KMSKA LATE - Corpus Rubenianum - Enthroned Madonna in the picture

On the eve of the Rubens Year 2027, KMSKA LATE welcomes the prestigious Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard. In the museum’s unique Rubens Room, two new volumes will be launched, bringing this scholarly catalogue raisonné of Rubens’s oeuvre close to completion.

Volume Three of Part IV, The Holy Trinity, The Life of the Virgin, Madonnas, and The Holy Family, is devoted to Rubens’s depictions of the Madonna and the Holy Family, with a particular focus on his large altarpieces. Rubens created an impressive number of monumental works for churches across Europe. While this volume covers only a small part of that extensive output, it includes some of the most prestigious commissions of his career.

Volume Five of Part XXII, Architecture and Sculpture, focuses on Rubens’s drawings and oil sketches for statuettes and other relatively small-scale works intended for both domestic and ecclesiastical settings. These designs for objects in silver, wood and ivory, and sometimes even for unusual combinations of materials, may be less well known, but they once again demonstrate the remarkable versatility of the artist.

Between 2023 and 2025, Rubens’s Madonna Enthroned was restored at Studio Rubens in the KMSKA. Since the restoration was completed, project coordinator and curator Koen Bulckens has been contributing new research on the work to the corresponding volume of the Corpus Rubenianum. During the book launch, he will share fresh insights into this celebrated altarpiece by Rubens.