In 1620, the Jesuit Church in Antwerp—now known as St. Carolus Borromeus—became the stage for one of the most ambitious artistic collaborations of the Baroque era, when Peter Paul Rubens was commissioned to design not only the high altar but also its crowning sculptural ensemble. This project marked a turning point in Antwerp’s religious and artistic life, as the Jesuits sought to dazzle congregants with a synthesis of painting, sculpture, and architecture.

Rubens’s design for the altar’s crowning, preserved in this drawing, was central to that vision, uniting the theatricality of the Counter-Reformation with the city’s pride in its native son. The church itself would later become famous for its spectacular interior, much of it lost to fire in 1718, making surviving designs like this one all the more precious. Rubens chose to depict the moment of divine glorification, with a host of angels and saints swirling upwards in a triumphant ascent above the altar, orchestrated in a dynamic spiral that draws the eye heavenward. The composition is crowded with figures: cherubs bearing instruments of the Passion, saints gesturing in adoration, and a radiant burst of light at the apex, symbolizing the presence of God.

The interplay of movement and light is typical of Rubens’s Baroque vocabulary, echoing the energy seen in his altarpiece The Elevation of the Cross. Unlike earlier, more static altar designs, Rubens’s vision is alive with motion and drama, intended to inspire awe and devotion in the faithful. The original commission came from the Jesuit order, who were at the forefront of using art as a means of religious persuasion during the Counter-Reformation. While the finished altar was executed in collaboration with sculptor Hans van Mildert, Rubens’s surviving design—medium now uncertain—remains a testament to his role as both painter and architect.

After the church’s devastating fire, much of the original decoration was lost, but this drawing survives as a window into Rubens’s grand ambitions and the Jesuits’ artistic patronage. Today, the work stands not only as a relic of Antwerp’s lost Baroque splendor but also as evidence of Rubens’s extraordinary influence on the integration of the arts in sacred spaces.