Maria Lactans,
oil on panel, 58.5 x 42.2 cm, framed

private collection, Sweden;
Parke Bernett, New York (a label on the reverse).

A certificate by Prof. J. Müller-Hofstede (as Peter Paul Rubens) is available. A technological analysis of the painting carried out by Prof. Manfred Schreiner, Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, confirms that the two paintings date from the 17th century.

On 9 December 1616, Jan Brueghel the Elder wrote to Ercole Bianchi: “Mio secretario Rubens (who assisted Brueghel with his Italian correspondence) e partita per Brussello, per finire i ritratti di sua altezza serma…”. It has not been possible to this day to clarify which portraits he referred to. In 1979, Klaus Ertz was of the opinion that Brueghel was writing about the completion of the paintings now in the Prado, showing the archducal couple against the backdrops of the palaces of Mariemont and Tervuren respectively. Ertz has described the working practice of Brueghel and Rubens, both of whom ran large workshops: “In Rubens’s workshop, the master and several pupils painted the two portraits, and it is highly probable that variants were already made at an early date. The portraits, with areas left blank on both sides, were then transferred to Brueghel’s workshop, where the landscape background was added…” As evidence corroborating this collaboration, Ertz mentioned the cycle of the Five Senses in Madrid. In one of the pictures, Allegory of Sight, appears a double portrait representing a couple of governors. According to Ertz, it seems to be an invention of Brueghel’s, who took the artistic liberty of combining the archducal portraits in Madrid, which were rendered in two separate horizontal compositions, within an imaginary portrait. However, Ertz also pointed out that in the allegory the governors are depicted standing, whereas in the Prado portraits they are rendered seated. This suggests that a further set of portraits had been executed by Rubens and his workshop in the context of the same commission, which might subsequently have served Brueghel as an inspiration. The two present portraits would exactly correspond to this type of souvenir and are much closer to Brueghel’s double portrait than the versions in the Prado, which scholars now likewise consider as joint works by Peter Paul Rubens and workshop and Jan Brueghel. The letter quoted above, Brueghel’s pictorial invention, and the Prado versions attest to the fact that around 1616/17 several variants of the official portraits must have been present in Rubens’s workshop. It was also in line with Rubens’s workshop practice to store prototypes of such portraits so as to be able to quickly produce replicas when required. This is also suggested by the circumstance that two portraits of the archducal couple that have hitherto not been clearly identified are mentioned in Rubens’s estate inventory. It has traditionally been assumed that they are identical to the versions now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Peter Paul Rubens was appointed court painter to the governing couple on 23 September 1609. It therefore fell upon him to literally disseminate the images of the sovereigns, thereby supporting their official iconography. After a long stretch of deterioration under Spanish rule, Albrecht and Isabella focused on a consolidation of society and government, which they sought to bring about through a demonstration of populism. Their campaign also included the revival of the former Habsburg country residences in Burgundy, as is illustrated by works by Jan Brueghel that might to a certain degree be interpreted as propaganda and which show the couple amidst the hustle and bustle of local country fairs. In all this, the official portrait played a special role, and it is interesting to observe that all of the types developed by Rubens refer to the traditional compositional schemes borrowed from the Spanish court portraiture of Anthonis Mor and the plain iconography of the portraits by Otto van Veen or Frans Pourbus the Elder. Peter Paul Rubens conceived two types of portraits of the governing couple, of which he and his workshop painted a large number of variants. The first type has come down to us in the form of two copper engravings by Jan Muller and dates from the period 1609–15. For these portraits, Albrecht and Isabella bestowed him with honours and presents. This group of earlier portraits, which also includes the versions in Vienna, was characterised by much more splendour and extravagance than the present set of portraits, which were painted several years later. It has not been possible to date to verify whether prototypes actually existed originally from which all of the other works relied and which are now lost. It has to be assumed that such models, on which the later portraits were based, had been kept in Rubens’s workshop over a lengthy period of time and that Rubens as the official court painter varied them time and again. The type from 1616–20 differs from the earlier and more magnificent type primarily in the austere simplicity of the garments. The archduke, who was almost sixty years old when the present picture was made, wears a plain black suit and the Order of the Golden Fleece. His wife is also dressed in a simple robe and is only adorned with a pearl necklace, a cross, and a medallion. In all variants, a significant difference in the treatment of the facial features becomes highly evident: those of the archduke are rendered more delicately and in more detail than those of his wife. This may be due to the fact that Rubens’s contact with the archduke was much more intensive and that he certainly had made more portrait sketches of him than of his wife. As to the later type of likenesses, two similar versions only differing from each other in minor detail exist besides the Prado portraits and Brueghel’s double portrait– one in the Earl Spencer Collection, Althorp, and another in the Chrysler Art Museum, Norfolk, Virginia. The present type of portrait was probably also more in keeping with the archduke’s serious character than the more ostentatious version dating from around 1615. Archduke Albrecht was born the fifth son of Emperor Maximilian II. He was raised at the Spanish court and joined the clergy at an early date. In 1577, he became archbishop of Toledo and in 1580 the pope raised him to the rank of cardinal. Between 1583 and 1595, he was vice-king of Portugal and subsequently governor of the Southern Netherlands. Having assumed lay status, he married Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, the daughter of Philip II of Spain. Her dowry included the Netherlands, under the condition that they would fall back to Spain after her death. From 1599 on, the couple resided as governors in Brussels, where the archduke passed away in 1621. His widow continued to be governess until she died. The present portraits represent an interesting new discovery, since they allow insights into the work method of Peter Paul Rubens and his workshop, particularly in combination with Jan Brueghel’s “invented” double portrait.