Allegory on the Abdication of Emperor Charles V in Brussels

By the late 1630s, when Frans Francken painted this panel in Antwerp, the empire it celebrates was under strain. The northern provinces had broken away as the Dutch Republic, the war with them dragged on, and Dutch trading companies were cutting into Spain's reach in the Americas and the East Indies. Francken looked back 80 years to October 1555, when Emperor Charles V, worn out and ill, began giving up his crowns in Brussels. He sits enthroned in the middle. His brother Ferdinand, who would take the imperial title, stands to one side, and his son Philip, soon to be king of Spain, steps in from the other in Spanish dress. Below them Neptune carries the Pillars of Hercules with the emperor's motto, Plus Ultra, while figures standing for America, Africa and Asia kneel with their tribute. A Latin inscription credits the design to Pieter Hannicart, an Antwerp citizen who was Rubens's brother-in-law. Far back on the left, a coach bearing the imperial eagle sets off, a reference to Charles leaving for the monastery of Yuste in Spain.