Virgen con el Niño, con Alexander Goubau (1540-1614): gran limosnero de Amberes

This began as an act of mourning. Anne Antheunis, a wealthy Antwerp widow, commissioned it in memory of her late husband, Alexander Goubau, who had held the honorary post of grand almoner of the city. It was meant for the couple's funeral monument in Antwerp's cathedral, an ex-voto to hang above their tomb. Rubens had just come home from eight years in Italy, where he had soaked up Titian, Veronese and the art of antiquity, and he was fast becoming the most sought-after painter in the Low Countries. Around the Virgin and Child he set portraits of the pair, Goubau painted from memory after his death and his wife drawn from life. The picture was long in the making and was finished only by 1621, the year Anne herself died.