Schelte Adamsz. Bolswert - Peter Paul Rubens: De bekering van St.Paulus - 17e Eeuw - in kleur - Sold

The engraving dates from (after) 1615. Photo of the watermark present. Sheet size: 47x63 cm, sheet edge approx. 45x60.5 cm. The whole weighs 4 kg.

In total, Bolswert cut 80 prints after Rubens, of which only four were under Rubens' authorization: The Lion Hunt, Landscape with Farm and Well, The Miraculous Catch of Fish and The Conversion of St. Paul , as presented here. This is a rare color version . These 4 are also the only engravings by Schelte that mention the triple privilege. That way he made sure no one else ran off with the proceeds. This mention also indicates that the entire production process took place under Rubens and that it was therefore created in his studio.

When a trained engraver came to work in the Rubens studio, he still received a retraining from Rubens in order to meet his requirements. Apparently this was no longer necessary with Schelte. His engravings showed incredible detail and were thus extremely accurate to the original, the fact that Schelte translated the tonality into a beautiful translation and that the painterly tendency of the painting was also reflected in it ensured that Schelte was enormously successful. Rubens enjoyed a lot of respect.

Saul is a Jewish persecutor who repented and became the 'apostle of the Gentiles' like Paul. When he traveled to Damascus he had a vision, the apparition he saw made itself known with the words: 'I am Jesus whom you persecute'. Paul falls from his horse and loses sight for several days as a result of the vision. Prancing horses throwing off their riders is a recurring motif in Rubens. Rubens was inspired for the performance by Italian masters such as Caravaggio. Both compositionally and in details such as the horse, we see strong relationships with other works by Rubens such as the hunting pieces that can also be seen here, or Rubens' Defeat of Sennacherib. Rubens painted at least three works with this theme. This print goes back to the last version, namely a painting that was in the Kaiser Friedrich-Museum in Berlin (Germany), but was lost in a fire in 1945. As was often the case, the engraving is dedicated to a personality, in this case Antoon Triest, bishop of Ghent (described extensively in Latin at the bottom of the engraving). The work is an example of perfect mastery.


(sources: partly from Wikipedia and baroqueinvlaanderen.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be)