The Presentation in the Temple

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) was the most versatile and influential Baroque artist of northern Europe in the 17th century. When he returned to Antwerp after eight years in Italy, Rubens was appointed court painter to the archduke and archduchess Albert and Isabella in Brussels, although he continued to work in Antwerp where he received commissions notably for the large triptychs of the 'Raising of the cross' and the 'Descent from the Cross', painted in 1610–11 and 1612–14 respectively (both now in Antwerp Cathedral).
The huge triptych of the 'Descent from the Cross' has on the inner sides of the wings the subjects of the 'Visitation' and the 'Presentation in the Temple'. The Fairfax panel is a later adaptation by Rubens of the latter composition made to serve as a model for the engraver Paulus Pontius. The subject of the 'Presentation' is taken from the Gospel of Luke 2: 22 –32. Following the birth of Christ, the new-born Jesus had to be taken to Jerusalem to be presented by his parents at the temple and a sacrifice offered. The devout Simeon, to whom it had been revealed that he would not die before having set eyes on Christ, came to the temple and, taking the Child in his arms, spoke the words: ‘Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou has prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the gentiles, and the Glory of thy people Israel’. In Rubens’s treatment of the subject, Simeon has already taken the Christ Child from the Virgin and raises his gaze heavenwards, clearly speaking or about to speak these words. Joseph kneels in the foreground holding the sacrifice specified in Luke’s gospel of ‘a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons’.
The original altarpiece’s composition had to be adapted in the Fairfax panel to be suitable for engraving. This was achieved by reducing the height of the architecture and by reinventing the subsidiary figures. Another difference is that in the Fairfax panel the Virgin seems eager to receive the Child back from Simeon, whereas a similar gesture in the original painting seems to indicate that she has just offered the Child up. Rubens paid particularly close attention to the art of printmaking, and of this the Fairfax panel is ample evidence. While a drawing might seem the more obvious medium in which to transmit instructions to a printmaker, Rubens was concerned that the finished result should faithfully reflect the painterly qualities of the original, particularly the disposition of darks and lights through the whole composition.