Peter Paul Rubens

Download image: 
Peter Paul Rubens
1577-1640
Six Scenes from the New Testament: Circumcision
Pen and brown ink and wash, over black chalk, on paper.
1 13/16 x 4 5/8 inches (46 x 118 mm)
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
III, 183:1
Notes: 

Watermark: none visible through lining.
Enclosed in a baroque cartouche.
Formerly attributed to Perino del Vaga, 1500/1501-1547.
Drawing is one of six designs for the borders of the first page of the Christmas Matins of the Roman Missal engraved by Theodor Galle (1571-1631) and published by the Plantin-Moretus Press in 1613.

Inscription: 

Inscribed at lower right, in brown ink, "P D V".

Provenance: 
William Mayor (Lugt 2799; his mark on nos. 3 and 6 only); Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), London and Florence; from whom purchased through Galerie Alexandre Imbert, Rome, in 1909 by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York (no mark; see Lugt 1509); his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), New York.
Associated names: 

Perino, del Vaga, 1500 or 1501-1547, Formerly attributed to.
Mayor, William, 1826-1892, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, III, 183:1.
Stampfle, Felice, with the assistance of Ruth S. Kraemer and Jane Shoaf Turner. Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1991, p. 140, no. 299, repr.

Artist page: 
School: 
Century: 
Classification: 
Department: