Copies after the Antique

Rubens was fascinated by the classical world and the exploits of the ancients celebrated on surviving sculptures, sarcophagus reliefs, engraved gems and coins. His drawings of classical statues and reliefs are still of great value for archaeologists, because they show the early seventeenth-century condition of a sculpture; sometimes these are the only record of a work of art now lost. Ruben's drawings after the Antique are evidence of his determination to master models before proceeding to draw figures from life, and all he learnt from his classical models informs the gestures, costume and decoration in his entire oeuvre.