Now in the picture we can see naked Helena at full height wearing a fur coat loosely draped around her shoulders. She stands on a red carpet against a dark background. But if you look closely, on the right, you can see a lion’s mask with water flowing from its mouth. Such fountains were usually located in the streets. Hence the question arises: where, in fact, did Rubens find a place for his young wife to pose?
Examining the space behind Helena revealed something curious. In the first version, she stood in front of a two-level fountain installed in a semicircular niche. Upstairs was the puer mingens, a small stone figure of a curly-haired boy who lifted his shirt to urinate. There is no doubt that initially Rubens portrayed his wife… in the open air.
There’s more to come. An analysis of the oak panel, on which the portrait was painted, showed that at first, Rubens had painted only half of the figure. He probably referred to Titian’s Girl in a Fur, which he copied in the collection of King Charles I of England while in London. Now the Titian’s work is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and at the Viewpoint #13 exhibition, both masterpieces were displayed side by side.
