Peter
Paul Rubens was born into the family of a Calvinist who had to live in
exile from Antwerp. On his father's death, Ruben’s mother returned to Antwerp
in 1587, where he was brought up and educated in the Catholic faith. At
the age of fourteen (1591) he entered the household of a Flemish princess
as a page, and began to study painting first under Tobias Verhaecht, then
under Adam van Noort, and then under Otho Venius. In 1598, he was accepted
as master in the Lukas Guild, though continued to work in Venius’s
workshop until 1600.
In 1600, Rubens went to Italy. In Venice he was introduced to Duke Vincenzo
Gonzaga and accepted his offer to join his court in Mantua. Rubens accompanied
the duke on his travels to Florence and Rome; in Florence he happened to
be present at the marriage of Marie de' Medici to Henry IV, King of France.
Later his impressions would find reflection in the painting, devoted to
the episode. In 1603, the duke sent him on a diplomatic mission to Spain.
While in Italy, Rubens studied and copied Titian,
Tintoretto, and Raphael, he also
admired the works of his contemporaries, including Caravaggio
and Carracci. During his Italian period he also produced some of his finest
portraits at various princely Italian courts: The
Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603), Portrait
of Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria (c.1606). In 1608, he returned
to Antwerp as a known and successful painter.
In 1609, Rubens was appointed court painter to the Regent Albert and Isabella.
He married Isabella Brant. In 1610, he built himself a large house and
studio. During his Antwerp period, until 1622, he received a flood of commissions
from the church, state and nobility. The Gobelin factory produced tapestries
after his sketches, and engravers used his paintings, distributing the
‘Rubens style’ all over Europe. Among his best works are The
Elevation of the Cross (the triptych). (1610-1611), The
Descent from the Cross (the triptych). (1611-1614), The
Union of Earth and Water (c.1618), Castor
and Pollux Abduct the Daughters of Leukyppos (c.1618), The
Battle of the Amazons (c.1618-1620), Perseus
and Andromeda (c.1620-1621).
In 1621, Marie de' Medici gave Peter Paul Rubens his largest commission:
a series of 21 paintings describing Marie's life, and intended for her
palace in Paris. It was not an easy task. The queen was far from being
a beauty, and far from being a saint: she had constantly quarreled with
her deceased husband, Henry IV, wasted enormous sums of money, and bothered
her son, Louis XIII, with constant advice so that at last he ordered her
out of Paris. Rubens's diplomatic skills were much in evidence during the
fulfilment of the order. He successfully managed it within three years
to the great satisfaction of the customer.
Between 1623 and 1631, Rubens traveled frequently on diplomatic missions,
visiting London and Madrid, where he received peerages from both Charles
I of England and Philip IV of Spain. Isabella Brant died in 1626; in 1630
Rubens married the 16-year-old Helene Fourment, who sat for many portraits
and other works: Bathsheba at the Fountain.
c.1635, The Fur Cloak (Helene Fourment).
(1636-1639), The Three Graces.
(c.1636-1638), Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment,
and Their Son Peter Paul. (c.1639). After the death of Archduchess
Isabella he gradually withdrew from the court and bought castle Steen near
Mecheln. His last big commission was the decoration of the Spanish King’s
hunting lodge, Torre de la Parada near Madrid, which he designed but was
no longer able to carry out himself.
Rubens is often called Prince of Baroque painters. In his style he successfully
united the features of Northern and Flemish art with those of Italy.
His influence on the painters of his century was enormous, as it was on
sculpture and architecture. He was a versatile genius and rivaled in inventive
power the great minds of the Italian Renaissance. He was a humanist and
classical archaeologist, a sumptuous designer of religious, historical
and allegorical canvases and a supreme master in ‘pure’ landscape. Rubens
was endlessly active. There are thousands of works by his hand, scattered
through collections and museums across the world. The paintings amount
to more than three thousand. He also gave the world the great number of
pupils, the celebrated artists van
Dyck, Jordaens, Snyders
and Cornelis de Vos are among them.
Bibliography:
Painting of Western Europe. XVII century. by E. Rotenberg. Moscow.
Iskusstvo. 1989.
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary.
Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
Rubens
(Art and Ideas) by Kristin Lohse Belkin. Phaidon Press Inc.,
1998.
The
Making of Rubens by Svetlana Alpers (Editor). Yale Univ Pr,
1996.
Rubens
and His Age/Rubens En Zijn Tijd by Nora De Poorter, Guido Jansen,
Jeroen Gitaij. University of Washington Press, 1991.
Rubens:
Garden of Love by Peter Paul Rubens, Federico Zeri (Editor),
Marco Dolcetta. NDE Canada Corp., 1999.
Rubens:
A Double Life by Marie-Anne Lescourret, Elfreda Powell (Translator).
Ivan R Dee, Inc., 1993.
Masters
of Art: Rubens by Charles Scribner. Harry N Abrams, 1989.
Peter
Paul Rubens: A Touch of Brilliance by Mikhail Piotrovksy, Natalya
Gritsay, Alexey Larionov, Vegelin Van Claer, Stephanie-Suzanne Durante,
James Cuno. Prestel, 2004.
Rubens:
A Portrait by Paul Oppenheimer. Cooper Square Publishers, 2002.