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Lot Essay
Antonius de Roore was a Benedictine born at Courtrai becoming Abbot of that Order in 1623. He was by all accounts a devout man and a keen scholar who stimulated his monks' devotion and zeal for learning. Few facts are known about de Roore though he may have been instructive in the commissioning of a painting for the high altar of St. Martin's Abbey church in Tournai. This work, Saint Martin Healing a Possessed Man, by Jacob Jordaens, now in the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels and executed in 1630, bears his arms on the base of the pillars to the left of the picture (see R.-A. d'Hulst, Jacob Jordaens, 1982, p. 135, pl. 97).
Until 1966 the present work was charged with a coat-of-arms and an inscription 'AET.SV AE. 51/1628' which appear to have been painted at a later date but which convincingly identifies the sitter as de Roore (Vlieghe, op. cit., p. 150, fig. 166). Those arms also appear on two copies after this composition. Though previously thought to depict Henricus Lancellottus (1576-1643), a prior of the Augustinian order in Antwerp, the correct identification of the sitter as Antonius de Roore was first proposed by Edith Greindl (E. Greindl, Corneille de Vos, portraitiste flamand (1584-1651), 1944, pp. 79, 97-8, 106, 136, pl. 19 as C. de Vos) in relation to one of these copies which she mistakenly attributed to Cornelis de Vos and which is in a private collection in Brussels. The arms, with mitre and crozier appropriate to an abbot, further support the identification of de Roore.
When exhibited in 1975 at Agnew's, London, a date of 1608 was proposed, immediately after Rubens's return from Italy. However, Hans Vlieghe (op. cit., p. 150) suggests that the date, '1628', which appeared below the coat-of-arms prior to their removal, was most likely the date of execution. Although he observes that this painting does not have the plasticity which characterizes Rubens's earlier Antwerp portraits he notes that it presages Rubens's basic evolution which shifted around 1630 towards a more fluent pictorial style, and that the format and execution may have been requested by the sitter to enhance the atmosphere of contemplative piety appropriate to the Benedictine Order.
Until 1966 the present work was charged with a coat-of-arms and an inscription 'AET.SV AE. 51/1628' which appear to have been painted at a later date but which convincingly identifies the sitter as de Roore (Vlieghe, op. cit., p. 150, fig. 166). Those arms also appear on two copies after this composition. Though previously thought to depict Henricus Lancellottus (1576-1643), a prior of the Augustinian order in Antwerp, the correct identification of the sitter as Antonius de Roore was first proposed by Edith Greindl (E. Greindl, Corneille de Vos, portraitiste flamand (1584-1651), 1944, pp. 79, 97-8, 106, 136, pl. 19 as C. de Vos) in relation to one of these copies which she mistakenly attributed to Cornelis de Vos and which is in a private collection in Brussels. The arms, with mitre and crozier appropriate to an abbot, further support the identification of de Roore.
When exhibited in 1975 at Agnew's, London, a date of 1608 was proposed, immediately after Rubens's return from Italy. However, Hans Vlieghe (op. cit., p. 150) suggests that the date, '1628', which appeared below the coat-of-arms prior to their removal, was most likely the date of execution. Although he observes that this painting does not have the plasticity which characterizes Rubens's earlier Antwerp portraits he notes that it presages Rubens's basic evolution which shifted around 1630 towards a more fluent pictorial style, and that the format and execution may have been requested by the sitter to enhance the atmosphere of contemplative piety appropriate to the Benedictine Order.