Two Cavalry Battles, 1627 – 1628

About the Work

Rubens developed many of his large-scale painting commissions in series of sketches. Painted on both sides, this panel served him in 1627/28 in his preparations for the altarpiece of the Church of the Augustinians in Antwerp. The Frankfurt sketch combines several individual studies in an overall composition for the first time. Badly damaged by a strip of wood glued to it later on, the sketch of a lion hunt on the back was carried out in preparation for the painting cycle executed by Rubens from 1628 onwards for Maria de’ Medici as an apotheosis of Henri IV of France.