Rubens
Name: Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Achievements: Foremost Baroque Old Master in northern Europe.
Born: June 28, 1577; Siegen, Nassau, Westphalia, Germany.
Died: May 30, 1640; Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands (Belgium)
Field & Discipline: Art; Painter
Language: Flemish; German; English
Father: Jan Rubens
Mother: Maria Pypelinck
Siblings: Jan-Baptist; Philip; Blandina
Spouse: 1) Isabella Brant, 2) Helena Fourment
Children: by Brant: Nicolaas; Albert; Clara. by Fourment: Frans; Peter Paul; Clara Johanna; Isabella Helena; Constantina Albertina
Education: Rombout Verdonck's school, Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands (Belgium)
Major Work:
"Madonna and Child Adored by Saints"
Life & Times:
Balthasar Moretus, the grandson of publisher [knew family of] Plantin*, was Ruben’s school-fellow and lifelong friend. Rubens later designed title pages for Plantin's publishing house.
In 1597, at 20, Rubens painted "Portrait of a Young Man", his first recorded portrait. In 1598, he finished his apprenticeship and became a master himself. In 1600, with one of his pupils, Deodat del Monte, he set out for Italy.
In Venice, Rubens fell under the spell of [influenced by] Titian*, [influenced by] Tintoretto* and [influenced by] Veronese*. In Venice, one of the Duke of Mantua's courtiers was taken with Rubens and recommended him to the Duke, who hired him. [patron was] Vincenzo I Gonzaga*, Duke of Mantua, was a patron of the arts and also a collector. During Rubens's employ, [a colleague of] Monteverdi* was the court musician and astronomer [a colleague of] Galileo* attended gatherings.
At the age of 24, sent to Rome where he copied the figures in painter/architect [copied] Michelangelo's* Sistine chapel, and studied other late Renaissance artists such as [studied work of] da Vinci*, Coreggio and Andrea del Sarto. Contemporary painters also influenced him, the most important being Caravaggio, who was in Rome at the time, though the two apparently never met.
In Rome again in 1605, Rubens studied classical art and began a collection of sculpture, carvings and busts for himself.
In 1608, Rubens returned hurriedly to Antwerp to take care of his mother, and painted "The Adoration of the Magi" for the Antwerp town hall. His next commission was at Antwerp cathedral, where he painted the triptych, "The Raising of the Cross". In this work, he portrayed Christ as a heroic muscular nude, and in all his religious compositions this same "earthy realism" is evident. His most able assistant, [assistant was] van Dyck*, worked with Rubens from 1616 to 1620.
Rubens also painted secular themes and portraits, and sometimes painted in tandem. He and animal painter Frans Snyders, produced "Prometheus Unbound". (Rubens painted Prometheus and Snyder the eagle.) And he and a new friend, flower painter [a pal of] Jan Bruegel the Elder*, painted several variations of the Madonna and Child.
In 1621, Marie de' Medici, now Queen Mother of France, asked Rubens to paint two long galleries in the Luxembourg Palace: one would celebrate her life and her regency in France; the other, the life of her late husband Henry IV. After two years on the project, working in Antwerp, Rubens returned to Paris with nine canvases.
The Queen's project was completed in time for the wedding by proxy of the Queen's daughter, Henrietta Maria, to [commissioned by] Charles I* of England in 1625. During the wedding festivities, the Duke of Buckingham asked Rubens to do an equestrian portrait of him.
After his wife died in 1626, Rubens agreed to try to negotiate a peace between Spain and England. But covert meetings in England, under the auspices of Buckingham, did not produce any results. In 1628, Rubens went to Spain to deal directly with King Philip IV and while there, painted a number of portraits of Philip. Rubens also became friendly with the Court painter, the young [a pal of] Velasquez*.
In 1629, Rubens was called to England by King Charles and stayed for nearly two years. He saw the Earl of Arundel's collection of antiquities, which architect Inigo Jones had helped pick out, and he painted a portrait of the Earl. Charles asked Rubens for a self-portrait and the artist obliged, painting himself as a gentleman, not a painter.
Charles knighted Rubens, gave him the sword he had used to knight him, a ring from his own hand, and a hatband encrusted with diamonds. The King also gave Rubens a commission to paint the ceiling of his new Banqueting Hall, designed by [collaborated with] Inigo Jones*. For Charles, Rubens painted "Allegory of Peace and War", which he gave to the King before he left London.
Rubens painted landscapes at his country house in Elewijt. He also painted classical scenes for Philip IV's hunting lodge in Spain. His "The Horrors of War", (1639), painted for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, mirrored the deteriorating conditions in Europe.
Rubens spent his last years on his estate south of Antwerp.
Extra Connections: He painted a picture of [did picture of] Joan of Arc*
Rembrandt*? Watteau*?
Exchanged collected items with [exchanged articles with] Pieresc*
Influenced [influenced] Gainsborough*, [influenced] Van Gogh*, and [influenced] Sir T Lawrence*, [influenced] Gainsborough*
He was a fan of [a fan of] Peter Breughel*
Assessment: Rubens's art was the epitome of sumptuous vitality of the Baroque.
Oneliner: Peter Paul Rubens, the consummate Old Master
Bibliography:
- Belkin, Kristin Lohse, Rubens, Phaidon Press Ltd., London, 1998.