AFTER RUBENS “ST PETER AND THE KEYS”

St. Peter and the Keys is my third portrait copy of a master painter. The original is attributed to Peter Paul Rubens. Around 1612, Rubens created a series of apostle portraits on commission for the Duke of Lerma. I chose this particular painting because I wanted to practice rendering older people, focusing on wrinkles and gray hair.

The hands in Rubens’s version appear distorted, almost as if the model shifted their position repeatedly during the sitting. My teacher even suggested that one of Rubens’s students might have painted them. Because of this, I took creative license and replaced them with my husband’s hands. Brad posed holding a hammer for the reference photo since we did not have keys available.

The painting is executed on an untempered Masonite panel, prepared with five layers of Renaissance marble gesso and reinforced with oak wood strips on the back. For the flesh and robe in the underpainting I used a verdaccio palette (a gray-green range of ten values). For the hair and beard underpainting I employed a grisaille palette (ten values of gray). The robe’s final appearance comes from multiple layers of colored glazes. Once complete, the painting received a protective coating of oil-based medium. After drying for one year, I applied five coats of damar varnish. With proper care and protection from direct sunlight, it should last for hundreds of years.

The work is signed “Patti Johnson after Rubens” to honor the original master.