19 September 2007 – 30 March 2008

Focus on Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Boeckhorst

“King David Playing the Harp” by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Boeckhorst has numbered among the outstanding examples of Flemish Baroque painting in the Städel Museum since 1867. It also illustrates the current workshop practice of those years for only part of the work is by Rubens’s hand: the head was painted by him as a study on a small panel in 1616. It was only after his death that Boeckhorst, a former member of his workshop, extended the “tronje” by two boards, transforming it into King David’s full portrait.

The exhibition explores Rubens’s use of the “tronje” and elucidates its extension by Boeckhorst who not only left Rubens’s head “uncrowned” but completely untouched.

The presentation also documents the contemporary reception of Boeckhorst’s “David.” As a further example for a study head by Rubens, a loan from a private collection, which was equally offered at the Antwerp art market after a similar extension, provides the visitor with an additional point of reference.

Address

Städel Museum / Städtische Galerie
Schaumainkai 63
60596 Frankfurt am Main
phone +49 69 605 09 80
http://www.staedelmuseum.de

Opening Hours

Tuesday, Friday-Sunday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday 10 a.m. - 9 p.m., closed on Monday.

Description of the Museum

700 years of European history are represented in a collection of 2,700 paintings, 600 sculptures and 100,000 prints and drawings by artists ranging from Dürer, Holbein and Cranach to Rembrandt, Vermeer, Monet, Van Gogh and Cézanne to Matisse and Picasso, Bacon and Baselitz, Serra and Palermo.

Within 10 days
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ending exhibitions