The Vision of St Hubert

In Antwerp around 1617 the two most celebrated Flemish painters were close friends, and they liked to share a panel. Peter Paul Rubens took the figures, painting the kneeling Saint Hubert, while Jan Brueghel filled in what he did best, the deep forest, the horses and hounds, the stag with a glowing cross caught between its antlers. The division of labour was no secret. The museum's own inventory of 1857 spelled it out, filing the panel under Brueghel and noting that the figures are by Rubens. Hubert was a huntsman who saw that cross mid-chase and left hunting for the church. The small dogs worked into the underbrush are Brueghel quietly showing what he could do.