Rubens, Peter Paul - Dutch painter, head and founder Flemish school, was born on June 29, 1577 in Siegen. After the death of Rubens' father in 1587, the widow and children moved to Antwerp. Here Peter Paul Rubens received a scientific education and served as a page for some time, and in 1592 devoted himself to the study of art under the guidance of Dutch artists van Noort and van Veen, and in 1598 he was accepted into the painters' workshop of the city of Antwerp. At the age of 23, Rubens went to Italy and spent a long time in Venice, studying colorists and especially Titian and Veronese. In Venice, the Duke of Mantua Vincenzo Gonzaga drew attention to him and made him his court painter.
Peter Paul Rubens. Self-portrait with his first wife, Isabella Brant "in the green". 1609-1610
In the autumn of 1608, the news of his mother's illness called Rubens to Antwerp, where he remained after her death as a court painter of the Dutch Stadtholder Archduke Albert. In 1609, Rubens married Isabella Brant. His first paintings date back to this period: “The Adoration of the Kings”, the altarpiece of Ildefonso - a work of wonderful completeness and delicate fragrance of beauty, and famous portrait Rubens with his wife in the green.
Peter Paul Rubens. Exaltation of the Cross. 1610
What mastery Peter Paul Rubens could then achieve in dramatic-moving images, show the "Exaltation of the Cross" and "Descent from the Cross", in which much resembles Michelangelo and Caravaggio.
Peter Paul Rubens. Descent from the Cross. 1612-1614
From year to year, the glory of Rubens increased, wealth, honor and the number of students grew. From 1623 to 1630, Rubens successfully acts as a diplomatic agent in the service of the Archduchess Isabella on the issue of concluding peace in Madrid and London, while not leaving his painting classes. Subsequently, he also performed other government assignments. After the death of his first wife, Peter Paul Rubens married in 1630, with the beautiful Elena Furman, who often served as his model.
Peter Paul Rubens. Portrait of Elena Furman. OK. 1630
With a huge number of orders, Rubens managed to draw only sketches, while he entrusted the execution of paintings to his students, and only sometimes, individual parts, especially the main ones, went through with a brush himself. Rubens lived either in the city, where he had a luxurious house with a rich art collection, or on his estate Steene, near Mecheln. From 1635 Rubens painted for the most part easel paintings by following them carefully. In the last years of his life, Rubens suffered greatly from gout. Rubens died on May 30, 1640 in Antwerp. The place in the church of St. James in Antwerp, where his ashes rest, is decorated with an excellent work of his work - the Madonna with Saints. Of the many students of Peter Paul Rubens, the most famous - Van Dyck.
Peter Paul. Rubens. Perseus and Andromeda
The number of paintings by Rubens reaches 1500. Few artists had at one time such a powerful and undeniable influence as Rubens, and there is not a single area of Netherlands painting that he would not have influenced.
A distinctive feature of the artistic nature of Rubens is an outstanding talent for depicting the dramatically mobile. Rubens loves a rich, stormy, passionate composition, he has an eye that captures the momentary, a fantasy that amazes with brilliance and power.
Peter Paul Rubens. Return of Diana from hunting. OK. 1615
An inexhaustible abundance and liveliness of images, freshness and poetry of improvisation, virtuoso technique, powerful, bright, blooming, joyful coloring, a tendency to exaggerate muscles and excessive fleshiness, especially female figures, are the main features of the painting of Peter Paul Rubens, which are especially strong in his numerous paintings with stories taken from ancient antiquity, partly from the history of the gods, partly from the history of heroes, and especially from the Bacchic cycle. Of the paintings of this kind, the most remarkable are: "The Abduction of Proserpina", "Perseus and Andromeda", "The Battle of the Amazons", "Venus with Adonis", numerous Bacchanalia, "Garden of Love" and allegorical images from the life of Marie de Medici and an allegory of war.
Rubens brings the same passion, energy and drama to paintings of religious content, which sharply distinguishes them from the ascetic piety of the old school. And where it doesn't go too far and where the plot is convenient, Rubens makes a strong impression. These are, in addition to the named paintings, “Ignatius exorcising the devil”, “ Last Judgment”, “The Crucifixion of Peter”.
Peter Paul Rubens. Terrible Judgment. 1617
With warmth and love, Rubens treated the life of nature and children's world, as shown by his best paintings depicting children playing and his landscapes, in which he paved a new path, combining the greatness of understanding with the depth of mood.
In his paintings from the life of animals, sometimes written in communities with F. Snyders, Rubens surprises with extraordinary vitality, exertion of physical strength, drama and energy: "Hunting for lions" and "Hunting for wolves" occupy the most prominent place among them.
Peter Paul Rubens. Hippo and crocodile hunting. 1615-1616
Peter Paul Rubens is also remarkable as a portrait painter. To the most major works in this genus belong: a portrait of a young girl, the so-called. Chapeau de paille ("The Straw Hat"), a portrait of the artist's sons, his two wives, Dr. Thulden and "four philosophers". In addition, Rubens formed a whole school of outstanding engravers who reproduced his paintings for sale at his expense. Rubens himself was also good at engraving and made many designs for screensavers, etc.
Peter Paul Rubens. "Straw hat". Portrait of the artist's sister-in-law, Suzanne Furman. OK. 1625
Name: Peter Rubens
Age: 62 years old
Place of Birth: Siegen, Denmark
A place of death: Antwerp, Belgium
Activity: great painter
Family status: was married to Elena Fourman
Peter Paul Rubens - Biography
Throughout his life, Peter Paul Rubens refuted the conventional wisdom about poor artists. He was favored by kings, famous, rich, and, as it seemed to him, loved. Fortunately, he did not find out that his wife and muse had a low opinion of his work.
Descendants called Rubens a craftsman, and his countless paintings - " butcher shop". In the paintings of Peter Paul, the flesh really reigns. The powerful bodies of men, the white-bodied plumpness of women. Even the angels are so fat they can hardly fly. And the space free from this bodily abundance is generously filled with brocade, satin, sparkling armor and rich furniture.
Such were the ideas about the happiness of merchant Flanders, of which Rubens was flesh and blood. This land was so full-blooded, flourishing, until in the 16th century Spain, under whose rule the Netherlands was, began to eradicate the Protestantism that had arisen here. In response, the northern provinces of the Netherlands raised an uprising led by Prince William of Orange.
Jan Rubens, the city judge of Antwerp, formally serving King Philip of Spain, secretly helped Prince Wilhelm. In 1568 this was revealed. Under the threat of death, Jan with his wife Maria Peypelinks and four children had to flee to Germany. Three more babies were born in exile, including Peter Paul, who was born in July 1577.
Start it life biography was not very happy - in a foreign land his father, a prominent and very gallant man, had an affair with Anna, the wife of the Prince of Orange. Upon learning of this, Wilhelm acted humanely - he left his wife with him, but did not execute his comrade-in-arms, but simply took away all his property from him and sent him with his family to his German estate - the town of Siegen. To feed her children, Maria grew vegetables and sold them in the market.
In 1587, Jan died of a fever, and his widow and children returned to Antwerp, where relative order was established. True, the former prosperity of the city is a thing of the past - forgetting about consanguinity, the Dutch merchants blocked their competitors from Antwerp and Ghent from access to the sea. The grown children of Jan Rubens had to forget about the trade that generations of their ancestors were engaged in and look for other professions. The daughters got married, the middle son Philip became a philosopher and lawyer, the eldest, Jan Baptist, chose the career of an artist.
By that time, Italy had ceased to reign supreme in art - the small Netherlands almost caught up with it thanks to one amazing discovery. For a long time, artists painted with tempera, the basis of which was a quick-drying egg yolk. The Flemings van Eycks were the first to use linseed oil as a base for paints. Oil paints were brighter and dried more slowly, which allowed the master to work without haste. In addition, the artist could superimpose colorful layers one on top of the other, achieving an amazing effect of depth. European monarchs gladly commissioned paintings from Flemish masters.
At the age of 15, Peter Paul firmly told his mother that, following the example of his older brother, he would be an artist. The first teacher in the biography of Peter Paul Rubens was a distant relative of his mother, Tobias Wehrhacht. From him, he soon moved to the studio of Adam van Noort, and then to the most famous Amsterdam painter of that time, Otto van Ven. If the first mentor only taught the young man how to hold the brush correctly, then the second inspired him with love and interest in his native Flanders with its love of life and rude rural entertainment.
The role of the third turned out to be even greater - he introduced Peter Paul to ancient culture, knowledge of which was then required not only for the artist, but also for any educated person. He was the first to draw attention to the talent of Rubens and his exceptional diligence. Venius studied in Italy and now decided to send his best student there.
His mother had to borrow money for Peter Powell's trip from relatives who did not approve of the younger Rubens' intentions. In Flanders at that time there were more artists than bakers. In addition, his brother Jan Baptist was already studying painting in Italy, who soon died without finding fame for himself. Peter Paul had a different fate.
Peter Paul Rubens arrived in Italy at the age of 23 and stayed there until the age of 31. He was extremely lucky: as soon as he arrived in the country, he became the court painter of the Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga, a generous patron of the arts. The Duke was very peculiar artistic taste. He did not like modern painting and ordered Rubens mainly copies of the masterpieces of antiquity and the Renaissance. And this can also be considered luck - at that time, artists in Italy fell "under the hood" of the church, which was looking for heresy in their creations.
Michelangelo himself had to cover a number of figures in the Sistine Chapel with clothes, and the Inquisition would not stand on ceremony at all with a painter from the free-thinking Netherlands. Copying saved Rubens from suspicion; besides, he was at the expense of the duke, who sent the young artist to different cities, got acquainted with the picturesque treasures of Venice, Florence. Rome and even Madrid. At the same time, Peter Paul led an exceptionally well-behaved lifestyle. In any case, he, unlike many Flemish painters who studied in Italy, never went to prison. Whereas his colleagues were often punished for drunken brawls.
In 1608, Rubens learned that his beloved mother was seriously ill. He hastily returned to Antwerp, but did not find his mother alive. Peter Paul was so upset by the loss that he refused to return to the Duke of Gonzaga - he decided to leave painting and go to the monastery. But life decreed otherwise. Upon learning of the return of the artist from Italy, the wealthy residents of Antwerp began vying to order paintings from him. Among the customers were even Archduke Albert and his wife Isabella, whom King Philip II appointed rulers of the Netherlands.
They offered Rubens a place as a court painter and a huge salary of 15,000 guilders a year. But for this, the artist had to move to Brussels, where the residence of the Archduke was located. Rubens, not wanting to confine himself to court painting again, worked miracles of diplomacy to get a position but stay in Antwerp. His talent, multiplied by diligence, allowed him to easily fulfill the numerous orders of the Archduke and at the same time work for the magistrate of Antwerp and paint the cathedrals of nearby Ghent.
Rubens' industriousness was legendary. Those who visited his studio said that the artist worked on several paintings at the same time, while willingly talking with visitors, dictating letters to the secretary and discussing household chores with his wife. He married 18-year-old Isabella Brant, the daughter of a wealthy judicial official. Having married for convenience, Rubens treated his wife with great restraint for a long time. Isabella did not look for a soul in him and for 17 years quietly surrounded her husband with comfort and care, while having time to give birth and raise three children.
Although what kind of invisibility is there if Isabella Brant, who willingly posed for the artist, entered the history of art forever under the name of the “Rubensian woman” - full, wide hips. However, such were all the women in the paintings of Rubens. It seems that the artist deliberately exaggerated these features - in accordance with the canons of female beauty of his time. It is known that when working on portraits, he painted only faces from nature, and painted the body from memory. At the same time, Rubens' bodies turned out so alive and natural that a rumor spread - he mixes real blood with his paints.
Rubens' style turned out to be so in demand that soon the artist could no longer cope with orders alone, and he had to recruit assistants for himself. The popular master had no end to those wishing to work: “I am besieged to such an extent by requests from all sides,” Rubens wrote, “that many young men are ready to wait a long time with other masters so that I accept them ... I was forced to reject more one hundred candidates...
In the luxurious mansion on the Antwerp embankment, Wapper, built according to Rubens' own design, the artist equipped a spacious workshop on the ground floor. where dozens of students worked. They were clearly categorized. The younger students primed canvases and prepared paints, the more experienced ones painted decor and landscape details, and the owner entrusted the most talented with the image of people.
Among the assistants of Rubens were genuine painting geniuses such as Jacob Jordan and Frans Snyders. The fact that they were in the shadow of Rubens for most of their lives suited them perfectly. Rubens provided them with orders and did not skimp on payment. Only one student of the master showed obstinacy - the young Anthony van Dyck, the only one who could compete with Rubens with his talent. After a violent quarrel, he left the teacher, for which he was deprived of orders and was forced to leave for England.
Over the years, the “painting factory” on the Wapper embankment has earned so well-functioning that Rubens sometimes only made a sketch future picture, and at the end he walked over it with the hand of the master and put his signature. Other artists of that time during their careers created at best a hundred canvases. Rubens's signature is on one and a half thousand paintings.
By the time Rubens was already over forty, the nickname "master of the empire of colors" was firmly entrenched in him. His then way of life was described in his memoirs by the artist's nephew: “He got up at four in the morning, making it a rule to start the day with attending mass, unless he was tormented by an attack of gout; then he set to work, seating a servant next to him who read aloud to him some good book, most often Plutarch, Titus Livius or Seneca ... He worked until five o'clock in the evening, and then saddled his horse and went for a walk around the city, or found another occupation that brought respite from worries.
On his return, there were usually several friends waiting for him, with whom he had supper. He hated gluttony and drunkenness, as well as gambling." Nevertheless, the artist had a weakness for which he did not spare money: he collected works ancient art. He brought the first exhibits of his collection from Italy. In the house, he set aside a special semicircular tower for the collection, which over time was filled with hundreds of paintings and sculptures. There were also works by Rubens himself in this collection, which he wished to keep.
Among them - the famous "Arbor, entwined with blooming honeysuckle", his self-portrait with Isabella Brant. The artist boldly rejuvenated himself by depicting a strong man with curly curls and a reddish beard - Rubens began to go bald early, which he was embarrassed about. In public, he never took off his wide-brimmed Spanish hat.
Of course, most of his paintings found their place in palaces, town halls and cathedrals. But not all of them aroused unanimous delight among contemporaries. Immediately after writing the painting "Descent from the Cross" for the Antwerp Cathedral, ill-wishers called it blasphemous. It seems that the love of life Rubens simply could not extract anything positive from the contemplation of death. The martyrdom of the saints, the hellish suffering of sinners - all this definitely did not attract him. But no one better than him created pictures on the themes of magnificent holidays and deeds of monarchs.
For this reason, it was he who was remembered by the French Queen Marie de Medici, who wished to decorate her palace with 21 allegorical paintings on the occasion of her reconciliation with her son, Louis XIII. A year spent working in Paris set the artist against the French: "They are terrible gossips and the most malicious people in the world." Rubens was outraged that the French artists whispered behind his back that the figures depicted by him supposedly looked unnatural, their legs were too short and, moreover, crooked.
The only vivid impression left by Rubens from Paris was that there he met the British ambassador, the Duke of Buckingham. The duke commissioned his portrait from Rubens, and in long conversations with the artist prompted him to try his hand at a new field - diplomacy. Rubens, who was familiar with royalty almost all of Europe, he enthusiastically took up a new business for himself, without leaving painting at the same time.
At that time, Europe was seething - the Protestants were at war with the Catholics, Holland and England, allied to her, sought to take away the southern part of the Netherlands from Spain, drawing the Spaniards into the war with France. Spain, in turn, tried to make peace with France and, together with her, oppose the British. Rubens found himself in the midst of these intrigues in 1625. With his help, the Duke of Buckingham and his confidant, the adventurer Balthazar Gerbier, began secret negotiations with Madrid. As an intermediary, they used the patroness of Rubens - Infanta Isabella. The artist was so carried away by politics that even for the funeral of his wife Isabella Brant, who died of the plague, he came from Madrid for just one day.
For five years, Rubens was - or seemed to be - quite a prominent figure on the chessboard of European politics. Serving different forces, he played his own game aimed at ending the war in his native Flanders. To do this, it was necessary to reconcile England with Spain, to which the lion's share of Rubens' efforts was devoted. Everything was used - secret visits, encrypted letters, the purchase of secret information. Rubens had to contend with Cardinal Richelieu himself, who swore to prevent an Anglo-Spanish rapprochement.
Shuttling between London and Madrid, Rubens managed to secure peace between the two countries in 1630. For this, the Spaniards granted him a large sum, and the English king Charles I knighted him. But the success turned out to be ephemeral: when the artist tried to participate in the Spanish-Dutch negotiations, the Spanish envoy Duke Aarschot put him out the door, saying: "We do not need painters who meddle in their own business." Soon the infanta Isabella died, which deprived Rubens of the main patroness and the opportunity to influence politics. He never managed to stop the war that ravaged his homeland.
Rubens, who was already in his fifties, returned to Antwerp, where his young wife Helena Fourman was waiting for him. He married the 16-year-old daughter of a court upholsterer at the end of 1630. Elena bore him five children and became the muse of dozens of paintings, where nudity was depicted with a revelation unprecedented for that time. She was Diana, Venus, Helen of Troy - and herself, playing with children or leaving the bath in a fur coat coquettishly thrown over her naked body.
In contrast to the calm relationship with his first wife, this time the artist was seriously in love. And no wonder: Elena was considered the first beauty of Flanders, which was recognized even by the new governor of the country, Cardinal Infante Ferdinand. But art cannot be deceived - in all the pictures, Elena's eyes are cold, and her expression is displeased.
In a letter to a friend, Rubens wrote: “I took a young wife, the daughter of honest citizens, although they tried to convince me from all sides to make a choice at court, but I was afraid of this disaster of nobility and especially arrogance ... I wanted to have a wife who would not blush , seeing that I take up the brushes ... ” Elena, nevertheless, blushed. She, a respectable bourgeois, did not like that her husband was painting her naked, and even showing off these pictures to his guests.
In the last years of his life, Rubens really changed his former moderation, as if in a hurry to catch up.
A rare day in his castle Steen, which he acquired in 1635, did without noisy revels. The gatherings continued until nightfall, and then the guests went for a walk along the embankment, or, as one of the artist’s friends testified, “went to a fashionable walk called the pilgrimage of Venus. Sometimes they sang and danced deep night, and then indulged in love in such forms that it is impossible to tell about it.
Rubens himself, if he did not participate in such amusements, then encouraged them in every possible way. Despite arthritis and attacks of gout, he was very strong and still worked hard, refusing any help from students. It seems. Rubens realized that on the threshold of eternity, only what is created by one's own hands matters...
In April 1640, a sudden weakness caused Peter Paul to take to his bed. On May 30, he died holding his pregnant wife, Elena, and his eldest son, Albert, from his first marriage.
After his death, Elena hurried to buy Rubens' paintings, in which she was depicted naked. Having lived ten years with the great artist, she did not understand what admirers of his work admired. And no wonder - many in the Netherlands believed that Rubens "drowned living soul Flanders in fat". Only a hundred years later, when the baroque, its philosophy and style were everywhere established in a rapidly changing Europe, it became clear that the genius of Rubens anticipated a new era.
Peter Paul Rubens (Dutch. Pieter Paul Rubens; June 28, 1577, Siegen - May 30, 1640, Antwerp) - a prolific South Dutch (Flemish) painter, who embodied mobility, unrestrained vitality and sensuality like no other European painting the baroque era. The work of Rubens is an organic fusion of the traditions of Brueghel realism with achievements Venetian school. Although the fame of his large-scale works on mythological and religious themes thundered throughout Europe, Rubens was also a virtuoso master of portrait and landscape.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE ARTIST
Peter Paul Rubens was born in Germany in 1577, the son of a Flemish lawyer, religious motives who left his native Antwerp. The father dies a year after his birth, and 10 years later the family returns to Antwerp, where the mother has property and modest means to live. Rubens begins the page service in the count's house and soon shows such an ardent interest in drawing that his mother has to give in to him, despite her own plans for the education of her son. Spring 1600 future genius goes to meet the sun of painting, shining from Italy.
Rubens spent 8 years in Italy, painting many commissioned portraits and demonstrating his outstanding talent, bringing life, expression and color to this genre. His manner of carefully painting the landscape and the details of the background of the portrait was also an innovation.
Returning to Antwerp for his mother's funeral, he remains in his homeland and accepts an offer to become the court painter of Archduke Albert and Infanta Isabella.
He was young, incredibly talented, possessed an endearing charm and real masculine beauty.
His sharp mind, brilliant education and natural tact made him irresistible in any communication. In 1609 he marries the secretary of state's daughter Isabella Brant, mutual love. Their union lasted until 1626, until the untimely death of Isabella, and was full of happiness and harmony. In this marriage, three children were born.
During these years, Rubens fruitfully works and his fame grows stronger. He is rich and can write as his divine gift tells him to.
Biographers and researchers of Rubens' creativity unanimously note his extraordinary freedom in painting. At the same time, no one could reproach him for violating the canons or insolence. His canvases give the impression of a revelation received by him from the Creator himself. The strength and passion of his creations to this day inspire the audience with awe. The scale of the paintings, combined with amazing compositional skill and finely crafted details, create the effect of immersing the soul in a work of art. All the subtleties of experiences, the whole gamut human feelings and emotions were subject to the brush of Rubens, connecting with the powerful technique of the artist in his creations, most of which has been happily preserved to this day. Rubens created own school considered the best in Europe. Not only artists, but also sculptors and engravers studied with the Master. and continued his glory. 
After the death of Isabella, Rubens, who suffered greatly from the loss, even suspended his work and devoted several years to diplomacy.
In 1630 he remarried the young Helen Fourman (Fourment), a distant relative of his late wife. She gave him five children. The family lives outside the city, and Rubens paints many landscapes, rural holidays in the bosom of nature. He is happy and at peace again. His mature craftsmanship becomes majestic and close to absolute perfection.
Later, years of continuous work begin to affect, Rubens is tormented by gout, his hands refuse to obey.
The disease progresses rapidly. But even then, natural optimism and a sense of the fullness of life do not leave him.
On May 30, 1640, in full splendor of glory and in the prime of his talent, Peter Paul Rubens leaves the earthly world. He was buried with unprecedented honors, and in recognition of the greatness of his services, a golden crown was carried in front of the coffin.
CREATIVITY OF RUBENS
Rubens never hesitated to imitate those of his predecessors who admired him, and especially with. The first decade of his work presents a picture of the hardworking and methodical development of the achievements of the artists of the 16th century. Thanks to this approach, he mastered all the genres of Renaissance painting and became the most versatile artist of his time.
Rubens' compositional solutions are distinguished by their exceptional diversity (diagonal, ellipse, spiral), the richness of his colors and gestures never ceases to amaze.
Fully correspond to this vitality and overweight female forms, the so-called "Rubens", which can repel the modern viewer with their somewhat ponderous physicality.
In the 1610s Rubens develops new Flemish painting forms, in particular, the genre of hunting scenes, which are imbued with the passionate dynamics of the mature baroque ("Hunting for a crocodile and a hippopotamus"). In these works the vortex compositional movement removes the restrictions traditionally imposed on artists by line and form.
Rubens' strokes amaze with boldness and freedom, although for all their breadth he never falls into pastiness.
His unsurpassed skill with the brush is evident in the multi-meter compositions of the 1620s, and in the precise, light, moving strokes of small works of the last period.
RUBENSIAN WOMEN
Nowhere is it so clearly felt perky, cheerful, full healthy life the spirit of Rubens, as in paintings depicting nude female nature. Erotic, as all nudes should be, but not vulgar, solid, but not banal, his naked female figures testify to his heartfelt pleasure received from life.
It is hardly a contradiction that this greatest religious artist of his time was also a great master of the female form.
In his opinion, the human body to the last detail is as much a creation of God as the life of any saint, and although he often placed naked female figures against the backdrop of past, pagan history, he always painted them with frank directness, which reflected his strong religious beliefs. From a technical point of view, it is almost impossible to find a flaw in Rubens' depiction of "nude", although modern tastes in female beauty differ significantly from the tastes and approaches of the artist.
He painted lush, full-bodied models, not only because they better reflected the ideals of his time, but also because the body with luxurious flesh, with its folds, bulges and curves, was much more interesting for him to draw.
Rubens probably understood better than any artist in history how unusual, subtle nuances can be achieved with red, blue, white and brown paint to accurately reproduce the color of the flesh.
Rubens' women were said to appear "made of milk and blood".
As a brilliant colorist, Rubens masterfully captured the subtleties of texture and structure of the body itself. Along with his predecessor Titian and his follower Renoir, he is an unsurpassed artist of the forms of the human body.
Rubens' two major masterpieces in this area are The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus and The Three Graces. They are excellent illustrations of the methods of depicting the nude, which Rubens used and which were subject to changes from the middle of his creative career until later in life. In the first picture, the mythological cousins Castor and Pollux kidnap the daughters of the King of Messene. The whole picture is saturated with the exciting mobility of the Baroque style. Contrasting surfaces of polished armor, horse hair and skin, silk fabrics and female naked flesh enliven the picture with their almost tangible texture. In the figures themselves, each dimple of flesh is accurately written out. The contrast of this picture is the second, which depicts the calm dance of the servants of Venus. It reflects the softer, more reflective manner of the mature artist.
Written a year before his death, the painting "Three Graces" presents us with the ideal of Rubens' female beauty.
Her composition, which is a variant of the pose developed by Greco-Roman sculptors and transferred to canvas by such masters as and, is endowed with energy and strength, which Rubens usually spends on much more complex subjects. Here the artist filled these three naked figures with wondrous vitality...
RUBENS AS THE CREATOR OF THE BAROQUE
Very few artists, even great ones, deserve the honor of being called the founders of a new style in painting. Rubens is an exception.
He became the creator of a lively and exciting style artistic expression later called baroque.
The unique qualities of this style of writing are vividly demonstrated in his early transitional work Saint George Slaying the Dragon. The woman standing on the left in a frozen pose is written out in extremely detail, which is typical for all Rubens' predecessors. But the heroic figure of the knight, his rearing horse, energetic gestures and bright colors demonstrate the new interest shown by Rubens in assertive action, movement, emotions. Paintings such as this one anticipated by about half a century the widespread use of the Baroque style by artists elsewhere. European countries Oh.
The bright, magnificent Rubensian style is characterized by the depiction of large heavy figures in rapid motion, excited to the limit by an emotionally charged atmosphere. Sharp contrasts of light and shadow, warm rich colors seem to endow his paintings with vibrant energy. He painted crude biblical scenes, fast-paced, breathtaking animal hunts, sonorous battles, examples of the highest manifestation of the religious spirit, and he did all this with an equal passion for transferring the highest life drama to the canvas. One of his greatest admirers, a 19th-century French colorist, wrote of Rubens: "His main quality, if one prefers him to many others, is a poignant spirit, that is amazing life; without this, no artist can be great ... and they seem terribly meek next to him.
No one depicted people and animals in a fierce fight the way Rubens did. All his predecessors carefully studied tamed animals and painted them in scenes along with people.
Such works usually had one goal - to demonstrate knowledge of the anatomical structure of the animal and were based mainly on biblical or mythological stories. Rubens' imagination carried him far beyond the reality of history, forcing him to create a living world in which people and animals fight each other in a spontaneous fight. His hunting scenes are characterized by great tension: passions are heated to the limit, excited people and animals fearlessly, with fury pounce on each other. This genre was popularized by Rubens in the middle of his career as an artist.
On famous painting The Hippo Hunt, one of four ordered to Rubens by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria for one of his palaces, depicts an incredible fight between a crocodile, an angry hippo, three hounds, three horses and five men. The entire composition of the painting by Rubens is masterfully focused on the figure of a hippopotamus. The bend of his back translates the viewer's gaze upward. There, in the upper part of the picture, like a fan, there are long horse muzzles, the uplifted hands of hunters, pikes and swords, which form powerful diagonals that return the viewer's gaze to the center of the canvas, to the center of the fight. Thus, Rubens achieves a variety of forms in his picture, which, connecting and merging, intensify the drama playing out before the eyes of the viewer, transferring all his attention not to the life, but to the death of these animals in the very center of the picture.
RUBENS PORTRAITS
Of course, Rubens was a great master portrait painting, and although his works are inferior to the portraits of Titian in their psychologism and degree of comprehension of the model, nevertheless, Rubens is rightfully one of the most significant portrait painters in history.
Rubens' portraits can be called a real pictorial reference book "who is who" of representatives of the Western European nobility of the 17th century.
During his eight years in Italy, he painted portraits of many aristocrats, including his very first patron, the Duke of Mantua. In 1609, after returning to Antwerp, Rubens became a court painter under the rulers of the Spanish Netherlands, Archduke Albert and Archduchess Infante Isabella. In this position, he received the special privilege of visiting the homes of the wealthiest and noblest nobles. He painted portraits English king, the Duke of Buckingham, the Countess of Shrewsbury, the Spanish king Philip IV, the French kings Henry IV and Louis XIII, the Polish king Vladislav IV Vasa and Mary de Medici. During their creative travel Rubens became involved in diplomatic activities. Infanta Isabella, realizing that the art of Rubens gave him free access to the most noble royal houses of Europe, made him her albeit unofficial envoy, but a very trusted person. Drawing portraits or discussing orders for monumental decorative ornaments walls of palaces, Rubens at the same time often conducted secret negotiations with kings and princes.
If it were necessary to characterize the life of Peter Paul Rubens in one word, then the word "energy" would be quite suitable. His art, characterized by his ebullient life energy, his passions, is the quintessence of the grandiose Baroque style. More than 1000 paintings by the artist is a monumental achievement.
And it's only one of many. Rubens was an amazingly well-read man, his interests stretched from the philosophy of the Stoics to the study of rare gems. During his long travels, when he diligently studied and often copied works of art from different eras, he met on equal terms with many famous European intellectuals. Among them are classical scholars such as Nicolas Peyresque, Caspar Chiopius and the French humanist Pierre Dupuis. All of them unanimously praised his sharp mind and carried on a lengthy scholarly correspondence with him.
"Rubens had so many talents," remarked one of his patrons, "that his ability to draw must be attributed to the very last."
RELIGIOUS AND MYTHOLOGICAL PAINTING
Rubens was very pious man, which with great joy and enthusiastically undertook the creation of religious orders. He once wrote the significant words:
“Everyone has his own gift: my talent is such that no matter how huge the work is in terms of the number and variety of subjects, it has never surpassed my strength.”
These words most accurately reflect the amazing universality of the master’s work, because the genre range of his art included almost all the variety of themes and plots that became widespread in the Flemish and European painting XVII century. And although only a few of them did not find implementation in the work of Rubens, all of them, even such specific “cabinet” areas of painting, as far from the immediate interests of the artist, as, for example, the image of flowers, turned out to be drawn into the circle of his influence, subordinate to the tasks set by him. art. And one of the central themes in which Rubens showed himself most vividly and full-blooded was religious and mythological painting.
To fully understand its significance for the artist and society, it is important to remember that Rubens lived from 1577 to 1640, during the period that historians usually call the Counter-Reformation, as it was characterized by the revival of the Roman Catholic Church, which made vigorous efforts to suppress the effects of the Protestant Reformation. .
It was a time of sharp clashes, during which the human spirit and intellect achieved great success, but it is also known for its greed, intolerance and unparalleled cruelty ... Yet the temperament characteristic of Rubens made him pay attention to the bright side human life and not just for adversity.
Very few great artists have expressed with greater insight and confidence in their canvases the amazing generosity of nature and the potential happiness contained in man. It is likely that the incredible popularity of his art during his lifetime was due to the need for people to feel solid support in their depressed state. They needed such an idea of the world around them that would resemble the saying from the Bible: “And God saw everything that He had created, and, behold, it was very good.” Rubens realized that such a fiery artistic expression is fully consistent with his creative convictions.
He cooled somewhat his enthusiasm for antiquity and poured his own deeply touching piety into a powerful pictorial art, drawing inspiration from pagan sources to give a new scale to the reflection of Christian themes, conveying human warmth to mythological images.
Subject to the power of his imagination, such a fusion of Christian and classic images enraptured and inspired his contemporaries. Nothing like this could ever be achieved by any artist.
LANDSCAPES
Rubens did not often paint landscapes - the demand for his work led him to focus mainly on live scenes - but he still made many sketches and studies of his favorite rural Flemish landscape. He may have used some of them for the background of his large paintings(like other artists of his time, he did not carry an easel with him to paint the landscape directly in front of his eyes). During his rides through the countryside, Rubens often stopped to sketch a gate that caught his attention, or a bridge, or a bramble bush, which seemed to him interesting and worthy of his attention.
At the end of his life, when Rubens moved away from large orders, he again returned to the landscape theme.
Over the last decade of his life, it is believed that Rubens painted several dozen landscapes on outdoors, most of which have not survived. Applying his free, flowing style, developed by himself, he, probably only for his own pleasure, painted the land that he had looked at with delight and love for so long. After his death, seventeen of his landscapes remained. Truly marvels of light and color, these paintings are often personal, much more deeply felt by him than many of the major scenes he has painted before. Here he passionately, with precise, confident strokes, shows the creative energy characteristic of his early works. The color of the landscapes is distinguished by its brilliance and brightness, its outlines are muted and softened. It seems that the light comes from the picture itself, from the depths. In these works, Rubens far anticipated what we would later see only in the Impressionists.
With the sleek appearance of a banker and possessing the noble manners of a diplomat, in his paintings Rubens mostly depicted naked women with curvaceous forms.
Rubens was never a pedant. He had enough talent and charm to try himself in another business - in the field of politics. For many years after he became a recognized artist, Rubens, using his profession as a cover, worked hard as a diplomat, often taking part in peace negotiations from the Spanish Netherlands, his homeland.
The artist acquired his ability to stay in society while serving as a court page from the Countess de Lalen, who adored tough jokes and games for her courtiers.
The size of the estate in which Rubens lived during the prosperity of his work was such that the inventory of property that followed his death stretched for five whole years.
During his stay in Italy, the artist was popular with Italian actresses, often winding up with them love affairs. In addition, during the same period, he repeatedly used the services of harlots.
Rubens' favorite model was his 16-year-old wife, whom he married at the age of 53. It is her naked body that is captured in most of the paintings of the great artist.
Rubens, despite the frank pictures he portrayed, was loving father all his children, whom, by the way, he had eight.
Despite a difficult and joyless childhood, the artist managed to achieve high altitudes and recognition. He had a knighthood and was also good friend Marie Medici and Pope Paul V.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Rubens, Peter Paul // encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907
- Rubens, P. P. Letters / transl. A. A. Akhmatova; comments V. D. Zagoskina and M. I. Fabrikant; intro. Art. V. N. Lazareva; ed. and foreword. A. M. Efros. - M.; L.: Academia, 1933
- Peter Paul Rubens. Letters. Documentation. opinions of contemporaries. Moscow, 1977
- Jaffe, Michael (1977). Rubens and Italy. Cornell University Press.
- Belkin, Kristin Lohse (1998). Rubens. Phaidon Press.
- Vlieghe, Hans. Flemish Art and Architecture 1585-1700. Yale University Press, Pelican History of Art, New Haven and London, 1998.
Very few artists, even great ones, deserve the honor of being called the founders of a new style in painting. Rubens is an exception. He became the originator of the lively and moving style of artistic expression later called Baroque. The unique properties of this style of writing are vividly demonstrated in his early transitional work "Saint George Slaying the Dragon" (see below). The woman standing on the left in a frozen pose is written out in extremely detail, which is typical for all Rubens' predecessors. But the heroic figure of the knight, his rearing horse, energetic gestures and bright colors demonstrate the new interest shown by Rubens in assertive action, movement, emotions. Paintings such as this one anticipated the widespread use of the Baroque style by artists in other European countries by about half a century.
The bright, magnificent Rubensian style is characterized by the depiction of large heavy figures in rapid motion, excited to the limit by an emotionally charged atmosphere. Sharp contrasts of light and shadow, warm rich colors seem to endow his paintings with vibrant energy. He painted crude biblical scenes, fast-paced, breathtaking animal hunts, sonorous battles, examples of the highest manifestation of the religious spirit, and he did all this with an equal passion for transferring the highest life drama to the canvas. One of his greatest admirers, the 19th-century French colorist Eugène Delacroix, wrote of Rubens: “His main quality, if you prefer him to many others, is a piercing spirit, that is, an amazing life; without this, no artist can be great ... Titian and Paolo Veronese seem terribly meek next to him.
No one depicted people and animals in a fierce fight the way Rubens did. All his predecessors carefully studied tamed animals and painted them in scenes along with people. Such works usually had one goal - to demonstrate knowledge of the anatomical structure of the animal and were based mainly on biblical or mythological stories. Rubens' imagination carried him far beyond the reality of history, forcing him to create a living world in which people and animals fight each other in a spontaneous fight. His hunting scenes are characterized by great tension: passions are heated to the limit, excited people and animals fearlessly, with fury pounce on each other. This genre was popularized by Rubens in the middle of his career as an artist. The famous Hippo Hunt (see below), one of four commissioned by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria from Rubens for one of his palaces, depicts an incredible fight between a crocodile, an angry hippo, three hounds, three horses and five men. The entire composition of the painting by Rubens is masterfully focused on the figure of a hippopotamus. The bend of his back translates the viewer's gaze upward. There, in the upper part of the picture, like a fan, there are long horse muzzles, the uplifted hands of hunters, pikes and swords, which form powerful diagonals that return the viewer's gaze to the center of the canvas, to the center of the fight. Thus, Rubens achieves a variety of forms in his picture, which, connecting and merging, intensify the drama playing out before the eyes of the viewer, transferring all his attention not to the life, but to the death of these animals in the very center of the picture.
Rubens (Rubens) Peter Powell (1577-1640), Flemish painter.
Born June 28, 1577 in Siegen (Germany) in the family of a lawyer - an emigrant from Flanders. In 1579 the family moved to Cologne; Rubens spent his childhood there.
After the death of his father in 1587, the mother and children moved to Antwerp. Rubens studied at the school of Rombut Verdonk, then he was assigned as a page to Countess Marguerite de Ligne. At the same time, Peter Powell took drawing lessons from the artists Tobias Verhacht, Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen.
When Rubens was 21 years old, he was accepted as a master in the Guild of St. Luke - the Antwerp association of artists and craftsmen. At this time, Rubens participates in the design of the residence of the new rulers of the Netherlands - Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella.
In May 1600, the artist went to Italy, where he entered the service of the Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga. In March 1603 the duke sent him on an embassy to Spain. Rubens was carrying a Spanish royal family gifts, including several paintings Italian masters. To them he added his canvases. Rubens' work was highly acclaimed in Madrid, and it was in Spain that he first became famous as a painter. After returning from a trip, Rubens traveled around Italy for eight years - he visited Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Parma, Venice, Milan, and lived in Rome for a long time.
In the autumn of 1606, the artist received one of the most tempting orders - painting the main altar of the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella.
In 1608, his mother died, and Rubens went home. He received a position as court painter in Brussels from Infanta Isabella and Archduke Albert.
In 1609, Rubens married 18-year-old Isabella Brandt, daughter of the secretary of the city regency. The artist bought a mansion on Water Street, which now bears his name. In honor of the marriage, Rubens painted a double portrait: he and his young wife, holding each other's hands, sit against the backdrop of a sprawling honeysuckle bush. At the same time, for the city hall in Antwerp, the artist creates a huge canvas “The Adoration of the Magi”.
In 1613, Rubens commissioned Albert to complete the Ascension of Our Lady for the Church of Notre Dame de la Chapelle in Brussels. An extraordinary success was his painting of the altar of the Antwerp Cathedral: "Descent from the Cross" (in the center), "Punishment of the Lord" (left), "Performance in the Temple" (right) (1611-1614). Rubens' brushes belong to the canvases "Hunting for lions", "Battle of the Greeks with the Amazons" (both 1616-1618); "Perseus and Andromeda", "The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus" (1620-1625); cycle of paintings "History of Mary Medici" (1622-1625).
In the later work of the painter, the central place is occupied by the image of his second wife, Helen Fourman, whom he depicts in mythological and biblical compositions (“Bathsheba”, about 1635), as well as in portraits (“Fur Coat”, about 1638-1640).
The feeling of cheerfulness and fun is embodied in scenes from folk life ("Kermessa", around 1635-1636). By the 30s. most of the best landscapes of Rubens also apply (“Landscape with a Rainbow”, about 1632-1635).
