Digitisation of Rubens’ oeuvre catalogue nears completion
The Rubenshuis is collaborating with the RKD on the online accessibility of the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard. The extensive catalogue is being digitised, and all of Rubens’ artworks are being included in RKD Research. The project will result in the world's largest digital oeuvre catalogue on a single artist.
Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard
The Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard is a series of books based on the documentation of artworks and the research of Rubens specialist Ludwig Burchard (1886-1960). This catalogue provides a complete overview of the oeuvre of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). It now contains (because the series is not yet completely finished) more than 40 books in which more than 2,500 compositions and 10,000 works of art are extensively described, both by Rubens himself and high-quality copies by his pupils, employees and followers.
Digitisation project in collaboration with the RKD
With the project Digitizing the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, the Rubenshuis, in collaboration with the RKD, is taking an important step towards completing the world’s largest digital oeuvre catalogue on a single artist. The initial phase of this project took place from 2013 to 2016, when the first 19 volumes of the Corpus Rubenianum were made available online as downloadable and searchable files, enriched with links to digital artwork records in the RKDimages online database, part of RKD Research. In the second project phase, running from 2023 to 2027, the data from the remaining volumes will be made available online and searchable in RKDimages.
3. Peter Paul Rubens, Salome receives the head of John the Baptist, Amsterdam Museum
Rubens' entire oeuvre in RKD Research
Rubens‘ oeuvre encompasses approximately 2,500 unique compositions. Including preliminary sketches, variants and copies, the entire corpus consists of approximately 15,000 works of art. Of these, almost 9,500 have now been entered into RKDimages, which means that more than half of Rubens’ oeuvre has already been made available digitally! The art records in RKDimages provide the digitised corpus with the most recent information such as new literature and provenance data, and unlike the books, as many works as possible are provided with a (colour) image. This dataset offers a wide range of future research possibilities. Saar Vandeweghe, Project Manager at the Rubenshuis: ‘It is very valuable for researchers and Rubens enthusiasts that the Rubens records are being made accessible through RKD Research. The oeuvre is easily accessible and richly illustrated with images, but connections have also been made between the works themselves and with works by other artists. This is an enrichment for both the Corpus Rubenianum and RKD Research.