[Music] we're standing in the Cathedral of our lady in antp looking at an enormous alterpiece by Peter Paul Rubin while it's beautiful to see it here in a church environment we're also not seeing it in the place that it was originally intended for it was originally intended for the Church of St B buris the church at the heart of the medieval core of an and it's a church that dated back to the 8th Century it was near the warf where all the ships arriving in antp would Harbor it was an area of fishermen and boatmen very Lively densely built a small Chapel had grown by the early 16th century into a really impressive gothic church so if you arrived in antor as a sailor and you wanted to thank the Lord for a safe passage that was the first church you were going to step into as it extended into this dense Urban fabric the new choir had to be built over a street so 19 steps and Ruben's picture was conceived to be placed up in that high choir and at that time it had a predella three paintings along the bottom figures along the top and at the very top a pelican which symbolized God's sacrifice for Mankind's salvation so you'd walk in and at the far end up those 19 stairs you would see Reuben's enormous alterpiece in a way it takes a few moments of looking to untangle the bodies of the figures because Ruben has fused them into this one sort of effort of elevating the cross and the figure that gets lost for me at first is the figure who's got his back up against the wood of the Cross using his legs as leverage to help lift the cross you have to run your eyes over it almost feel the knots of the muscles and the thick calves to make out single bodies cooperating to lift up this heavy body of Christ and if we just look at the body of Christ itself it's so beautiful the knees and the thighs turn one way the Torso turns a different way so there's this almost Serpentine movement to the figure that is so Michelangelo I think about Michelangelo's slaves for example yes everything is sinuous and attractive to the eye really this is a Christ triumphant he's looking up at God and has resorted to his faith in the knowledge that this is his Destiny in that Gable above was an image of God so Christ is actually looking up at God and acknowledging this Destiny I'd like to think too about the context of Reuben's just coming back after having spent eight years in Italy Ruben was trying to establish himself in Rome but as his mother was Gravely ill he returned to Antwerp and somehow Ruben often turns out to be the right man at the right time on the exact right spot in 1609 the 12year truce is concluded between the Southern and the northern Netherlands money flows into the coffers of ANS Merchants the arch Dukes Institute this policy whereby they asked the churches to replace the paintings that were vandalized during iconoclast attacks During the period when antp was under Protestant control the churches were emptied image were destroyed images were a central difference between the Protestants and the Catholics they were part of that battle the Reformation had stirred doubts in the church on the use of images the Council of Trent had held long discussions on whether they were appropriate which types of images and they had weeded out practices that stay far from what the Bible actually told but once the issue was settled and the Catholic church had firmly established that images were essential to the Catholic faith in edifying in converting and in Touching people the flow of images that ensued was so strong and Lively this was a confident Catholicism you can even look at this and see Ruben sort of pulling up cross as a sort of Defense of imagery and the powers of images in itself we have this very specific context that's so important for Antwerp and we also have saints featured that were also important to the city of vorp the church was devoted to St W buris also to St amandas who was important in the early christianization of antp and the other Wing has St Eloy the patron of Smiths who also had an altar in this very church and St Katherine of Sienna these huge Monumental figures really almost unhuman length to their bodies but also very solid and dressed in these glittering ropes so even when the alterpiece was closed it would have made a huge impression even seen from afar rubben was really someone who was aware of how to create drama and suck people into his world so as you looked down the Nave it was almost as if you were watching the cross itself being raised right in front of you so if you imagine this huge painting up in the choir you have the altar beneath it and every time the priest would raise the host the body of Christ he would and everyone in the church would devotionally at least participate in the elev ation of the Cross and in the lifting of Christ's body so Ruben invites us to almost take part in this fundamental drama of Christianity and he displays a catalog of human emotions from the dignified mourning of Mary and John to the cruelty of the Roman officers on Christ's left side to the intense emotions of the women on the right to the crudeness of these muscular bodies of the men pulling up the cross in what seems almost bestial Force you know nine men to pull up that single body you can really feel the weight of the moment I'm always struck by the way in which the cross is being raised into our space and all of the figures are so close to us these muscular figures spilling out into our space his use of the rather traditional format of a triptic is innovative as well because he fills it in as if the action takes place in a single continuous space often historically in a trip dick these three panels would appear entirely separate but here Rubin is in a way expanding the scene of the elevation he marries at the end of 1609 with Isabella brand and in 1610 he buys a large plot of land with a 16th century house on it which he's going to expand into a workshop and in that exact year 1610 we find him in an Inn near St W bis's church with cornelus feres fabulously wealthy Merchant and supporter of St W bis's church with the wardens of the church and the priest discussed the commission of this alter piece the priests and the wardens had been doing the rounds collecting money from the parishioners raising funds but it's mainly corus vist who would remain a lifelong friend of ruus who would make sure the job was financed so this commission really was his first Big Splash in ANP he' had other commissions but this was the high alter of the Central Church and the historic core of the city once this was up there it was quite clear that Ruben was the man this is made for the lovers of art for the joy in painting really and I think that's one of Ruben's strong points if you get to know him everything is infused with this pleasure in painting with this pleasure in images he says that his job is aim Prof and you can sense it it's like a sweet profession to be a painter