The Solomonic Ambitions of Isabel Clara Eugenia in Rubens’s The Triumph of the Eucharist Tapestry Series

Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens, The Defenders of the Eucharist from The Triumph, ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid

In 1625 Isabel Clara Eugenia commissioned from Peter Paul Rubens a stunning twenty-tapestry cycle known as The Triumph of the Eucharist for the Royal Convent of the Discalced Clares in Madrid. In this cycle, Rubens designed eleven of the twenty tapestries to feature their narrative scenes in trompe l’oeil. It has long been argued that in doing so, Rubens sought to evoke the eleven curtains of the tabernacle in the temple of Solomon. This study reexamines the Solomonic theme through the political context of the series’ patron, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, archduchess of Austria and governess general of the Spanish Netherlands. It posits that by calling on the Solomonic imagery, Isabel wished to liken herself to the fair and wise Old Testament leader, thereby metaphorically announcing her suitability to govern the Netherlands with a freer hand than she had been allowed up to that time.

DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2015.7.2.4

Acknowledgements

This article derives from my dissertation “Piety, Politics, and Patronage: Isabel Clara Eugenia and Peter Paul Rubens’s ‘The Triumph of the Eucharist’ Tapestry Series” (PhD diss., University of Maryland, 2013) and was first presented at the College Art Association annual conference in February 2014. I wish to thank Arthur Wheelock, Charles Scribner, Maureen Warren, Elizabeth Sutton, Andrea Pearson, and Henriette Rahusen for reading earlier drafts of this paper and offering their help.

Peter Paul Rubens,  The Adoration of the Eucharist (bozzetto) from ,  ca. 1625, Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Fig. 1 Peter Paul Rubens, The Adoration of the Eucharist (bozzetto) from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1625, oil on panel, 31.5 x 32 cm. Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection, inv. no. 1937.1012 (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens,  The Defenders of the Eucharist from The Triumph,  ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid
Fig. 2 Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens, The Defenders of the Eucharist from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1628, wool and silk, 490 x 500 cm. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Lucas de Heere,  Philip II as Solomon, St. Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent
Fig. 3 Lucas de Heere, Philip II as Solomon, oil on canvas, 183 x 260 cm. St. Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent. Photo: © KIK-IRPA, Brussels (www.kikirpa.be) (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Pellegrino Tibaldi,  The Gathering of the Manna, 1586, Sagrario, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid
Fig. 4 Pellegrino Tibaldi, The Gathering of the Manna, fresco, 1586. Sagrario, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens,  The Four Evangelists from The Triumph of the Eu,  ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid
Fig. 5 Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert after Peter Paul Rubens, The Four Evangelists from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1628, wool and silk, 490 x 495 cm. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Jacob Geubels, Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens,  The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizidek from Th,  ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid
Fig. 6 Jacob Geubels, Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens, The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizidek from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1628, wool and silk, 490 x 600 cm. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Jacob Fobert and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens,  The Eucharist Overcoming Idolatry from The Tri,  ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid
Fig. 7 Jacob Fobert and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens, The Eucharist Overcoming Idolatry from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1628, wool and silk, 490 x 670 cm. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens,  The Sacrifice of the Old Covenant from The Triu,  ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid
Fig. 8 Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens, The Sacrifice of the Old Covenant from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1628, wool and silk, 480 x 655 cm. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Peter Paul Rubens and workshop,  Portrait of Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, , 1625, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena
Fig. 9 Peter Paul Rubens and workshop, Portrait of Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, Spanish Regent of the Low Countries, as a Nun, 1625, oil on canvas, 115.6 x 88.6 cm.Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, Norton Simon Art Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon, inv. no. M.1966.10.10.P (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Coro Altowall with grille separating the nuns’ ,
Fig. 10 Coro Altowall with grille separating the nuns’ choir from the nave, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (photograph in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Filippe Maëcht and Hans Taye, after Peter Paul Rubens,  Baptism of Constantine from The History of Con,  1623–25, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Fig. 11 Filippe Maëcht and Hans Taye, after Peter Paul Rubens, Baptism of Constantine from The History of Constantine the Great tapestry series, 1623–25, wool and silk with gold and silver threads, 477.5 x 545.5 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art, inv. no. 1959-78-4 (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Peter Paul Rubens,  The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation ,  1623–25, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Fig. 12 Peter Paul Rubens, The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de Médicis on May 14, 1610 from The Life of Marie de’ Medici series, 1623–25, oil on canvas, 394 x 727 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Paulus Pontius, after Peter Paul Rubens,  D. Isabella Clara Eugenia, Hispaniarum Infans &c,  ca. 1626, British Museum, London
Fig. 13 Paulus Pontius, after Peter Paul Rubens, D. Isabella Clara Eugenia, Hispaniarum Infans &c., ca. 1626, engraving, 58.8 x 42.7 cm. British Museum, London (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of,
Fig. 14 Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of the Descalzas Reales: nave facing altar (©copyright Alexandra Libby) [side-by-side viewer]
Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of,
Fig. 15 Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of the Descalzas Reales: nave facing left wall (©copyright Alexandra Libby) [side-by-side viewer]
Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of,
Fig. 16 Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of the Descalzas Reales: nave facing right wall (©copyright Alexandra Libby) [side-by-side viewer]
Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of,
Fig. 17 Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of the Descalzas Reales: nave facing Coro Alto wall (©copyright Alexandra Libby) [side-by-side viewer]
  1. 1. It is generally believed that the infanta Isabel presented The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestries series to the Royal Convent of the Discalced Clares in Madrid as a complete set in 1628 owing to a notation in the personal papers of the infanta’s biographer, Philippe Chifflet, which describe how in 1628 “Her Highness sent to Spain two wagons laden with tapestries, cloths, geographic maps, and some paintings.” (See Philippe Chifflet to Giovanni Francesco Guidi de Bagno, July 14, 1628 in “Papiers Des CHFFLET—Lettres Autographes de Jean-Jacques Chifflet Au Cardinal Bagni (1626–1630), de Philippe Chifflet Au Même (1627–1631), et de Pierre-François Chifflet À Baluze (1665–1681) et À André Duchesne (1633 et 1634),” Baluze 162 [Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, n.d.], fol. 195). However, in an unpublished paper, “Rubens’s Triumph of the Eucharist Tapestries: Roles and Rituals in the Convent and the City,” presented at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, in March 2012, Ana García Sanz, the curator of the convent, shared her research in the National Historic Archive in Madrid, where the “Libros de paso” (the list of objects and goods coming from Brussels that passed through customs in Madrid), describes one shipment of four tapestries in 1632 and two more shipments of three tapestries and one tapestry, respectively, in 1633. She recently published this information in Ana Garcia Sanz, “The Tapestries of the Triumph of the Eucharist: Function and Placement in the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales” in Spectacular Rubens: The Triumph of the Eucharist, exh. cat., ed. Alejandro Vergara and Anne T. Woolett (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2014), 31–48.

  2. 2. When Rubens first began to conceive of The Triumph of theEucharist tapestry project he created bozzetti for each composition, and in one instance showed five tapestries together in a two-tiered installation. In the sketch, which shows the wall of the church containing the nuns’ choir, narrative scenes flanked by Solomonic columns hung above scenes with framing Tuscan columns. It seems likely that Rubens envisioned this pattern for the whole church.

  3. 3. Exodus 26:7.

  4. 4. Charles Scribner III, “Sacred Architecture: Rubens’s Eucharist Tapestries,” Art Bulletin 57, no. 4 (December 1975): 526.

  5. 5. 2 Chronicles 1:1–9:31.

  6. 6. There is a substantial body of work on Philip II’s Solomonism, including Diane Chaffee-Sprace, “‘Salomón Segundo’ in Góngora’s ‘Sacros, Altos, Dorados Capitele,’” South Carolina Modern Language Review 9, no. 1 (Summer 2010): 32–46; Juan Rafael de la Cuadra Blanco, “King Philip of Spain as Solomon the Second: The Origins of Solomonism of the Escorial in the Netherlands,” in The Seventh Window: The King’s Window Donated by Philip II and Mary Tudor to Sint Janskerk in Gouda (1557), ed. Wim De Groot (Uitgeverij Verloren, 2005), 169–80; Juan Rafael de la Cuadra Blanco, “El Escorial Y El Templo de Salomón,” Anales de Arquitectura 7 (1996): 5–15; Rosemarie Mulcahy, The Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 131–36; Marie Tanner, The Last Descendant of Aeneas: The Hapsburgs and the Mythic Image of the Emperor (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 165–70; “Chapter VIII: Power and Propaganda in the Spain of Philip II,” in John Huxtable Elliott, Spain and Its World: 1500–1700 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 171; Cornelia von der Osten Sacken, San Lorenzo el Real de el Escorial: Studien zur Baugeschichte und Ikonologie (Munich: Mäander Kunstverlag, 1979); René Taylor, “Architecture and Magic. Considerations on the Idea of the Escorial,” in Essays on the History of Architecture Presented to Rudolf Wittkower, ed. Douglas Fraser, Howard Hibbard, and Milton J. Levine (London: Phaidon, 1967), 81–109.

  7. 7. Mulcahy, Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial, 133.

  8. 8. Quoted in Henry Kamen, The Escorial: Art and Power in the Renaissance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), 90.

  9. 9. For analysis of the poem, see Chaffee-Sprace, “‘Salomón Segundo’” 32–46.

  10. 10. Cuadra Blanco, “El Escorial y El Templo de Salomón,” 2–3, 8–9.

  11. 11. José de Sigüenza, La fundación del monasterio de El Escorial (1605) (Madrid: Aguilar, 1988), 6.

  12. 12. Mulcahy, Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial, 131.

  13. 13. Alexandra Libby, “Piety, Politics, and Patronage: Isabel Clara Eugenia and Peter Paul Rubens’s ‘The Triumph of the Eucharist’ Tapestry Series” (PhD diss., University of Maryland, 2013), 45–54.

  14. 14. Almudena Pérez de Tudela, “Making, Collecting, Displaying and Exchanging Objects (1566-99): Archival Sources Relating to the Infanta Isabela’s Personal Possessions,” in Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels, ed. Cordula van Wyhe (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2011), 62–63.

  15. 15. Antonio Rodriguez Villa, Correspondencia de la Infanta Archiduquesa Dona Isabel Clara Eugenia con el Duque de Lerma y Otros Personajes (Madrid: Fortanet, 1906), 153.

  16. 16. Libby, “Piety, Politics, and Patronage” 54–63; Alicia Esteban Estríngana, Madrid y Bruselas: Relaciones de Gobierno en la Etapa Postarchiducal (1621–1634) (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2005), 14, 16–17, 37–39; Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606–1661 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 155–60.

  17. 17. Isabel Clara Eugenia to Fray Domingo de Jesús María, Holy Wednesday 1627, in “INFANTE ISABEL Clara Eugenia,” MS 10, N 5/1 (Archives of the Discalced Carmelites, Antwerp, n.d.), doc. 12.

  18. 18. Receuil des Ordonnances des Pays-Bas: Règne d’Albert et Isabelle, 1597–1621 (Brussels: J. Goemaere, 1909), 1:7–13.

  19. 19. John Huxtable Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), 271–72; Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 103, 109.

  20. 20. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 155–60.

  21. 21. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 96–109.

  22. 22. Jonathan I. Israel, Empires and Entrepots: The Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy, and the Jews, 1585-1713 (London: Hambledon Press, 1990), 10.

  23. 23. I consulted the two English versions of Hugo’s text, published in 1627, one year after the original Latin version. The first version was translated by an unknown English colonel of a regiment that fought for Spain at Breda, who calls himself “CHG.” The second version was translated by Gerrat Barry, an Irish captain in Spinola’s army. Herman Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin by the R F Herman Hugo of the S. of I. Translated into English by CHG, ed. D. M. Rogers, trans. CHG (London: Scholar Press, 1975), 12–13; Herman Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt Vnder the Government of Isabella Atchived by the Conduct of Ambr. Spinola., ed. D. M. Rogers, trans. Gerrat Barry (London: Scholar Press, 1975). Hugo had been present at all of Spinola’s campaigns and was well placed to write this account, which also contains several woodcuts and engravings with maps and plans of the siege.

  24. 24. Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 144.

  25. 25. Luc Duerloo, Dynasty and Piety: Archduke Albert (1598–1621) and Habsburg Political Culture in an Age of Religious Wars (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2012), 125.

  26. 26. Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt, 146; Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 107; These instructions must have been influenced, in part, by the intensified conflict in the Valtelline, where the French government was backing the anti-Habsburg Protestant Grisons in their effort to secure the transalpine pass. Philip IV likely hoped that ending the siege in Breda would free up the army of Flanders to turn their attention instead to the Valtelline. See Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares, 223–25.

  27. 27. Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 51.

  28. 28. Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 59.

  29. 29. Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 51.

  30. 30. Translation by and quoted in Paul Arblaster, “Abraham Verhoeven and the Brussels Court: Isabel Clara Eugenia’s Staple of News,” in Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels, ed. Cordula van Wyhe (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2011), 310.

  31. 31. Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt, 149–50.

  32. 32. Isabel Clara Eugenia to Fray Domingo de Jesús María, July 11, 1625, in “INFANTE ISABEL Clara Eugenia,” MS 10, N 5/1 (Archives of the Discalced Carmelites, Antwerp, n.d.), doc. 10.

  33. 33. Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt, 145–49.

  34. 34. Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt, 148.

  35. 35. Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt, 148–49.

  36. 36. On the presentation of these offerings, see Arblaster, “Abraham Verhoeven and the Brussels Court” 309–11; Simon A. Vosters, La Rendición de Bredá en la literatura y el arte de España (London: Tamesis Books, 1973), 82; “Notes Concernant l’Infante Isabelle-Claire-Eugénie,” MS 1600 (Archives Municipale, Besançon, n.d.), fol. 74v; Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 145.

  37. 37. Ruth Betegon Diez, Isabel Clara Eugenia: Infanta de Espana y Soberana de Flandes (Barcelona: Plaza and Janes, 2004), 45.

  38. 38. M. Villermont, L’Infante Isabelle: Gouvernante des Pays-Bas (Tamines: Duculot-Roulin, 1912), 1:51–52.

  39. 39. María Leticia Ruiz Gómez, “Princesses and Nuns: The Convent of Descalzas Reales in Madrid,” Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies 8 (2003): 33–36.

  40. 40. Anna Coreth, Pietas Austriaca (West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2004), 15.

  41. 41. Luc Duerloo, “Archducal Piety and Hapsburg Power,” in Albert & Isabella, 1598–1621: Essays, ed. Luc Duerloo and Werner Thomas (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998), 267–83.

  42. 42. Duerloo, “Archducal Piety and Hapsburg Power,” 267–70.

  43. 43. Michael G. Brennan, ed., The Travel Diary (1611-1612) of an English Catholic (Leeds: Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 1993), 293–94.

  44. 44. Philippe Chifflet, “Papiers Pour La Vie de l’Infante Isabelle: Notes, Letters, Memoires . . . Rassembles Par Philippe Chifflet,” MS 97 (Archives Municipale, Besançon, n.d.), fol. 129v.

  45. 45. Philippe Chifflet, “Papiers Pour La Vie de l’Infante Isabelle: Notes, Letters, Memoires . . . Rassembles Par Philippe Chifflet,” fol. 129v.

  46. 46. Janet Hathaway, “Cloister, Court, and City: Musical Activity of the Monasterio de Las Descalzas Reales (Madrid), 1620–1700” (PhD thesis, New York University, 2005), 24–29.

  47. 47. Ana García Sanz, curator of El Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, private conversation, July 27, 2012. I am very grateful to Dr. Sanz for sharing this information with me.

  48. 48. Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 149.

  49. 49. Barbara Welzel, “Princeps Vidua, Mater Castrorum: The Iconography of Archduchess Isabella as Governor of the Netherlands,” Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum Voor Schone Kunsten (1999), 164.

  50. 50. According to Huemer and Vlieghe, “there is no doubt that Rubens designed the whole of this engraving. The angels are unmistakably in his style, and the composition is ascribed to Rubens in Hermanus Hugo’s Obsidio Bredana of 1626, where it is praised as a representation of Isabella’s victory.” Frances Huemer and Hans Vlieghe, Portraits, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, pt. 19 (Brussels: Arcade Press, 1977), 1:122.

  51. 51. “Caesaribus proavis et magno nato PHILIPPO / EVGENIA, Hesperij Gemma decusque Soli: / BELG / certa Salus: iusti Prudentia Belli, / Pacis Honos castae Relligionis Amor; / Hanc tibi Chaonià textam de fronde Coronam / Invictà donat BREDA recepta manu. / Optatamque diu felix sibi BELGICA Pacem / A Radijs sperat, clara Isabella, tuís. / C. Gevartius lud.” Translation in Welzel, p. 163: “Princeps Vidua, Mater Castrorum: The Iconography of Archduchess Isabella as Governor of the Netherlands.”

  52. 52. In addition to the prototype (whereabouts unknown) and the copy in the Norton Simon Museum of Art (inv. no. M.1966.10.10.P), there was a copy that Ludwig Burchard believed to be autograph, but which Frances Huemer and Hans Vlieghe rejected as by Rubens (whereabouts unknown). There is also a version mentioned in the inventory of the marquis of Leganés in 1655 (whereabouts unknown). An excellent copy may be found in Antwerp (Rubenshuis). Van Dyck also famously copied Rubens’s painting in 1628 (Collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, inv. no. 4263) autograph copies of which are in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, inv. no. GG_496), Turin (Galleria Sabauda, inv. no. 279), and, at one point, in Paris (formerly in the collection of Louis XIV, whereabouts unknown). Several versions after and/or studio of Rubens and/or Van Dyck may be found in Florence (“after Rubens,” Pitti Palace, inv. no. 4263), Seaton Delaval (“after Rubens,” National Trust, inv. no. 1276879), Dublin (“after Van Dyck,” National Gallery of Ireland, inv. no. NGI.1937), and Liverpool (“studio of Van Dyck,” National Museums of Liverpool, inv. no. WAG 1191). Several other versions are said to be found in Chatsworth, Brussels, Potsdam, and Parma, however, I was unable to verify the existence of these paintings. Finally, there is a copy by Jan van den Hoecke that was formerly part of the Julius Held Collection (sold, Christie’s, January 27, 2009, sale 2237, lot 35). Huemer and Vlieghe, Portraits, 2:119–23, nos. 109–112; Susan J. Barnes, Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 318–19. Copies of the portrait may also have been sent to Spain. A portrait of the infanta “dressed as a tertiary” was found in the death inventory of Francisco González Cossío de la Hoz, a Spanish army captain, in 1671. Marcus B. Burke and Peter Cherry, Collections of Paintings in Madrid, 1601–1755, Documents for the History of Collecting: Spanish Inventories I (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997), 641, no. 30.

  53. 53. For the many installation proposals, see Leo van Puyvelde, The Sketches of Rubens, trans. Eveline Winkworth (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1947), 32–33; Julius Held, “Rubens’s Triumph of the Eucharist and the Modello in Louisville,” J.B. Speed Art Museum Bulletin 25 (1968): 6–7; Elías Tormo y Monzó, En las Descalzas Reales: Estudios Históricos, Iconográficos y Artísticos (Madrid: Blass, 1917), 21; Victor H. Elbern, “Die Rubensteppiche des Kölner Domes: Ihre Geschichte und Ihre Stellung um Zyklus ‘Triumph der Eucharistie,’” Kölner Domblatt: Jahrbuch des Zentral-Dombauvereins 10 (1955): 54–55; Eberhard Müller-Bochat, Der allegorische Triumphzug ein Motiv Petrarcas bei Lope de Vega und Rubens (Krefeld: Scherpe, 1957), 15. Charles Scribner III has also offered an installation proposal in the revised and updated version of his 1982 publication on The Eucharist series: The Triumph of the Eucharist: Tapestries by Rubens (New York: Carolus, 2014), 225-238.

  54. 54. See García Sanz, “The Tapestries of the Triumph of the Eucharist” 31–48.

  55. 55. Scribner, “Sacred Architecture,” 526. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00043079.1975.10787212

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Burke, Marcus B., and Peter Cherry. Collections of Paintings in Madrid, 1601–1755. Documents for the History of Collecting: Spanish Inventories I. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997.

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Cuadra Blanco, Juan Rafael de la. “El Escorial Y El Templo de Salomón.” Anales de Arquitectura 7 (1996): 5–15.

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Elliott, John Huxtable. The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.

Esteban Estríngana, Alicia. Madrid y Bruselas: Relaciones de Gobierno en la Etapa Postarchiducal (1621–1634). Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2005.

Garcia Sanz, Ana “The Tapestries of the Triumph of the Eucharist: Function and Placement in the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales.” In Spectacular Rubens: The Triumph of the Eucharist, exh. cat., edited by Alejandro Vergara and Anne T. Woolett, 31–48. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2014.

García Sanz, Ana. “Rubens’s Triumph of the Eucharist Tapestries: Roles and Rituals in the Convent and the City.” Unpublished paper presented at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, March 2012.

Hathaway, Janet. “Cloister, Court, and City: Musical Activity of the Monasterio de Las Descalzas Reales (Madrid), 1620–1700.” PhD thesis, New York University, 2005.

Held, Julius. “Rubens’s Triumph of the Eucharist and the Modello in Louisville.” J. B. Speed Art Museum Bulletin 25 (1968): 2–23.

Huemer, Frances, and Hans Vlieghe. Portraits. Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, pt. 19. 2 vols. Brussels: Arcade Press, 1977.

Hugo, Herman. The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt Vnder the Government of Isabella Atchived by the Conduct of Ambr. Spinola. Edited by D. M. Rogers. Translated by Gerrat Barry. London: Scholar Press, 1975.

Hugo, Herman. The Siege of Breda Written in Latin by the R F Herman Hugo of the S. of I. Translated into English by CHG. Edited by D. M. Rogers. Translated by CHG. London: Scholar Press, 1975.

Israel, Jonathan I. Empires and Entrepots: The Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy, and the Jews, 1585–1713. London: Hambledon Press, 1990.

Israel, Jonathan I. The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606–1661. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Kamen, Henry. The Escorial: Art and Power in the Renaissance. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.

Libby, Alexandra. “Piety, Politics, and Patronage: Isabel Clara Eugenia and Peter Paul Rubens’s ‘The Triumph of the Eucharist’ Tapestry Series.” PhD diss., University of Maryland, 2013.

Mulcahy, Rosemarie. The Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Müller-Bochat, Eberhard. Der allegorische Triumphzug ein Motiv Petrarcas bei Lope de Vega und Rubens. Krefeld: Scherpe, 1957.

Osten Sacken, Cornelia von der. San Lorenzo el Real de el Escorial: Studien zur Baugeschichte und Ikonologie. Munich: Mäander Kunstverlag, 1979.

Pérez de Tudela, Almudena. “Making, Collecting, Displaying and Exchanging Objects (1566-99): Archival Sources Relating to the Infanta Isabela’s Personal Possessions.” In Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels, edited by Cordula van Wyhe, 61–87. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2011.

Puyvelde, Leo van. The Sketches of Rubens. Translated by Eveline Winkworth. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1947.

Rodriguez Villa, Antonio. Correspondencia de la Infanta Archiduquesa Dona Isabel Clara Eugenia con el Duque de Lerma y Otros Personajes. Madrid: Fortanet, 1906.

Ruiz Gómez, “María Leticia. “Princesses and Nuns: The Convent of Descalzas Reales in Madrid.” Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies 8 (2003): 33–36.

Scribner, Charles, III. “Sacred Architecture: Rubens’s Eucharist Tapestries.” Art Bulletin 57, no. 4 (December 1975): 519–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00043079.1975.10787212

Sigüenza, José de. La fundación del monasterio de El Escorial (1605). Madrid: Aguilar, 1988.

Tanner, Marie. The Last Descendant of Aeneas: The Hapsburgs and the Mythic Image of the Emperor. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.

Taylor, René. “Architecture and Magic: Considerations on the Idea of the Escorial.” In Essays on the History of Architecture Presented to Rudolf Wittkower, edited by Douglas Fraser, Howard Hibbard, and Milton J. Levine, 81–109. London: Phaidon, 1967.

Tormo y Monzó, Elías. En las Descalzas Reales: Estudios Históricos, Iconográficos y Artísticos. Madrid: Blass, 1917.

Villermont, M. L’Infante Isabelle: Gouvernante des Pays-Bas. 2 vols. Tamines: Duculot-Roulin, 1912.

Vosters, Simon A. La Rendición de Bredá en la literatura y el arte de España. London: Tamesis Books, 1973.

Welzel, Barbara. “Princeps Vidua, Mater Castrorum: The Iconography of Archduchess Isabella as Governor of the Netherlands.” Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum Voor Schone Kunsten (1999): 158–75.

List of Illustrations

Peter Paul Rubens,  The Adoration of the Eucharist (bozzetto) from ,  ca. 1625, Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Fig. 1 Peter Paul Rubens, The Adoration of the Eucharist (bozzetto) from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1625, oil on panel, 31.5 x 32 cm. Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection, inv. no. 1937.1012 (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens,  The Defenders of the Eucharist from The Triumph,  ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid
Fig. 2 Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens, The Defenders of the Eucharist from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1628, wool and silk, 490 x 500 cm. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Lucas de Heere,  Philip II as Solomon, St. Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent
Fig. 3 Lucas de Heere, Philip II as Solomon, oil on canvas, 183 x 260 cm. St. Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent. Photo: © KIK-IRPA, Brussels (www.kikirpa.be) (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Pellegrino Tibaldi,  The Gathering of the Manna, 1586, Sagrario, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid
Fig. 4 Pellegrino Tibaldi, The Gathering of the Manna, fresco, 1586. Sagrario, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens,  The Four Evangelists from The Triumph of the Eu,  ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid
Fig. 5 Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert after Peter Paul Rubens, The Four Evangelists from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1628, wool and silk, 490 x 495 cm. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Jacob Geubels, Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens,  The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizidek from Th,  ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid
Fig. 6 Jacob Geubels, Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens, The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizidek from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1628, wool and silk, 490 x 600 cm. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Jacob Fobert and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens,  The Eucharist Overcoming Idolatry from The Tri,  ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid
Fig. 7 Jacob Fobert and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens, The Eucharist Overcoming Idolatry from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1628, wool and silk, 490 x 670 cm. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens,  The Sacrifice of the Old Covenant from The Triu,  ca. 1628, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid
Fig. 8 Jan Raes, Jacob Fobert, and Hans Vervoert, after Peter Paul Rubens, The Sacrifice of the Old Covenant from The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series, ca. 1628, wool and silk, 480 x 655 cm. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Peter Paul Rubens and workshop,  Portrait of Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, , 1625, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena
Fig. 9 Peter Paul Rubens and workshop, Portrait of Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, Spanish Regent of the Low Countries, as a Nun, 1625, oil on canvas, 115.6 x 88.6 cm.Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, Norton Simon Art Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon, inv. no. M.1966.10.10.P (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Coro Altowall with grille separating the nuns’ ,
Fig. 10 Coro Altowall with grille separating the nuns’ choir from the nave, Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid (photograph in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Filippe Maëcht and Hans Taye, after Peter Paul Rubens,  Baptism of Constantine from The History of Con,  1623–25, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Fig. 11 Filippe Maëcht and Hans Taye, after Peter Paul Rubens, Baptism of Constantine from The History of Constantine the Great tapestry series, 1623–25, wool and silk with gold and silver threads, 477.5 x 545.5 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art, inv. no. 1959-78-4 (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Peter Paul Rubens,  The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation ,  1623–25, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Fig. 12 Peter Paul Rubens, The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de Médicis on May 14, 1610 from The Life of Marie de’ Medici series, 1623–25, oil on canvas, 394 x 727 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Paulus Pontius, after Peter Paul Rubens,  D. Isabella Clara Eugenia, Hispaniarum Infans &c,  ca. 1626, British Museum, London
Fig. 13 Paulus Pontius, after Peter Paul Rubens, D. Isabella Clara Eugenia, Hispaniarum Infans &c., ca. 1626, engraving, 58.8 x 42.7 cm. British Museum, London (artwork in the public domain) [side-by-side viewer]
Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of,
Fig. 14 Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of the Descalzas Reales: nave facing altar (©copyright Alexandra Libby) [side-by-side viewer]
Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of,
Fig. 15 Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of the Descalzas Reales: nave facing left wall (©copyright Alexandra Libby) [side-by-side viewer]
Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of,
Fig. 16 Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of the Descalzas Reales: nave facing right wall (©copyright Alexandra Libby) [side-by-side viewer]
Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of,
Fig. 17 Three-dimensional reconstruction of the church of the Descalzas Reales: nave facing Coro Alto wall (©copyright Alexandra Libby) [side-by-side viewer]

Footnotes

  1. 1. It is generally believed that the infanta Isabel presented The Triumph of the Eucharist tapestries series to the Royal Convent of the Discalced Clares in Madrid as a complete set in 1628 owing to a notation in the personal papers of the infanta’s biographer, Philippe Chifflet, which describe how in 1628 “Her Highness sent to Spain two wagons laden with tapestries, cloths, geographic maps, and some paintings.” (See Philippe Chifflet to Giovanni Francesco Guidi de Bagno, July 14, 1628 in “Papiers Des CHFFLET—Lettres Autographes de Jean-Jacques Chifflet Au Cardinal Bagni (1626–1630), de Philippe Chifflet Au Même (1627–1631), et de Pierre-François Chifflet À Baluze (1665–1681) et À André Duchesne (1633 et 1634),” Baluze 162 [Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, n.d.], fol. 195). However, in an unpublished paper, “Rubens’s Triumph of the Eucharist Tapestries: Roles and Rituals in the Convent and the City,” presented at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, in March 2012, Ana García Sanz, the curator of the convent, shared her research in the National Historic Archive in Madrid, where the “Libros de paso” (the list of objects and goods coming from Brussels that passed through customs in Madrid), describes one shipment of four tapestries in 1632 and two more shipments of three tapestries and one tapestry, respectively, in 1633. She recently published this information in Ana Garcia Sanz, “The Tapestries of the Triumph of the Eucharist: Function and Placement in the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales” in Spectacular Rubens: The Triumph of the Eucharist, exh. cat., ed. Alejandro Vergara and Anne T. Woolett (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2014), 31–48.

  2. 2. When Rubens first began to conceive of The Triumph of theEucharist tapestry project he created bozzetti for each composition, and in one instance showed five tapestries together in a two-tiered installation. In the sketch, which shows the wall of the church containing the nuns’ choir, narrative scenes flanked by Solomonic columns hung above scenes with framing Tuscan columns. It seems likely that Rubens envisioned this pattern for the whole church.

  3. 3. Exodus 26:7.

  4. 4. Charles Scribner III, “Sacred Architecture: Rubens’s Eucharist Tapestries,” Art Bulletin 57, no. 4 (December 1975): 526.

  5. 5. 2 Chronicles 1:1–9:31.

  6. 6. There is a substantial body of work on Philip II’s Solomonism, including Diane Chaffee-Sprace, “‘Salomón Segundo’ in Góngora’s ‘Sacros, Altos, Dorados Capitele,’” South Carolina Modern Language Review 9, no. 1 (Summer 2010): 32–46; Juan Rafael de la Cuadra Blanco, “King Philip of Spain as Solomon the Second: The Origins of Solomonism of the Escorial in the Netherlands,” in The Seventh Window: The King’s Window Donated by Philip II and Mary Tudor to Sint Janskerk in Gouda (1557), ed. Wim De Groot (Uitgeverij Verloren, 2005), 169–80; Juan Rafael de la Cuadra Blanco, “El Escorial Y El Templo de Salomón,” Anales de Arquitectura 7 (1996): 5–15; Rosemarie Mulcahy, The Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 131–36; Marie Tanner, The Last Descendant of Aeneas: The Hapsburgs and the Mythic Image of the Emperor (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 165–70; “Chapter VIII: Power and Propaganda in the Spain of Philip II,” in John Huxtable Elliott, Spain and Its World: 1500–1700 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 171; Cornelia von der Osten Sacken, San Lorenzo el Real de el Escorial: Studien zur Baugeschichte und Ikonologie (Munich: Mäander Kunstverlag, 1979); René Taylor, “Architecture and Magic. Considerations on the Idea of the Escorial,” in Essays on the History of Architecture Presented to Rudolf Wittkower, ed. Douglas Fraser, Howard Hibbard, and Milton J. Levine (London: Phaidon, 1967), 81–109.

  7. 7. Mulcahy, Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial, 133.

  8. 8. Quoted in Henry Kamen, The Escorial: Art and Power in the Renaissance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), 90.

  9. 9. For analysis of the poem, see Chaffee-Sprace, “‘Salomón Segundo’” 32–46.

  10. 10. Cuadra Blanco, “El Escorial y El Templo de Salomón,” 2–3, 8–9.

  11. 11. José de Sigüenza, La fundación del monasterio de El Escorial (1605) (Madrid: Aguilar, 1988), 6.

  12. 12. Mulcahy, Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial, 131.

  13. 13. Alexandra Libby, “Piety, Politics, and Patronage: Isabel Clara Eugenia and Peter Paul Rubens’s ‘The Triumph of the Eucharist’ Tapestry Series” (PhD diss., University of Maryland, 2013), 45–54.

  14. 14. Almudena Pérez de Tudela, “Making, Collecting, Displaying and Exchanging Objects (1566-99): Archival Sources Relating to the Infanta Isabela’s Personal Possessions,” in Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels, ed. Cordula van Wyhe (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2011), 62–63.

  15. 15. Antonio Rodriguez Villa, Correspondencia de la Infanta Archiduquesa Dona Isabel Clara Eugenia con el Duque de Lerma y Otros Personajes (Madrid: Fortanet, 1906), 153.

  16. 16. Libby, “Piety, Politics, and Patronage” 54–63; Alicia Esteban Estríngana, Madrid y Bruselas: Relaciones de Gobierno en la Etapa Postarchiducal (1621–1634) (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2005), 14, 16–17, 37–39; Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606–1661 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 155–60.

  17. 17. Isabel Clara Eugenia to Fray Domingo de Jesús María, Holy Wednesday 1627, in “INFANTE ISABEL Clara Eugenia,” MS 10, N 5/1 (Archives of the Discalced Carmelites, Antwerp, n.d.), doc. 12.

  18. 18. Receuil des Ordonnances des Pays-Bas: Règne d’Albert et Isabelle, 1597–1621 (Brussels: J. Goemaere, 1909), 1:7–13.

  19. 19. John Huxtable Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), 271–72; Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 103, 109.

  20. 20. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 155–60.

  21. 21. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 96–109.

  22. 22. Jonathan I. Israel, Empires and Entrepots: The Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy, and the Jews, 1585-1713 (London: Hambledon Press, 1990), 10.

  23. 23. I consulted the two English versions of Hugo’s text, published in 1627, one year after the original Latin version. The first version was translated by an unknown English colonel of a regiment that fought for Spain at Breda, who calls himself “CHG.” The second version was translated by Gerrat Barry, an Irish captain in Spinola’s army. Herman Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin by the R F Herman Hugo of the S. of I. Translated into English by CHG, ed. D. M. Rogers, trans. CHG (London: Scholar Press, 1975), 12–13; Herman Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt Vnder the Government of Isabella Atchived by the Conduct of Ambr. Spinola., ed. D. M. Rogers, trans. Gerrat Barry (London: Scholar Press, 1975). Hugo had been present at all of Spinola’s campaigns and was well placed to write this account, which also contains several woodcuts and engravings with maps and plans of the siege.

  24. 24. Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 144.

  25. 25. Luc Duerloo, Dynasty and Piety: Archduke Albert (1598–1621) and Habsburg Political Culture in an Age of Religious Wars (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2012), 125.

  26. 26. Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt, 146; Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 107; These instructions must have been influenced, in part, by the intensified conflict in the Valtelline, where the French government was backing the anti-Habsburg Protestant Grisons in their effort to secure the transalpine pass. Philip IV likely hoped that ending the siege in Breda would free up the army of Flanders to turn their attention instead to the Valtelline. See Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares, 223–25.

  27. 27. Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 51.

  28. 28. Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 59.

  29. 29. Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 51.

  30. 30. Translation by and quoted in Paul Arblaster, “Abraham Verhoeven and the Brussels Court: Isabel Clara Eugenia’s Staple of News,” in Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels, ed. Cordula van Wyhe (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2011), 310.

  31. 31. Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt, 149–50.

  32. 32. Isabel Clara Eugenia to Fray Domingo de Jesús María, July 11, 1625, in “INFANTE ISABEL Clara Eugenia,” MS 10, N 5/1 (Archives of the Discalced Carmelites, Antwerp, n.d.), doc. 10.

  33. 33. Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt, 145–49.

  34. 34. Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt, 148.

  35. 35. Hugo, The Seige of Breda by the Armes of Phillip the Fovrt, 148–49.

  36. 36. On the presentation of these offerings, see Arblaster, “Abraham Verhoeven and the Brussels Court” 309–11; Simon A. Vosters, La Rendición de Bredá en la literatura y el arte de España (London: Tamesis Books, 1973), 82; “Notes Concernant l’Infante Isabelle-Claire-Eugénie,” MS 1600 (Archives Municipale, Besançon, n.d.), fol. 74v; Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 145.

  37. 37. Ruth Betegon Diez, Isabel Clara Eugenia: Infanta de Espana y Soberana de Flandes (Barcelona: Plaza and Janes, 2004), 45.

  38. 38. M. Villermont, L’Infante Isabelle: Gouvernante des Pays-Bas (Tamines: Duculot-Roulin, 1912), 1:51–52.

  39. 39. María Leticia Ruiz Gómez, “Princesses and Nuns: The Convent of Descalzas Reales in Madrid,” Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies 8 (2003): 33–36.

  40. 40. Anna Coreth, Pietas Austriaca (West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2004), 15.

  41. 41. Luc Duerloo, “Archducal Piety and Hapsburg Power,” in Albert & Isabella, 1598–1621: Essays, ed. Luc Duerloo and Werner Thomas (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998), 267–83.

  42. 42. Duerloo, “Archducal Piety and Hapsburg Power,” 267–70.

  43. 43. Michael G. Brennan, ed., The Travel Diary (1611-1612) of an English Catholic (Leeds: Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 1993), 293–94.

  44. 44. Philippe Chifflet, “Papiers Pour La Vie de l’Infante Isabelle: Notes, Letters, Memoires . . . Rassembles Par Philippe Chifflet,” MS 97 (Archives Municipale, Besançon, n.d.), fol. 129v.

  45. 45. Philippe Chifflet, “Papiers Pour La Vie de l’Infante Isabelle: Notes, Letters, Memoires . . . Rassembles Par Philippe Chifflet,” fol. 129v.

  46. 46. Janet Hathaway, “Cloister, Court, and City: Musical Activity of the Monasterio de Las Descalzas Reales (Madrid), 1620–1700” (PhD thesis, New York University, 2005), 24–29.

  47. 47. Ana García Sanz, curator of El Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, private conversation, July 27, 2012. I am very grateful to Dr. Sanz for sharing this information with me.

  48. 48. Hugo, The Siege of Breda Written in Latin, 149.

  49. 49. Barbara Welzel, “Princeps Vidua, Mater Castrorum: The Iconography of Archduchess Isabella as Governor of the Netherlands,” Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum Voor Schone Kunsten (1999), 164.

  50. 50. According to Huemer and Vlieghe, “there is no doubt that Rubens designed the whole of this engraving. The angels are unmistakably in his style, and the composition is ascribed to Rubens in Hermanus Hugo’s Obsidio Bredana of 1626, where it is praised as a representation of Isabella’s victory.” Frances Huemer and Hans Vlieghe, Portraits, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, pt. 19 (Brussels: Arcade Press, 1977), 1:122.

  51. 51. “Caesaribus proavis et magno nato PHILIPPO / EVGENIA, Hesperij Gemma decusque Soli: / BELG / certa Salus: iusti Prudentia Belli, / Pacis Honos castae Relligionis Amor; / Hanc tibi Chaonià textam de fronde Coronam / Invictà donat BREDA recepta manu. / Optatamque diu felix sibi BELGICA Pacem / A Radijs sperat, clara Isabella, tuís. / C. Gevartius lud.” Translation in Welzel, p. 163: “Princeps Vidua, Mater Castrorum: The Iconography of Archduchess Isabella as Governor of the Netherlands.”

  52. 52. In addition to the prototype (whereabouts unknown) and the copy in the Norton Simon Museum of Art (inv. no. M.1966.10.10.P), there was a copy that Ludwig Burchard believed to be autograph, but which Frances Huemer and Hans Vlieghe rejected as by Rubens (whereabouts unknown). There is also a version mentioned in the inventory of the marquis of Leganés in 1655 (whereabouts unknown). An excellent copy may be found in Antwerp (Rubenshuis). Van Dyck also famously copied Rubens’s painting in 1628 (Collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, inv. no. 4263) autograph copies of which are in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, inv. no. GG_496), Turin (Galleria Sabauda, inv. no. 279), and, at one point, in Paris (formerly in the collection of Louis XIV, whereabouts unknown). Several versions after and/or studio of Rubens and/or Van Dyck may be found in Florence (“after Rubens,” Pitti Palace, inv. no. 4263), Seaton Delaval (“after Rubens,” National Trust, inv. no. 1276879), Dublin (“after Van Dyck,” National Gallery of Ireland, inv. no. NGI.1937), and Liverpool (“studio of Van Dyck,” National Museums of Liverpool, inv. no. WAG 1191). Several other versions are said to be found in Chatsworth, Brussels, Potsdam, and Parma, however, I was unable to verify the existence of these paintings. Finally, there is a copy by Jan van den Hoecke that was formerly part of the Julius Held Collection (sold, Christie’s, January 27, 2009, sale 2237, lot 35). Huemer and Vlieghe, Portraits, 2:119–23, nos. 109–112; Susan J. Barnes, Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 318–19. Copies of the portrait may also have been sent to Spain. A portrait of the infanta “dressed as a tertiary” was found in the death inventory of Francisco González Cossío de la Hoz, a Spanish army captain, in 1671. Marcus B. Burke and Peter Cherry, Collections of Paintings in Madrid, 1601–1755, Documents for the History of Collecting: Spanish Inventories I (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997), 641, no. 30.

  53. 53. For the many installation proposals, see Leo van Puyvelde, The Sketches of Rubens, trans. Eveline Winkworth (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1947), 32–33; Julius Held, “Rubens’s Triumph of the Eucharist and the Modello in Louisville,” J.B. Speed Art Museum Bulletin 25 (1968): 6–7; Elías Tormo y Monzó, En las Descalzas Reales: Estudios Históricos, Iconográficos y Artísticos (Madrid: Blass, 1917), 21; Victor H. Elbern, “Die Rubensteppiche des Kölner Domes: Ihre Geschichte und Ihre Stellung um Zyklus ‘Triumph der Eucharistie,’” Kölner Domblatt: Jahrbuch des Zentral-Dombauvereins 10 (1955): 54–55; Eberhard Müller-Bochat, Der allegorische Triumphzug ein Motiv Petrarcas bei Lope de Vega und Rubens (Krefeld: Scherpe, 1957), 15. Charles Scribner III has also offered an installation proposal in the revised and updated version of his 1982 publication on The Eucharist series: The Triumph of the Eucharist: Tapestries by Rubens (New York: Carolus, 2014), 225-238.

  54. 54. See García Sanz, “The Tapestries of the Triumph of the Eucharist” 31–48.

  55. 55. Scribner, “Sacred Architecture,” 526. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00043079.1975.10787212

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DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2015.7.2.4
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Alexandra Libby, "The Solomonic Ambitions of Isabel Clara Eugenia in Rubens’s The Triumph of the Eucharist Tapestry Series," Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 7:2 (Summer 2015) DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2015.7.2.4