by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 14, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
An image within an image
Angels rise around an oval portrait of the Virgin and Child. Some lift the frame, others gather in clouds, and larger winged figures look upward from below. At first glance, this seems to be one painting of Mary enthroned in a burst of heavenly movement. In the high altar of Rome's Santa Maria in Vallicella, however, the oval at the centre is a movable painted cover. It can be lifted to reveal an older venerated image of Mary and the child beneath it.
This layered construction is the central fact of Rubens's Madonna della Vallicella. The Italian national heritage catalogue[1] identifies Rubens as the painter of the Madonna and Child with Angels at Santa Maria in Vallicella. It lists oil on slate and copper rather than canvas alone. The full catalogue PDF[2] gives 425 × 250 centimetres for the catalogued central assembly. Those measurements describe the recorded work, not a separately measured oval plate.
The image reproduced here shows the Rubens-painted cover in place. We see an image of Mary and Jesus within Rubens's painted setting. We do not see the older Marian image behind it. That distinction prevents a common misunderstanding: the older object is not simply the small face Rubens painted in the visible oval. The altarpiece was devised to frame, protect and reveal a sacred image already important to the Oratorian congregation.
At a Glance
- ArtistPeter Paul Rubens [1]
- Accepted design1608; catalogue range 1606–12 [1][3][4]
- SupportsOil on slate and copper [1]
- Catalogued size425 × 250 cm, central ensemble [2]
- Hidden imageEarlier Marian fresco behind movable cover [3][4]
- LocationHigh altar, Santa Maria in Vallicella, Rome [1][3]
Where this work sits in Rubens's career
Madonna della Vallicella
1606–08The Elevation of the Cross
1609–10The Descent from the Cross
1611–14The Garden of Love
1630–35The Three Graces
1630–35Contents
- The older Madonna Vallicelliana
- The movable copper cover
- Angels around the oval
- Slate, copper and scale
- Rubens's first solution and the revised altar
- A work that changes as it is seen
The older Madonna Vallicelliana
The Congregation of the Oratory's history of the church[3] describes an older fourteenth-century image of Mary, the child Jesus and two angels. It says the fresco was moved from a nearby exterior wall into the earlier church and eventually placed on the high altar. The congregation connects the image with a story in which it bled after being struck with a stone. That is a devotional tradition told by the church, not an independently demonstrated supernatural event.
What can be stated without accepting the miracle as historical fact is that the old image attracted devotion. The church's history says it was moved to the high altar and adorned by Rubens's work in 1608. Rome's municipal tourism office[4] also describes the older fresco behind the cover and the mechanism that makes it visible. The older image had a place and meaning before Rubens designed the surrounding painting.
This history changes how the altarpiece should be read. Rubens did not invent a Madonna image from nothing and ask worshippers to value it only as a new work by a famous artist. He received a problem: how to honour an existing sacred image in a rebuilt church while creating a persuasive new high-altar composition. The painted angels and clouds make the old image's position appear central and elevated, even when its cover is closed.
The church is called Santa Maria in Vallicella, or Chiesa Nuova because of its reconstruction for the Oratorians. The congregation says its larger new building grew from the small earlier church associated with Philip Neri's community. The high altar was a focal point of that setting. Rubens's work responded to a physical and devotional location, not just to a subject chosen for a portable picture.
The movable copper cover
Rome's municipal tourism office describes the central oval as a copper plate painted by Rubens. It repeats the subject of the older Madonna and Child while protecting that image below. Ropes and pulleys lift the cover so the older image can be seen. This is why the altarpiece can be described as a painting with a mechanism, but its purpose is devotional rather than a trick for its own sake.
When the cover is down, the viewer sees Rubens's image of Mary and Jesus. When it is raised, the venerated older image appears within the painted surroundings. The angels and clouds remain. The opening changes the centre, so the work can alternate between a new painted likeness and the earlier object it was made to honour.
The municipal visitor page mentions regular unveilings. Viewing times are liable to change, however, and an artwork article should not promise that the mechanism will operate on a particular day. Anyone making a visit specifically to see the older image should check directly with the church. The stable fact is the construction: a movable painted copper cover in front of an older Marian image.
The cover also creates an unusual relationship between copy and original. Rubens paints a Virgin and Child that resembles the object behind it, but his version belongs to a larger composition of angels. The older image's religious authority and the new painting's visual splendour occupy the same altar. One can study Rubens's invention without treating the earlier work as a mere hidden curiosity.
Angels around the oval
In the retained illustration, putti and larger angels lift or surround the oval frame. The frame has weight; it is not just a faint halo around the figures inside it. At the sides, winged bodies lean into the centre. Below, faces rise from cloud. The whole arrangement makes the oval look carried upward by a living heavenly crowd.
The catalogue's subject field names Mary, the child Jesus and angels. It does not give a detailed identification for each angel. The visual reading can focus on their gestures and grouping instead of assigning individual names. The upper angels draw the eye to the enclosed image; the lower group forms a bridge from the altar level toward it.
Rubens varies the scale. Small putti press close to the frame, while larger figures at the bottom kneel or look up from farther away. This helps a visitor standing below the high altar follow a vertical path. The painted centre sits inside a wreath of bodies, cloud and light. The surrounding movement makes it feel revealed even before the mechanical cover is lifted.
Dark areas at the left and right give the bright flesh and central oval contrast. Gold tones appear above, while pale cloud rises from below. The image is busy, but its organisation is clear: the surrounding figures serve the oval. That hierarchy suited the Oratorians' desire to make the older Marian image the heart of the high altar.
Slate, copper and scale
The national catalogue lists slate and copper as painting supports. Rubens's surrounding high-altar composition is associated with the slate setting; the movable oval cover is painted copper. This is a multipart object. Calling it simply an “oil painting on canvas” would erase the very construction that makes it distinctive.
The catalogue PDF records 425 cm high and 250 cm wide. It does not divide that number among the slate surround, movable plate and older concealed image. The article therefore uses it as the catalogued central work's measurement, not the size of every part. The present reproduction is only 400 pixels wide, so it cannot verify construction details or dimensions by itself; the public records provide those facts.
Slate was a deliberate alternative to Rubens's first canvas for this commission. A Musée de Grenoble account of the earlier picture[6] explains that Rubens considered a new, less reflective version on slate after difficulties with the first painting in the high-altar setting. The issue belongs to the history of this particular church space and the painting that had to function there.
The catalogue's broad date, 1606–12, should not be mistaken for the year when every part of the accepted design was first unveiled. The Oratorian church history and Turismo Roma connect the high-altar arrangement with 1608. A clear caption can say “accepted design of 1608” while noting that the national inventory uses a wider date range for the object.
Rubens's first solution and the revised altar
Rubens first painted a large canvas for the Vallicella high altar. That separate work, showing Saint Gregory and other saints venerating the Marian image, is now in the Musée de Grenoble. The Grenoble museum's object page[5] dates it 1606–07 and records oil on canvas. It identifies the painting as the first high-altar commission for the same Roman church.
The circumstances of the change are more complex than a single simple verdict. Grenoble's museum describes the earlier canvas and Rubens's plan for another version on slate. The Louvre's provenance account[7] says the first painting was removed by Rubens or refused by the Oratorians around early 1608, retaining uncertainty about the precise agency. The revised ensemble put the Marian image at the centre of the high altar in a new way.
The Grenoble canvas is not the painting reproduced on this page. It has its own composition, medium and present collection. Its existence explains why descriptions of the Vallicella commission may mention two versions or give dates beginning in 1606. The current Roman high-altar design is the slate-and-copper solution; the first large canvas belongs to Grenoble.
The revised programme also included paintings of saints in the church's wider setting. The high-altar image shown here is the central Madonna with angels. The related saint pictures should not be described as if they are visible in the retained central splash. What the reader can directly inspect here is Rubens's framing of Mary and the child by a rising host of angels.
A work that changes as it is seen
Most reproductions fix the altarpiece in one state. The retained image shows the copper cover down. A visitor to the church might, under suitable arrangements, see the older image behind it. That ability to change the centre was part of Rubens's solution, not a later digital effect. The painting directs attention to an object that it can both conceal and reveal.
The arrangement also makes the older image present even when hidden. The surrounding angels lift and venerate the central oval; the viewer knows the older Madonna occupies that place. Rubens's cover supplies a visible painted likeness while the protected image remains behind. The church's devotional history and the painter's invention are layered in the same physical structure.
This is why the terminology matters. “Rubens's Madonna della Vallicella” can refer broadly to the high-altar work, but within it are Rubens's slate surround, his painted copper cover and the older Marian image. Each has a different age and role. A reader should be able to understand the visible picture without accidentally crediting the medieval image to Rubens or calling his movable cover the whole altarpiece.
Look first at the large winged angels below, then follow the putti toward the oval. Notice how the frame becomes the meeting point of painted bodies, cloud and gold light. Finally imagine the cover lifting to expose the older image in the same place. The painting's dramatic ascent is also a careful design for the act of looking at a sacred object.
Rubens's accepted 1608 high-altar solution remains at Santa Maria in Vallicella, Rome. The national record 1200761092 catalogues the Madonna and Child with Angels as oil on slate and copper, measuring 425 × 250 cm for the recorded central work and using a wider 1606–12 date range. The visible oval is Rubens's movable cover; the venerated older image lies beneath. This assembly makes the altarpiece both a spectacular painting and a setting for another, much older object of devotion.
Rubens artworks directory
Frequently Asked Questions
It remains at the high altar of Santa Maria in Vallicella, also called Chiesa Nuova, in Rome. Check the church for current access and any unveiling arrangements.
An older Marian image of the Virgin and Child. The Oratorian congregation describes it as a fourteenth-century fresco; Rubens painted the movable copper cover that ordinarily conceals it.
No. In the illustrated state, the oval displays Rubens's painted cover. The older venerated image is behind it and can be revealed when the cover lifts.
Rome's municipal tourism office describes a rope-and-pulley mechanism that lifts the painted copper plate. Viewing schedules may change, so the church is the source for current arrangements.
Italy's national catalogue records oil painting on slate and copper. The work has multiple parts; it should not be described simply as one canvas.
The national catalogue PDF gives 425 × 250 centimetres for the recorded central work. It does not separately allocate that measurement to the copper cover or the older image.
His earlier 1606–07 canvas of Saint Gregory and other saints is now in the Musée de Grenoble. It is a different object from the revised Roman high-altar composition.
Discussion
Follow the angels toward the central oval and imagine the cover lifting.
Share an observation about the high-altar assembly or a reliable source that adds to its history.
Reader Insights
How does the surrounding painting change the way the older image is seen?
What is gained by distinguishing the slate painting, copper cover and older fresco?
How does Rubens's revised solution differ from the first Grenoble canvas?
Join the Conversation
Add your reading below, keeping observations specific and evidence clear.
References
- Italian national heritage catalogue, Rubens, Madonna con Bambino e angeli , record 1200761092. View source
- Full Italian national catalogue PDF with dimensions and location. View source
- Congregation of the Oratory, history of Santa Maria in Vallicella. View source
- Turismo Roma, the movable Rubens painting and older Marian image. View source
- Musée de Grenoble, Rubens's first Vallicella canvas. View source
- Musée de Grenoble, account of the change to slate. View source
- Louvre, provenance of the first Vallicella canvas. View source
