PETER PAUL RUBENS
go Three Groups of Apostles in a
Last Supper
rThree Sketches for Medea and
HerChildren
vPen and brown ink; H: 29.6 cm (nI][/i6 in.); W: 43.9 cm
(i7T/4in.)
84.GA.959
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at top right, in-
scribed Gestus magis largi longiqfue] /brachijs extensis, A
(twice), lag in brown ink by Rubens; (verso) inscribed vel
Medea respidens Creusam ardentem etjasonem velut Inseguens
... in brown ink by Rubens; faintly inscribed Creusa ar-
dens[$(?)] in red chalk by Rubens.
PROVENANCE: William, second duke of Devonshire,
Chatsworth; by descent to the current duke (sale, Chris-
tie's, London, July 3, 1984, lot 53).
EXHIBITIONS: A Loan Exhibition of Works by Peter Paul
Rubens, Wildenstein and Company, London, October-
November 1950, no. 39 (catalogue by L. Burchard). Te-
keningen van P. P. Rubens, Rubenshuis, Antwerp, June-
September 1956, no. 24; p. 52, under no. 40; Addenda et
Corrigenda, nos. 24, 2 5 (catalogue by L. Bur chard and R.-
A. d'Hulst). Rubens: Drawings and Sketches, British Mu-
seum, London, 1977, no. 25 (catalogue byJ. Rowlands).
Rubens in Italien: Gemalde, Olskizzen, Zeichnungen, Kun-
sthalle, Cologne, October-December 1977, no. 25; p.
238 , under no. 48 (catalogue by J. Muller Hofstede).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Rooses, "Dessins du due de Dev-
onshire," Rubens-Bulletijn, 3rd ser., vol. 5 (1900), pp.
202-203; idem, Rubens (London, 1904), vol. i, p. 100;
J. S. Held, "Rubens' Pen Drawings," Magazine of Art 44,
no. 7 (November 1951), p. 288; M. Jaffe, "Rubens'
Drawings at Antwerp," Burlington Magazine 98, no. 642
(September 1956), pp. 314, 318; J. S. Held, Rubens: Se-
lected Drawings (London, 1959), pp. 45; 65; 95, under no.
6 ; 96, no. 7 recto; 99, under no. 12; 104, under no. 27; J.
Muller Hofstede, "Review of Julius S. Held, Rubens: Se-
lected Drawings," Kunstchronik 5 (May 1962), pp. 130, 132;
idem, "Zur antwerpener Friihzeit von Peter Paul Ru-
bens," Miinchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 3rd ser.,
vol. 13 (1962), p. 214, no. 84; L. Burchard and R.-A.
d'Hulst, Rubens Drawings (Brussels, 1963), p. 31, under
no. 14; no. 34; p. 63, under no. 35; A. Monballieu, "P. P.
Rubens en het 'Nachtmael' voor St.-Winoksbergen
(1611), een niet uitgevoerd schilderij van de meester,"
Jaarboek, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) Ant-
werp (1965), pp. 191, 193, 194; M. Jaffe, "Rubens as a
Draughtsman," Burlington Magazine 107, no. 748 (July
J965), pp. 375, 380; idem, "Rubens as a Collector of
Drawings," Master Drawings 4, no. 2 (1966), p. 129;
idem, "Rubens," in Encyclopedia of World Art (New
York, 1966), vol. 12, col. 600; J. Muller Hofstede, "Re-
view of L. Burchard and R.-A. d'Hulst, Rubens Draw-
ings," Master Drawings 4, no. 4 (1966), p. 442, nos. 34, 35;
idem, "Aspekte der Entwurfszeichnung bei Rubens," in
H. von Einem, ed., Stil und Uberlieferung in der Kunst des
Abendlandes: Akten des 21. International Kongresses fur
Kunstgeschichte in Bonn, 1964 (Berlin, 1967), vol. 3, p.
123 ; M. Jaffe, "Rubens in Italy, Part II; Some Rediscov-
ered Works of the First Phase," Burlington Magazine no,
no. 781 (April 1968), p. 179; idem, "Another Drawing
from Rubens' Italian Period," Master Drawings 8, no. 3
(1970), p. 271; J. Muller Hofstede, "Rubens in Rom
1601-1602: Die Altargemalde fur Sta. Croce in Gerusa-
lemme,"Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 12, no. i (1970), pp.
63, 98; M. Jaffe, Rubens and Italy (Oxford, 1977), pp. 29,
30, 57, 62-64, 75; B. Magnusson, "Rubens som Teck-
nare," in G. Cavalli-Bjorkman, ed., Rubens i Sverige
(Stockholm, 1977), pp. 93, 95; J. R. Judson and C. van
de Velde, Book Illustrations and Title-Pages, Corpus Rub-
enianum Ludwig Burchard, vol. 21, pt. 2 (London and
Philadelphia, 1978), pp. 140-141, under no. 26; H.
Vlieghe, "Review of M. Jaffe, Rubens and Italy," Bur-
lington Magazine 120, no. 904 (July 1978), p. 472; J. S.
Held, The Oil Sketches of Pieter Paul Rubens (Princeton,
1980), vol. i, p. 468, under no. 340 ; A. K. Wheelock et
al., Leonardo's "Last Supper": Precedents and Reflections,
exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,
1983, under no. 12; J. S. Held, Rubens: Selected Drawings
(Mt. Kisco, 1986), pp. 39, 51; 72, under nos. 17, 18; 72-
73, nos. 19-20; 170-171, pis. 19-20.THE RECTO OF THIS SHEET CONSISTS OF THREE INDE-
pendent groups of apostles and two faint individual stud-
ies, all presumably related to a representation of the Last
Supper. A second drawing of the same theme, closely202 FLEMISH SCHOOL • RUBENS