(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
Portrait of Nicolaas Rockox (1560–1640) and Adriana Perez (1568–1619),
oil on canvas, 56.5 x 67.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, 11 May 1966, lot 349 (as Anthony van Dyck);
Private collection, USA;
art market, USA, 2020;
where acquired by the present owner

The present painting relates to Rubens’ triptych of Nicolaas Rockox and his wife Adriana Perez, conserved in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, inv. no. 307-311. Its central scene was long believed to display The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, but the museum currently states the composition depicts Christ’s appearance to his three favourite apostles, John, Peter and James. Both side wings of this triptych depict its commissioners, Nicolaas Rockox and Adriana Perez, giving the work its byname, the Rockox Altar. The altarpiece was meant for Rockox’s private chapel in the church of the Friars Minor in Antwerp and was probably commissioned in 1613. It was in this church that the couple found their final resting place. The present work emerged from the master’s circle of painters around the same time or shortly after the creation of the triptych and skilfully concentrates on the portraits of the sitters.

Coming from a noble family, Rockox set off to study law in Paris, Leuven, and Douai and was destined for a promising career in the city. In 1589, he married the well-to-do and noble Adriana Perez, a daughter of a Spanish merchant who had settled in Antwerp. Perez was a so-called converso, a contemporary term used for Jews from Portugal and Spain who converted to Catholicism under pressure. The couple met in turbulent times when the city was caught up in the middle of the religious wars with Spain.

After holding various positions in the city, Rockox was knighted by Albrecht and Isabella in 1599 on the big square in the city. As mayor of the city, the aforementioned was involved in many important painting commissions and responsible for the rising star of Rubens. It was the influential Rockox who mediated for the significant commission of Rubens’ The Descent from the Cross for the cities’ cathedral, in which the artist captured his principal patron in the right panel and which is still in situ today. Rockox, the city of Antwerp, and Peter Paul Rubens are inextricably linked with one another. The men became friends and are known to have shaped Baroque art and to have transformed Antwerp into the Baroque city of the north.