Christ Giving the Keys to Saint Peter.

Copperplate, 44,5 x 32,5 cm, signed in the plate "P.P. Rubbens [sic] pinxit", "Michiel Bunel excudit" and "Caspar Huberti excudit".

Very rare issue, by Gaspar Huybrechts (1619-1684), of the well-known plate engraved by Pieter de Jode after Rubens. However the caption is different from the original by de Jode "Tibi dabo claves [...] et in caelis. Matth. 16.". We have "Accipe Petre poli claves, tibi magna potestas traditur, et coeli solvere posse fores [...]". We only found one copy of this issue without the name of Bunel in the Fondo Corsini held by the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica in Rome. There is no copy of that issue in the British Museum, Rijksmuseum, Plantin-Moretus Museum or RDK. Michiel Bunel (1670-1739) was an engraver and print seller from Antwerp. Like many other sellers of his time, he added his name on ancient copperplates, a.o. on an emblematic image by H. Wierix (cfr De Gulden Passer). That is probably what also happened in this case.
Ref. Van Heurck, É.-H. - "Les images de dévotion Anversoises" in "De Gulden Passer", year 8, 1930, p. 112 (online). - RDKartists (biography). - Not in Rijksmuseum, Plantin-Moretus Museum, British Museum, RDK.