St. Albert of Louvain
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
1620
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 34.7 × 45.8 cm (13 5/8 × 18 in.); Framed: 58.5 × 69.3 × 6.4 cm (23 × 27 1/4 × 2 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Flanders
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Bequest of Dr. John J. Ireland
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Peter Paul Rubens executed this study and 38 more as he prepared to decorate the ceiling of the Jesuit church in Antwerp. He presented such highly finished sketches to his patrons as proposals for major projects. This work shows a dramatically foreshortened saint gliding majestically on a cloud. The bold perspective would have furthered the illusion that the painting was a window in the ceiling of the church, offering a view to the open sky above. The man depicted here is the 12th-century martyr Albert of Louvain, patron saint of Archduke Albert, governor of the Spanish Netherlands.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
