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Lot Essay
This previously unrecorded work is the only securely attributed depiction by Francken of the subject. As one might expect, the composition would appear to be his own invention; his use of the theme, however, may well have been inspired by Rubens' treatments of the story of Saint Ursula of circa 1618-20, known through the finished canvas in the Galleria di Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, and two oil sketches (London, private collection; and Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts; see J.S. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, Princeton, 1980, I, nos. 429-30, II, figs. 416-7).
The composition could be compared very loosely with the Mantua picture; more interesting, however, is the fact that certain of the innovations introduced by Rubens - for example his making the martyrdom of the Saint simultaneous with that of her companions and eliminating any reference to bows and arrows as the chief weapons of their ordeal - are here followed by Francken. That Francken was familiar with at least one of Rubens' treatments may also be supported by the existence of a copy of the London sketch, attributed by Held to Frans II or III, in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich (ibid., p. 590, under no. 429).
The composition could be compared very loosely with the Mantua picture; more interesting, however, is the fact that certain of the innovations introduced by Rubens - for example his making the martyrdom of the Saint simultaneous with that of her companions and eliminating any reference to bows and arrows as the chief weapons of their ordeal - are here followed by Francken. That Francken was familiar with at least one of Rubens' treatments may also be supported by the existence of a copy of the London sketch, attributed by Held to Frans II or III, in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich (ibid., p. 590, under no. 429).