Philip IV Appointing Prince Ferdinand Governor of the Netherlands (after Peter Paul Rubens)

Philip IV's appointment of his brother Cardinal-Infant Ferdinand as Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands in 1634 was the political event commemorated in Rubens's famous series of paintings depicting the ceremony. Van Thulden, who worked closely with Rubens on the 1635 Antwerp triumphal entry decorations, made this copy or interpretation after Rubens's composition, held on paper in the Scottish National Gallery. The relationship between originating master and producing assistant was institutionalised in the Antwerp workshop system: assistants made copies after masters' works for distribution, study, and sale. Van Thulden's treatment of this subject thus operates within a clear chain of artistic descent: Rubens designs, van Thulden interprets, and the Scottish National Gallery ultimately preserves the result.

A work on paper — unusual for Van Thulden's large-scale practice — suggests this is either a preparatory study or a finished work in a different medium (oil or gouache on paper) than his usual canvas. The format gives it a lightness and spontaneity different from his painted compositions. Rubens's ceremonial composition is transposed into Van Thulden's idiom: slightly more linear, less dynamically charged than the master's own handling.