The Story
Peter Paul Rubens designed this elaborate oil sketch as part of a tapestry series intended for the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid. Rubens created two tiers of celebrants—the heavenly on the upper level and the earthly on the lower level—adoring the Eucharist, an important sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church, which is lifted by two angels beneath a central arch.
The series’ patron, Spanish archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, is represented in a nun’s habit at the lower left to signify her piety and reinforce her status as an important patron of the arts in the ruling Habsburg family.
Executed in Oil on panel, measuring 31.5 × 32 cm (12 1/2 × 12 1/2 in.); Framed: 47.6 × 47.6 × 7 cm (18 3/4 × 18 3/4 × 2 3/4 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Peter Paul Rubens builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
