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Lot Essay
The subject is explicitly from Exodus 2:9, which follows the account of Pharaoh's edict that all new-born male Jews be cast in the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter having found Moses in a wicker cradle, confides it to Jochebed, Moses's mother, who had had to abandon him, as Miriam, Jochebed's daughter and Moses's sister, looks on.
This picture was accepted by Ludwig Burchard as an autograph work by Rubens following its sale in 1958 and subsequent cleaning. Burchard was persuaded that this was a work by the master in his last years of his career, perhaps chiefly by the pentimenti which were revealed notably in the costume of the kneeling princess and the placement of Miriam on the left. In the posthumously published volume on Rubens's Drawings, which he had written with R.- A. d'Hulst , he stated, 'it turned out to be an original'. This opinion was disavowed by d'Hulst himself in his Corpus Rubenianum volume on Old Testament subjects by Rubens, written with Marc Vandenven and published in 1989.
In rejecting it, d'Hulst made some sharp, pertinent criticisms, yet in the painting's defence it may be observed that it had sufficient impact to stimulate three copies (listed by d'Hulst and Vandenven, loc. cit.); and while our knowledge of Rubens's studio in the 1630s remains not much more than rudimentary, the present painting does throw interesting light on what may well have been the studio practice that then obtained.
As far as is known, Rubens never painted this episode of Moses's life (though he considered it in a drawing, as shall be discussed); and the present artist - perhaps better described as a pupil - was perhaps guided by Rubens to place an emphasis on the role of the princess, following the example of Orazio Gentileschi's treatment of the subject while in England. He may have then sorted through the master's collection of drawings - again perhaps under supervision - to select the aforementioned drawing, now in the Albertina, Vienna, as offering a suitable pose for Pharoah's daughter. This drawn study had been made about fifteen years previously and had first been used by the studio in the execution of the Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes in the Museo Nacional del Prado (see Burchard/d'Hulst, Rubens Drawings , I, 1963, no. 99). It was evidently decided that some alterations had to made to this early formulation, most notably in the costume, and two attempts were made at finding a satisfactory outcome, as is evidenced by the pentimenti.
D'Hulst in his 1989 publication points to figural connections, very probably earlier observed by Burchard, with motifs in other paintings by Rubens mainly devised in the 1630s. And the great artist's late landscape style also proved influential; as d'Hulst states 'The landscape is conceived in Rubens's late style'.
This picture was accepted by Ludwig Burchard as an autograph work by Rubens following its sale in 1958 and subsequent cleaning. Burchard was persuaded that this was a work by the master in his last years of his career, perhaps chiefly by the pentimenti which were revealed notably in the costume of the kneeling princess and the placement of Miriam on the left. In the posthumously published volume on Rubens's Drawings, which he had written with R.- A. d'Hulst , he stated, 'it turned out to be an original'. This opinion was disavowed by d'Hulst himself in his Corpus Rubenianum volume on Old Testament subjects by Rubens, written with Marc Vandenven and published in 1989.
In rejecting it, d'Hulst made some sharp, pertinent criticisms, yet in the painting's defence it may be observed that it had sufficient impact to stimulate three copies (listed by d'Hulst and Vandenven, loc. cit.); and while our knowledge of Rubens's studio in the 1630s remains not much more than rudimentary, the present painting does throw interesting light on what may well have been the studio practice that then obtained.
As far as is known, Rubens never painted this episode of Moses's life (though he considered it in a drawing, as shall be discussed); and the present artist - perhaps better described as a pupil - was perhaps guided by Rubens to place an emphasis on the role of the princess, following the example of Orazio Gentileschi's treatment of the subject while in England. He may have then sorted through the master's collection of drawings - again perhaps under supervision - to select the aforementioned drawing, now in the Albertina, Vienna, as offering a suitable pose for Pharoah's daughter. This drawn study had been made about fifteen years previously and had first been used by the studio in the execution of the Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes in the Museo Nacional del Prado (see Burchard/d'Hulst, Rubens Drawings , I, 1963, no. 99). It was evidently decided that some alterations had to made to this early formulation, most notably in the costume, and two attempts were made at finding a satisfactory outcome, as is evidenced by the pentimenti.
D'Hulst in his 1989 publication points to figural connections, very probably earlier observed by Burchard, with motifs in other paintings by Rubens mainly devised in the 1630s. And the great artist's late landscape style also proved influential; as d'Hulst states 'The landscape is conceived in Rubens's late style'.