About this artwork

The figure of Prudence is taken from Raphael’s fresco The Cardinal Virtues of 1511, which Rubens saw in Rome. He added an L-shaped piece of paper and a few retouches to an Italian red chalk drawing of about 1540-60. Rubens completed the figure’s right foot and the putto’s wings and also changed Prudence’s profile and the shape of the mirror, adding a handle. From the late seventeenth century onwards, connoisseurs have observed that Rubens repeatedly retouched drawings by other artists. Valerius Röver, the eminent eighteenth-century Dutch collector, described such works as ‘Rubenised’ (‘Rubenisato’).

Updated before 2020

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