Rubens’ interest in history, particularly ancient history, was intense, as is evident in the paintings and drawings grouped together in this volume, part 13(1) in the series Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard . In Rubens’ day, history was principally valued for the lessons it taught, and the historical scenes most commonly depicted in Renaissance art are exemplary themes, above all illustrations of the virtuous deeds of the heroes and heroines of classical antiquity. Rubens painted a number of these - The Continence of Scipio , for example, The Justice of Cambyses , The Devotion of Ertemisia and The Courage of Cloelia - bringing to them his characteristic wit, originality and artistic force. He also illustrated quite novel subjects, some of them rarely discussed by modern scholars and often even misidentified, from Pythagoras advocating Vegetarianism and Alcibiades interrupting the Symposium to the famous Death of Seneca , the medieval story of The Piety of Rudolf of Habsburg and the vividly evocative Battle of Tunis . The present volume focuses particularly on Rubens’ ingenuity in the invention of subjects for a variety of contexts - occasionally simply for his own pleasure. An introduction considers the artist’s relationship to the tradition of depicting history, the books read and the easy familiarity with ancient literature which is reflected in his paintings, where striking images from Ovid and other classical poets often helped to inspire his most remarkable creations. This is followed by the Catalogue Raisonne, which deals with 60 different compositions. Included is a discussion of a projected tapestry series on the life of Romulus. Rubens’ other designs for tapestry cycles on themes from ancient history are treated in a separate volume, but some consideration is given to them here, in the introduction. As with other volumes of the Corpus, all relevant paintings, including sketches and drawings, or copies of lost works, are illustrated and discussed.
