Statue Peter Paul Rubens (Antwerp (municipality))

 statue, monument, listed building / architectural heritage, 19th century construction

Statue of Pieter Paul Rubens (Siegen, 1577-Antwerp, 1640) by the sculptor Willem Geefs, cast in bronze by J.G. Buckens, from 1840-1841, inaugurated in 1843. The statue of Pieter Paul Rubens, first erected in Antwerp, was created on the initiative of the Société de Sciences, Letters et Arts d'Anvers, which collected the necessary funds by tender . The occasion was the bicentennial of Rubens' death in 1840. Due to financial shortages, eventually supplemented by the City of Antwerp, and the failure to cast the bronze statue in time, a temporary plaster statue was erected on 25 August 1840, on the former Sint -Walburgisplein. Delivered in 1841, the bronze statue only got its current arrangement in the middle of the Groenplaats on 9-10 August 1843. This used to be the cross of the former Groenkerkhof, on top of the grave of Bishop Antonius d'Espinosa.