This is a near-contemporary copy after Rubens' prototype, today in the National Gallery of Art, Washington,1 which was painted in 1614-16, and was acquired first by the English Ambassador to The Hague, Sir Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester (1573-1632) in exchange for his collects ion of antique marbles, before it was presented to King Charles I (1600-49) and hung in the Bear Gallery at Whitehall.

The story comes from the Old Test.mes nt Book of Daniel (6:10-22), which recounts how the Persian King Darius condemned Daniel to spend the night in the lions' den as punishment for worshipping God, instead of him. The next morning the Persians found Daniel miraculously unscathed, giving thanks to God for keeping him safe overnight. During the Counter Reformation, the Catholic Church promoted the depiction of such Christian martyrs and saints as examples for the faithful of forebears who had endured and survived persecution through their own unwavering devotion.

Rubens' monumental canvas, the dimensions of which the present work replicates almost exactly, certainly conveys the grand theatricality and heightened emotion designed to fulfil the demands of the Counter Reformation. This is achieved not least through the almost life-size depiction of no less than nine lions. The beasts' proximity to the limited foreground, their air of latent ferocity, and some of their direct gazes, lend an immediacy to their presence that draws the viewer in to share Daniel's place in the den.

Dominating the canvas, the lions are depicted with a combination of startling realism and a stately sense of the Antique. Not only had Rubens made studies of Classical sculptures during his t.mes in Italy between 1600 and 1609, he also had the opportunity to observe lions first-hand at the royal menagerie in Brussels in 1613-15, making sketches of the animals (and turning some into more highly-finished drawings), a number of which he used to inform this composition.

Left: Fig. 1 Sir Peter Paul Rubens, A seated lion, c. 1612-13, black and yellow chalk, with grey-brown wash, touched with watercolour and heightened with white, on light buff paper, 28.1 x 42.7 cm. British Museum, London © The Trustees of The British Museum

Right: Fig. 2 Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Lion, c. 1612-1613, black chalk, heightened with white, yellow chalk in the background, 25.2 x 28.3 cm. Alisa Mellon Bruce Fund, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC © Bridgeman Images
Fig. 3 Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Lioness, c. 1612-13, black and yellow chalk, with grey-brown wash,heightened with white bodycolour, 39.6 x 23.5 cm. British Museum, London © The Trustees of The British Museum

These include: Study of a lioness, on which the prowling lioness on the right is based (British Museum, London; fig. 3);2 Study of a lion, which depicts the lion next to Daniel with its intent, arresting stare (National Gallery of Art, Washington; fig. 1);3 the dignified lion sitting on the left, its head turned to show its mane to full advantage (British Museum, London; fig. 2);4 and the crumpled head of the lion asleep, resting its muzzle on its paw, centre (private collects ion, USA).5

A number of other copies of Rubens' seminal work exist, the best-known of which is perhaps that in All Saints Church at Godshill, Isle of Wight, presented in the early seventeenth century by the Earl of Yarborough, likewise of the same dimensions as the original.6

1 https://www.nga.gov/collects ion/art-object-page.50298.html

2 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collects ion/object/P_1994-0514-46

3 https://www.nga.gov/collects ion/art-object-page.51133.html

4 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collects ion/object/P_Oo-9-35

5 See Jaffé 1969, p. 14, fig. 13.

6 https://rkd.nl/explore/images/246929