The Battle of Constantine and Licinius

Artist Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640)

Date1622

MediumOil on wood panel

DimensionsOverall: 14 5/8 × 22 5/8 inches (37.15 × 57.47 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number55-40

SignedNone

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionCenter: left, mounted, armored figure of Constantine wearing laurel wreath, aiming javelin in left hand at his enemy, right, a mounted armored, helmeted figure on horse seen from rear, brandishing sword in left hand, shield in right. Immediate foreground, center, lying partly beneath horses, half-nude soldier with chest pierced by spear, sprawled prone upon armored soldier lying supine, broken sword in his left hand. Right corner, striding figure, seen from rear, sword in left hand. Numerous other mounted and foot soldiers.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The Orléans Gallery, Royal Academy, London, April 1793, no. 61.

The Orléans Gallery now Exhibiting at No. 16, Old Bond Street, London, May 1795, no. 32.

Italian, Spanish, Flemish and Dutch Masters, British Institution, London, 1828, no. 161.

Masterpieces of Art, New York World’s Fair, New York City, May-October 1940, no. 65.

Nicolas Poussin-Peter Paul Rubens, The Cincinnati Art Museum, February 5-March 8, 1948, no. 4.

Drawings and Oil Sketches by P.P. Rubens from American Collections, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, January 14-February 29, 1956; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City, March 20-April 28, 1956, no. 34.

Constantine the Great, Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 1-November 1, 1964, no. 23a.

Rubenism, Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI, January 30-February 23, 1975, no. 11.

Romans and Barbarians, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, December 17, 1976-February 27, 1977, no. 264.

Gallery Label

This is one of twelve oil sketches that Rubens made for a tapestry cycle commissioned by the French King Louis XIII. The cycle traces the life of Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor, who in this sketch defeats his brother-in-law, Licinius, a persecutor of Christians. Constantine is shown at the left riding a white horse and wearing a laurel crown, the symbol of victory. Licinius, opposite, wears a plumed helmet and carries a shield. In typical Baroque fashion, forms intertwine with surging energy in a composition that is barely kept in balance by two central figures at the painting's lower edge. All figures are shown left-handed, since the sketch had to be created as a mirror image to the final tapestry, which was woven from behind.

Provenance

Possibly commissioned from the artist by Marc de Comans (1563-1644) and François de la Planche (1573-1627), Paris, 1622-1627 [1];

Possibly inherited by Comans’ son, Hippolyte de Comans (d. 1671), Paris;

Henri de Valois (1603-1676);

Phillipe II, Duc d’Orléans (1674-1723), Paris, by 1723;

By descent to Louis, Duc d’Orléans (1703-1752), 1723-1752;

Probably by descent to Louis Philippe I, Duc d’Orléans (1725-1785), 1752-1785;

By descent to Louis-Phillipe-Joseph (Philippe Égalité), Duc d’Orléans (1747-1793), Palais Royal, Paris, 1785-1792;

Purchased from the Duc d’Orléans by Thomas Moore Slade and Associates, including Thomas Hammersley (1748-1812), London, 1792-1801 [2];

Thomas Hammersley, London, 1801 [3];

Richard Troward, London, by 1808 [4];

Purchased at a sale, Mr. Stanley’s, London, by Henry Brooksbank, 1823-1830;

Stamp Brooksbank (1773-1833), London, by 1833-1834;

His posthumous sale, A Valuable collection of Italian, Dutch, and Flemish Pictures, the Property of the Late Stamp Brooksbank, Esq., Mr. Stanley’s, London, May 31, 1834, lot 86, as The Battle of Constantine and Maxentius;

Henry Francis Hope Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 8th Duke of Newcastle-under-Line, 15th Earl of Lincoln (1866-1941), Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, England, 1925-1939;

Purchased at his sale, Pictures by Old Masters, the Property of the Honorable the Earl of Lincoln, Christie’s, London, March 31, 1939, lot 51, by "Ginser" for Frederic A. Stern, Inc., New York, 1939-at least 1940 [5];

Probably purchased from Stern by the dealer Jacob Hirsch (1874-1955), New York, 1948-1955 [6];

Purchased from Hirsch by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1955.

NOTES:

[1] For a discussion of Comans and la Planche as possible commissioners of the tapestry series, see Koenraad Brosens, “Who commissioned Rubens’s Constantine series? A new perspective: the entrepreneurial strategy of Marc Comans and François de la Planche,” Simiolus (2007/2008): 166-182. Earlier scholarship favored a commission by Louis XIII, King of France.

[2] Slade was acting as a buying agent on behalf of a group of bankers: the 7th Lord Kinnaird, Mr. Morland and Mr. Hammersley. Originally arriving in Paris on the same day Louis XVI fled (June 21, 1791), Slade made a second trip to Paris in 1792, at which time he finally acquired the Flemish, Dutch and German paintings from the Orléans Collection after heavy negotiation with the cash-strapped Duc d’Orléans. Under threat by the Duc’s creditors and the French populace, who wanted the collection to remain in France, Slade shipped the paintings out under cover of night by barge to Le Havre. This painting was offered for sale by Thomas Moore Slade, The Orleans Gallery now exhibiting at the Great Rooms, late the Royal Academy, John Wilson, London, April 1793 and Orleans Gallery, De Cort, London, May 1795, but failed to sell.

[3] According to Burton Frederickson, Getty Research Institute, in a letter to NAMA, July 29, 1987, NAMA curatorial files, the painting was offered for sale by Hammersley at The Truly Capital, Valuable, & Well-Chosen Collection of Italian, French, Flemish, and Dutch Pictures, the Real Property of a Man of Fashion, Christie’s, London, lot 75, as The Battle between Constantine and Maxentius, March 7, 1801, but failed to sell.

[4] According to Burton B. Fredericksen, Getty Research Institute, in a letter to Roger Ward, February 17, 1988, NAMA curatorial files, the painting was offered by Troward at a sale held by the auctioneer Peter Coxe, London, June 11, 1808, lot 10, but failed to sell. Troward’s name was not printed in the sales catalogue, but is handwritten on two known copies. One of them is housed at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, copy 3.

[5] Frick Art Reference Library, New York, Christie’s Art Sales Index, 1910-1945, volume 3, page 81 and according to Frederic A. Stern, in a letter to Ralph T. Coe, September 30, 1964, NAMA curatorial files.

[6] Jacob Hirsch, PhD. (1874–1955) was born in Munich, studied at Deutsches Archäologisches Institut in Rome, and then founded a dealership in Munich in 1897. He moved to Lucerne in 1919 and founded Ars Classica in 1922. In 1931, he opened Jacob Hirsch Antiquities in New York. At some point, he also had a gallery in Paris. He handled coins and antiquities but also had his own collection. See Hadrien Rambach, “A List of coin dealers in nineteenth-century Germany,” in A Collection in Context. Kommentierte Edition der Briefe und Dokumente Sammlung Dr. Karl von Schäffer, ed. Henner Hardt and Stefan Krmnicek (Tübingen, Germany: Tübingen University Press, 2017), 69–70, hal-04345662. See also “Dr. Jacob Hirsch, 81, An Authority on Art,” New York Times, July 5, 1955, 29.

Published References

Louis-François Du Bois de Saint-Gelais, Description des Tableaux du Palais Royal avec la vie des peintres à la tête de leurs ouvrages: dédiée a monseigneur le Duc d'Orleans, premier prince du Sang (Paris: d’Houry, 1727), 408.

Possibly Louis-Abel de Bonafous Fontenay, Galerie du Palais Royal: Gravée d'après les tableaux des differentes ecoles qui la composent: avec un abrégé de la vie des peintres & une description historique de chaque tableau, vol. 2 (Paris: J. Couché, 1786-1808), unpaginated.

The Orléans Gallery now Exhibiting at the Great Rooms, Late the Royal Academy (London, April 1793), 15.

The Orléans Gallery, now Exhibiting at No. 16, Old Bond Street (London, May 1795), 8.

A Catalogue of the Truly Capital, Valuable, & Well-Chosen Collection of Italian, French, Flemish, & Dutch Pictures, the Real Property of a Man of Fashion (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, March 6-7, 1801), 10.

The Catalogue of A Small but Superb Selection of Important Paintings of the very First Distinction and Quality (London: Peter Core, June 11, 1808), 6.

Possibly John Opie, “Lecture I: Read at the Royal Academy, Februrary 16, 1806,” in Lectures on painting, delivered at the Royal Academy of Arts; with a letter on the proposal for a public memorial of the naval glory of Great Britain (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1809), 40.

William Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution, vol. 1 (London: Thomas Davison, 1824), 169.

Catalogue of Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish and Dutch Masters, with which the Proprietors Have Favoured the Institution, exh. cat. (London: British Institution, 1828), 18.

John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, vol. 2 (London: Smith and Son, 1830), 203.

A Catalogue of a Valuable Collection of Italian, Dutch, & Flemish Pictures, the Property of the Late Stamp Brooksbank, Esq. (London: Mr. Stanley, May 31, 1834), 7.

Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, trans. H. E. Lloyd, vol. 1 (London: Murray, 1838), 341.

Victor Charles van Grimbergen, Historische Levensbeschryving van P. P. Rubens: Ridder, Heer van Steen enz., Benevens eene naeuwkeurige opgave zyner schilderyen, berustende in hoven, kerken, en verdere openbaere gebouwen van Europa, met aenwyzing welke van de zelve in het koper zyn gebracht (Rotterdam: W. Messchert, 1840), 320.

André Henri Constant van Hasselt, Histoire de P.-P. Rubens suivie du catalogue général et raisonné de ses tableaux, esquisses, dessins et vignettes, avec l'indication des lieux où ils se trouvent et des artistes qui les ont gravés (Brussels: Imprimerie de la Societé des Beaux Arts, 1840), 285.

Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of art in Great Britain: An account of the chief collections of paintings, drawings, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, vol. 2 (London: Murray, 1854), 502.

Frederick Peter Seguier, A critical and commercial dictionary of the works of painters comprising eight thousand eight hundred and fifty sale notes of pictures and nine hundred and eighty original notes on the subjects and styles of various artists who have painted in the schools of Europe between 1250 and 1850 (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1870), 177.

George Redford, Art Sales: a history of sales of pictures and other works of art; (1628 – 1887), vol. 2 (London: Whitefriars, 1888), 320.

Max Rooses, L’œuvre de P. P. Rubens: Histoire et description de ses tableaux, vol. 3 (Anvers: Maes, 1890), no. 721, pp. 211-12.

Victor Champier, Le Palais-Royal d’après des documents inédits (1629-1900), vol. 1, Du Cardinal de Richelieu a la Révolution (Paris: Société de propagation des livres d'art, 1900), 519.

Max Rooses, Rubens, trans. Harold Child, vol. 2 (London: Duckworth & Co, 1904), 368.

Casimir Stryienski, La Galerie du Régent, Philippe Duc D’Orléans (Paris: Goupil and Cie, 1913), 188.

Algernon Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912, vol. 3 (New York: Burt Franklin, 1914), 1161.

Pictures by Old Masters; the Property of the Honourable The Earl of Lincoln (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, March 31, 1939), 20-21, (repro.).

Leo van Puyvelde, “On Rubens Drawings,” The Burlington Magazine 77, no. 451 (October 1940): 124, (repro.).

Walter Pach, Catalogue of European & American Paintings 1500-1900: Masterpieces of Art, New York World’s Fair, exh. cat. (New York: Art Aid Corporation, 1940), 50, 52, (repro.).

Alfred M. Frankfurter, “383 Masterpieces of Art,” in “Art at the Fair: New York World’s Fair 1940,” special issue, Art News 38, no. 34 (1940): 22, (repro).

Leo van Puyvelde, Les Esquisses de Rubens (Basel: Holbein, 1940), 27.

Jan-Albert Goris and Julius S. Held, Rubens in America (New York: Pantheon, 1947), 38, (repro.).

Philip Rhys Adams, Nicolas Poussin-Peter Paul Rubens, exh. cat. (Cincinnati Art Museum, 1948), unpaginated.

Leo van Puyvelde, The Sketches of Rubens, trans. Eveline Winkorth (New York: Beechhurst, 1951), 29.

“New Acquisition,” Gallery News (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art; Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) vol. 23, no. 1 (October 1955): unpaginated, (repro.).

Drawings & Oil Sketches by P.P. Rubens from American Collections, exh. cat. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1956), 30-31, (repro.).

Jakob Rosenberg, “Rubens’ Oil Sketches and Drawings in the Fogg Museum,” The Art Quarterly 19 (1956), 140, as by Rubens’ workshop or from eighteenth century.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 94-95, (repro.).

David Dubon, Tapestries from the Samuel H. Kress Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art: The History of Constantine the Great, Designed by Peter Paul Rubens and Pietro da Cortona (New York: Phaidon, 1964), 10, (repro.).

Catalogue of the Exhibition Constantine the Great: First public exhibition of all major panels of the Tapestries…The Designs by Peter Paul Rubens and Pietro Cortona lent by European and American Collections, exh. cat. (Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1964), 92-94, (repro.).

Wallace Collection Catalogues: Pictures and Drawings, 16^th ed. (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1968), 291.

Michael Jaffé, “The Flemish and Dutch Schools,” Apollo 96, no. 130 (December 1972): 505-506, 508, (repro.) [repr. in Denys Sutton, ed., William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City (London: Apollo Magazine, 1972), 37-38, 40, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 125, 257, (repro).

Roxanne Landers Althouse, Rubenism, exh. cat. (Providence, RI: Brown University, 1975), 48-49, (repro.).

Romans and Barbarians, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1976), 220, (repro.).

Didier Bodart, Rubens e l’incisione, nelle collezioni del Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, exh. cat. (Rome: De Luca, 1977), 204.

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Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 57-58, (repro.)

Michael Jaffé, Rubens: Catalogo Completo, trans. Germano Mulazzani (Milan: Rizzoli, 1989), no. 687, pp. 268, (repro.).

Peter Krüger, Studien zu Rubens' Konstantinszyklus (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1989), 189-194, 264, (repro.).

Burton B. Frederickson, ed., The Index of Paintings Sold in the British Isles during the Nineteenth Century, vol. 2, 1806-1810, Part 2 O-Z and Anonymous (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 1990), 862.

Guy Bauman and Walter A. Liedtke, Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1992), 360, (repro.).

Isabelle van Tichelen, “De Geschiedenis van Constantijn,“ in Rubenstextiel/ Rubens's textiles, exh. cat. (Antwerp: Luc Denys, 1997), 59.

Elizabeth McGrath, Rubens: Subjects from History (London: Harvey Miller, 1997), 1: 87; 2: 358.

Alexis Merle du Bourg, Rubens au Grand Siècle: Sa Réception en France, 1640-1715 (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2004), 327.

Alexis Merle du Bourg, Peter Paul Rubens et la France, 1600-1640 (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2004), 31.

Pascal-François Bertrand, Les tapisseries des Barberini et la décoration d’intérieur dans la Rome baroque (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005), 179n155.

Rolf Quednau, “Zum Wandel des Konstantin-Bildes in der Kunst: Raphael und Rubens, Pietro da Cortona,“ in Konstantin der Grosse: Geschichte-Archäologie-Rezeption, Internationales Kolloquium vom 10.-15. Oktober 2005 an der Universität Trier zur Landesausstellung Rheinland-Pfalz 2007 "Konstantin der Grosse, eds. Alexander Demandt and Josef Engemann (Trier: Rheinisches Landesmuseum, 2006), 278n43.

Koenraad Brosens, “Who commissioned Rubens’s Constantine series? A new perspective the entrepreneurial strategy of Marc Comans and François de la Planche,” Netherlands quarterly for the history of art 33, no. 3 (2007/2008): 166, 178, (repro.).

Jeremy Wood, Corpus Rubenianum, part 26, Rubens: copies and adaptations from Renaissance and later artists, section 2, Italian Artists, vol. 1, Raphael and his school (London: Miller 2010), 166, 314, (repro.).

Koenraad Brosens, Corpus Rubenianum, vol. 13, Subjects from history, part 3, The Constantine Series, trans. Beverley Jackson (London: Miller, 2011), 33, 114, 203-06.

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