The Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain) has embarked on the restoration of six panels from the so-called Triumph of the Eucharist series, commissioned from Rubens by Isabel Clara Eugenia as models for tapestries for the convent of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid. This was one of the most important commissions received by Rubens. Following the restoration of the delicate supports of Dürer’s paintings of Adam and Eve in 2010, the Getty Foundation, through its Panel Paintings Initiative, is once again funding a complex conservation effort.
In 1626 the celebrated Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens completed six oil sketches from the series known as the Triumph of the Eucharist, which symbolises devotion to the Holy Sacrament of Communion. Painted on panel, they were commissioned by the Infanta Clara Eugenia during the time she was governor of the Southern Netherlands as models for tapestries for the convent of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid, where they still hang today. Although conceived as preliminary sketches for these tapestries, Rubens’ panels are of extremely high quality and reflect his fascinating working methods. In them, the artist revealed his delicate but powerful handling and his intensely expressive approach to the human form, in addition to his profound ability to interpret the works of classical antiquity and the Renaissance.