A contract was created between Rubens and Jacobus Tirinus, the head of the Antwerp Jesuits in 1620.[1] The contract stated that Rubens must create at least thirty-nine ceiling paintings and two large paintings for the church, in which he will be rewarded with ten thousand florins.[1] The two large paintings would then be displayed in rotation.[1] This painting and The Miracles of St. Ignatius of Loyola became the two altarpieces for the church.[2] By the time the contract was signed, the two altarpieces were already completed.[1] This altarpiece was completed before St. Francis Xavier became a saint in 1622.[3]
This painting, along with The Miracles of St. Ignatius of Loyola, were purchased by the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa after a fire caused the St. Charles Borromeo Church to close in 1773.[4] They are currently in the Kunsthistorisches Museum located in Vienna.[4]
Description
The main figure, St. Francis Xavier, is on the right side of the altarpiece, standing on a platform.[1] Different events are combined and used to display St. Francis Xavier performing many miracles.[4] On the left side of the altarpiece, a baby is being held by the mother.[4] The baby has water coming from his mouth.[2] There are people rising from the dead.[4] Next to the mother and baby is a male figure that looks similar to a figure in another art piece created by Rubens, The Great Last Judgement.[4] Near the upper left corner of the altarpiece between the two columns, there is statue that wears a crown and has an open mouth at the middle portion of the body.[5] The figure is positioned like it is in the motion of falling.[5] On the right side, there is a blind man that is reaching out with his arms.[4]
Figure Studies
Rubens drew numerous life studies before the altarpiece was completed.[4] The majority of changes that were made focused on the forms and gestures of the figures.[4] Rubens created studies of St. Francis Xavier's gestures to give him a pose that shows that he is healing people.[4] There were studies created of the people that St. Francis Xavier is performing miracles on.[6] Rubens took perspective into account by softening the altarpiece after thinking about how the painting would look from far away.[4]
Counter-Reformation
As a result of the Counter-Reformation, Rubens' paintings focused strongly on Catholic doctrine.[4] The paintings contained a lot of dynamic movement, barely visible outlines, and variety of tones.[1] The theme of miracles is a key component to the altarpiece.[4] This was used to show that St. Francis Xavier had the ability to perform miracles and restore faith to the Roman Catholic Church.[3] St. Francis Xavier's abilities in this painting were used as propaganda as a part of his canonization trials.[7] His ability to resurrect the dead made him closer to heavenly figures.[7]
Interpretation
It is suggested that the setting of the painting focuses on St. Francis Xavier's missionary actions in Asia.[8] These actions caused people to spread word about his miracles.[8] Researchers know that Rubens received information about the geography and history of Asian culture from Theodore de Bry.[8] Rubens used this information and information he knew about European culture, which resulted in a setting that combined aspects of both cultures.[8] It is known that the baby being held by the mother symbolizes the event when St. Francis Xavier resurrected a baby from drowning in India.[2] In the middle of the painting, there are men in Korean outfits who symbolize people who initially questioned St. Francis Xavier's ability to perform his miracles.[2] They were eventually convinced of St. Francis Xavier's ability.[2]
Hindu Idol
The figure that wears a crown is interpreted as a Hindu idol.[7] Rubens drew this figure based on the information he received from sculptures and travel accounts about Indian culture.[7] Another way Rubens received information about Indian culture was through goods from India that were traded in Antwerp.[7] Specifically, the idol was based on the Western interpretation of Indian gods.[9] In the Western interpretation, Hindu idols were shown as demonic figures.[9] The figure has an open mouth on its body because this concept in Western art represented the devil.[7] The figure's position and St. Francis Xavier's gesture show that St. Francis Xavier is directing the heavenly vision that is attacking the figure.[9] This interpretation follows St. Francis Xavier's time in India in which he persuaded people to follow the Church and get rid of any depictions of their previous religion.[9]
Plague Victim
Researchers are not sure how Rubens received information about the bubonic plague, a deadly disease, because he never had the disease.[2] There is a possibility that Rubens received information about the disease through plague treatises.[2] Another possibility is that Rubens was inspired by an art piece created by Jacopo Tintoretto, called St. Roch Healing Plague Victims.[2] The art piece has figures that have postures similar to the male figure in this painting.[2] It is theorized that the male figure in the lower left corner of the altarpiece is to have been a victim of the plague.[2] It is suggested that the male figure's posture has been referenced from other paintings that depict the plague.[2] Among these plague paintings include St. Francis of Paola, another painting created by Rubens.[2] Researchers have theorized that the plague is symbolized by the figure's exposed underarm.[2]
Chinese Figure
Man in Korean Costume, c. 1617, black and red chalk, J. Paul Getty Museum
There is a figure wearing a Korean attire in the center of the painting.[10] This figure resembles the subject of one Rubens's drawings, Man in Korean Costume.[10] Rubens used foreign attire in his paintings to add dramatic effects.[10] The figure was originally going to wear Turkish attire, but the Jesuits wanted a variety of clothing to represent their activity in Asia.[10] They did not have a direct relationship with Korea during the seventeenth century, but they learned about the country through their activities in China.[10] The Jesuits displayed their victories and activities outside the country by displaying foreign attire in art pieces.[10] The Korean attire in this painting symbolizes the belief that Catholicism was superior while demoting paganism to a primitive status.[10] Recent research has demonstrated that the man is actually a Chinese Catholic from the Ming period named Yppong. The confusion was made because of the similarities in clothing.[11]
Boeckl, Christine. (1996). "Plague Imagery as Metaphor for Heresy in Rubens' The Miracles of Saint Francis Xavier." The Sixteenth Century Journal 27(4): 979–995
Burchard, L. (1963). Rubens Drawings. Brussels: Arcade Press. 154, 179–181.
Glen, Thomas L. (1977). Rubens and the Counter Reformation: Studies in His Religious Paintings between 1609 and 1620 /. New York:: Garland Pub.
Miller, Rachel. (2018). "Peter Paul Rubens's Investigation of the Origins of Idolatry and Iconoclasm in the Jesuit Church of Antwerp." IKON: 127–140.
Sauerländer, Willibald. (2014). "New Saints and Reinvigorated Veneration of the Saints." The Catholic Rubens. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute: 90–96.
Schrader, Stephanie. (2013). Looking East: Rubens's encounter with Asia. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. 1–7, 39–60.
Spinks, Jennifer. (2014). "The Southern Indian 'Devil in Calicut' in Early Modern Northern Europe: Images, Texts and Objects in Motion." Journal of Early Modern History 18(1/2): 15–48.doi:1163/15700658-12342383.
Uppenkamp, Barbara. (2016). "'Indian' motifs in Peter Paul Rubens's The Martyrdom of Saint Thomas and The miracles of Saint Francis Xavier." Nederlandsch kunsthistorisch jaarboek. 66:112–141.
Notes
1 2 3 4 5 6 Baudouin, Frans (1989). Pietro Pauolo Rubens. London, England: Bracken Books. pp.20, 106, 157–158. ISBN9781851701292.
1 2 Spinks, Jennifer. "The Southern Indian 'Devil in Calicut' in Early Modern Northern Europe: Images, Texts and Objects in Motion". Journal of Early Modern History: 15–48.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Uppenkamp, Barbara (2016). "'Indian' motifs in Peter Paul Rubens's The martyrdom of Saint Thomas and The miracles of Saint Francis Xavier". Nederlandsch Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek. 66: 112–141. doi:10.1163/22145966-90000783.
1 2 3 4 Sauerländer, Willibald (2014). "New Saints and Reinvigorated Veneration of the Saints" in The Catholic Rubens. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute. pp.90–96. ISBN9781606062685.
1 2 3 4 Miller, Rachel (2018). "Peter Paul Rubens's Investigation of the Origins of Idolatry and Iconoclasm in the Jesuit Church of Antwerp". IKON. 11: 127–140. doi:10.1484/J.IKON.4.2018013.
Francis Xavier, SJ, venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Spanish Catholic missionary and saint who co-founded the Society of Jesus and, as a representative of the Portuguese Empire, led the first Christian mission to Japan.
Philip Fruytiers (1610–1666) was a Flemish Baroque painter and engraver. Until the 1960s, he was especially known for his miniature portraits in watercolor and gouache. Since then, several large canvases signed with the monogram PHF have been ascribed to him. These new findings have led to a renewed appreciation for his contribution to the Antwerp Baroque.
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Erasmus Quellinus the Younger or Erasmus Quellinus II was a Flemish painter, engraver, draughtsman and tapestry designer who worked in various genres including history, portrait, allegorical, battle and animal paintings. He was a pupil of Peter Paul Rubens and one of the closest collaborators of Rubens in the 1630s. Following Rubens' death in 1640 he became one of the most successful painters in Flanders. He was a prolific draughtsman who made designs for decorative programmes in the context of official celebrations, for publications by the local publishers and for tapestries and sculptures realised by the local workshops. His work reveals the Classicist trend in the Baroque.
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Sir Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens was a painter producing altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. He was also a prolific designer of cartoons for the Flemish tapestry workshops and of frontispieces for the publishers in Antwerp.
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Pieter Huyssens was a Flemish Jesuit brother and Baroque architect.
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The Vision of the Blessed Hermann Joseph or The Mystical Engagement of the Blessed Hermann Joseph to the Virgin Mary is a 1629-1630 painting by the Flemish Baroque painter Anthony van Dyck.
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Crucifixion with the Virgin Mary, St John and St Mary Magdalene is a painting by Anthony van Dyck. He produced it in 1617-19 as the high altarpiece for the Jesuit church in Bergues, near Dunkirk, during his time as an assistant painter to Peter Paul Rubens - for a long time the painting was even attributed to Rubens. It was paid to Rubens in 1621 and seems to have been sold around 1746. It was bought by Louis XV of France in Antwerp in 1749 to be the high altarpiece of Saint-Louis de Versailles at the Palace of Versailles. It is now in the Louvre, in Paris.
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The Coronation of Saint Rosalia or Madonna and Child with Saints Rosalia, Peter and Paul is an oil on canvas painting made by Anthony van Dyck in 1629.
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