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Shown from the shoulders up, a man and woman face our left in profile against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. The woman is situated closer to us so she overlaps the man, whose profile is shifted to our left. The woman’s eye we can see is brown and she looks ahead from under a gently arched eyebrow. She has a pale skin with faintly blushed cheeks, a straight nose, and her pink lips are closed. Her reddish-gold hair is pulled back into a loose knot at the base of her head, and tendrils fall down her neck. Her hair is braided across the crown of her head, which is encircled with a string of pearls and adorned with a red jewel over her forehead. Gossamer-white fabric wraps around the base of her long neck. The man behind her and to our left has a more tan complexion. He looks ahead with brown eyes under lowered eyebrows. He has a long, bumped nose and his pink lips are closed. He has auburn-brown hair and wears a burgundy-red robe around his shoulders. The pair occupy a shallow space behind a stone ledge that runs along the bottom edge of this composition. The light that illuminates them from the front creates a halo-like effect on the midnight-blue background behind them. The number "19" is painted in the lower left corner.
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Shown from the shoulders up, a man and woman face our left in profile against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. The woman is situated closer to us so she overlaps the man, whose profile is shifted to our left. The woman’s eye we can see is brown and she looks ahead from under a gently arched eyebrow. She has a pale skin with faintly blushed cheeks, a straight nose, and her pink lips are closed. Her reddish-gold hair is pulled back into a loose knot at the base of her head, and tendrils fall down her neck. Her hair is braided across the crown of her head, which is encircled with a string of pearls and adorned with a red jewel over her forehead. Gossamer-white fabric wraps around the base of her long neck. The man behind her and to our left has a more tan complexion. He looks ahead with brown eyes under lowered eyebrows. He has a long, bumped nose and his pink lips are closed. He has auburn-brown hair and wears a burgundy-red robe around his shoulders. The pair occupy a shallow space behind a stone ledge that runs along the bottom edge of this composition. The light that illuminates them from the front creates a halo-like effect on the midnight-blue background behind them. The number "19" is painted in the lower left corner.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Agrippina and Germanicus

Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Date
c. 1614
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 66.4 × 57 cm (26 1/8 × 22 7/16 in.) framed: 95.25 × 86 × 9.53 cm (37 1/2 × 33 7/8 × 3 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1963.8.1
Credit line
Andrew W. Mellon Fund
Time span
1601 to 1650
Department
CNE-B
Original NGA record Wikidata

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • Baroque
  • portrait
  • Flemish
  • double
  • classical
  • secular
  • Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century
  • Portrait
  • Agrippina
  • Germanicus
  • History
Provenance

F. van Bredael; purchased 1710 by Prince Johann Adam Andreas of Liechtenstein [1657-1712], Vienna;[1] by descent through the Princes of Liechtenstein to Prince Franz Josef II von und zu Liechtenstein [1906-1989], Vienna, and later Vaduz, Liechstenstein;[2] purchased 25 October 1963 through (Feilchenfeldt, Zurich) by NGA. [1] According to records from the Liechtenstein Collection in NGA curatorial files, the painting was purchased 26 August 1710 from the collection of "F. van Bredael." In the catalogue of the 1948 exhibition of works from the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein, the name of the seller is given as Jean Pierre van Bredael, or Jan Peeter van Bredael, in Antwerp. [2] Records from the Liechtenstein Collection in NGA curatorial files indicate that the painting, which came under export ban following the 1938 annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, had been stored from 1940-1944 in the monastery at Gaming and then in 1945 sent to the salt mine at Lauffen bei Ischl before arriving in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, in April 1945. However, Gustav Wilhelm, the director of the Liechtenstein art collections, noted that works from the collection were sent to Gaming starting in February 1941 and that some were then sent to Lauffen starting in February 1945. See Gustav Wilhelm, _The Journey of the Liechtenstein Gallery from Vienna to Vaduz_, Munich, 2005:14, 48.

Inscription

lower left, an inventory number: 19

NGA object ID 46473. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.