St. Albert of Louvain
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 34.7 × 45.8 cm (13 5/8 × 18 in.); Framed: 58.5 × 69.3 × 6.4 cm (23 × 27 1/4 × 2 1/2 in.)
- Genre
- painting
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
paintingpaintoil on panelpanel paintingmenoil paint (paint)painting (image making)17th Centurypainting techniquesstudySaintsmancloudsorganic materialPuttioil paintingcherubspanel (wood)european paintingSketch
About
Peter Paul Rubens executed this study and 38 more as he prepared to decorate the ceiling of the Jesuit church in Antwerp. He presented such highly finished sketches to his patrons as proposals for major projects. This work shows a dramatically foreshortened saint gliding majestically on a cloud. The bold perspective would have furthered the illusion that the painting was a window in the ceiling of the church, offering a view to the open sky above. The man depicted here is the 12th-century martyr Albert of Louvain, patron saint of Archduke Albert, governor of the Spanish Netherlands.
