“Combining the freshness of drawing with the material robustness of painting, the oil sketch offers a glimpse of Rubens’ artistic invention, while also serving a functional role for him. Undiluted by workshop intervention, the intimately-scaled work conveys the same sense of grandeur and baroque drama as the monumental altarpiece, which measures almost ten feet high.⁴ Rendered with spontaneity, verve, and freedom of expression, Rubens’ oil sketch possesses a striking immediacy: it is as if we see Rubens’ thoughts unfolding directly before us. The viewer senses the rapidity of execution and the struggle of the artist’s hand to keep up with his mind, an endeavor that necessitates the summary rendition of form. To capture these whirling moments of mental inspiration, Rubens, for instance, uses mere touches of unblended pigment to suggest what will become the flowers sprinkled by the hovering putti in the finished Annunciation.”

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Final Painting at Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

Peter Paul Rubens: Portrait of a Man as Mars

Hugo van der Goes: The Adoration of the Kings, Monforte Altar

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