Philippe Rubens, the Artist's Brother

In 1606 two brothers from Antwerp were sharing a house on Via della Croce in Rome. Philippe Rubens, the elder, was librarian and secretary to Cardinal Ascanio Colonna. Peter Paul was a young painter looking for work in Roman churches. What they shared was ancient Rome, one reading its texts, the other drawing its statues.

Those two interests met in a book. Philippe's Electorum libri, a Latin study of Roman customs printed by the Plantin press in Antwerp in 1608, carries engravings after Peter Paul's drawings showing how a toga was draped and how Roman women wore a double tunic. The volume closes with a poem Philippe addressed to his brother.

By the time this oak panel was painted, around 1610, both men were home again, and Philippe had been one of the secretaries of the city of Antwerp since January 1609.