Overview

Commissioned in 1625 by the Archduchess and Infanta Isabel, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, for a royal convent in Madrid, The Triumph of the Eucharist constitutes Rubens's largest surviving program of church decoration-some twenty tapestries in all. Scribner's book provides a fully integrated study of this remarkable cycle of tapestries, here seen in the context of the great Flemish artist's other decorative programs: his three other tapestry cycles, the ceiling paintings for the Jesuit Church in Antwerp, and the celebrated 'Medici Cycle' of paintings in Paris. As the epitome of High Baroque religious art, this tapestry cycle addresses a central subject in Counter-Reformation theology: the Sacrament. It presents an epic history of the Eucharist, from its Old Testament prefigurations though its historical battles with paganism and, later, Protestantism. Scribner's iconographic study of this visual epic reveals the extraordinary richness of Rubens's allegorical language and vocabulary of images. In its elaborate-and unprecedented-use of fictive architecture within the tapestries, the cycle effectively transformed the convent chapel into a new Holy of Holies, the Christian successor to the Jewish Tabernacle of the Most High. In his grandest commission as Isabel's court painter, Rubens here offers his most comprehensive and Baroque expression of his Catholic faith.

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9781502522481

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CHARLES SCRIBNER III received his Ph.D. in art history from Princeton University, where he taught in the Department of Art and Archaeology (later serving on its Advisory Council) while working as editor and executive in the family publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons. His lectures and writings focus on the Baroque art of Rubens, Bernini, and Caravaggio. His books include The Triumph of the Eucharist: Tapestries Designed by Rubens; Rubens; Bernini; and The Shadow of God: A Journey Through Memory, Art, and Faith. He was awarded the Yorktown Certificate by the US Department of Treasury for his successful undercover role with Special Agents in recovering in Miami Beach a stolen Rubens from Spain, later the subject of the television documentary The Rubens Robbers (BBC/Bravo). He lives in New York. For further information: www.charlesscribner.com

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