The exhibition, From Rubens to the Grand Tour, will be on display at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD, April 25 through July 5, 2015. The exhibition focuses on two paintings by Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640), the famous painter from the southern Netherlands and his expert knowledge of the antiques, and of the Romans in particular. The time period covered also includes the 18th and into the 19th centuries. The focus of the exhibition is on his Agrippina and Germanicus, on loan from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and its “counterpart” Roman Imperial Couple, on loan from the Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rubens painted the two double-profile paintings upon his return to his native Antwerp in Flanders (present-day Belgium) after a long sojourn in Italy. Rubens had collected and brought back with him Roman coins, medals and carved cameos, which may have inspired the artist to paint the profile portraits. The concept of the exhibition is based on the Museum’s Curator Anke Van Wagenberg’s article “A Matter of Mistaken Identity - In Search of a New Title for Rubens's ‘Tiberius and Agrippina’,” in Artibus et Historiae (2005). The Museum will receive on loan several objects relating to numismatic collecting, including the 12 Roman coins dating to the first century A.D. from Augustus to Nero, from the American Numismatic Society in New York, while The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, contributes – among others - collector coin boxes, of the kind that Rubens may have brought back with him. The exhibition is curated by Anke Van Wagenberg.