Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie (3(39).2014)

Piotr Borusowski Lost and Found. The Drawing of Joan of Arc by Peter Paul Rubens...

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the designs for prints were to be made by Rubens, the explanatory text - by Peiresc.82 A few
sketches for this project survive. At least two of them were probably executed in early 1622,
during the artist’s stay in Paris. The first, depicting a cameo with Claudius and Agrippina,
is difficult to recognize as a proper design for a print (fig. 13).83 This sketch was made with
a view to including the cameo in the publication. It is of linear and contour-like character;
shadows are marked with parallel lines, which turn into dense cross hatching to the right of
the chariot. It is not a literal copy of the antique model - the artist gave Claudius his right hand
and windblown cape which were missing from the original.84 Although no print was made
after that drawing, such a print was planned: Peiresc’s manuscripts include a description of
the cameo, which was to be included in the projected publication.85 The drawing after Gemma
Tiberiana, which Peiresc discovered in the Sainte-Chapelle treasury in Paris in 1620, is of a
different nature (fig. 14).86 Rubens put considerably more effort into it - it is no longer merely a
note registering the cameo’s appearance, but a complete sketch executed using pen and wash
on a delicate outline made with black chalk.87 Also visible is gouache, used to highlight the
spots which stood out the most against the background. It is significant that in a few places
of the central area of the drawing Rubens used dense hatching combined with wash in order
to introduce deep shadows - above all in order to underline where the relief was the deepest.
One also gets the impression that they bring out the main figures depicted in the cameo from
the otherwise rather uniform background. Even though a print was made after the drawing
(fig. 15),88 and a painting as well (fig. 16),89 here too it is difficult to regard the latter as a typical
design, being rather a detailed image of the cameo. Both the Berlin and Antwerp drawings
were discussed not in the volume of the Corpus Rubenianum devoted to book illustrations
and title pages, but in that on copies from antique works. They are rightly regarded primarily
as copies, not independent designs. An interesting and not altogether unlikely supposition

82 For the planned publication and associated drawings, see, i.a., Oleg Neverov, “Gems in the Collection
of Rubens,” The Burlington Magazine, vol. 121, no. 916 (Jul. 1979), pp. 424 and 426-32; David Jaffé, “Reproducing
and Reading Gems in Rubens’s Circle,” in Engraved Gems: Survivals and Revivals, Clifford Malcolm Brown, ed.
(Washington, D.C., 1997), pp. 181-93. Studies in the Histoiy of Art, 54; Marjon van der Meulen, “Nicolas Fabri de
Peiresc and Antique Glyptic,” in Engraved Gems..., op. cit., pp. 195-227; Logan, Plomp, op. cit., pp. 116-17.
83 Peter Paul Rubens, Cameo with Claudius and Agrippina, c. 1622, pen and brown ink, 14.8 x 22.3 cm,
inv. no. KdZ 3379, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Kupferstichkabinett), Berlin. See Mielke,
Winner, op. cit., pp. 88-91, cat. no. 31; Van der Meulen, Copies..., op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 180-82, cat. no. 165; Logan, Plomp,
op. cit., cat. no. 24, pp. 116-17.
84 The cameo is currently held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (inv. no. Bab.276).
85 Logan, Plomp, op. cit., p. 116.
86 Peter Paul Rubens, Gemma Tiberiana, c. 1622, pen and brown ink and brown wash on a black chalk
outline, gouache (whites), 32.7 x 27 cm, inv. no. PK.0T.00109, Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp. See Van der
Meulen, Copies..., op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 190-91, cat. no. 168a. See also Anke van Wagenberg-Ter Hoeven, “A Matter of
Mistaken Identity. In Search of a New Title for Rubens’s Tiberius and Agrippina,” Artibus et Historiae, vol. 26, no.
52 (2005), pp. 113-27, in particular p. 125 and figs 12 and 13. According to Nico van Hout the sketch was made by an
unknown artist and only retouched by Rubens. See Nico van Hout, “D’après l’antique. Rubens et l’Archéologie,”
in Rubens et l’art de la gravure, Nico van Hout, ed., exh. cat., Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Künsten Antwerpen;
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, 2004-2005 (Gand, 2004), pp. 109-110, fig. 79.
87 See Van der Meulen, Copies..., op. cit., vol. 2, p. 174.
88 Unknown artist after Peter Paul Rubens, Gemma Tiberiana, engraving, 32.3 x 27.4 cm, inv. no.
1891,0414.1233, The British Museum, London.
89 Peter Paul Rubens, Gemma Tiberiana, oil, canvas, 100.7 x 7§ cm> inv-no-1963.8.1, Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford.