The Catholic Rubens: Saints and Martyrs by Willibald Sauerländer (review)

Willibald Sauerländer (born in 1924) is an internationally recognized art historian, who taught during his prolific career at universities in the United States, Germany, and France. Being a medievalist, he wrote several tone-setting publications redefining the history of French medieval sculpture. This book stems from a review of the 2006 Rubens exhibition at Lille, rejecting the simplistic view that ranges the essence of Rubens’s oeuvre under the label of “baroque passions.” Instead, Sauerländer draws attention to the ethical, philosophical, and religious tension that is at the heart of Rubens’s art. The volume appeared in German in 2011. Thanks to the Getty Foundation, it has been published in English, allowing the publication to reach a larger audience.

As the title suggests, Sauerländer focuses on the characteristics of Rubens’s work as one of the major painters of the Counter-Reformation. The book therefore focuses on three topics that were at the center of religious strife in the Netherlands. The first is the dogma of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and his sacrifice to save the world. The second is the veneration of the Virgin, and the last is the veneration of saints and saint martyrs. The volume certainly does not aspire to giving an exhaustive overview of Rubens’s religious work. On the contrary, the author has selected some representative examples that highlight the visual rhetoric used by Rubens to underscore the Catholic position regarding these primary themes. He uses the selected paintings to refer to related works, thereby offering the reader a broader perspective on the painter’s oeuvre. The execution is inspired by the commissioners, often religious congregations such as the Jesuits or the different mendicant orders. For each of the paintings the author provides a contextual summary of the commission and a thorough analysis of its iconographic program.

Herein lies the important contribution of the book. Next to the adequate introduction to the content of each work, the author is still able to present some new and challenging iconographical insights. They illustrate how Rubens— according to the author—adapted his methods to visualize the subjects of the painting depending on each individual patron. This raises, however, an important question: was it indeed Rubens who put his “versatile and sensitive genius” in the service of his commissioners but at the same time monopolized the content of his works? Without detracting from the talent of the artist who certainly was capable of providing his work with the most eloquent references, the question yet arises whether the commissioners really remained on the sidelines as to the iconographical program of their commissions. The problem here is, of course, that sources documenting the genesis of these paintings are extremely scarce. But in the case of the documented commission of the thirty-nine ceiling paintings for the Jesuit church in Antwerp, for instance, it is clear that it was the Jesuit fathers who had the last word:

That the aforesaid Sr. Rubens shall furnish . . . the thirty-nine paintings . . . according to the list [of subjects] of such paintings delivered to him by the aforesaid Superior, at whose pleasure he shall nevertheless be obliged to change several of these subjects, when the aforesaid Superior shall deem it useful.¹

Although the author seems to be aware of the problem—“With respect to the surviving sources, in our ignorance of the wishes and instructions of his clients, we are at an inevitable disadvantage in our historical understanding of Rubens’s paintings of saints” (p. 133)—it seems that some more nuance in favor of the patrons would have been appropriate.

Apart from this reservation, The Catholic Rubens is an outstanding, entertaining publication of a convenient size and abundantly illustrated. It is not only an excellent introduction for a broad audience to the very essence of Rubens’s religious oeuvre; it also convinces the more advanced reader by its many persuasive, innovative findings.