Apollo and the Python
by RUBENS, Peter Paul, Oil on panel, 27 x 42 cm
This sketch was made as part of the projected decoration of the hunting pavilion Torre de la Parada of the Spanish king Philip IV near Madrid. For this project a number of painters from Rubens’s circle, among them Cornelis de Vos, Theodor van Thulden and Erasmus Quellinus II painted decorations after oil sketches by Rubens.
The present oil sketch was used by Cornelis de Vos. It displays Rubens’s skill at generating the same sensuality and poetic character in these small panels as in his large-format mythological works.