Der Apostel Paulus vor Agrippa

An important exhibition in New York in 2014

reestablished the Antwerp and Brussels artist

Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder (1502–1550) as one

of the leading Netherlandish artists of the 1520s

to the 1550s, who maintained an innovative and

recognizable personal style while at the same time

responding to Italian art and architecture.1 Three

drawings by the prolific designer in the present

exhibition beautifully capture his versatility as an

artist as well as his involvement with various media

(architecture, painting, tapestry, stained glass)

and corporate groups (guilds, civic government,

religious bodies), attesting to the remarkable reach

and knowledge required of Netherlandish artists in

the urban milieu.

The Apostle Paul before Agrippa features Coecke

van Aelst’s characteristic combination of bold

spatial design and emotive pose and expression. The

drawing is one of seven modelli (finished designs)

produced for the tapestry series Life of Saint Paul,

which was woven in Brussels up to nine times

in the sixteenth century for patrons including

King Francis I of France (r. 1515–47) and Mary of

Hungary (1505–1558), governor of the Hapsburg

Netherlands.2 Three weavings of this scene survive,

in Munich, Madrid, and Detroit (fig. 1).3 The Vienna

sheet is seventh in the narrative sequence of nine, in

which Paul appears before King Herod Agrippa II,

who is flanked by his wife Berenice and Porcius

Festus, the Roman procurator of Judea, to argue

that his conversion to Christianity and actions as

a preacher do not merit death.4 An earlier event

appears in the right background, when Paul meets

with then-procurator Antonius Felix and his wife

Drusilla, the first to accuse him of wrongdoing. In

the left background, Paul boards a ship to take his

case to the emperor in person.

Coecke van Aelst’s composition reflects his

knowledge of Raphael’s (1483–1520) cartoon for

The Conversion of the Preconsul, from the Acts of

the Apostles tapestry series of about 1515–16 (fig. 2).

Raphael’s designs were woven in Brussels under

the direction of various master weavers,5 and his

cartoons would have been copied and kept in the

city.6 In the Albertina sheet, Coecke van Aelst

reconfigured Raphael’s dais, rotating it a quarter

turn, and then added the four columns to create a

vast space in which a large crowd gathers to observe

the proceedings. Four lictors (Roman officers) hold

fasces (bundles of rods symbolizing a magistrate’s

power) and enliven the space with twisting, repetitive

poses. The drawing is signed on the plinth of

the foremost column; this and another drawing for

the same series in Los Angeles serve as proof that

Coecke van Aelst designed the tapestries, which is

otherwise undocumented.7

The Albertina sheet elucidates Coecke van Aelst’s

working method as a tapestry designer. A compositional

drawing in Lübeck represents an earlier stage

of the design, with pentimenti evident throughout

Paul’s drapery and hair, and on the faces of figures

directly to the right of Paul’s head (fig. 3). These

changes were applied to the Albertina drawing.8

Evidently, the Albertina sheet was the final design,

serving to incorporate all previous changes and

present the design clearly for transfer to the 1:1

cartoon. Given the division of labor that characterized

the Netherlandish textile industry, Coecke van

Alest prepared the design to such a finished state in

order to clearly convey his intentions. His technique

combines ink drawn with pen and a fine brush, light

ink washes, white heightening, and secondary campaigns

of ink to strengthen contours and accents.

Yet many of the ornamental details that appear

on the tapestry—such as the fluted columns, the

figural friezes on the column bases and stairs, the

marble floor, and the textile patterns on Berenice’s

sleeve—were not delineated by Coecke van Aelst

in the drawing but were most likely added in color

on the cartoon. Coecke van Aelst was apparently

trained to paint cartoons in distemper and may in

fact have made the cartoons himself.9

 

1. Cleland 2014, 5–6.

2. Delmarcel in Cleland 2014, 125–26.

3. For the tapestry in the Patrimonio Nacional, see Junquera

de Vega and Herrero Carretero 1986, 233; for the tapestry in

Munich, see Bauer R. and Steppe 1981, 50–51; for the tapestry in

Detroit, see Delmarcel 2004.

4. Acts 24:22–27.

5. These include Frans van den Bossche (active 16th century)

and Paulus von Oppenem (active 16th century); see Alsteens in

Cleland 2014, 166–67.

6. Delmarcel 2004, 24–25; Delmarcel in Cleland 2014, 125–26.

7. Alsteens 2014, 281–82.

8. Alsteens 2014, 287; Alsteens in Cleland 2014, 117.

9. Marlier 1969, 318–20; Delmarcel 2004, 26.

 

Emily J. Peters, Laura M. Ritter (Hg.), AK Tales of the City. Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel, Cleveland Museum of Art 9.10.2022 - 8.1.2023, New Haven 2022, Kat. Nr. 32