Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Boeckhorst, King David playing the Harp (detail), ca. 1616, enlarged in the late 1640's, wood, Stadel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

FRANKFURT, GERMANY.-The painting King David Playing the Harp by Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 – 1640 Antwerp) and Jan Boeckhorst (Münster or Rees ca. 1604 – 1668 Antwerp) has numbered among the outstanding examples of Flemish Baroque painting in the Städel Museum collection since 1867. On account of the complex history of its execution – evident already in the two artist names cited – this work is now being placed in the limelight for the first time within the framework of our exhibition series “Focus on”. The painting provides insight into the workshop practises in use in seventeenth-century Flanders, for it was only partially carried out by Rubens himself: the head was executed by the master in around 1616 as a study on a small panel. It was not until after Rubens’ death that his former employee Boeckhorst enlarged the character head, a so-called “tronie”, by adding two further panels, thus turning it into the full-fledged painting of King David. The exhibition shows how Rubens employed the “tronie” and sheds light on how Boeckhorst expanded on it, leaving the head not only uncrowned – in a manner surprising for a depiction of King David – but untouched in every way. Attention is also directed towards the contemporary reception of Boeckhorst’s David. Thanks to an important loan from a private collection, the David is juxtaposed with a further example of a Rubens head study likewise offered for sale on the Antwerp art market following a similar enlargement. la suite sur http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=21581