Dramatically staged – Rubens‘ thunderstorm landscape

Daniel Thalheim

The Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) is known for his opulently designed scenes from the Greek-Roman-ancient mythologies and mythical worlds. His „Thunderstorm Landscape with Jupiter, Mercury, Philemon and Baucis“ is considered one of the incunabula of early modern European landscape painting. The painting was in his possession until his death. In the meantime, the painting has been extensively restored, thus also revealing the history of its creation. The delicate work has since been documented and described in a book.

On one hundred pages, a team of restorers and art historians forensically investigates the question of how Rubens‘ masterpiece came into being and which methods can be used to restore it. Thus, the scientists Gerlinde Gruber and Elke Oberthaler go into the origin of the painting and its ownership as well as the history of the changes in condition. In addition, there are investigations that deal with the original painting support and also want to give dendrochronological answers. The process of creation and painting techniques will also be examined under the scientists‘ magnifying glass. The influence that Rubens‘ painting had on his posterity is examined separately on the basis of a drawing by Lucas Van Uden.
This exciting book provides a glimpse into the restoration workshop of the 1577 and reveals new research approaches on how we can approach works like these in a factual way. Especially since it becomes clear to which changes Rubens subjected this picture and Rubens brought his influences in this painting. It also becomes clear from the work that this painting was primarily in Habsburg possession after Rubens‘ death and came to the Kunsthistorisches Museum with the dissolution of the Austrian Empire.

Rubens’s Great Landscape with a Tempest
Anatomy of a Masterpiece

Ed. Gerlinde Gruber, Elke Oberthaler

With contributions by G. Bisacca, P. Fraiture, C. Fryklund, J. de la Fuente, G. Gruber, E. Oberthaler, G. Prast, I. Slama

128 pages, 211 illustrations
24 x 28 cm, paperback with flaps

Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Permanent Exhibition

The thunderstorm landscape as a book in Hirmer Verlag