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Peter Paul Rubens

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Artists

   "Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower", 1609-10. Alte
   Pinakothek, Munich.
   "Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower", 1609-10. Alte
   Pinakothek, Munich.

   Peter Paul Rubens ( June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640) was a diplomat best
   remembered as the most popular and prolific Flemish and European
   painter of the 17th century. He was the proponent of an exuberant
   Baroque style which emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality.

Biography

   Rubens was born in Siegen, Westphalia, to a successful Protestant
   lawyer who had fled Antwerp to escape religious persecution. In 1589,
   two years after his father's death, Rubens and his mother returned to
   Antwerp, where he was baptized a Catholic. Religion figured prominently
   in much of his later work. In Antwerp, his mother apprenticed Rubens to
   leading painters of the time like Adam Van Noort and Otto Venius.

   In 1600 he went to Italy, settling in Mantua where he worked as a court
   painter to the duke Vincenzo I of Gonzaga. He studied ancient Roman art
   and learned by copying the works of the Italian masters. His mature
   style was profoundly influenced by Titian.

   In 1603 and 1604, he worked as a diplomat in Spain, combining art and
   diplomacy as he would throughout his career.

   Upon the death of his mother in 1608, Rubens returned to Antwerp. A
   year later he married Isabella Brant, daughter of Jan Brant, a leading
   Antwerp humanist. He was appointed court painter by Albert and
   Isabella, the governors of the Low Countries.
   The Raising of the Cross, Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp
   The Raising of the Cross, Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp

   In 1610 he moved into a new house and studio that he designed, which is
   now the Rubenshuis museum. It contained his workshop where he and his
   apprentices made most of the paintings, his art collection, and his
   library, which was one of the most extensive in Antwerp. Rubens was a
   good friend and occasional collaborator of the Moretus family, owners
   of the large Plantin-Moretus publishing house.

   His altarpieces The Raising of the Cross ( 1610) and The Descent from
   the Cross ( 1611– 1614) for the Cathedral of Our Lady established
   Rubens as Flanders' leading painter.

   He received numerous commissions from the French court, including a
   series of allegorical paintings on the life of Marie de' Medici (now in
   the Louvre). He and his workshop executed many monumental religious
   paintings, such as the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the Cathedral
   of Antwerp. The young Anthony van Dyck was one of the assistants in
   Rubens' studio.
   Hélène Fourment with two of her children, c. 1636.
   Hélène Fourment with two of her children, c. 1636.

   In the period between 1621 and 1630, the Spanish Habsburg rulers
   entrusted Rubens with a number of diplomatic missions. Charles I of
   England knighted him for his diplomatic efforts to bring about a peace
   treaty between England and Spain. He was also commissioned to paint the
   ceiling of the Banqueting House at the Palace of Whitehall.

   In 1630, four years after the death of his first wife, the 53-year-old
   painter married 16-year-old Hélène Fourment. Rubens had three children
   with Isabella and five with Hélène; his youngest child was born eight
   months after his death. Hélène's charms recur in later works such as
   The Garden of Love, The Three Graces and The Judgment of Paris, painted
   for the Spanish court and now in the Prado.
   The Judgement of Paris, Peter Paul Rubens, ca 1636 (National Gallery,
   London)
   The Judgement of Paris, Peter Paul Rubens, ca 1636 (National Gallery,
   London)

   Rubens died of gout at age 63 and was interred in Saint Jacob's church,
   Antwerp.

Art

   Adam and Eve: Rubens is famed for his nudes
   Adam and Eve: Rubens is famed for his nudes

   As many of his paintings feature full-figured, voluptuous women, the
   word " Rubenesque" (meaning plump or fleshy, yet not "fat," and used
   exclusively to describe women) is derived from his last name.

   Still, his art was much more diverse than this. He painted numerous
   portraits and self-portraits, religious paintings, as well as
   landscapes and historical pieces. He designed tapestries and houses.

Workshop

   Rubens' paintings can be divided into three categories: those he
   painted himself, those which he painted in part (mainly hands and
   faces), and those he only supervised. He had, as was usual at the time,
   a large workshop with many apprentices, some of whom became famous in
   their own right. The best known of these was Anthony Van Dyck. He also
   collaborated on some pieces with other, more specialized painters, like
   Jan Brueghel or Frans Snyders.

Painting for peace

   The allegory of Peace and War ( 1629), in the National Gallery, London,
   illustrates his strong concern for peace. It was given to Charles I and
   helped to create a peace treaty between London and Madrid. He visited
   the Netherlands, which was "enemy territory," partly to meet Dutch
   artists and partly to seek political reconciliation. There he
   encountered the attitude that courtiers should not use their hands in
   any art or trade. But because he was such a fine artist, Philip IV and
   Charles I both enjoyed his company as well as his art.
   Rubens is known for the frenetic energy and lusty ebullience of his
   paintings, as typified by the Hippopotamus Hunt (1616).
   Rubens is known for the frenetic energy and lusty ebullience of his
   paintings, as typified by the Hippopotamus Hunt (1616).

Value

   At a Sotheby's auction on July 10, 2002, Rubens' newly discovered
   painting Massacre of the Innocents sold for £49.5million ($76.2
   million) to Lord Thomson. It is a current record for an Old Master
   painting.

   Recently in 2006, however, another lost masterpiece by Rubens, The
   Calydonian Boar Hunt, dating to 1611 or 1612, was sold to the Getty
   Collection in Paris for an unknown amount. It had been mistakenly
   attributed to a follower of Rubens for centuries until art experts
   authenticated it.
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