"Rubens and the Baroque Festival"
March 19�August 28, 2010
Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Floor 4

Rubens's oil on wood sketch of Neptune Calming the Tempest in the Fogg collection is a preparatory study for the left wing of the Stage of Welcome, a temporary stage built in honor of the triumphal entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand into Antwerp in 1635. This small installation juxtaposes the sketch with an engraving of the final stage and with Renaissance prints, drawings, and ancient coins (from the Harvard and MFA Boston collections) that informed Rubens's design. Organized by Anna Knaap, Theodore Rousseau Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Paintings, Sculpture and Decorative Arts in collaboration with Carmen Arnold-Biucchi, Damarete Curator of Ancient Coins.

On April 17, there will be a symposium "Art, Music, and Spectacle in the Age of Rubens". The event is free and open to the public (for details, http://www.harvardartmuseum.org/calendar/detail.dot?id=27895). The program will examine the art, architecture, music, theater, and festival books associated with the entry. List of speakers: Jonathan Israel (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton); Peter Miller (Bard Graduate Center); Bart Ramakers (University of Groningen); Anne Woollett (J. Paul Getty Museum); Michael Putnam (Brown University); Carmen Arnold-Biuchhi (Harvard Art Museum); Frank Fehrenbach (Harvard University); Caroline van Eck (Leiden University); Louis Grijp (Meertens Institute, Utrecht University).

The exhibition's organizers, Drs. Knaap and Arnold-Biucchi, are greatly interested in information on Rubens as a collector and student of ancient coins and would welcome information about the contents of his collection and its eventual disposition (and whether any coins known to have been in Rubens' collection are extant today). Dr. Knaap can be contacted at antien_knaap@harvard.edu.