To those who may be receiving one of these post-notifications for the first time: This is not a blog; it’s actually part of a book, and will make little sense to you without knowledge of what has come before—which you can easily obtain, along with a goodly amount of satirical theatre as matters progress, by simply entering ttgftyri.org into your web browser, opening the menu, and starting at page one. J.J.

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna


Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna




Indianapolis Museum of Art

Rubenshuis, Antwerp

National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples


Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Private Collection

Following the Lutheran break with Rome in the sixteenth century and the subsequent spread of ‘Protestant-ism’ throughout much of northern Europe, most patrons of the arts in that region rapidly lost interest in the Virgin—whose worship, after all, was one of their main points of discord with Rome—with the result that most northern artists now turned more or less exclusively to painting real-life portraits, still-lifes, and local landscapes.
However, the German-born Flemish painter Peter Paul Reubens—who reportedly once told a patron that his passion for painting came from musing on heavenly matters, rather than on earthly—would have no part in that.
By then a citizen of Antwerp, Belgium—to which his widowed mother had fled with him as a child toward the end of the sixteenth century so that she might raise him in her own, Catholic faith without fear of religious persecution—the Madonna would ultimately appear in thirty-seven of his paintings, or about ten percent of the three hundred ninety-five with which he is credited by modern historians. And since this page will wrap up our tour of Madonna paintings in western Europe prior to 1650 or so, I’ve decided to just run it out to the end with the thirty-five that I could locate.
In the order in which he painted them, then:

Musee des Beaux-Arts, Tours, France

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, Jacksonville

Private Collection


Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna


Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne


Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Musée départemental des Antiquités, Rouen, France


Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels



Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France


The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France

The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels

Louvre, Paris




Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp

Museo del Prado, Madrid

Louvre, Paris

Museo del Prado, Madrid

1151: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_de_Backer_-_Madonna_and_Child_with_Saint_John.jpg
1152: Artnet http://www.artnet.com/artists/gillis-backereel/la-sainte-famille-avec-saint-jean-baptiste-et-MS1Dl7q-meYak7NjV_vupw2
1153: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hendrik_van_Balen_-_Casamento_M%C3%ADstico_de_Santa_Catarina.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
1154: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jan_Brueghel_(I)and_Hans_Rottenhammer-_Rest_on_the_Flight_into_Egypt.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
1155: Sothebys https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/the-otto-naumann-sale-n09810/lot.9.html
1156: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacra_famiglia_e_san_Giovannino,_Pieter_de_Witte,_001.JPG#mw-jump-to-license
1157: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aanbidding_der_koningen_Hendrick_De_Clerck.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
1158: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_govaerts_e_ambrosius_francken_II,_madonna_col_bambino_in_un_paesaggio_boscoso,_fiandre_1615-20_ca.jpg
1159: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adam_van_Noort_-_Adoration_of_the_Magi.PNG
1160: Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/pin/305822630942500740/?nic_v1=1b4DCHw%2BGNXpFHvvR1513yHR8IbYz5YSQoL1NBL9%2BEGqWOqfviJdxIMIEHzDdPsXcG
1161: Artnet http://www.artnet.com/artists/pieter-van-mol/
1162: Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deodat_del_Monte
1163: Pinterest https://www.pinterest.es/maricarjimeperi/theodoor-romboutsvan-loon/
1164: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Antoon_Sallaert
1166: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/all-works
1167: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-circumcision-of-christ-1605/
1168: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-lamentation-1606/
1169: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/virgin-and-child-adored-by-angels-1608
1170: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/adoration-of-the-shepherds-1608/
1171: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/adoration-of-the-shepherds-1608/
1172: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/adoration-of-the-shepherds-1608-0
1173: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/annunciation-1610
1174: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-entombment-1612
1175: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/lament-of-christ-1614
1176: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/descent-from-the-cross-centre-panel-1614/
1177: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-holy-family-with-st-elizabeth-and-the-infant-st-john-the-baptist-1614
1178: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-holy-family-with-st-elizabeth-1615-0
1179: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-holy-family-with-st-elizabeth-1615/
1180: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/adoration-of-the-shepherds-1615
1181: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/virgin-in-adoration-before-the-christ-child-1615
1182: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-virgin-and-child-with-st-elizabeth-and-the-infant-st-john-the-baptist-1615/
1183: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/assumption-of-virgin-1616
1184: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/adoration-of-the-shepherds-1616
1185: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/adoration-of-the-shepherds-1617
1186: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/descent-from-the-cross-1617
1187: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/lamentation-christ-on-the-straw-1618
1188: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/descent-from-the-cross-1618/
1189: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/adoration-of-the-magi-1619
1190: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/assumption-of-virgin-1620
1191: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/virgin-and-child-1620
1192: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-virgin-and-child-in-a-garland-of-flower-1621
1193: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-assumption-of-mary-1622
1194: WikiArt: https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-assumption-of-mary-1622
1195: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/virgin-and-child-1625
1196: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/assumption-of-the-virgin-1626
1197: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/immaculate-conception-1628
1198: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/adoration-of-the-magi-1629
1199: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/the-holy-family-with-st-anne-1630
1200: WikiArt https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/our-lady-with-the-saints-1634/