Late Landscapes in map, an exploration of the seigniory 'The Stone'

A lecture by Bert Watteeuw, director Rubenshuis and Rubenianum, on Aug. 26, 2023. In 1635 Rubens bought the seigniorial estate 'Het Steen' near Elewijt, a village in the Zenne Valley. The estate would inspire a series of wondrous landscapes that went on to exert a profound influence on art history. In this lecture, the paintings are studied against a background of new archival material and new cartographic sources. This will give us a better grasp of the landscape that surrounded Rubens and the activities on the estate. Who were Rubens' neighbors? Who worked on the farm? What was grown there? Can we precisely situate Rubens' landscapes on the map? We explore and inhabit the landscapes and bring them to life using source material drawn from Belgium's rich landscape of public and private archives.