The Last Supper

1613·Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, heightened with touches of white opaque watercolor, over traces of black chalk, on cream laid paper, incised for transfer·30.2 × 19.7 cm (11 15/16 × 7 13/16 in.)

<p>This important drawing is one of a group of preparatory designs for a Roman Catholic prayer book (the Breviarium Romanum) that was reissued in 1614 under the new parameters of Counter-Reformation liturgy. This scene, in which Peter Paul Rubens placed the figure of Judas—instead of Christ—as center-most in the composition, preceded prayers celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi. The layered used of media and precise placement of compositional elements reflect Rubens’s intense desire to control the printed versions of his designs.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1613
Medium: Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, heightened with touches of white opaque watercolor, over traces of black chalk, on cream laid paper, incised for transfer
Dimensions: 30.2 × 19.7 cm (11 15/16 × 7 13/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Peter Paul Rubens

Artist

Peter Paul Rubens

Painting

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 emphasised 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.

Siegen, Westphalia

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