His contemporaries called him the king of artists and the artist of kings. By the power of the talent and the versatility of it, the depth of knowledge and vital energy, Peter Paul Rubens he is one of the most brilliant figures of the European culture of the XNUMXth century.
Peter Paul Rubens
The lifelong fame of Pedro Pablo Rubens was so great that, with the flash of his name, the reign of Archduke Alberto and his wife Isabel began to seem like a great time. Since then, Rubens occupies one of the most honorable places in the magical world of painting. Pedro Pablo Rubens lived from 1577 to 1640, a period commonly known to historians as the Counter-Reformation, as it was characterized by the revival of the Catholic Church, which made efforts to suppress the effects of the Protestant Reformation.
It was a time of fierce fighting, during which the human spirit and intellect made great strides, but it is also known for its unparalleled greed, intolerance, and cruelty. During the years in which Rubens lived, scientists such as Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and William Harvey changed man's idea of the world and the universe with their works, and the mathematician and philosopher René Descartes relied on the power of the human mind, which It had a profound effect on his thinking.
But this century also had a dark side. The "witch hunt", an astonishing extent of religious zeal, densely mixed with blind fanaticism and superstition, turned the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries into a real nightmare: across Europe, thousands of people, men and women, ended their lives at the stake. as punishment for the fact that they allegedly committed crimes against humanity and nature.
The Inquisition, revived from the Middle Ages, diligently searched for the enemies of the Roman Church, which inevitably led to mass murder and torture of people suspected of heresy. Religious wars, one after another, undermined the established peace in Europe. The most destructive of all, the thirty-year-old, tormented Germany in the years when Rubens achieved his greatest creative success.
Pedro Pablo Rubens' homeland, the Netherlands, was shattered throughout his life by a tenacious struggle for independence from Spain. It began ten years before his birth and ended eight years after his death. It is hard to imagine that Rubens could paint dazzling, gay pictures of him in such a gloomy age, when violence and ruin triumphed everywhere.
Origin, childhood and youth
June 28, 1577 Maria Peypelinks is released from the burden of the sixth child. His name is Pedro Pablo. At that time, Jan and Maria Rubens lived in Siegen, in the German province of Westphalia. Nine years before her birth, Jan and Maria fled their hometown of Antwerp for fear of religious persecution. The painter's father studied law in Rome and other Italian cities. Returning to his hometown, he was appointed a city councilman. For several years he performed these important functions.
Although Jan has always been a follower of the Roman Catholic Church, he later became sympathetic to the Protestant teachings of John Calvin (1509-1564), which was considered a dangerous heresy in the country controlled by the Spanish Catholic king. Jan Rubens and his family fled from Flanders to the city of Cologne, to the court of William of Orange, nicknamed the Silent. There he became chargé d'affaires to Wilhelm's wife, Anne of Saxony, and later his mistress.
The court soon found out about their love. According to the laws of Jan Rubens, the execution was awaiting. But Maria fought tirelessly for her release. She paid money to have him released on bail and even sought an audience with the prince on a couple of occasions, before whom she defended her husband. The letters that she wrote to the prison are convincing evidence of female devotion. In them, she begs her husband not to lose heart and convinces him that he has forgiven him long ago.
After two years of petitioning, Maria managed to get her way, in 1573 Jan was released from prison on bail, and the couple received a residence permit in the small town of Siegen. In 1579 Jan was allowed to return to Cologne and finally, in 1583, he achieved a final and complete pardon. Despite all the disturbing vicissitudes of exile and the disorders of his father, in the house where Pedro Pablo Rubens grew up there was always a benevolent, calm atmosphere and complete family harmony.
In his later letters, he will remember Cologne as the city where he spent his happy childhood. Rubens was able to perceive the best qualities of his parents. From his mother she inherited his kind and balanced character, the ability to love and be faithful, and also, probably, his jealous attitude towards time and money. From his father, quick and easy charm of him. Jan Rubens himself dedicated himself to the education of his son and passed on his unwavering love for science and literature.
Maria still has some property in her native Antwerp, so she decides to return there. Converted to Catholicism, she is given permission to return with her children to her homeland. Nothing about her prevented her from doing this, as she managed to reconcile her relatives with the Catholic Church. She may never have shared her husband's Protestant religious beliefs, although her two sons, Philip and Pedro Pablo Rubens, were baptized in a Lutheran ceremony.
The Italian diplomat Lodovico Guicciardini left a description of Antwerp during its heyday. There were five schools in the city, many artists lived there, and there was a printing press founded in 1555 by Christopher Plantin. It was one of the best in Europe and was known for its exquisite products and pedantic and strictly scientific review. But with the entry of Spanish troops into the country in 1566, Holland became a theater of war for many years.
On the one hand, the Spanish, on the other, the United Provinces, who fought for their independence. Sieges, battles, robberies, unspeakable misfortunes - this is the result of these sad years. In 1576, a year before the birth of Pedro Pablo Rubens, Antwerp fell victim to a rebellious Spanish garrison. Entire neighborhoods were burned, thousands of people died. These atrocities have earned the sinister name of "Spanish fury." Antwerp suffered more than other Dutch cities both from the Spanish yoke and from the revolt raised against it.
When Maria Rubens returned home with her children in 1587, the situation in the Low Countries stabilized on the basis of the division between the independent provinces in the north. At the time that Pedro Pablo Rubens first arrived in Antwerp, the city was in a deplorable state. Its population has shrunk to 45.000, half of what it was twenty years ago.
The revival of the city began gradually. The Spanish government turned Antwerp into a financial center and a support post to supply all the needs of its army. The cultural and spiritual life of the city was also revived. Plantin's printing press was finally recovering from several years of decline, and Antwerp artists in their studios again began to take orders from churches and religious institutions to replace all that had been devastated during the years of fanaticism and war.
Thus, Pedro Pablo Rubens spent his youth in a city that gradually returned to its previous life. Initially, he studied at the school of Rombuth Verdonk, a scientist with some serious reputation, who continued to shape the boy's mind and taste in the footsteps of his father Jan Rubens. There, Pedro Pablo met a disabled boy, several years older than him, and this acquaintance was destined to become a strong lifelong friendship. Moretus was Plantin's grandson, and in time became head of his grandfather's printing house.
looking for a way
His mother placed him for some time as a page to Count Philippe de Lalen's widow, Marguerite de Lin. Thus he usually began the path of a young man from a good family with few resources, to eventually occupy a worthy position in society. A courteous page with good manners could count on promotion, and with age, an important and responsible position with any nobleman and, consequently, a certain role in the government of the state. This was the beginning of more than one famous political career.
Pedro Pablo Rubens learned exquisite court manners at Countess Lalen's house, but even then he wanted to become an artist and a few months later he persuaded his mother to remove him from the countess's service and assign him as an artist's apprentice. They look for a teacher who accepts to take him to his workshop. This is Tobias Verhaert. Pedro Pablo moves into his house. Rubens's first teacher was an unremarkable landscape painter: he painted small-sized landscapes, for which there was always a demand, but Pedro Pablo could not learn much from him.
Very soon he moved to the studio of the more versatile artist Adam van Noort, with whom he apprenticed for about four years. At the age of nineteen, Pedro Pablo changes teachers again and becomes a student of one of Antwerp's most notable artists, Otto van Veen. He was a learned man with excellent taste, one of an elite group of "romantic" artists who once studied in Italy, whose works were imbued with the humanistic spirit of the Renaissance. Otto van Veen's work was thoughtful, meaningful, but almost devoid of life.
However, this artist had a great influence on Rubens's aesthetic education, instilling in his student a thorough study of composition, stimulating his interest in the intellectual aspects of their common profession. Otto van Veen was especially famous for his knowledge of symbols - such artistic images with the help of which it was possible to visually convey abstract ideas. The vast knowledge of symbols accumulated throughout his life served Rubens as fuel that could fire his imagination.
It cost him nothing to convey his ideas (or those of his patron) in a collection of visual images. The foundations of this knowledge were laid in the workshop of a teacher whom he always admired. Otto van Veen remained a devoted friend of Rubens throughout his life.
When Pedro Pablo Rubens turns twenty-one, he is accepted as a master in the St. Luke's Guild, Antwerp Association of Artists and Craftsmen, whose elder is his former master, Adam van Noort. Although he still did not have his own studio and continued to work with Otto van Veen for a full two years, he was now allowed to take students, which he did, taking Deodatus Del Monte, the son of an Antwerp silversmith, as his pupil. yours.
Little is known about Rubens's work at this time. Obviously, he enjoyed a great reputation, otherwise he would not have had any students. At this time, his mother already kept several of his paintings, as she proudly spoke of them in her will. But there is only one work signed by him for all these years: a complete portrait of a young man, whose face, painted with a firm hand, seems alive.
In the last year of Rubens' stay with Van Veen, the studio received an incredible commission: the decoration of the Antwerp residence for the receptions of the new rulers of the Netherlands, Archduke Albert and Archduchess Elizabeth. Since the time of the Burgundian dukes, in all the major cities of the Netherlands, the custom has developed of organizing a magnificent social reception for their rulers, which is called a “joyful entrance”.
From the point of view of cultural development, the reign of Albert and Elizabeth was associated by all with the great Renaissance. In this 'golden age', or rather the 'golden twilight' of Flemish art, Rubens was destined to play a leading role.
Meanwhile, at the Auven University near Brussels, his brother Philip became a favorite of the great humanist Justus Lipsius and gradually gained a reputation as a classical scientist. Pedro Pablo probably kept in constant contact with him, always looking for advice and help. He paid special attention to the Latin language and did not lose interest in the world of antiquity. Inevitably, he more and more frequently turned his gaze from him to Rome, this beautiful Eternal City that, like a magnet, attracted all artists and scientists.
To Italy for experience
Dutch artists of the time were convinced that the true light of art came only from Italy. Only there can the true secrets of art be understood. They all considered it their duty to make a journey through the Alps. Admirers of the Italianate aesthetic are unaware of the traditions of the old Flemish masters, without exception of van Eyck, van der Weyden or Memling. Dutch artists used to make this trip once in a lifetime, but they often stayed in Italy for many years, so their stay in this country made them rich.
In May 1600, Pedro Pablo Rubens, before he was twenty-three years old, went to Italy. He was young, handsome and well educated. He knew English, Spanish, French, Italian and Latin. An artist's diploma from the Saint Luke's Guild and his mother's purse helped her believe in his star. Perhaps, Pedro Pablo had some essential recommendations with him. It is not known which ones, but his effective force is evident: on October 5, 1600, he is present in Florence at the marriage of Marie Médicis to the King of France, and at the end of the year he enters the service of the court of Mantua.
Rubens discovered treasures in the duke's collection. The Gonzaga family collection is one of the most famous in Italy. There are works by Bellini, Titian, Palma the Elder, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, Raphael, Pordenone, Correggio, Giulio Romano. Rubens diligently copies Titian, Correggio, Veronese. It became a custom for collectors of that time to exchange copies: in the absence of the original, one can at least admire its reflection.
Gonzaga is satisfied with Rubens' work and soon sends the young master to Rome to make copies of the great artists' paintings. In a letter to Cardinal Montaletto, patron of the arts, the Duke asks protection "to Pedro Pablo Rubens, Flemish, my painter." In Rome, Pedro Pablo enjoyed the opportunity to get acquainted with the creations of the greatest masters who made Rome a place of pilgrimage: Raphael and Michelangelo.
Looking at the masterpieces of other artists and even copying them, you can cherish wonderful dreams, but if you want to be successful, you have to paint yourself. However, the artist needs orders. By a happy coincidence, Pedro Pablo Rubens receives an order for three altar images in the chapel of Santa Elena of the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem in Rome.
This work has survived to this day, although, of course, it has grown very old from an inexorable age. But it still demonstrates the power of his imagination and the technique the artist applied in completing the order. In the center of the altar, Rubens placed Saint Helena, this truly regal figure in a dress of gold brocade. On the right side of the altar, he depicted Christ, crowned with a crown of thorns, and on the left - the erection of the Cross. For the first time, he boldly used his Italian experience.
It is clear that he still doubts: the powerful drawing of Michelangelo, the dramatic coloring of Tintoretto. Furthermore, he is still constrained by memories of Flanders. But, despite this, the work deserves attention. Rubens far exceeded the level of Flemish fans in Italy. Having completed the order for the Church of the Holy Cross, Rubens returned to Mantua, where in March 1603 the duke entrusted him with an important and responsible task - to transfer various expensive gifts to the Spanish king.
The gifts consisted of a beautifully wrought carriage with six horses, new and interesting fireworks, perfumes and incense in precious vessels, and various copies of paintings, however, not by Rubens himself, but by the most famous masters of Rome. The latter were intended as a gift to the king's prime minister and favorite, the Duke of Lerme, who posed as the patron saint of fine arts. Rubens was to personally accompany the gifts and ensure their punctual delivery to the king and his minister.
Travel to Spain
The trip to Spain, however, was not easy. The road went through the mountains, moreover, he took a long sea voyage, and Rubens did not have enough funds allocated for it. The floods in Florence delayed his expedition for several days and he had to face serious difficulties in hiring a ship. A few weeks later, he was able to report his safe arrival at the Spanish royal court with all the gifts in complete safety, including "bright and beautiful horses."
But another misfortune awaited him when copies of the luggage pictures were made. “Today we discovered that the paintings are so damaged that I fell into despair. I barely have the power to restore them. The canvas has almost completely rotted (although all the canvases were in a zinc box, twice wrapped in oiled cloth and then placed in a wooden chest). Such a sad state of them is due to the constant rains ”.
Fortunately, the royal court moved to the Castle of Aranjuez. From there he will go to Burgos. The King will not return to Valladolid until July. These two months are just a godsend. Pedro Pablo Rubens corrected Facchetti's damaged canvases and replaced the desperately ruined works with two canvases of his own work. Since he was given the freedom to choose a plot, he painted Heraclitus and Democritus for contrast.
The representative of the Duke of Mantua at the Spanish court, this arrogant man who strictly observed all formalities, personally undertook to transfer the gifts to the king. However, he allowed Rubens to be present at the transfer of the paintings to the Duke of Lerme. The duke examined them with satisfaction, mistaking copies for originals. Rubens was too tactful to try to convince him. Rubens's own paintings received particular praise.
After some time, he received an order that took his breath away: he was to paint a portrait of the duke himself, sitting on a horse. Rubens, 26, really shined with this job. He decided to choose the most difficult pose of the duke on horseback. This portrait really liked not only the character himself, but the entire Spanish court. A few years later, his fame exceeded the limits, and other artists tried to use the same composition and technique using an ascending spiral (gradual increase).
Due to his great success, Rubens listened less and less to the constant requests of the Duke of Mantua, refusing to paint portraits of pretty women. In a polite letter he asked to be excused from traveling to France to paint court beauties there; but even so, obeying his teacher, the artist made several portraits of beautiful Spanish ladies during his stay in Spain.
Return to italy
On the way back to Mantua, Rubens stopped in Genoa, a city he would visit more than once in the future, and where he painted several portraits of the leading local patricians. Fulfilling these orders, Rubens demonstrated his versatility as an artist who moved with extraordinary ease from religious to secular painting, from portraits to mythological themes. A year after his return from Spain, Rubens achieved his first real success with a religious painting intended for the high altar of a Jesuit church in Genoa.
Rubens, later in life, often worked for the Jesuits, as he was attracted by their overwhelming, warlike faith and disciplined religious zeal. In his altar painting called "Circumcision", Rubens again resorted to a combination of various ideas inherited from other artists. An impetuous upward aspiration is noticeable in the composition, which he adopted from Correggio in his paintings in Parma Cathedral.
From the same master, he borrowed the idea of presenting the baby in such a way that light emanated from him. He owes much to Titian for the richness of the colors and the thickness of the line. The noble figure of Our Lady is created on the basis of a Roman statue. But they all borrowed and adopted ideas that Rubens brought into the framework of his own vision. His Mother of God combines the realism of feelings with the idealized form on which the Church insisted.
She is full of classical dignity, but, sensing human pity, she turns away so as not to see how Christ suffers. Her strange gesture draws the viewer's gaze upwards, to where dark human figures huddle around a tiny light-emitting baby, to where heavenly light emanates, and to where a host of angels huddle. This is the maximum expression in the art of the era of Catholic Christianity: the world of man and the heavenly world, both visible and invisible, are inextricably linked by divine sacrifice.
Rubens's travels through Italy for the purpose of self-education, when in the duke's service, lasted eight long years. Although his routes cannot be accurately reproduced, it is safe to say that he visited Florence and Genoa, Pisa, Padua and Verona, Auca and Parma, Venice repeatedly, perhaps Urbino, but certainly Milan, where he made a pencil sketch of The painting "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci. He also lived in Rome twice for long periods. Very few artists of that time could boast of knowing Italy better than Rubens.
His letters from this period are written in vivid and correct Italian, and he signed them "Pietro Paolo" as he signed for the rest of his life. The years spent in Italy were filled not only with work on altar paintings for the Roman, Mantuan and Genoese churches, but also on portraits (“Self-portrait with friends from Mantua”, 1606, Wallraf Richartz Museum, Cologne; “Marquise Brigida Spinola Doria", 1606-07, National Gallery, Washington), but also the study of works of ancient sculpture, Michelangelo, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Correggio and Caravaggio.
Like many young artists of his time, Rubens sought to find new methods to apply the discoveries made by his predecessors. In the first place, he had to study down to the subtleties all that his work could teach in relation to form, color and pictorial technique. To some extent, his future greatness is explained by his incredible ability to combine diverse and incomparable influences, both ancient and modern, and build on that synthesis his own artistic vision.
The secret of his incomparable genius was the vibrant and pervasive sense of life and constant movement. Of all the influences shaping the direction of Italian art at this time, perhaps the most significant and controversial was the work of Caravaggio (1573-1610), a complex, impulsive, almost uncontrollable young artist who was at the zenith of his fame when Rubens first arrived in Rome. Caravaggio, originally from northern Italy, was only four years older than Rubens.
Rubens was aware of Caravaggio's paintings, but it is unlikely that these artists ever met. However, Rubens was impressed by his paintings, and even made several copies of them. The Italian innovator was a master in the use of light and shadow, he knew how to subtly find the right balance here to better highlight the figures, present the texture more clearly, correctly define the surface of the image.
But above all in Caravaggio's work he was struck by its realism, which went far beyond what the artists of his time tried to allow themselves. Caravaggio did not idealize biblical characters in his religious paintings, but simply painted ordinary people in his image. Thus, in his famous painting "El Entierro", the faces of the three Marias and Nicodemus are taken directly from everyday life.
But Caravaggio's realism, the skill of the painter, the play of light and shadow on his canvases were so impressive that they had a great influence on the art of 1560th-century artists throughout Europe. Above all, Rubens recognized the technique of another Italian artist, she was much closer to him than Caravaggio's technique. This artist turned out to be the Bolognese master Annibale Carracci (1609-XNUMX), who worked in Rome on his magnificent decorations for the Palazzo Farnese.
Carracci invented a method of quickly making chalk sketches, which Rubens immediately adopted from him. Carracci's style was significantly different from Caravaggio's. He preached classical concepts and his composition was distinguished by sculptural grandeur with various reflections of traditional elements. Rubens considered such self-expression to be consistent with his own creative approach.
Indeed, very few of Rubens' early works in Italy have survived to the present day. But recently his painting "The Judgment of Paris" was discovered, which seems to date from this period of his life. Intoxicated by the splendor of ancient sculpture and Renaissance painting, the young artist tried to do in this painting what was beyond his power.
This is a large painting showing three nude goddesses lined up to display their beauty in a "competition". His figures make a great impression on the viewer. The composition is quite original, but somewhat awkward. The landscape, however, has a poetic vigilance, and even the painting's own flaws point to hidden ones.
Probably in the spring of 1605, Rubens heard from his learned brother Philip of the Netherlands, who had come to Rome to obtain his doctorate in law. A strong desire to return to Italy made Philip turn down the opportunity to inherit his famous teacher Justus Lipsius' chair at the University of Leuven. Rubens managed to convince his generous employer that he needed to brush up on him in Rome, and in the fall of 1605, the brothers rented a house with two servants on Via della Croce near the Spanish Steps.
Rubens' second stay in Rome was much longer than his first. It lasted with brief interruptions for almost three years, most of which was devoted to the study of painting and antiquity. In the person of Philip, Rubens received a true expert on the history of ancient Rome.
His interests ranged from ancient gems to modern architecture, from painstakingly copying classical statues on paper to instant sketches of scenes from everyday life, from the intricate interiors of Roman palaces to the pastoral landscape surrounding Rome and the romantic ruins of the Palatine. He has managed to develop an excellent visual memory.
In the autumn of 1606, he received one of the most tempting orders from Rome: the painting of the high altar of the church of Santa Maria, which had just been built for the Oratorians at Wallisellen, or, as the Romans still call it, the new church. The task was not easy. The altar space was tall and narrow, and the Oratorian fathers wanted to represent at least six saints in the painting.
Knowledge of ancient Rome fueled Rubens' interest in this order. Among the supposed saints were martyrs, including Saint Domitilla, a noble lady and niece of the Roman emperor, whose holy relics were recently discovered during excavations of the Roman catacombs.
Rubens painted these saints with the greatest care, depicting Pope Gregory the Great in magnificent resplendent robes, and gave Saint Domitilla a purely regal pose, depicting her with golden hair, in a dress of glittering satin, decorated with pearls. How upset he was when the altarpiece was put up. The glare from the reflected light made the image almost invisible. He then painted a new tableau on a blackboard to minimize light reflection,
In the fall of 1608, Rubens received news from Antwerp that his mother was seriously ill. Without even informing the Duke of Mantua, without waiting for his altar to open in the New Church, he set out on the long journey home. It is true that he did not expect to stay long there, but he did not warn the duke's secretary that he would try to return as soon as possible. However, when on October 28, 1608, the Flemish court painter of the Duke of Mantua left Rome, he did not assume that this was his last trip to Italy.
Homecoming
Pedro Pablo Rubens was in a hurry in vain: Maria Peypelinks, the widow of Jan Rubens, had died. On October 19 he rested in an eternal sleep and, according to the deceased's will, her body was buried in St. Michael's Abbey. Rubens was very affected by the death of his mother. In memory of his mother, Pedro Pablo installed in the tomb of "the best of mothers" as a monument a magnificent altarpiece that he created, that he originally designed for the New Church and that he considered his best creation at that time. moment.
Some old friends persuade him to go to Brussels and there they introduce the artist to the court, the Infanta Isabel and the Archduke Albert. The brilliant and magnificently educated Rubens came to court. He soon received the title of court painter, an annual allowance of fifteen thousand guilders, and, as a token of special attention, a gold chain. Having sworn an oath of allegiance to Albert and Elizabeth, Rubens nonetheless considered it his duty to assist in the recovery of the country from him. It was the burning desire of him.
The Archduke and his wife are even more zealous Catholics than the Spanish rulers. No wonder that under his rule the country is swept by a new wave of mercy. Persecuted Catholics flock to Brussels from all sides, confident that they will find protection and support here. Chapels are being built, churches are being erected. The Catholic Church and the court know perfectly well that power and faith need a halo, grandiose temples, statues and monumental paintings. And here Rubens is irreplaceable.
His new, powerful and life-affirming way of painting, his desire to fill the canvas with rich and stormy movement enchants patrons of art. There is no shortage of orders. Throughout his career, Rubens painted the royal couple several times. He portrayed the Archduke as a serious and dignified man, to whom he undoubtedly had a sincere respect and to whom he expressed his gratitude; in the end, Alberto gave him the first important order in his life to paint an altar in Rome.
But he showed an even greater devotion to the Archduchess, respect and love for which he grew over the years. Later portraits of her, painted by Rubens with sympathy and understanding, help us to notice all the high qualities and virtues in her striking and beautiful face, depicted with a sufficient degree of convention.
Throughout the years after Rubens' appointment as court painter, he not only carried out the work assigned to him at court, that is, painted portraits of courtiers and engaged in the decorative design of palaces and churches, but also He also did not forget to take orders from other customers, both from the Spanish Netherlands and abroad. Court artists used to have accommodation in or next to the palace in Brussels, but Rubens won the right to live in Antwerp. As he wrote to his friend in Rome: "I don't want to be a courtier again."
It is not known how Rubens managed to insist on his own, since in the XNUMXth century it was not at all easy to achieve a special position with its crowned owners. However, there is convincing evidence that throughout his life Rubens was able to combine elegant and polite manners with excellent perseverance in matters related to his future career. Perhaps his ability to successfully resolve his affairs a few years later led the receptive Archduchess to use the talented artist as a diplomat. Thus began the unusual diplomatic career of Rubens.
Personal life and works
On October 3, 1609, he married eighteen-year-old Isabella Brandt, daughter of the city's regency clerk. The artist buys a mansion on Watter Street, which now bears his name. In the garden, he builds a glass-domed rotunda, where he exhibits works and stores collections. Rubens celebrated his wedding by painting a double portrait of a rare charm.
He and Isabella, holding hands, sit against the backdrop of a sprawling honeysuckle bush. He struck a deftly sloppy pose, one leg in a silk stocking over the other; she sits next to him on a stool, the edges of her luxurious and elegant dress spread out from her. Her joined hands are in the center of the composition. Both look at the public with confident joy. They are both healthy, attractive, well-dressed young men, quite content with life and with each other.
This is a charming painting that has nothing to do with the formal depiction on canvas of a husband and wife, which has always been a strict rule before. Rubens did not paint anything like this before and after. Dozens of students work in his shop, but more are being asked to take them on. Rubens' workday is packed to the brim. His daily routine is extremely strict. He gets up at four in the morning and starts work. He takes a short break for lunch and goes back to work. He works with total dedication.
The Antwerp magistrate plans to decorate the town hall. Two artists, Rubens and Abraham Janssens, were commissioned to paint the newly renovated State Lecture Hall. Rubens performs "The Adoration of the Magi." This is an excellent opportunity to show his fellow citizens what he has learned during his long stay in Italy. Fortunately, the size of the ordered box is large. That is where the stage of worship unfolds.
People in luxurious clothes, horses, camels, rich gifts, muscular bodies, burning torches - everything contributes to the splendor of the image. The dark background with powerful contrast emphasizes the light parts of the canvas. In this, undoubtedly, echoes of Italian memories sound, and more precisely, the influence of Caravaggio. He soon receives the coveted order. At the request of his friend Cornelis van der Geest, the rector and the parables of the Sint-Walburg church commissioned him to create a large triptych to decorate the main altar.
With the money offered to work, a whole family can live comfortably for several years. Rubens paints The Rising of the Cross, which creates a sensation. In The Adoration of the Magi, static in its own plot, movement was a secondary task for the artist. In The Rising of the Cross, by contrast, the plot is in action. However, movement should not be sought in elaborate poses or capricious folds of clothing. The horizontals and verticals of the image are static, but the diagonals are full of dynamics.
In this unbridled work, everything is continuous movement. And there is joy in everything. This is the joy of immortal life, as opposed to death. This is the love of life that transforms everything, even the subject of death. As Rubens foresaw, after his return to Antwerp, it was a happy time for artists. During the blessed years of peace, from 1609 to 1621, Rubens painted altarpieces for Antwerp Cathedral and for all the city's larger churches, both old and new, as well as for the provincial temples in nearby Mechelen and Ghent.
Many talented artists, some of them brilliant, contributed to the glory of the Antwerp school of painting of that period. In addition to Jan Brueghel, Franz Snyders worked there, an artist who knew how to paint animals with skill. A little younger was Jacob Iordan, who, like Rubens, studied with Adam van Noort. He painted solid and luscious images of exuberant Flemish life, as well as mythological scenes with admittedly bloated nudes. Among them was Anthony Van Dyck with his quick, lyrical stroke.
Jan Brueghel was perceived by Rubens as an older brother. They painted several pictures together. Rubens dealt with people and Bruegel with decorative flowers and fruit. In March 1611, a daughter was born to Pedro Pablo Rubens, who was called Clara Serena. The girl's godfather was her brother, Philip, whose sudden death in August of the same year dealt Rubens a terrible blow. Fifteen days after his death, his brother's widow gave birth to a son. This boy, who was also named Philip, was raised by Pedro Pablo and Isabella.
The painting "Four Philosophers" was created by Rubens to some extent as a souvenir of a friend and brother. Here Justus Aipsius is shown seated at a table under a bust of Seneca; on either side of him are two top students: Jan Vowerius and Philip Rubens, and behind him, not as a participant in academic conversation, but rather as a curious spectator, Pedro Pablo Rubens himself.
The Archduke does not forget the artist from Antwerp. In 1613 he commissioned "The Assumption of Our Lady" for the Church of Notre Dame de la Chapelle in Brussels. The following year, Isabella Brant had a son: the Archduke agrees to be the child's successor, who is named Albert. Domestic affairs with the Rubens were successful, and Pedro Pablo's artistic career developed rapidly.
His altar painting, made in the period from 1611 to 1614 for the Antwerp Cathedral, met with extraordinary success. It was commissioned by the artist for the "arquebusiers", one of the many paramilitary brotherhoods in the Netherlands, for the side chapel assigned to him for prayers in this main city church. Rubens was asked to paint a triptych with only four paintings: a central panel with side "wings" adjoining it on hinges, with images on both sides of Saint Christopher, who once carried Christ across the river, present in the picture.
Rubens portrayed Saint Christopher in the form of the giant Hercules with the Child Jesus, sitting on his shoulder. The plot of the image continued on the back of the side panels, so that the entire image could be understood with the triptych's 'wings' closed. The main image was 'Descent from the Cross', on the left 'Kara's Underwear', and on the right 'Performance at the Temple'. The Lord's Prayer and the Presentation in the Temple are compositions of rare grace, painted in warm colors, still reminiscent of the influence of the artist from Venice.
But the central panel "Descent from the Cross" marks a clear liberation of Rubens from Italian dependence, in it we observe the evolution of a series of lighter colors, which is a typical phenomenon of Dutch painting. On the corpse, in the folds of the shroud, on the female figures, gleaming gray-white highlights, light amber and greenish-blue colors contrast with the more traditional red and brown of the male figures.
The viewer was mainly impressed by the figure of the dead Christ. "This is one of the most beautiful figures of his," wrote the famous English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) when, as if enchanted, as if by a miracle, he stood before this painting a hundred years after its appearance. . The displacement of the whole body gives us such a correct idea of the seriousness of death that no other can overcome it. In fact, the whole "weight of death" is depicted here, but in the image itself no weight is felt.
With astonishing virtuosity, Rubens managed to convey the moment when the body is freed from the cross, before it slides under its weight into the strong arms of St. John, who stands, opening his arms to accept it. The figure on the left slightly holds Christ's left hand, and on the right the Venerable Nicodemus, grasping the end of the shroud, with the other hand supports his body. Kneeling, Magdalena supports her feet with her hands.
Rubens's painting “Descent from the Cross” became a challenge for all artists, since it required great technical drawing skill, as well as the ability to evoke appropriate emotions in the viewer. But Rubens's "Descent from the Cross," the greatest creation he has ever done, and one of those great ones he has yet to create, turned out to be a much more realistic image, much more heartfelt compared to those that the master drew his inspiration.
For his contemporaries, it was not just a triumph of colour, form and composition; he treated with irresistible eloquence the main theme of his whole faith. A few years later, his fame spread throughout Western Europe. It was this painting that made Rubens the first religious artist of his time, fully reflecting for the first time the emotional intensity of the Baroque style, of which Peter Paul Rubens became the founder.
Rubens sometimes resembles a dormant volcano. But he sometimes wins over the long-standing creative tension and temperament, and then works appear in which he reveals the titanic nature of him. Such are his hunting canvases, painted in the years 1616-1618. The angles of the figures are incredible, the movements are ferocious, the animals are formidable. There are no winners in the Lion Hunt. Death hangs over all participants. Of course, Rubens did not forget the work, fragments of which he copied in Italy: «The Battle of Anghiari» by the great Leonardo.
But, none of Pedro Pablo Rubens's predecessors painted lions, wolves and leopards in such difficult and unexpected poses. As for the horses, he always admires them. He created the ideal type of horse: with a narrow head, wide rump, nervous legs, long flowing mane, with a tail like a sultan, with flaring nostrils and fiery eyes.
He used the image of a horse in the compositions of his portraits, hunts, battles, religious scenes; he dedicated one of the most lyrical and, despite the war plot, one of his most harmonious works: "The battle of the Greeks with the Amazons". In the years 1620-1621, Rubens painted "Perseus and Andromeda". King Kefei's daughter Andromeda was sacrificed to the sea monster. Her death is inevitable. But suddenly, the son of Danae and Zeus, Perseus, comes to her aid. The surprised girl thanks the hero.
The artist translated the well-known mythological plot into the language of Flanders, brought details of the real life of his country, his time, thus revealing in a new way the human content inherent in this myth. Mastery of color and light imbues this painting with wonder and movement. Rubens is an ingenious colorist, and although his palette is very restrained, he achieves truly symphonic solutions.
Princes, prelates, nobles and wealthy dignitaries seek works painted by Rubens, but many times they have to content themselves with works made by artists from his workshop according to the master's sketches and only corrected by him. Thus there is a new "Adoration of the Magi", less opulent and at the same time less brilliant. He will be sent to Mecheln, where he will decorate the church of St. John. And so is the giant "Last Judgment", destined for the main altar of the Jesuit church in Neuburg. It was commissioned by Wolfgang Wilhelm of Bavaria, Duke of Neuburg.
In 1620, the burgomaster of Antwerp and friend of Rubens, Nicolae Rocox, whose portrait he had painted a few years earlier, commissioned him to do a work for the Franciscan Church of Recoleta. This now famous painting is called “La Lanzada”. In it, a Roman soldier pierces the side of Christ with a spear. A small group of people weeping for Christ is roughly pushed aside by mounted soldiers from a small space around the three roughly woven crosses on Calvary.
Around the same time, Rubens painted one of the most moving religious paintings, also for the Recoleta Church. It was called “The Last Communion of Saint Francis of Assisi”. In this canvas, he demonstrated an amazing understanding of selfless spiritual love. Exhausted from fasting, Saint Francis is supported by the monks around him; his light figure due to his bare and pale skin simply shines against the background of the dark vestments, when he, leaning towards the priest, fixes his eyes to look at the Lord for the last time.
Rubens had to draw many more rewarding religious subjects. His happy family life is reflected in the many ingenious paintings of the Holy Family. He transferred the faces of his sons Albert and Nikolayev to the canvas, and he did it with great love and delicacy, easily understood his sketches, and then reproduced many characteristic gestures and postures of youth: shy, graceful, comic or adventurers.
But the most exciting opportunity during these years was provided by the Jesuits. It was nothing more than decorating a great new church that was being built in Antwerp in honor of its founding father Ignatius of Loyola. Rubens was offered to provide decoration for the entire church - 39 paintings. Before that, he had already painted two altarpieces of two main Jesuit saints: Ignacio de Loyola and Francisco Javier. He later created a third one, on the theme of the Assumption.
One had to hurry to be on time with the ceiling paintings in time for the celebrations dedicated to the canonization of these two saints in 1622. Therefore, Rubens took care only of the development of the paintings, their composition, and his students had to complete them. . Then the master will bring everything to perfection with his precise strokes. The ambitious task was completed on time, and for a century this Jesuit church was the glory and adornment of all of Antwerp. Unfortunately, in 1718 it was badly damaged by a terrible fire.
None of Peter Paul Rubens's assistants were superior to the fantastically talented Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), who became a renowned guildmaster at the age of nineteen. Although he was twenty-two years younger than Rubens, he retained his almost son-like friendship with him and his wife for his life. He even lived in his house from time to time.
Rubens admired Van Dyck's work immensely, and the two artists worked so closely for two or three years, at the dawn of Van Dyck's career, that there is still confusion about who painted what at the time. Van Dijk was as diverse as Rubens. He had an eye for the smallest detail, he had an exceptional sense of color. Judging by his sketches, he was especially sensitive to landscape, which he captured in many drawings made with pen, ink, chalk, as well as in his watercolours.
His paintings on religious and mythological subjects demonstrated all the originality of his composition and the sweet and purely lyrical power of the imagination. But, above all, Van Dyck distinguished himself in portraits and, over the years of his work, he created hundreds of them. All of them are impregnated with a deep psychological analysis.
In 1620 Van Dyck left Rubens and Antwerp to seek his fortune in England, where he was offered a tempting offer to take the place of court painter. He subsequently moved to Italy to complete his education there. After his departure, Rubens apparently relied less and less on his assistants to complete the paintings. He now possessed so much self-confidence, his hand had picked up such rapid speed during years of constant training in Italy, that it was easier for her to quickly express his ideas on the canvas.
As a result of Peter Paul Rubens' association with Bruegel, a dozen paintings appeared, one of which was the enchanting "Adam and Eve in Paradise." Bruegel painted a blue-green landscape, enlivening it with images of birds and animals. Rubens: graceful figures of Adam and Eve. Rubens, now not only a celebrated artist, but also a collector and connoisseur of art, had strong connections with princes, bishops, prelates, and other influential people throughout Europe.
Partly because of their contacts and partly because of their personal qualities, Archduke Albert and Archduchess Elizabeth made an important decision in the hope that the artist would serve them in another role. Paying tribute to his intelligence, endurance and courtesy, they wanted to use Rubens under the guise of his aesthetic interests to carry out secret diplomatic missions.
The rulers of the Netherlands highly appreciated Rubens's advice and several times commissioned very delicate diplomatic missions. His letters conveyed genuine alarm about the situation in Europe and the suffering caused by the ongoing war. In February 1622 he was summoned to Paris by the Archduchess's ambassador, who introduced the artist to Marie de' Medici's treasurer, the abbot of Saint-Ambroise.
The Queen Mother has just reconciled with her son. She settled back in the Luxembourg Palace, which Salomon de Bross had built for her a few years earlier and which she had to leave two years ago. She wants to decorate the palace gallery with paintings illustrating various episodes from her life. Later, she intends to decorate the second gallery with paintings glorifying the life of her famous husband, Henry IV. Rubens had a great honor: he was commissioned to do both works.
Rubens' task was not an easy one. Maria was by no means a beauty, and her life was not so bright, full of important events. To present Mary's past in the most favorable light, Rubens allegorically surrounds the Queen with Olympian gods, water nymphs and cupids, destinies, and all sorts of virtues. With the help of such a technique, he not only ennobled Mary with her bad temper, but also contrasted the French courtiers in luxurious clothes with the naked gods and demi-gods, whom he so loved to paint.
Having completed the Medici series, Rubens hoped to immediately begin creating canvases for the second gallery in the Luxembourg Palace. In them he was to reflect the life of King Henry IV, a beautiful and dynamic character. But Rubens, apart from some oil sketches and some complete sketches, could go no further. The powerful Cardinal Richelieu, chief political adviser to Henry Louis XIII's son, was determined to prevent an alliance between France and Spain and, knowing Rubens's sympathies, he did not want the artist to remain at court.
Rubens continued working on "Asunción" when suddenly his still happy life was shattered. Only three years ago, in 1623, his only daughter, Clara Serena, died. She was only twelve years old. And in the summer of 1626, after seventeen years of happy married life, Isabella Rubens died. Her cause of death is unknown, but it is believed that she died from the plague that swept through Antwerp that summer. Rubens sought solace in work and religion. In the delicate silence of the cathedral, he painted "The Dormition of Our Lady", and this painting still hangs in the same place.
Pedro Pablo Rubens throws himself into the abyss of diplomatic activity again. He visits England, France, Spain. He knows Charles I, Duke of Buckingham, Philip IV, Cardinal Richelieu. Dozens of paintings each year come out from under his brush. He paints a huge canvas "Adoration of the Magi" in six days. The Infanta Isabella gives him one secret mission after another. He carries on a large, often secret correspondence.
Rubens writes: "I found myself in a veritable labyrinth, besieged day and night by many worries." He assists in conducting the peace negotiations between England and Spain. He held secret meetings with Carlos I while working on his portrait. His diplomatic activity is highly appreciated: Carlos I awarded him a Knight of the Golden Spurs and Felipe IV conferred on him the title of secretary of the Privy Council. But despite all these titles and honors, Rubens abandons his difficult mission as a secret diplomatic agent.
On December 6, 1630, Pedro Pablo Rubens married Helena Fourmen. Elena was sixteen at the time. White, ruddy, cheerful, like a pagan goddess, she was the embodiment of Rubens's dreams. The artist admires her. Happy, she embodies the spontaneous force of all-conquering love in his paintings. Almost all of Rubens's best writing in the last decade has been illuminated by this sentiment.
Disappointed by a judicial career and diplomatic activity, he devoted himself entirely to creativity. Rubens' mastery is brilliantly manifested in comparatively small works, performed personally. The image of a young wife becomes the leitmotif of his work. The ideal of a blonde beauty with a lush sensual body and a beautiful cut with large bright eyes was formed in the works of the master long before Elena entered her life, finally becoming the visible embodiment of this ideal.
During these years he created the beautiful works «Mercurio y Argos», «Bathsabé». "Mercury and Argos" is a touching myth about Jupiter's beloved, whom Juno, the wrathful wife of the lord of the gods, turned into a cow. The protection of the unfortunate Juno entrusts the stoic Argos. Mercury kills Argos and frees her from her.
"Bathsheba." In the picture, the main theme of Rubens's painting resounds strongly: the glorification of the inexhaustible, the budding life and its all-conquering beauty. The theme of the image is the love story of King David for Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite. Once on a walk, the king saw her while she was bathing and fell in love with her. An enchanting freshness emanates from the image. Light painting is sometimes almost watercolor-like, but at the same time, it is powerful in terms of plasticity, full of vitality.
The pinnacle of creativity in the last years of the artist's life is the painting "Venus in Fur" from the collection of the Vienna Museum. Perhaps the artist did not set out to paint a portrait of his wife on purpose. Apparently, it was created only during breaks, when Elena Fourman took a break from her tedious poses. Complete relaxation, ease of posture and helped create a masterpiece.
Rubens is going through the happiest moment of his life, he is happy as only a mortal can be happy. As if he were undergoing a revival thanks to his new young wife, Rubens, confident of his strong position in society, continued to paint at his country house and in Antwerp. But the disease, which tormented the artist for many years, imperatively declares itself. The attacks of rheumatism increased sharply, the suffering became unbearable.
On May 27, 1640, Pedro Pablo Rubens writes a will. On May 29, inhuman pain exhausted his strength. The young wife of the artist, pregnant, is doubly defenseless. Rubens' battle with death continues for 24 hours. The heart cannot bear it. On the afternoon of May 30, 1640, the great artist died.
Pedro Pablo Rubens the sorcerer who revealed to people the magical world of colors, the joys of being. The artist strikes his canvases with the opening of the luminous perception of life. He conquers us with the power of human flesh, which reigns supreme in his paintings. It seems that we feel how hot blood boils in the mighty veins of his heroes, beats in the hearts of his blonde goddesses. Rubens, like no one else, possessed the carnation, the art of painting a living body.
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