RUBENS, Peter Paul
(b. 1577, Siegen, d. 1640, Antwerpen)

The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek

1625
Oil on panel, 66 x 82 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Isabella of Spain commissioned Rubens to design twenty tapestries for the Convent of the Poor Clares in Madrid. The subject of the tapestry series, woven in Brussels and still in the Spanish convent, was The Triumph of the Eucharist. This painting is an oil sketch for one of the tapestries.