Follower of Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish... Lot 25

Follower of Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish 1577-1640- Julius Caesar; oil on canvas, inscribed '~IVLIVS CÆSAR: I: ~', 67.4 x 53.5 cm. Note: Rubens himself owned a bust of Julius Caesar, one of about 100 antique marbles that he acquired from Sir Dudley Carlton in 1618. The anonymous artist here presumably saw Rubens' similarly sized and arresting portrait of Caesar (or a copy), dated 1619 and today housed in the Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin [no.GK I 972]. The Berlin portrait was part of a series of the Twelve Roman Caesars that Maurits of Orange, the Dutch Stadholder or his successor Frederik Hendrik commissioned from the most important contemporary Flemish and Dutch artists. These included, also, Abraham Janssens, Gerard Seghers, Hendrik Goltzius, Henrik Terbrugghen, Dirck van Baburen, Paulus Moreelse, Gerrit van Honthorst, Abraham Bloemaert, Werner van den Valckert, Cornelis van Haarlem, and Michiel van Mierevelt. The present work bears similarities, too, to a smaller portrait of Caesar by Rubens, in oval format, and now in the Leiden Collection, New York [PR-100]. Here, as in Rubens' Berlin and New York portraits, Caesar is depicted with his face turned slightly to the right, wearing his armour and cloak, crowned with a laurel wreath, and set against a dark background. Please refer to department for condition report