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Creator:
Sir Peter Paul Rubens, 1577–1640
Title:

Peace Embracing Plenty

Date:
between 1633 and 1634
Medium:
Oil on panel
Dimensions:
24 3/4 × 18 1/2 inches (62.9 × 47 cm), Frame: 35 × 28 5/8 inches (88.9 × 72.7 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.70
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
abundance | allegory | arch | banquet hall | columns | cornice | cornucopia (motif) | costume | fruit | gold | peace | religious and mythological subject
Access:
On view at the Yale University Art Gallery
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:417
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The Flemish-born Peter Paul Rubens was a classical scholar and diplomat, in addition to being a painter. Following a mission to London on behalf of the king of Spain in 1630, he was commissioned by Charles I to decorate the ceiling of the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace with a scheme celebrating the reign of Charles’s father, James I. This is a preparatory modello, or sketch, that Rubens made to guide the assistants in his busy Antwerp studio. The two female figures represent a smaller section of a larger central panel. Peace, draped in gold, moves to embrace Plenty, who is clad in pink and carrying a cornucopia, a symbol of abundance. Behind them looms an architectural caprice with a niche surrounded by four Solomonic columns. Traditionally associated with the First Temple of Jerusalem built by King Solomon, the columns are attributes of a wise and prosperous reign.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016


Among Charles I's greatest acts as a patron and collector of art was his success in commissioning an exceptional series of allegorical paintings from Rubens to decorate the ceiling of Inigo Jones's Banqueting House at Whitehall. The complex program was intended to glorify the reign of Charles's father, James I, who liked to think of himself as a new Solomon. Discussion with Rubens about the project began in 1621 while James still ruled and just before the completion of the building, but nothing came of it until Rubens visited London in 1629-1630 in a diplomatic capacity. It is assumed that Jones must have had some role in developing the grand allegorical scheme, which was to be executed in Rubens's vast studio in Antwerp. This is an oil sketch of Peace embracing Plenty from the section of the ceiling devoted to "The Peaceful Reign of James I." The full scheme is shown in the print alongside. Although the magnificent ceiling projected an image of the late king as a divinely appointed Solomon, not everyone had been so convinced of James's abilities. Henry IV of France (1553-1610) once famously quipped that James was "the wisest fool in Christendom."

Gallery label for Connections (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-05-26 - 2011-09-11)


After visiting London on a diplomatic mission, the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens was commissioned by King Charles I to paint ceiling decorations for the recently completed Banqueting House in Whitehall. The decorations are a glorification in allegorical terms of the reign of the king's father, the first Stuart monarch, King James VI of Scotland and I of England. This was one of the sketches or "modelli" Rubens submitted for the king's approval before painting the huge decorative canvases in his studio in Antwerp. Rubens's signature modelli are invariably works of dazzling freshness and vivacity, and this example is unusually pristine.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005

Rubens painter of Sketches (Museo del Prado, 2018-04-09 - 2018-08-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Rubens et l'Europe (Musee du Louvre-Lens, 2013-05-22 - 2013-09-23) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Connections (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-05-26 - 2011-09-11) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens (Cincinnati Art Museum, 2005-05-24 - 2005-09-11) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens (Bruce Museum of Arts and Science, 2004-10-02 - 2005-01-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Rubens & Rembrandt (Yale University Art Gallery, 1998-02-14 - 1998-12-11) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Crown Pictorial - Art and the British Monarchy (Yale Center for British Art, 1990-12-05 - 1991-02-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Acquisitions : The First Decade 1977-1986, Yale Center for British Art , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1986, pp. 9, 18, 19, no. 48, fig. 10, N590.2 A7 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 30-31, fig. 4, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, p. 288, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Linda Colley, Crown Pictorial : Art and the British Monarchy : Exhibition Labels, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1990, pp. 11-12, no. 30, N8219 K5 C761 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Linda Colley, Crown Pictorial : Art and the British Monarchy, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1990, pp. 28, 29, no. 30, no. 30, N8219 K5 C76 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, A Selective Promenade, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, p. 288, N1 A54 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 192-193, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Matthew Hargraves, "Yale Center for British Art joins Art UK", ArtUK, 24 June 2019, Available online https://artuk.org/discover/stories/yale-center-for-british-art-joins-art-uk [Website]

Matthew Hargraves, Matthew Hargraves on Peter Paul Rubens's Peace Embracing Plenty, , January 20, 2012, 0 minutes, 20 seconds, http://www.youtube.com/v/dKoHvse6Ud0 [Website]

Friso Lammertse, Rubens: Painter of Sketches, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain, p. 135, cat. 32, ND673.R89 A4 2018 (LC) Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Gregory Martin, Rubens in London, art and diplomacy , Harvey Miller Publishers, London, 2011, pp. 112-14, fig. 53, NJ18.R82 M372 2011 (LC) Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Duncan Robinson, Acquisitions : The First Decade 1977 - 1986, , Burlington Magazine, vol. 128, October 1986, pp. 9, 18, 19, no. 48, fig. 10, N1 B87 128:3 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Wilmerding, Essays in honor of Paul Mellon, collector and benefactor, Essays , National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC & Hanover, NH, 1986, p. 265, fig. 6, N7442.2 M455 1986 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale Center for British Art, Selected paintings, drawings & books, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. 6, N590.2 A82 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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