame Alan - to symbolize the Temple - and entablature projecting inwards from the columns which is
the time more than a century later when Bernini established to be found in ancient sarcophagi, but which were applied
their popularity by incorporating eight of them in the to monumental architecture by Maderno in the aisles of St
decoration of the piers of St Peter's and using the form for Peter's (Fig.2o), which were actually built from 16o9 on-
the colossal bronze columns of his Baldacchino.19 wards, that is to say just after Rubens had left Rome, but it
Rubens was certainly also interested in Italian architec- is not at all impossible that he should have seen designs in
ture of the sixteenth century, but in a selective manner. I can Maderno's workshop.20
see no evidence that he studied the works of either Bramante The models studied by Rubens considered so far are those
or Palladio which he must have seen in Rome, Vicenza and to which almost any architect from north of the Alps might
Venice, but he was certainly interested in the work of have turned his attention. Much more important for the
Vignola, because many of his rusticated columns suggest a development of his architectural style was what he learnt
knowledge of the doors of the Palazzo Bocchi at Bologna and from the study of Michelangelo, particularly his late works.
the Villa Giulia in Rome, and the loggia which he built in At this point it is important to emphasize the fact that in
studying Michelangelo's architecture - particularly with an
emphasis on the late works - Rubens was showing an interest
which was not shared by his Roman contemporaries. In the
16 This is Book III
plate I0. Other porticos on a similar, almost square plan fifty years after Michelangelo's death Roman architects had
but attached to rectangular temples, occur in other engravings after Montano, followed the earlier way laid down by Vignola, and those
e.g., Book III, plate 2. who dominated this period - Giacomo della Porta, Martino
There is no record that Rubens met Montano, but he was still living in Rome
at the time Rubens was there and since it is known that Rubens was in contact Lunghi the Elder and, for the five years of Sixtus V's ponti-
with the archaeologist Fulvio Orsini, some of whose medals he copied, it can be ficate, Domenico Fontana - ignored all Michelangelo's most
assumed that he met Montano who must have moved in the same archaeo-
revolutionary innovations and adopted only a few phrases
logical circles. from his decorative vocabulary, such as the Ionic Order of
17 Book II, pl.5. The reproduction shows only the right-hand 'transept' of the
building. the Capital palaces - but not the use of the giant pilasters -
18 For the history of these columns which are now thought to date from the and certain forms of pedimented windows and doors.
second century A.D., see J. WARD-PERKINs: 'The Shrine of St. Peter's and its
twelve spiral columns', Journal of RomanStudies,XLIII [I 952], pp.2 Iff. It was precisely the revolutionary features of Michel-
19 They are to be found in a few paintings, such as Bagnocavallo's Circumcision angelo's late works that seem to have fascinated Rubens.
n the Louvre, a few altars (e.g. one in S. Spirito in Sassia) and some grottoes
The opening of the door in the Porta Pia (Fig.i8), with the
(e.g. at the Villa d'Este at Tivoli) but I can only think of one piece of monu-
mental architecture in which they are used, namely Giulio Romano's Cortile upper corners cut off, appears repeatedly in his work, in
della Cavallerizza in the Palazzo Ducale at Mantua, and there they only appear many paintings, in several of the designs for the Pompa
in the form of attached half-columns.
Rubens uses both rusticated and Solomonic columns so frequently that it
would be pointless to attempt to give a complete list of the examples. It would
however be of some interest to make an analysis of the different types that he
used and to try to trace their exact sources. These probably include a wide
range of models beyond Vignola and Serlio. For instance the rusticated grotto
in the background of both painted versions of the Gardenof Love (Prado and
Waddesdon) suggests a knowledge of the kind of rustication used on the
Fontaine de M6dicis in the gardens of the Luxembourg Palace, usually ascribed 20 Another
quotation from contemporary architecture in Rome is to be seen in
to Salomon de Brosse but perhaps by Alessandro Francini who collaborated the pediment of the screen in the garden of Rubens's house (Fig. 16) of which the
with de Brosse and published in 1631 a Livre d'Architecture containing many two ends are separated from the central section by wide gaps, as in Giacomo
fantastically rusticated arches and gates. I suspect that Rubens knew this book. della Porta's Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati.

613
 RUBENS AND ARCHITECTURE

Introitus,21and in the screen which he built between the Borromini and Pietro da Cortona. For instance, the triple
courtyard and the garden of his house in Antwerp (Fig.16). breaking of the scrolled 'pediment' in the arch of Philip in
The base which Michelangelo designed for the statue of the PompaIntroitusis of a boldness for which one could find
Marcus Aurelius on the Capitol is imitated fairly closely in no parallel in Roman architecture at this date - I635 - let
the Madonnaand Child adoredby Saints in the Augustinian alone at the time when Rubens was in Rome, and the boldly
church in Antwerp (Fig.2 ) and in various title-pages,22and sloping wings of the Stage of Welcome or the deep curve
the treatment of the half-domes in the apses of St Peter's is of the Portico of the Emperors are again very advanced for
echoed in the Miraclesof St Ignatiusin Vienna. their time, though it is interesting to note that this was
These are more or less direct borrowingsbut what is more exactly the moment when Borromini and Cortona were
interesting is that Rubens often invents combinations of introducing the idea of designing the facades of churches on
architecturalformswhich are entirely in the spirit of Michel- curved plans, in S. Carlino and SS. Luca e Martina.25
angelo's late worksbut are not directly taken from them. The An examination of one small decorative motif can be used
idea of combining a straight and a curved pediment, used in to illustrate the originality of Rubens's approach to archi-
various forms by Michelangelo in the Porta Pia (Fig.I8) and tectural details. In a drawing in the Albertina for the altar
in the drawings for it, is taken up by Rubens and applied in of the Jesuit church at Antwerp (Fig.26) he uses a number of
a variety of adaptations. In the Stage of Isabella for the startlingly Baroque features. The altar is flanked by
PompaIntroitus(Fig.22) a straight pediment is superimposed Solomonic columns of the Ionic Order - a combination
on an architectural feature which echoes the curved top of which, as far as I know, is very rare; the frieze of the
the frame enclosing the main painting of the arch.23 In the entablature has the form of a bolection moulding; the curved
Stage of Welcome a curved element, springing from two pediment is broken into two parts, the lower ending in
scrolls like an inverted variant of the inner 'pediment' on the volutes, the upper broken back in two planes; but the
Porta Pia, covers the main arch, continuous in the sketch but greatest novelty is the fact that the lower part of the pediment
in the engraving broken in the middle to enclose a pedestal is not only curved but has a double or S-shaped curve.
carrying a trophy of palm-leaves. In the Arch of Philip the S-shaped scrolls were not uncommon in the sixteenth
same motif is used, with the scrolls at the top, but alone, century; Michelangelo had used them in the ricettoof the
without the arched opening below. In the printer's mark Laurenziana and again on the tomb ofJulius II in S. Pietro
which Rubens designed for Plantin (Fig.24) a curved in Vincoli, and volutes of this form had been used by several
moulding follows, but in a more flattened form, the oval of architects to join the middle element of a church fagade to
the main cartouche.24In the title-page to the third volume of the lower side sections covering the aisles; but, as far as I
Haraeus's AnnalesDucum Brabantiae(1623), for which a know, no architect before Rubens had applied the form to a
drawing exists at Windsor, the niche containing the bust of pediment, and, although it later became a favourite device
Janus is covered by a featurelike the upper part of a pediment with Baroque architects all over Europe, this seems to have
ending in scrolls.Rubens used the same motif in the Madonna been due to its popularization by Andrea Pozzo in the last
of theRosary,formerlyin the Swinton Collection (Fig.23), in a decade of the seventeenth century. Rubens was, however,
slightly different form, broken in the middle and covering not without authority for this motif, because it was used -
the niche in which sit the Madonna and Child. though not precisely in this form - by Michelangelo. The
None of these designsis an exact imitation of any particular panels on the side bays of the Porta Pia are covered by
work by Michelangelo, but in all of them Rubens seems to broken curved pediments flanked by S-shaped scrolls.
be taking off, so to speak, from his ideas and developing them This invention of Michelangelo's does not, however, seem to
in a highly inventive way, adding to them a liveliness which have been taken up by any Roman architect of Rubens's
brings them very near to the full Baroque architecture of generation, and only by very few of the next generation.
Bernini - possibly instigated by Borromini - used a rather
soft adaptation of it over the fireplace in the Salone of the
Palazzo Barberini, and later Giovanni Antonio de'Rossi
21 For instance the Ceres (Hermitage), St Ambroseand the EmperorTheodosius applied it to a door in the Palazzo Altieri, but it does not seem
(Vienna), HenryIV handingoverthepowerto Marie de Midicis (Louvre), and from to have caught on till the last decade of the seventeenth
the PompaIntroitusthe Arch of the Mint, the Arch at St Michael's, and the side
doors of the Stage of Isabella. In several of these designs the opening is enriched
century. In the event Rubens abandoned this novel form,
by more elaborate rustication than it has in the Porta Pia. and the altar as built has two pediment-ends of the normal
22 This base seems to have fascinated Rubens because he used it in the title- curved shape interrupted in the middle by a richly decorated
pages to Bosio's Cruxtriumphans and de Bie's JVumismata and it appears in the oil
sketch for the TriumphalCar of Calloo (Antwerp Museum), though in the
engraving of the Carit is replaced by a base of simpler form.
ProfessorJohn Shearman has pointed out to me that the bases just mentioned
are also like that, designed he believes by Raphael, for the seated statue of Leo
X made for the Capitol but now in S. Maria d'Aracoeli, and the resemblance 25 For the
dating of SS. Luca e Martina see K. NOEHLES: La Chiesa dei SS. Luca
between all three designs is certainly strong; but I believe that Rubens's design e Martina, Rome [1970], pp.6off. and for that of S. Carlo see the present writer's
is closer to Michelangelo's than to Raphael's, because in the latter the projecting review of Portoghesi's Borromini(THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE,CXIII [1971],
section is joined to the back part of the pedestal by a concave bay, whereas pp.67off.).
Rubens follows Michelangelo in inserting a projecting angular piece at this The originality of Rubens's designs for the Pompa Introitusis brought by a
point. comparison with those made for the same event by Ludovicus Nonnius (the
2s In this design - and perhaps in others - Rubens may have been inspired not Arch of the Portuguese, the Tree of the Austrian Genealogy and the Stage of
only by the work of Michelangelo but by that of his most imaginative follower, the Rhetoricians) which seem to owe something to the arches set up in 1629
Giacomo del Duca, who uses a very similar combination of forms in the windows for the entry of Louis XIII into Paris after the siege of La Rochelle, of which the
on the dome of S. Maria di Loreto in Rome (Fig.25). architect is not known but which are in a much more conventional style than
*
4The drawing for the mark is in the Plantin Museum. those of Rubens.

614
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politan Museum of Art, New York).

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22. Study for the Stageof Isabella(PompaIntroitus),by Peter Paul Rubens. (PushkinMuseum,
Moscow).
21. Study for the Madonnaand Saints in the Augustinian Church,
Antwerp, by Peter Paul Rubens. (Museo del Prado, Madrid).
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23. The Madonnaof theRosary,by Peter Paul

Rubens. (Formerly Swinton Collection).

;I1 1 p A 24. Drawing for Plantin's printer's mark, by

Peter Paul Rubens. (Plantin Museum,

. .... .:
Antwerp).

25. S. Maria di Loreto, Rome. Detail of

i'-

dome. By Giacomo del Duca.

26. Study for the High Altar of the Jesuit

Church, Antwerp, by Peter Paul
Rubens. (Albertina, Vienna).

27. Jesuit Church, Antwerp. Bay between

3Ai nave and choir. UP-iii:

i:i
 RUBENS AND ARCHITECTURE

niche containing a statue of the Virgin and Child. The effect produced by the interior of the church is domi-
He did however use it with extraordinary boldness in a nated by two features: the superimposed arcades and the
design for a title-page dating from about the same time as his boldly designed barrel vault. Both these features derive from
work for the Jesuit church, that for Torniellus'sAnnalesSacri, Italy, both were novelties in Flanders and the former was
published in 1620 (Fig.3o). Here the S-shaped scrolls are - as far as I know - to remain unique in the province.
continued and joined by the curved element ending in Jesuit churches were frequently designed with galleries to
scrolls - which has been noticed in several of Rubens's accommodate the students of their colleges - particularly in
designs - so closely that one could almost say that the one Germany (e.g. at Wuirzburg)- and Vredeman de Vries had
feature grows into the other. Further the 'pediment' formed shown a church with two superimposed colonnades which
in this way encloses an oval panel containing the figures of would have satisfiedthis need;29but the idea of superimpos-
the Holy Trinity above the sphere of the world.26 ing two arcadescan safely be attributedto Rubens, because it
The building and decoration of the Jesuit church at appears in the engravings in his Palazzi di Genovaand he
Antwerp was much the most important architecturalproject would also have seen the splendid example of its use in the
with which Rubens was connected. There is no need here to cortileof the Palazzo Doria-Tursi in Genoa (now the Muni-
linger over the painted decoration but a study of the archi- cipio) which, curiouslyenough, is not engravedin his book.30
tectural detail may help to define Rubens's share in the The only known complete drawing for the vault31 is
actual building.27 certainly by Huyssens, but the design is likely to have been
As it stands today the exterior, the choir and the lady suggested to him by Rubens, since it is composed of two
chapel are the only parts which survived the fire of 1718, but decorative motifs, both taken from St Peter's: the main area
the nave seems to have been accurately restored- at least in of the vault correspondsto Bramante'scoffering for the four
its main architectural features - presumably on the basis of principal members of the church, and the band covering the
drawings and painted views of the interior (Fig.29). bay between the nave and the choir, which has octagonal
There seems little doubt that the general design of the coffers, is like that used in the ambulatory round the central
church is due to Pieter Huyssens, who is described in the dome area of St Peter's, built in the late sixteenth century,
documents as architectus, but since Rubens was entirely re- with the slight variation that the small panels between the
sponsible for the painted decoration of the church and was octagons, which are square at St Peter's, are here diamond-
an intimate friend of Aguilon, the superior of the house, it shaped.32 It is possible that Huyssens should have known
is difficult to imagine that he was not fairly closely involved these motifs through drawings brought to Antwerp from
in the architecturaldecoration as well. In fact many drawings Rome, but Rubens is a much more likely source.
for details of the building exist which are wholly or partly For the decoration of the Lady Chapel Rubens's author-
from his hand28and many features of the building conform ship is assured by the existence of a drawing for the stone
to his architecturalstyle more closely than to that of Huyssens vault certainly from his own hand,33 but it does not suggest
who, it must be remembered, had not been to Italy at the any Italian model.
time the Jesuit church was under construction, that is to say Rubens's drawing for the High Altar of the church has
1615-21. already been mentioned, but other details of the interior
must also have been inspired by him. The most interesting
are the niches, galleries and windows in the choir and in the
bay between choir and nave (Fig.27), for which a drawing by
Huyssens exists.34The upper niche has a straight 'pediment'
26 The engraved title-page is discussed and reproduced by EVERS (Rubensund ending at its lower points in scrolls,like that in the title-page
sein Werk, Brussels [1943], p.I78 and plate 89). He describes it as an early to the third volume of Haraeus's Annales,but weightier and
example of the Balgstil. more Michelangelesque in character, and breaking forward
The S-shaped half-pediment also appears in a design for a tomb in the
Custodia Collection, Paris (exhibited with other drawings from the Lugt at its point. The lower niche has a 'pediment' consisting of
Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1972, No.86). The attribution two sloping mouldings,like fragmentsof a straight pediment,
of the drawings to Rubens has been challenged, but it evidently incorporates
his ideas. interrupted in the middle by the insertion of a shell, which
The form is also to be found in works by his contemporaries, for instance in could be seen as an ingenious adaptation of Michelangelo's
Cobergher's door of the Mont-de-Pi&t6 at Ghent (after 1619, cf. PLANTENGA, openings on the attic of St Peter's, but something even
op. cit., p.25, note I, and Fig.45) and Francart's entrance to theJesuit College
in Brussels, mentioned above, but both of these seem to have been directly closer to it - with the mouldings sloped and interrupted in
inspired by Rubens's designs. the same manner - appears on a sheet of sketches for the
27 The best account of the building of the church is given by PLANTENGA

(op. cit., pp.83ff.). In addition the author discusses the plans proposed before
Huyssens's was chosen, which are not mentioned here since they are not
connected with Rubens. He illustrates several of the key drawings which it has
not been possible to reproduce in this article.
28 These are mainly conserved in the Jesuit archives at Antwerp and have never
been fully published, and I confess that time has not allowed me to examine 2' Architectura, Antwerp [1565], plate AA.
them in the original. Some are reproduced by PLANTENGA(op. cit.) and others 30The section of palace I shows a double arcade and one is also implied by the
in VAN HERENand JANSEN:'Archief in beeld', Tydschriftvor Geschiedenisen two plans of the Palazzo Balbi, though no section is given. Double arcades are
Folklor,Antwerp [1948]; but the most detailed discussion of them is to be found also to be found in the Alcazar at Toledo, but it is not at all certain that Rubens
in ProfessorJaff6's review of the exhibition of Rubens drawings at Antwerp in visited that city on his journey to Spain in 1603.
1956 (cf. THE BURLINGTONMAGAZINE[1956], pp.34ff.). 81 PLANTENGA, op. Cit.,Fig.I I2.
Mr David Freedberg has called my attention to a sketchbook in the Hermitage 32 It also
appears in the sketch for the Miraclesof St Ignatiusin Vienna, but with
which contains drawings after architectural details by Rubens - including some the small coffers square as in St Peter's.
for the Jesuit church - which was shown in one of the memorial exhibitions at s8 PLANTENGA,op.Cit.,Fig. 12O.
Antwerp earlier this year, but was not catalogued and has not been published. "8 Ibid., Fig. i 16.

617
 RUBENS AND ARCHITECTURE

Porta Pia at Windsor,35 though whether Rubens could have precise model for it in Italy. Several such towers exist, for
known this drawing is doubtful.36 The openings enclosing instance, on the Cathedral of Varese and the church of S.
the galleries are, as executed, sober and not particularly Giovanni Battista at Parma, but these were not built till
close to Rubens, but in the drawing they have the curved 1614, that is to say six years after Rubens had left Italy.
broken pediments ending in volutes which Rubens had It is likely, however, that a common source exists somewhere
adapted from the sarcophagi of the Medici tombs. in north Italy.41
The fagade (Fig.28) contains many Italianate features An interesting feature of the is the curved pediment
which point to Rubens's authorship, which is not surprising, over the main door. A curved facade
pediment was normal over a
since the drawings show that he was certainly responsible window, but its use on this scale and in this position is un-
for the design of most of the sculptural decoration. In its usual at this date and the idea may go back to Fausto
general scheme the facade conforms, up to a point, to the Rugghesi's fagade of S. Maria in Vallicella, built in 1605,
type established by Vignola in his rejected design for the when Rubens was in Rome, for the Oratorians for whom he
Gesi 37- an obvious model for Aguilon to have chosen - but painted some of his most important early works. The actual
the differences are important. Whereas all Roman church character of this pediment, and also of the massive Doric
fagades of this type have two storeys, the Antwerp church has columns which support it is, however, very different from
three. In spite of this - and contrary to the practice of most Rugghesi's rather elegant Corinthian; in fact both features
Flemish architects38 - it is wider and heavier in its propor- are much closer in feeling to Salomon de Brosse's fagade of
tions than the Roman churches, and this effect is increased St Gervais, which was begun in the same year as the Jesuit
by the addition of the towers, set back on either side of the church. Whether or not there is any direct connection must
fagade. Further in Vignola's design the breaks in the entab- remain a matter of speculation - there may well be a common
latures create a steady movement of increasing projection as source - but contacts with Paris were not impossible. Some
they approach the centre, whereas on the Flemish church Jesuits had come to Flanders when they were driven out of
they break forward and then back as in the actual fagade of" France after the assassination of Henry IV in 16Io, and
the Gesi-, built by Giacomo della Porta. Finally the Antwerp Rubens had come into contact with Marie de Medicis on the
facade is richly worked with figure and decorative sculpture occasion of her marriage by proxy in Florence in I6oo.42
in a manner quite foreign to Roman builders. Perhaps the most singular detail of the fagade is the treat-
Several architectural details on the facade are very close ment of the Doric and Ionic Orders at the corners of the two
to those noted in the interior as characteristic of Rubens's lower storeys. Here a column is flanked by a pilaster, a device
style, particularly the S-shaped pediment of the central used, apparently for the first time, by Antonio da Sangallo
window. The flattened curves of the main windows of the the Elder in the Madonna di S. Biagio at Montepulciano,
ground floor are like the moulding in the Plantin printer's and rarely repeated, but at the Jesuit church it is inverted:
mark and may like it derive from the windows on Giacomo at Montepulciano the pilaster comes on the outside and forms
del Duca's S. Maria di Loreto (Fig.25). a square corner pier, but on the Antwerp church the column
In the church as built the windows in the middle storey of - full and in the round - holds the corner position. There is
the side towers have over them curved mouldings enclosing no evidence to show that Rubens ever went to Montepulciano
shells, a variant of a form found in the choir of the church, - and its architecture would not have aroused much interest
but a preliminary drawing39 shows Serlianas in this position in the early seventeenth century - but it lies not far off the
over small windows with rather elaborate S-curved scrolls, normal road from Florence to Rome along the Arno and
both features characteristic of Rubens. A Serliana also Tiber valleys.
occurs in the top -- circular - storey of the belfry which stands So far I have deliberately left out of consideration any
at the end of the apse. This belfry, which rises to four store) s, question of chronology and I have written as if the only know-
the upper three being articulated with the Doric, Ionic and ledge Rubens had of Italian architecture must have been
Corinthian Orders, is more mature and more Italianate than obtained when he was himself in that country. This assump-
its immediate predecessors in Flanders40 and almost certainly tion is certainly untrue, because Rubens continued to corre-
owes much to Rubens, but I have not been able to trace any spond with friends in Italy, and other contacts would have
been kept up through the Jesuits; but I do not see any
evidence that Rubens was influenced by what took place in
Rome or Genoa - which would have been his main points
of contact - between the time he left Italy in 1608 and his
35 J. ACKERMAN: The Architecture of Michelangelo,London[ x96I], pl.78b.
36 If however, as I believe (cf. Supplementto the Catalogueof Italian Drawings,
London [197 1], p.14), some of the Michelangelo drawings at Windsor belonged
to the Farnese, it is not altogether impossible that he should have been shown 4 The source may possibly be Galeazzo Alessi's church of S. Maria di
them by the Farnese librarian, Fulvio Orsini. Carignano at Genoa which is engraved in Rubens's Palazzi di Genova.
37 As has been said above, this form had been used - in a purer form - by I am grateful to Professor John Shearman for calling my attention to the
Cobergher in the Carmelite church at Brussels. church at Parma of which Rubens would certainly have seen the fagade (since
38 E.g. Francart at the B6guinage, Malines, or Hesius at the Jesuit church at he visited the town), which bears the date 1607, the year of its completion. It
Louvain. was designed by a little known local architect, Simone Moschini, and shows
39 PLANTENGA, op. cit., Fig.I I 9. remarkably original variations on themes by Michelangelo, including round
40 E.g. Cobergher's at Notre-Dame de Montaigu or Francart's design for the and oval openings covered by scroll-ended mouldings which would certainly
Jesuit church at Brussels. A design by Huyssens for the tower of an unidentified have attracted Rubens's attention.
Jesuit church (ibid., Fig. o9; the letters IHS appear on it in a cartouche) shows 42 In a preliminary design by Huyssens for the lower part of the fagade
some Michelangelesque detail, but the storey below the lantern has a biforoof (PLANTENGA, op. cit., Fig. Io6) the architecture has a much lighter character,
a type current in northern Italy in the late Quattrocento and early Cinquecento closer to Rugghesi, though the pediment is broken to enclose what appears to
which was entirely archaic in the early seventeenth century. be a palmette.
618
28. Jesuit Church, Antwerp. Fagade. 29. Jesuit Church, Antwerp. Interior. Painting by W. S. von Ehrenberg. (Musi'e des Beaux-Arts

30. Title-page to Torniellus, Annales Sacri. Engraving

after Rubens. 32. Collegio
By Borr
31. Oratory of S. Filippo Neri, Rome. Door. By Borromini.
 RUBENS AND ARCHITECTURE

death in 1640. In Rome the dominant figure was Maderno The point has already been made above that Rubens was
but there is nothing to show that Rubens was influenced by alone in the first decade of the seventeenth century - even if
his later works for the Borghese or the Barberini; and his we take into account Roman architects - in his study and
contemporaries working for the Borghese, Flaminio Ponzio understanding of Michelangelo's architecture, particularly
and Vasanzio, seem to have had equally little effect, though the late works,44 and that from this study he evolved many
Vasanzio, being a Fleming (van Santen), may have kept up forms which foreshadow to a surprisingdegree those used by
contacts with the north. Moreover none of these architects architects of the full Baroque in Rome45; but I believe one
developed the ideas of Michelangelo in the direction which can go further and suggest that his designs may have been
Rubens followed. He would no doubt have been excited by known in Rome and studied by architectssuch as Borromini,
Bernini's Baldacchino, if he saw drawings of it, but there Cortona and Bernini. His title-pages, which, as we have seen,
is no reason to think that he was influenced by it. After all, incorporated many of these revolutionary features, were for
he had used Solomonic columns more than twenty years books which would almost certainly have been immediately
before Bernini began his design (e.g. in the St Helenafor S. bought by the libraries of the various religious orders with
Croce). He would probably also have been interested in which these artists were connected, notably the Oratorians
Borromini's work, but since the latter's first independent for whom both Borromini and Cortona worked, and the
building, S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, was only commis- Jesuits with whom Bernini was intimately associated. This
sioned in I634 it came too late to have exercised any great would account for some of the startling similarities which
effect. There is perhaps more affinity of style between exist between designs executed by Rubens by I62O at the
Rubens's architecturaldesigns and the work of Cortona, but latest and features in Borromini's architecture. The most
here again his first important work, the church of SS. Luca striking case is that of the Torniellus title-page (Fig.3o).The
e Martina, was not begun till the mid-thirties. way in which the curves of the lower part grow into the
Nor can I detect any clear stylistic development in scrolled top to enclose the oval recalls Borromini'sdoor to the
Rubens's architecturaldesigns. It is true that the arches and Oratory (Fig.31) and the general character of the design is
stages for the PompaIntroitusare richer and more complex even closer to one of the windows on the Collegio di Propa-
than the designs for title-pages of ten or fifteen years earlier, ganda Fide (Fig.32); and these works date from the late
but that is due to the nature of the commission rather than 163o's and I65o's respectively. No artist in Europe except
to a change in style. The only point that stands out clearly is Rubens had dreamt of such mature Baroque architectural
that Rubens uses very little architecturein his painted com- forms in 162o.
positions till the last years of the second decade, that is to say The idea of a direct influence from Rubens to Borromini
till just the time he was working on the decoration of the is a purely speculative hypothesis, but, if it is accepted, it
Jesuit church. From then onwards he uses it more and more would add a small detail to the general picture of the impor-
freely; in the twenties there follow the great architectural tance of Rubens in the development of Baroque art as a
title-pages, and finally in I635 the PompaIntroitus,which whole.
contains his most remarkable architectural inventions. Was
it perhaps the fact that he became involved in the work on
the Jesuit church which stimulated an interest in archi-
tecture which was to last for the remainder of his life ?43 44 In one of the drawings for the faqade of S. Andrea della Valle, Maderno
introduced an adaptation of the double-pediment on the Porta Pia, but,
characteristically, in a softened form (cf. H. HIBBARD: CarloMaderno,London
**Between the years 1613 and
I6I7 Rubens bought a number of the most [197I], pl.45), and anyhow in this drawing he was assisted by Borromini who
important treatises on architecture, including several which had only just may have suggested the idea.
appeared. In 1613 he bought Luigi Rossini's Antiquitatesromanae(i6I1) and 45 Professor JaffR has pointed out (Rubensand Italy) that the choir of the Lady
Vignola's Due Regole della Prospettiva;in 1614 Boissard's Antiquitatesromanae; Chapel in the Jesuit church at Antwerp as it would have been with Rubens's
in 1615 Barbaro's and Philander's editions of Vitruvius; and in 16 17 Scamozzi's Assumptionover the altar (now replaced by a copy) achieves much of the Baroque
Idea della Architetturauniversale (1615) and Jacques Francart's Premier livre effect usually regarded as invented by Bernini in the Cappella Raimondi in
d'architecture(1616). In 1616 he had his copy of Serlio bound (cf. M. ROOsES: S. Pietro in Montorio some fifteen or twenty years later. He has also suggested
'P. P. Rubens en Balthasar Moretus. Rekeningen der Boeken Geleverd door that Bernini may actually have known engravings after Rubens's title-page
Balthasar Moretus aan P. P. Rubens', Rubens-Bulletijn, II [1883], pp. 87-2o07). designs.

MICHAEL JAFFE

Exhibitions for the Rubens Year-I

(Numbers in parentheses refer to the catalogues of the paintings were shown from I5th April, plus a Gheringh
relevant exhibitions) Interiorof theJesuit Churchin Antwerp(59), as that appeared in
THE principal celebrations of the quatercentenary of 1665. Such an addition was apt. The Museum had swollen
Rubens's birth began with considerable e'clatin Vienna. Die its holdings, in order to exhibit Peter Paul Rubens 1577-i64o
Rubenszeichnungen derAlbertina,catalogued by Erwin Mitsch, with appropriate grandeur, by important loans from the
were all on show at home from 3oth March; and as a result Akademie der Bildenden Kiinste
(i, 3, 4, 20, 40, 48, 50, 51),
there is a superbly produced work of reference to a justly as well as from the Liechtenstein (i7, i8, 44, 45) and the
famous collection, with no less than 56 drawings illustrated Schwarzenberg (8) collections; and the Akademie had lent
in colour and the remainder, including copies, in black and six admirable modellifor the large paintings to be set in the
white. At the Kunsthistorisches Museum, 58 Rubens ceiling compartmentsat St Ignace (34-35). Like the drawing
621