To the boring and repetitive question of whether one can make a living from art, Pedro Pablo Rubens answered in the 17th century not only yes, but that one could even start a business. Flamenco, one of the greatest exponents of the Baroque, was the most sought-after painter of the 17th century and an obsession of Philip IV. To satisfy the high demand, he created an industry in which 20 assistants worked at the same time to create around 2,000 works, of which 1,500 were preserved. A remarkable number considering each piece could take two months or more. From this Tuesday, the Prado Museum will devote the exhibition to this symbolic space of creation, but also of manufacturing. Rubens’ workshop.
Although the workshop model, in which a master works with several apprentices, has existed since the end of the 16th century, Rubens generalized an entrepreneurial attitude towards painting. “You have to think of your workshop as a place with a lot of activity and a lot of people with very specialized tasks. In the morning, many people went to sell frames and moldings, and there was a large volume of stylistic painting,” highlighted the curator of the exhibition, Alejandro Vergara, during his presentation to the media. The artist’s level of production is even more valuable at a time when prejudices still existed against manual and mechanical work, intended since Antiquity for slaves, despite the recognition they received during the Renaissance.
The thirty works located in room 16A of the Prado, available until February 16, 2025, as well as replicas of the materials and objects from the workshop, represent the intense work carried out at the pace of the factory. The assistants’ work could range from preparing the colors or frames to working directly on the canvas. “It was painted little by little, in several layers which had to dry for weeks. This allowed the teacher to alternate with the apprentices and encouraged the authors to create several paintings at the same time,” explains Vergara. The aspiring painter learned in the execution of his work and the creator obtained the economic benefits of this work.
Variable prices
Among his students, some stand out like Anthony van Dyck, the only one whom Rubens explicitly mentions in his letters or texts to his buyers. In one of his correspondence, he wrote that he had to reject up to 100 apprentices and preferred those who already came with experience in other workshops. If large painting workshops already existed before, like those run by Raphaël, Luca Giordano or Guido Reni, that of the author of The three graces It reached an incomparable level of work hierarchy and popularity which is still reflected today in the thousands of daily visits it receives as a museum in its native Antwerp.
As there are works entirely made by Rubens, others in which he made adjustments and others in which only the workshop participated, the final result could vary. The exhibition includes paintings from all three groups: there are original works, such as Saturn devouring his sonone of the most important of the author, and others in which only the workshop signs, like Democritus, the laughing philosopher. To make the differences between them more explicit, the exhibition has put online two versions, one authentic and the other a copy made by assistants, of the portrait of Anne of Austria. “In the work Rubens painted, there is a spontaneity that demonstrates how the author made creative decisions on the fly. The lace part of the collar and the outer fringe of the garment were modified by being painted. In the copy, it’s more premeditated,” Vergara explains.
Whether a total production of the flamenco artist or his apprentices, all the works that left the workshop, Vergara says, were considered products of his brand. “Just like a design project from a studio, even if it is executed by another architect, it bears the name of the studio.” However, this same opinion was not shared by all of its buyers. The walls of the room illustrate a few sentences with which Rubens responded in writing to the discomfort of his clients: “He never explained clearly to me whether what he wanted was a complete original or a studio painting painted by me” and “If I had painted the picture without help it would have cost twice as much.
The assistants played a crucial role in the series of 60 paintings in the collection of poems The metamorphoses of the Roman Ovid, commissioned by Philip IV – the king’s affection for the painter largely explains why the Prado preserves 91 pieces – to decorate the Torre de la Parada, on the outskirts of Madrid. One of the most important, available in the sample, is Mercury and Argoswhich represents the moment when the god directs his sword towards Argos, the shepherd whose daughter was transformed into a cow, to keep her away from Jupiter’s harassment. “The cow’s face is distressing. Rubens’ best virtue is knowing how to convey to us the pain he felt while reading a poem. “It deploys a series of tools that transmit this passion to us.”
