Rubens. The Blossoming of a Genius

Peter Paul Rubens, Virgin and Child (Cumberland Madonna) (detail), early 17th-century, Museum of Fine Arts, Valencia

Rubens: The Blossoming of a Genius explores the early years of Peter Paul Rubens, a period in which the young artist was inspired by the works of Tobias Verhaecht, Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen, and when (in 1558) he was admitted to Guild of St Luke in Antwerp .

Rubens’s return to the Southern Netherlands after his time in Italy (1600–1608) marked the beginning of a close relationship with Archdukes Albert and Isabella that would prove defining for his career. The exhibition examines how Rubens came to embody an artistic vision in service of political, religious, and cultural ideals, a process that began during his Italian sojourn and continued in the context of the Twelve Years’ Truce (1609–1621). His artistic genius reached its full maturity during this period, establishing a model that would profoundly influence the course of European painting for decades to come.

For the first time, visitors can explore the cultural and artistic milieu of Antwerp that Rubens frequented during the last decades of the 16th century. The exhibition brings together works associated with some of the city's leading artistic figures, such as Maerten de Vos, Willem Key, Adriaen Thomasz. Key, Crispijn van den Broeck, and Pieter Pourbus II. It also offers, for the first time, the rare opportunity to see works by Adam van Noort in a Spanish public institution and the largest group of paintings by Otto van Veen ever assembled in an exhibition setting, going beyond the emblem books for which he is primarily known.

The exhibition includes several remarkable discoveries and exceptional loans. Among the highlights are one of the paintings from Pietro Facchetti's Creation series, which Rubens had to restore after the damage it suffered during its transport from Mantua to the court of Philip III in Valladolid; an oil sketch for the high altar of the Chiesa Nuova in Rome, a work virtually unknown to the Spanish public; and the possible identification, within a surviving fragment, of part of the lost composition of Rubens's The Continence of Scipio.

The works have been generously loaned by major international institutions, including the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid; the Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien; the Albertina Museum, Vienna; the Marqués de Valdecilla Historical Library of the Complutense University of Madrid; the National Library of Spain; the Historical Library of the University of Valencia; the Cathedral of Our Lady of Antwerp; the Casa de Alba Collection, Madrid; the Epiarte Collection (Spain); and a private collection in Luxembourg on long-term loan to the Snijders/Rockox Museum in Antwerp (Belgium) and the MNAHA (National Museum of Archaeology, History and Art, Luxembourg). Monastery of Santa Clara in Medina de Pomar (Burgos); Poor Clare Sisters of the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception (San Antonio), Church of San Antonio, Vitoria-Gasteiz (Álava); Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; MAH Musée d'art et d'histoire, City of Geneva (Switzerland); Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia; Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp - Flemish Community (KMSKA); Lázaro Galdiano Museum, Madrid; M-Leuven Museum, Leuven; Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona; Museum of the Ducal Palace of Mantua (Italy); Prado Museum, Madrid; Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid; National Heritage. Royal Collections (Spain); The Phoebus Foundation, (Belgium) and San Telmo Museum, Donostia-San Sebastián.