Few paintings by Peter Paul Rubens so openly stage a contest of opposites as Abundance and Avarice, created in 1633 during the final decade of his prolific career. What makes this work especially intriguing is that it was conceived not as a standalone piece, but as a pendant—one of a pair—designed to be viewed alongside its counterpart, War and Peace. This pairing was likely intended for a discerning private collector in Antwerp, reflecting the era’s appetite for allegorical confrontation and moral lessons rendered in oil.

The existence of several studio versions and copies has fueled debate among scholars, who continue to discuss which surviving canvas best preserves Rubens’s original vision. Rubens captures the very instant when personified Abundance, radiant and overflowing with fruits and gold, confronts the gaunt, clutching figure of Avarice. Abundance’s open gesture and cornucopia spill riches onto the ground, while Avarice, draped in dark cloth and clutching a heavy chain, recoils in suspicion and greed. The contrast is heightened by Rubens’s signature use of luminous flesh tones and swirling drapery, which draw the eye from the warmth and generosity of Abundance to the cold, grasping hands of her rival.

The allegory is clear: generosity and plenty are always shadowed by the threat of selfishness. Unlike the more restrained allegories of Nicolas Poussin, Rubens’s figures are robust and animated, their emotions writ large in every muscle and glance. The precise early history of Abundance and Avarice remains uncertain, as is often the case with Rubens’s smaller allegorical works, which circulated widely among collectors in the Southern Netherlands. It is thought to have been painted in Antwerp, at a time when Rubens was both a celebrated court artist and a shrewd businessman, overseeing a bustling workshop.

Over the centuries, the painting has passed through several private hands, sometimes misattributed to followers or assistants due to the number of versions and copies produced. Today, it stands as a vivid testament to Rubens’s enduring fascination with the drama of human vice and virtue, and to the lively market for such moralizing allegories in the Baroque age.