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Rubens revealed Victory on a Roll Oil Sketch for the Triumphal Chariot of Kallo Victory on a Roll. Oil Sketch for the Triumphal Chariot of Kallo is a documental presentation of the Rubens project set up by the Antwerp Royal Museum of Fine Arts. This exhibition presents the results of a study into the context and significance of Peter Paul Rubens’ oil sketch The Triumphal Chariot of Kallo, 1638. The exhibition will be held at the Rockox House Museum in Antwerp from 11 February to 13 May 2012. The centrepiece is a design for a triumphal chariot that the Antwerp magistracy commissioned Rubens to make, the occasion for the commission being the victory of the Spanish armies over the Dutch troops (i.e. those of the Northern Netherlands) at the Battle of Kallo. The first section of the exhibition is devoted to historical prints of the battle and the victor, Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand. These prints are a reminder of one of the greatest battles of the Eighty Years’ War and provide the historical context for Rubens’ sketch. As an illustration of the joy that erupted in Antwerp following the victory, the authentic version of The Song of Kallo can be heard. The second section of the exhibition provides a survey of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century engravings of triumphal chariots and relates Rubens’ design to the northern pictorial tradition of allegorical triumphal chariots. The Triumphal Chariot of Kallo was intended as a festive float to ride in the Antwerp Ommegang (a procession). Two paintings by Van
Bredael give a detailed picture of a festive seventeenth-century Ommegang in the centre of Antwerp. A panorama board accompanying Rubens’ oil sketch elucidates the iconography of the allegorical presentation. There is also an audio-visual presentation that details the personages that Rubens has placed in his sketch. The presentation also dwells on the pictorial tradition of the Antwerp Ommegang chariots. A collection of scale models of traditional figures in the Antwerp Ommegang can be seen in the other rooms of the Rockox House Museum. This visitor’s guide makes use of the concepts ‘allegory’ and ‘personification’. ‘Allegory’ refers to a symbolic depiction in which mythological figures, gods, goddesses or personifications play a part. ‘Personification’ indicates a figure (generally female) symbolizing an abstract idea and sometimes recognizable by an attribute. Thus, for example Victoria, the personification of Victory, is portrayed with a laurel wreath, and Antverpia, the city maiden of Antwerp, is recognizable through her crown in the form of turreted city walls, above which two hands are sometimes depicted. The Battle of Kallo In the summer of 1638, there was an unusually festive atmosphere in Antwerp, the reason being the news that Spanish troops had won a glorious victory over the armies of the Northern Provinces. The encounter took place at Kallo on the Scheldt, a few kilometres north of Antwerp. Following the triumph, the city celebrated. Many inhabitants set out for Kallo on foot and returned from the battlefield with orange festoons taken from the enemy. The military success gained three days later at St. Omer by Spanish troops fighting against French (1)
Page 1: RUBENS REVEALED VICTORY ON A ROLL O
Page 5 and 6: HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE VICTORY AT
Page 7 and 8: 3 Cornelis Galle the Younger, after
Page 9 and 10: 5 17th-century Matchlock Musket, Vl
Page 11 and 12: 7 Commemorative coin marking the vi
Page 13 and 14: and five of the six portraits have
Page 15 and 16: 11 Text of The Song of Kallo. The j
Page 17 and 18: The scene to the right symbolises P
Page 19 and 20: 14 Wierix ( attributed to), The Tri
Page 21 and 22: 16 Pieter van der Borcht, after a d
Page 23 and 24: 18 Rubens Chariot, print, 1840, Pri
Page 25 and 26: 19 Peter Paul Rubens, The Triumphal
Page 27 and 28: victory on and around the waters of
Page 29 and 30: THE ANTWERP OMMEGANG The Ommegang h
Page 31 and 32: 22 Alexander van Bredael, Tradition
Page 33 and 34: Scale models of Ommegang figures As
Page 35: Colophon Exhibition Organisation: T

visitors' guide to the presentation (PDF, 341 kB) - Koninklijk Museum ...

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