Elevation of the Cross (right panel)

Rubens had been back in Antwerp barely two years when this commission came, after eight years in Italy, and the Twelve Years' Truce with the Dutch Republic was a year old. Churches stripped of their images in the religious fighting of the previous century were being furnished again, and Cornelis van der Geest, a spice merchant and churchwarden of St Walburga's, paid for most of this altarpiece. The right wing carries the part of the story that usually gets left out: the two criminals executed alongside Christ, one already being nailed to his cross, the other pushed forward by soldiers, with mounted Roman officers above them giving the orders. It was painted to be read from far below, on a high altar up a flight of steps. St Walburga's was demolished early in the 19th century, and the triptych has hung in Antwerp Cathedral ever since.