The first time Katlijne Van der Stighelen cast her eyes over The Triumph of Bacchus, it made her question her own judgment. The Belgian art historian and Rubens expert was visiting Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches museum for a conference in 1993 and had asked to see a van Dyck in the archives. On her way out she caught a glimpse of a vast, 2.7-metre by 3.5-metre oil painting of a wild and drunken parade writhing with naked bodies young and old.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Van der Stighelen recalled. “I really know my way around Flemish paintings from the 17th century, but when I saw this picture I could not match it with anything I knew.” The archivist informed her of an intriguing fact: it was believed to be the work of a woman.
