Dulwich Picture Gallery will host its second display in the Making Discoveries: Dutch and Flemish Masterpieces series in late April. Ruben’s Ghost, will be a revealing look into the painter’s methods and process.
From 26 April to 3 July 2016, the Dulwich Picture Gallery will host Reuben’s Ghost. The exhibition will examine the Flemish baroque painter’s working process. The focus of the exhibition will be on Ruben’s 1635 masterpiece, Venus, Mars and Cupid. A life-sized X-ray of the painting will be mounted on a lightbox near the completed work. The X-ray will offer insights into Ruben’s artistry by comparing the painting in its past and present states.
“The public will be able to see beneath the surface of Venus, Mars and Cupid and better appreciate the challenged Rubens was confronted with when devising his composition.” Dr. Xavier Bray, the chief curator said.
X-rays of paintings are typically kept within museums’ conservation departments. They not only help establish a painting’s authenticity, but also reveal secrets about the materials used to compose certain works and original, worked over or redrafted sketches and painted images that can’t be seen by the naked eye.
The Picture Gallery will also have an iPad that will allow visitors to explore revisions that Reubens made to other works. X-rays on the iPad will reveal now-removed figures in The Miracles of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1619) and the now lost image of an angle and the baby Ishmael in Hagar in the Desert (1630-2).
Reuben’s Ghost is the second display in the Making Discoveries series, which began with I am Van Dyck. Future displays will use historical and scientific research to showcase Dou and Rembrandt and their creative processes.
Ruben’s Ghost runs from 26 April to 3 July at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Open 10am to 5pm daily.
Tickets: £6 Adult, £5 Senior Citizens, Free for unemployed, disabled, children, students and Friends
