Recently, I received a very honouring invitation from Júlia Tátrai, head of the Department of Old Master Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, to speak about the confessional characteristics of Flemish paintings in Rubens’ times. The talk will take place in a one day conference, which will accompany the exhibition Rubens, Van Dyck and the Splendour of Flemish Painting. To narrow down the scope a bit and to link it to the highly praised exhibition, I decided to analyse one particular painting from the museum’s collection, Frans Francken’s Christ in the Studio (Pictura Sacra).