In the spring of 1635, the city of Antwerp erupted in celebration for the joyous entry of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, newly appointed governor of the Spanish Netherlands. Peter Paul Rubens, the city's most illustrious artist, was tasked with designing a series of elaborate triumphal arches and decorations for the festivities—temporary monuments to imperial power and civic pride. Among these, the Arch of Honor erected before the Mint stood out for its allegorical richness, and Rubens’ designs for it survive in a set of oil sketches, including this reverse view.

The arches themselves were dismantled soon after the event, but Rubens’ preparatory works preserve their grandeur and the fleeting spectacle of that historic day. Rubens captures the moment when the Cardinal-Infante would have passed beneath the arch, surrounded by personifications of Justice, Abundance, and the city’s own patron deities. The reverse of the arch, as depicted here, teems with allegorical figures: rivers pour forth coins, signifying prosperity; caryatids uphold the structure, their forms echoing the weight of civic responsibility. The composition is crowded yet ordered, with flowing drapery and dynamic gestures guiding the viewer’s eye upward to the central medallion.

Unlike the more restrained allegories of Claude Lorrain, Rubens’ vision is exuberant, his figures almost tumbling from the architecture in a celebration of abundance and power. The physical painting is one of several oil sketches Rubens produced as models for the temporary arches, commissioned by the Antwerp city council and executed with the help of his workshop. While the original arch has vanished, the sketch’s survival allows us a glimpse into the ephemeral grandeur of Baroque civic spectacle. Today, the work is preserved in the Museo del Prado, a testament to Rubens’ role not only as a painter but as a designer of public celebrations.

It stands as a record of the artist’s late career, when he was at the height of his fame and influence, shaping the visual language of power in seventeenth-century Europe.