Artwork Information

The subject of this monumental portrait wears a brown habit, a clue that he is a Capuchin friar from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church. The brown of his hooded habit symbolises the austere humility of the order, and the rope around the waist would traditionally be knotted to symbolise the wearer’s vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Shown standing in a library, his finger points to the text on an open book. Nearby is a bookcase with large, leatherbound books of natural history, politics, theology and philosophy. The names of the authors are legible on their undersides: Seneca, [John] Scotus [Eriugena], Aldrovandus, Tacitus and Mastrius.

Seventeenth century western Europe was marked by a resurgence of monasticism. Franciscan, Capuchin, Norbertine and Jesuit orders in Antwerp and its environs offered artists a steady stream of portrait commissions for distinguished clerics, and many Flemish artists completed commissions, including Peter Paul Rubens. Originally attributed to Gaspard de Crayer (Antwerp 1584–1669), Rubens scholar Dr Arnout Balis proposed the work to be by Pieter Thijs (1624–1677), a leading Antwerp court painter.