Dr Adam Sammut, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Department of History of Art, University of York, was one of the recipients of an ALCS grant of £300 to acquire the rights for eight high-resolution images, for his book Rubens and the Dominican Church in Antwerp: Art and Political Economy in an Age of Religious Conflict (Brill, 2023). 

Rubens and the Dominican Church in Antwerp is about what is known today as the Sint-Pauluskerk, the church of St Paul’s. It is structured around three works of art, made or procured by Peter Paul Rubens: the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary cycle (in situ), Caravaggio’s Rosary Madonna (Vienna) and the Wrath of Christ high altarpiece (Lyon). Within the artist’s lifetime, the church and monastery were completely rebuilt, producing one of the most spectacular sacred spaces in Northern Europe. Sammut reconceptualises churches as theatres of political economy, advancing an original approach to cultural production in a time of war. 

All but two of the artworks reproduced in my book are hundreds of years out of copyright. However, with notable exceptions like the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, public museums in Europe and the USA continue to exert a monopoly over images of their collection, in spite of a move towards open access. Art historians (whose metier is images) inevitably incur substantial costs. Vanishingly few grants are offered to support publication convention, forcing scholars to dip into their own funds, reproduce fewer or low-quality images, or resort to image piracy. It was, therefore, a relief to secure the support of ALCS to be able to acquire the remaining images.