The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2024

The Feast of Herod (recto)

The Feast of Herod (recto)

c. 1637–38
(Flemish, 1577–1640)
Flanders
pen and brown ink, with black and red chalk, touched with white gouache
Sheet: 27.2 x 47.2 cm (10 11/16 x 18 9/16 in.); Secondary Support: 27.6 x 47.3 cm (10 7/8 x 18 5/8 in.)
Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds 1954.2.a
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The two stories that Rubens depicted on the front and back of this sheet of paper each feature a gruesome death, the result of revenge at the hands of a powerful woman.

Description

Peter Paul Rubens had a large studio in Antwerp and used drawing to prepare for large paintings as well as to direct the many pupils who assisted him. Striking in its immediacy, the drawing on the recto of this sheet of paper is a preparatory study for the Feast of Herod painting now at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Herod, wearing a large cap and wrapped in a mantle, shrinks back in horror as Salome uncovers a charger that holds the head of Saint John the Baptist. Smiling, Herodias grabs the platter with her left hand and, in a chilling detail, gestures toward the charger with a fork. Rubens wrote what is usually interpreted as “Herodias somewhat higher” at the top of the sheet. The verso of the sheet depicts a sketch for another story featuring a change of fortune at the hands of a vengeful woman, Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus. Rubens made two paintings of the subject (now in Paris and Boston). A rare theme, the story tells of Queen Tomyris who, avenging the death of her son in battle, collects the head of his murderer Cyrus in a bag of human blood. Tomyris is shown seated under a canopy holding a scepter, while the servants before her handle Cyrus’s head. Rubens wrote “plus spatij” (more space) in the center of the sheet.
  • Unidentified collector (Lugt 622, verso, lower right, in black ink, probably Austrian collection c. 1800); English private collection (According to Burchard and d'Hulst, Antwerp, 1956); [Herbert N. Bier]. Purchased by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1954.
  • Fogg Art Museum. Drawings & Oil Sketches by P.P. Rubens, from American Collections. Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; New York, NY: The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1956. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 25-26, no. 26, pl. 26
    Burchard, Ludwig and Roger Adolf d' Hulst. Tekeningen van P.P. Rubens. Antwerpen: Uitgeverij Ontwikkeling, 1956. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 107-8, no. 131, pl. 59
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 588 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 119 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 119 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 154 archive.org
    Johnson, Mark M. Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 29-32
    Logan, Anne-Marie S. Flemish Drawings in the Age of Rubens: Selected Works from American Collections. Wellesley, MA: Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, 1993. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 203-5, no. 58
    DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: P. 174-75, 294; Reproduced: P. 175, cat. no. 71
    Logan, Anne-Marie S., and Michiel Plomp. Peter Paul Rubens: The Drawings. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 112, p. 300
  • Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).
    Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640): The Drawings. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (January 18-April 3, 2005).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    Flemish Drawings in the Age of Rubens: Selected Works from American Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 4-February 20, 1994).
    Baroque Imagery. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 1984-January 6, 1985).
    Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980).
    Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-October 21, 1968).
    Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9, 1967-January 1, 1968).
    Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-February 28, 1967).
    Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 1965).
    Tekeningen van P.P. Rubens. Rubenshuis, Antwerpen, Belgium (June 16-September 25, 1956).
  • {{cite web|title=The Feast of Herod (recto)|url=false|author=Peter Paul Rubens|year=c. 1637–38|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1954.2.a