Peter+Paul+Rubens

media type="file" key="Morgan Rubens.mp3" [|Morgan Rubens.mp3]

Rubens was a prolific artist. His commissioned works were mostly religious subjects, "history" paintings, which included mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. He painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house. He also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the Joyous Entry into Antwerp by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand in 1635. Peter Paul Rubens. (2008, September 20). In //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. Retrieved 16:25, September 30, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Paul_Rubens&oldid=239770514

Peter Paul Rubens was the greatest northern artist of the baroque. His work was crucial to the genesis of that style, and his energy, versatility, and productivity have never been equaled in the history of art. He excelled in every kind of painting; his vast output included altar pieces and other religious paintings, scenes from Classical history and mythology, portraits, and hunting scenes. He also produced designs for tapestry and silver, and book illustrations. He directed a large workshop, and designed and supervised the execution of many large-scale schemes of decoration. Moreover, he was a classical scholar and designed and diplomat, and in the 1620s played and important part in international politics. The splendor of Rubens’ art reflected and expressed the renewed confidence of the Roman Catholic church and the power and glory of the autocratic monarchs of the Counter-Reformation. Gowing, L (Ed.). (2005). //Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists Volume 4//. New York, NY: Facts On File, Inc.

In his drawings he is almost supreme. His religious pictures, when properly regarded and thoughtfully understood, are impressive in their intense religiousquality apart from the fury of colour and extravagance. His portraits are triumphant, sometimes perhaps sensual, often dreamy, always impressive. He is unequalled as to colours, and though fuller of the delights of earth than of [|heaven], yet when the nature of the man is understood the intensely devout quality of his beautiful religious pictures can be appreciated. It is, however, as a draughtsman and colourist, as a master of pageant and a decorator of the highest position that the fame of Rubens has been created. Williamson, G. (1912). Peter Paul Rubens. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved September 29, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13214c.htm

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), the inventor of a rich, rollicking aesthetic, both classical and robustly northern, one of the giants of Baroque art and one of the most influential painters of all time. He was a diplomat, courtier, intellectual and art collector, and found time to run a Europe-wide painting business from his studio in Antwerp. Rubens was also a remaker of genres: his landscapes, portraits and history paintings are utterly different from anything done in those fields before. Lunden, S (2002, March 9). Rubens ('The Straw Hat') (1662-5). Retrieved September 30, 2008, from The Guardian Newspaper Web site: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/mar/09/art

Rubens’ profound stylistic influence extended over three centuries—from Van Dyck to the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir—and ranged far beyond Flanders. In Italy his influence was decisive on the Baroque painters Pietro da Cortona and Luca Giordano. In Spain, his early impression on the young Velázquez was later superseded by his pervasive impact on Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, the most Rubensian of Spanish painters. At the Royal Academy in France, the champions of colour over line—the Baroque over the Classical—found their model in Rubens. The advent of the Rococo style, heralded by Antoine Watteau early in the 18th century, coincided with the triumph of these Rubenists. Among Rubens’ English beneficiaries were Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. The 19th-century French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix wrote that Rubens “carries one beyond the limit scarcely attained by the most eminent painters; he dominates one, he overpowers one, with all his liberty and boldness.” Rubens’ recurrent impact on artists was almost as universal as the talents of the man himself. Painter, diplomat, impresario, scholar, antiquarian, architect, humanist—Rubens embodied the Baroque fulfillment of the Renaissance man.


 * Peter Paul Rubens**. (2008). In //Encyclopædia Britannica//. Retrieved September 30, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/511894/Peter-Paul-Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Flemish painter, considered the most important of the 17th century, whose style came to define the animated, exuberantly sensuous aspects of baroque painting (//see// [|Baroque Art and Architecture]). Rubens created a vibrant style that combined the bold brushwork, luminous color, and shimmering light of the Venetian school (represented by [|Titian] and [|Paulo Veronese]) with the vigor of the art of [|Michelangelo] and the formal dynamism of ancient Greek sculpture from the [|Hellenistic Age]. The energy in his work emanates from tensions between the intellectual and the emotional, the classical and the romantic. For more than two centuries after his death, the vitality and eloquence of his work continued to influence such artists as [|Jean-Antoine Watteau] in the early 18th century and [|Eugène Delacroix] and [|Pierre Auguste Renoir] in the 19th century. Peter Paul Rubens. (2008). In //MSN Encarta// [Web]. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved 9/30/2008, from http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574127/peter_paul_rubens.htm

Rubens was not an esoteric artist. The world did not veil itself from him in ambiguities. Perhaps no other painter since Titian displayed such an assured possession of his own experience, and beside it, even Picasso's notable lebenslust seems rather cramped. In a sense, Rubens was to the 17th century in Europe (he died in 1640) what Picasso was to the first half of the 20th. But Rubens' influence then went on, which Picasso's shows no sign of doing, for another 200 years. First there were his ex-students, Anthony Van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens. Even more important were the French Rubénistes. "From the moment I received it, I have not had a moment's repose," Antoine Watteau wrote to his patron Julienne after he had been given a picture by Rubens, "and my eyes are never weary of returning toward the easel where I have placed it as if in a shrine." Hughes, R (1975, Feb 10). Rubens, the Grand Inseminator. Retrieved September 30, 2008, from Time Web site: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912821,00.html

Peter Paul Rubens was born June 28, 1577 to Jan Rubens, a lawyer and Protestant, and Maria Pypelinckx, a Catholic. In 1568 Jan Rubens left Flanders with his family to escape Protestant persecutions. After Jan died in 1587 his wife moved their family back to Antwerp. While in Antwerp, Rubens received a classical education which allowed him to learn more about painting. In 1591 he began an apprenticeship with Tobias Verhaecht, a landscape painter. 7 years later in 1598 at the age of 21 he was elected the master painter of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. Rubens continued his practice of art by moving to Venice in May 1600. When he arrived he was inspired by many artists such as Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto. Rubens was soon hired by the duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga, to make copies of Renaissance paintings. In August 1601 Rubens moved to Rome. Here Rubens was first exposed to the Baroque style of painting which was brought to his attention by Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio. Rubens’ first major call for painting in Rome was the crypt chapel of St. Helena in the Basilica of Santa Croce, which took him three years to complete. In 1603 Rubens was called once again by Gonzaga. This time he was sent to Spain to present a shipment of paintings to King Philip III. In the end of 1605 Rubens returned to Rome. He extensively studied ancient art and philosophy upon his return. In 1606 he had the privilege of painting over the high altar of the Chiesa Nuova. In 1608 Rubens received news that his mother was very ill, which cause him to move back to Antwerp. Even though he did not make it home in time to see his mother alive, he did get to see his brother get appointed as secretary of Antwerp. Due to the Twelve Years’ Truce many Flemish churches had to be refurbished. Rubens painted two triptychs, “The Raising of the Cross” and “The Descendant from the Cross”, for the Antwerp’s cathedral which took him 4 years to complete. From 1610 to 1620 Rubens created many works that symbolized the Counter-Reformation, “The Last Judgement”, “Christ on the Cross”, Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus”, and Hippopotamus Hunt”. In 1622 Rubens began his diplomatic career by painting a series of paintings depicting the life of the French Queen Marie de Medicis. After the death of his wife in 1626, Rubens continued his artistic pursuit. In 1628 he was sent to Spain by Flemish viceroys. While there he was made secretary of King Phillip IV’s Privy Council. After a diplomatic mission to London in 1629, Rubens was knighted by King Charles I of England. In 1630 Rubens married Helena Fourment, whom inspired his painting “Venus and Adonis”. “Garden of Love”, “Feast of Venus”, “Kermesse”, “Life of Achilles”, “Landscape with a Rainbow”, The Horrors of War”, “Self-Portrait”, “Het Pelsken”, and “Self-Portrait with Helena and Peter Paul”, which were some of Rubens most famous paintings, were all made in the last ten years of his life. In May 1640 Rubens died from a long battle with gout. His legacy stills lives on today and his paintings still inspire many artists today.