1577–1640 · Baroque. Wikipedia
Sir Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasised movement, colour, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens was a painter producing altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. He was also a prolific designer of cartoons for the Flemish tapestry workshops and of frontispieces for the publishers in Antwerp.
The painting was held in the personal collection of the artist until his death, then was purchased by king Philip IV of Spain and in 1666 it went to the Royal Alcazar of Madrid, before hanging in the Museo del Prado. There were other variations by Rubens on the theme of Three Graces. Physical dimensions of this painting are 221 cm × 181 cm (87 in × 71 in) without frame.
The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus is a 1618 painting by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Wildens. It is displayed at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The painting was bought in Antwerp in 1716 by Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. Initially sent to Mannheim, by 1805/06 it had reached Munich.
The Elevation of the Cross or The Raising of the Cross is the title of a large triptych painted in oil on panel by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp in the years 1610 and 1611. It hangs in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. The work is a winged altarpiece, with hinged wings that can be folded over the central panel, allowing an 'open view' and a 'closed view'. The three panels on the obverse side depict in a creative way episodes from the Passion of Jesus at the moment of the raising of the Cross on which Jesus is nailed. Rubens painted the triptych for the high altar of the St. Walburga Church in Antwerp. It was his first important religious commission after his return to Antwerp in late 1608 from a long stay in Italy. The triptych introduced large-scale Baroque painting in Flemish art and established Rubens's reputation as a leading painter in Flanders.
The Honeysuckle Bower is a self-portrait of the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens and his first wife Isabella Brant, painted c. 1609.The couple is seated in fine clothes within a garden composition and a vine of honeysuckle is placed overhead. The symbolism of the double-portrait alludes to meanings of love and marriage, such as the holding of right hands (dextrarum iunctio), and the concept of the garden of love. The pose of the two figures and their fine clothing signify self-fashioning by Rubens. They wed in 1609, the same year that work was created; it was ultimately given to Isabella's father Jan Brant and would later end up in the collection of Johann Wilhelm II of Düsseldorf. The couple would be married for seventeen years, and have three children before Isabella died in 1625. Her death would have a profound impact on Rubens and through his loss he created an posthumous portrait. The painting is a full-length double portrait of the couple seated in a bower (wikt), also called an arbor of honeysuckle. The couple is dressed in fine clothing of an aristocratic class within this portrait while also maintaining a casual and adoring pose. They are surrounded by love and marriage symbolism: the honeysuckle and garden are both traditional symbols of love, and the holding of right hands (junctio dextrarum) represents union through marriage.
The Descent from the Cross is the central panel of a triptych painting by the Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens in 1612–1614. It is still in its original place, the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium. The painting is considered to be one of Rubens' masterpieces. The painting depicts the moment when the body of Jesus Christ is taken down from the cross after his crucifixion. The subject was one Rubens returned to again and again in his career. The artwork was commissioned on September 7, 1611, by the Confraternity of the Arquebusiers, whose patron saint was St. Christopher. In general, the painting has its origins in the Italian artistic tradition, influenced by the Mannerist style of artists such as Francesco Salviati, Federico Barocci, Jacopino del Conte, Cigoli, and Daniele da Volterra. These artists may have been inspired by the ideas of Michelangelo and earlier examples from the fifteenth century. However, Rubens' painting stands apart from the dramatic Italian artists in its depiction of the ritualistic and solemn lowering of Christ's body from the Cross into the arms of the believers.
Samson and Delilah is a painting long attributed to the Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) in the National Gallery, London. It dates from about 1609 to 1610. Two preliminary copies of the painting exist today: an ink-and-wash drawing on paper, and an oil sketch on wood panel. The oil sketch is in the Cincinnati Art Museum, while the ink sketch is held by a private collection in Amsterdam.
Romulus and Remus is a 1615-1616 painting by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens. It is housed in the Pinacoteca Capitolina in Rome, Italy. It depicts the brothers Romulus and Remus being cared for by a wolf. The painting also shows the god of the Tiber river sitting on his urn, a woodpecker that watched over the twins to bring them food, and a shepherd discovering the infants.
The Fur or The Pelt (Dutch: Het Pelsken), also called The Little Fur (German: Das Pelzchen; French: La Petite Pelisse), or Helena Fourment in a Fur Robe, is a c. 1636–1638 portrait by Peter Paul Rubens of his second wife Helena Fourment getting out of her bath and wrapping her voluptuous body in a fur. It is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. In this life-size portrait of Helena Fourment at the age of eighteen; her figure is wrapped only in a short mantle of black fur, loosely gathered round her shoulders and hips. Helena is represented standing, coming from the bath, half wrapped in the fur-trimmed cloak that gives its name to the picture, and imperfectly hides her nudity. The head is turned to the spectator, and according to Émile Michel "the countenance exhibits no sign of embarrassment or shame." Her breasts are pressed together and raised up by her right arm; her small, shapely left hand holds up a fold of the thick pelisse over her belly.
The Judgement of Paris refers to any of the several paintings of the Judgement of Paris produced by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), though he did not match the 22 depictions of the subject attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472–1553). There were versions before about 1606, then he returned to the subject thirty years later; all take the opportunity to show nude females from different angles. The large versions of 1636 in London and 1639 in Madrid are among the best known. These both show Rubens' version of idealised feminine beauty, with the goddesses Aphrodite, Athena and Hera on one side and Paris accompanied by Hermes on the other. The 1636 version has a depiction of Cupid at the far left and Alecto above the goddesses, whilst the 1639 version adds a Cupid between Hera (far right) and Aphrodite (centre).
Medusa is a c.1618 painting by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, showing the severed head of Medusa. The snakes in the painting have been attributed to Frans Snyders. Frans Snyders also helped Peter Paul Rubens with his work Prometheus Bound, where he painted the eagle portrayed in it. It is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Another version is held in Moravian Gallery in Brno. Rubens was not originally attributed to the painting. Medusa was a popular iconographic symbol at the time due to the interest in Greek mythology by numerous Baroque artists such as Rubens and Caravaggio. The use of Medusa as a symbol has evolved over the course of centuries and has various interpretations of the iconographic meaning, with Rubens' painting based on an interpretation of the Greek mythological story of Medusa. Medusa, or sometimes referred to as The Head of Medusa, was created c.1618 using oil on canvas and is 68.5 x 118 cm. Rubens enlisted the help of Frans Snyders who worked with him multiple times. Snyders was a nature artist and worked with Rubens to paint animals in his pieces, such as the snakes in Medusa. The snakes portrayed are nonvenomous European grass snakes, except for the two snakes on the right side of her head which are vipers. Vipers are a medieval symbol of ungratefulness. In Greek mythology, Medusa is portrayed as having venomous snakes for hair. The vipers are shown mating with the female having the male's head in her mouth. Towards the middle of the painting, an amphisbaena is shown. An amphisbaena is a snake-like creature that has two heads, one on each end of its body, and is noted in classical mythology. In Greek mythology, amphisbaenas are made from the blood of Medusa and feed on decaying bodies. Medusa is shown to have just been slain and is laying down in a pool of blood with the snakes and reptiles surrounding her.
The Fall of Man, Adam and Eve or Adam and Eve in the earthly paradise is a 1628–1629 painting by Rubens, now in the Prado in Madrid. Once attributed to the minor Dutch artist Karel van Mander, it is now recognised as a work by Rubens. It is a copy of the painting of the same subject by Titian, which Rubens saw during his 1628–1629 trip to Madrid for peace negotiations to end the Dutch Revolt. It reflects Raphael's influence on Titian and Jan Brueghel the Elder's influence on Rubens, who adds a parrot and changes Adam's posture, musculature, age and expression. Some researchers measured the impact of these changes on viewers' eye movements and concluded that viewers look more at Eve's face when viewing Rubens' version of the painting than when viewing Titian's version.
The Fall of the Damned, alternately known as The Fall of the Rebel Angels, is a monumental religious painting by Peter Paul Rubens dated around 1620. It depicts a jumble of the bodies of the damned, hurled into the abyss by archangel Michael and accompanying angels. In 1959, an art vandal threw acid on the painting. He said he did not directly destroy the work, as the acid "relieves one from the work of destruction."