A Sermon in a Village Church
Peter Paul Rubens
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This sheet, a relatively recent addition to Rubens's drawn oeuvre, is exceptional in several ways. Even if it seems to have been slightly cropped (especially at the left and the top), it remains one of the artist's largest works on paper. Its technique is much richer than that of most of his other drawings, combining chalk and paints, and gives the work the appearance of an oil sketch. The subject matter may be considered unique for Rubens. In a simple village church, a Catholic priest can be seen preaching to farmers and peasants—men on the left and women on the right—who listen with varying degrees of attentiveness. Obviously observed from nature, the scene can be connected only with the landscapes and studies related to farm life that he made at the end of his career, when he spent much of his time on the estate near Malines that he acquired in 1635. Rubens's composition (if not the vivacity and freshness of the drawing) has been repeated by other artists in a few painted copies. There is, however, no indication that Rubens himself made the drawing for any other reason than to record a moment he had witnessed and thought worthy of his talents.
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.