Complete Works of Peter Paul Rubens

626 Pages·2015·69 MB·English

by  Peter Paul Rubens

Sir Peter Paul Rubens
(1577-1640)
Contents
The Highlights
ADAM AND EVE
THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS
THE MADONNA DI VALLICELLA, ST. GREGORY THE GREAT AND
SAINTS
SAMSON AND DELIAH
RUBENS AND ISABELLA BRUNT UNDER A HONEYSUCKLE BOWER
THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS
LANDSCAPE WITH CARTERS
THE RAPE OF THE DAUGHTERS OF LEUCIPPUS
A TIGER HUNT
PORTRAIT OF SUSANNA FOURMENT
HENRY IV RECEIVING THE PORTRAIT OF MARIE DE’ MEDICI
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN
LUDOVICUS NONNIUS
PEACE AND WAR
THE GARDEN OF LOVE
VENUS AND ADONIS
CONSEQUENCES OF WAR
SELF-PORTRAIT
The Paintings
THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS
The Drawings
LIST OF DRAWINGS
The Biographies
RUBENS by S. L. Bensusan
RUBENS by Jennie Ellis Keysor
RUBENS by Sarah K. Bolton
© Delphi Classics 2015
Version 1

Masters of Art Series
Sir Peter Paul Rubens
By Delphi Classics, 2015
The Highlights
Siegen, a German city in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia — Rubens’ birthplace
Possible self-portrait of Rubens as a young man
THE HIGHLIGHTS
In this section, a sample of some of Rubens’ most celebrated works is provided, with concise introductions,
special ‘detail’ reproductions and additional biographical images.
ADAM AND EVE
Peter Paul Rubens was born in the German city of Siegen, Nassau-Dillenburg, to
Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks. Following the increased religious turmoil and
persecution of Protestants during the Duke of Alba’s reign of the Spanish
Netherlands, Rubens’ Calvinist parents fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568. Jan
Rubens settled at the court of Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William I of
Orange, in Siegen in 1570, becoming first the legal advisor and then the lover of
Anna. In consequence of his father’s imprisonment for this affair, Rubens’
mother decided to return to Cologne the following year. In 1589, two years after
his father’s death, Rubens moved with his mother to Antwerp, where he was
then raised as a Catholic. Religion was to figure prominently in much of his
work and the artist later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic
Counter-Reformation style of painting.
In Antwerp, Rubens received a humanist education, studying Latin and
classical literature, before starting his artistic apprenticeship with Tobias
Verhaeght at the age of fourteen. Subsequently, he studied under two of the
city’s leading painters of the time, the late Mannerist artists Adam van Noort and
Otto van Veen. Much of Rubens’ earliest training involved copying the works of
great masters, such as woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger and Marcantonio
Raimondi’s engravings after Raphael. Rubens completed his education in 1598,
at which time he entered the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master in his
own right.
Held in the Rubenshuis in Antwerp, Adam and Eve, a panel depicting the fall
from grace of the biblical first humans, is one of the few surviving paintings
from this period. The panel demonstrates the influence of Otto van Veen,
Rubens’ last and most influential teacher. The use of colour, with predominant
cool hues of green and blue and the finely clear contours are also reminiscent of
van Veen’s work. Rubens’ treatment of the figures and the landscape is notably
static and precise, though his forthcoming time in Italy would allow the young
artist’s style greater freedom, when his use of colour would become more
expressive.
The poses of the figures are taken from a print of the subject by Marcantonio
Raimondi after Raphael, though Rubens gives them new life, with Adam more
muscular and closely observed, as the head is turned out of pure profile to allow