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What did Peter Paul Rubens paint for the high altar of the Chiesa Nuova in Rome?
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Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens, self-portrait in oil, c. 1638; in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
For the high altar of the Chiesa Nuova (Church of Santa Maria in Vallicella) in Rome, Peter Paul Rubens created a painting that enshrined a precious icon of the Virgin and Child.1
In this work, the icon is depicted as being borne aloft by a host of putti, a composition described as a quintessentially Baroque conceit. This approach to the altarpiece was later influential, notably being adapted in sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.1