Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens ( Dutch : ˈrybə (n) s ; also Pieter Pauwel Rubens or Latinized Petrus Paulus Rubens , born June 28, 1577 in Siegen , † May 30, 1640 in Antwerp ) was a painter of Flemish origin. He was one of the most famous baroque painters and diplomat of the Spanish-Habsburg crown.
Life
Youth and parents

"This is where the Brambachische Haus , named in 1861 by the Dutch archivist Bakhuisen van den Brink as Rubens' birthplace and only located in 1990, stood [...] The house, which has hardly changed since it was built, was destroyed by war events in 1945. "
Peter Paul Rubens was probably born on June 28, 1577 as the son of Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelinckx in Siegen ( County of Nassau-Dillenburg ). He had six siblings. The date of birth is not clearly documented, as only an engraving, which was made nine years after Rubens' death, refers to June 28th. June 29 would also be possible as the day of remembrance of the Roman Catholic Church for Peter and Paul .
His father was a lawyer trained in the Netherlands and Italy and a lay judge in Antwerp . In 1568 he and his family had to flee to Cologne in the wake of the religious unrest - Jan Rubens had contact with Calvinist circles , lived at 10 Sternengasse and worked, among other things, as an advisor to Anna of Saxony , the second wife of Wilhelm of Orange .
After Jan and Anna had started a relationship, the lay judge was arrested in front of Siegen and in 1571 was taken to the prison in Dillenburg Castle. Supported by the persistent advocacy of his wife Maria, the detention was converted into house arrest after two years, which the Rubens family spent in Siegen. In 1578, one year after Anna's death and Peter Paul’s birth, the family was allowed to move back to Cologne.
Anna's daughter Christine von Diez (1571–1638) is considered the child of Jan Rubens, so she is a half-sister of Peter Paul Rubens.
After Jan Rubens' death in 1587, Maria Pypelinckx moved back to Antwerp with her children. After Peter Paul attended the Latin school of Rumoldus Verdonck (1541–1620) together with other sons of the Antwerp upper class, he was given a few months as a page at the court of Marguerite de Ligne (1552–1611), the widow of Philip de Lalaing ( 1537–1582), the governor of Hainaut .
Apprenticeship
Since 1592 he devoted himself to art and had successively the painters Tobias Verhaecht (also T. Verhaegt), Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen as teachers. In 1598 he completed his apprenticeship and was accepted into the painters' guild in Antwerp.
Stay in Italy and Spain
In May 1600 he went to Italy to study Titian , Veronese and others. It was here that Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua noticed him and brought him to Mantua as court painter . There he created his first major work for the chapel of Eleonora de 'Medici , the (first) Descent from the Cross , which marked the beginning of his career.
The Duke's art treasures, Giulio Romano's frescoes and Mantegna's work in Mantua provided him with rich inspiration for his work. After a long stay in Rome , Rubens went to Madrid in 1603 to bring precious gifts from the duke to the Spanish court . Returning to Mantua in 1604, he painted a triptych with the Holy Trinity for the Jesuit church there. In 1605 he went to Rome, where he began to paint a three-part altarpiece for Santa Maria in Vallicella (Madonna with six saints) on slate (completed in 1608). In 1607 he visited Genoa with the Duke , where he painted the Marchesa Spinola , and Milan .
Return to the Netherlands
The news of his mother's illness called him back to Antwerp in the autumn of 1608. The mourning over her death and the promise of the governors of the Spanish Netherlands , Archduke Albrecht and Isabella , to appoint him court painter, kept him there. Rubens 'most important patron was the multiple incumbent mayor of Antwerp , Nicolaas Rockox (Rubens' brother Philipp was his secretary). It was in Rockox's house that Rubens met Isabella Brant (* 1591; † 1626), with whom he married on October 3, 1609. The mayor's orders (" The Adoration of the Magi ", 1609, for the Antwerp City Hall, immediately followed by " Samson and Delilah " for his private residence) helped Rubens to publicize his skills in the shortest possible time and to award further lucrative orders to the upper class receive. On January 9, 1610, Rubens was sworn in as court painter to the Archdukes, and on September 23, 1609, he was appointed. In 1611 Rubens founded his own splendid home in which he housed his rich art collection. In the same year his first daughter Clara was born, who became the motif of his work.
His studio soon filled with students. The first pictures of this period are the Adoration of the Magi (1610, Museum zu Madrid), the altar of St. Ildefonso ( Vienna ), a finely executed work with delicate colors (started then, but not completed until after 1630), and the well-known picture in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, which shows him and his wife sitting in an arbor.
The dramatically moving paintings The Raising of the Cross from 1610 and Descent from the Cross from 1611 (both in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp ) are reminiscent of Michelangelo and Caravaggio . Rubens quickly became rich and honored, and the number of his students grew steadily.
Paris
In 1622 Maria de 'Medici called him to Paris to decorate the Luxembourg Palace built there with depictions of the most memorable events of her own life (so-called Medici cycle, approx. 1622–1625). Rubens designed the sketches ( Alte Pinakothek Munich) and then had his students carry out the paintings, which he revised in the final version when he brought the paintings himself to Paris in 1625 (now in the Louvre ). Between 1622 and 1623 Rubens made the cardboard boxes for the tapestries of the Constantine Succession for Louis XIII. which was made in the Manufacture des Gobelins .
Spain
After Rubens had worked as a diplomat in the service of Archduchess Isabella for the purpose of peace negotiations since 1623, the Archduchess sent him to Spain in 1628 with the same intention. Rubens won the king's trust, became secretary of the Privy Council and performed several works during his stay in Madrid. From Madrid he was sent to London in 1629 to negotiate a peace between Spain and England with the king. It is thanks to these preliminary discussions that the peace treaty was signed in 1630. King Charles I of England therefore knighted him . He also worked as a painter in London. As a result, he was still used for several state business, which, however, earned him lesser honors.
Second marriage
After the death of his first wife, he married Helene Fourment in 1630 , who often served as his model . In the later years of his work, since the orders were too frequent, he almost only designed the sketches himself; He left the execution mostly to his students. When taking on work, it was often decided which students were allowed to help him. Rubens now lived alternately in the city and on his country estate Kasteel Steen in Elewijt near Mechelen . Since 1635 he mostly painted easel pictures of finer execution.
Death and inheritance
Peter Paul Rubens died on May 30, 1640 at the age of 63 in Antwerp after a long period of suffering from gout . One of his works, which depicts the Madonna with the child and several saints, stands above his grave in the St. Jacob's Church in Antwerp . His widow Helene commissioned the painter Johann Bockhorst from Münster , who had been one of his close collaborators, to finish her husband's unfinished works.
The proceeds from the sale of his estate amounted to 1,010,000 guilders . In 1840 a bronze statue modeled by Willem Geefs was erected on the Groenplaats in Antwerp . In 1877 Rubens' 300th birthday was celebrated in both Antwerp and Siegen.
Imagery


Rubens' works are characterized by light and color. His joy in the sensual appearance forms a sharp contrast to the secular piety of the devotional pictures of the older school. His religious compositions were very much in keeping with the Catholic reform efforts , which were primarily represented by the Jesuits , which is why the Jesuits entrusted him with the decoration of their church in Antwerp in 1620 and he remained the preferred church painter in the Catholic world until the end of his life.
He also devoted himself to mythological objects. He painted nudes in bright flesh color. He not only recreated lined models, but also created figures which, like those of the Greeks and Romans , were used to being naked.
His pictures are characterized by an allegorical imagery with mythological symbolism. In doing so, the drawings often become works of their own that surpass the later paintings in terms of their power of formulation. For example, Rubens draws the half- length figure of Jesus crucified as a triumphant youth for the great erection of the cross in Antwerp - as one of his many “inventions” that he did not include in any of his works. Prometheus , who slides out of the picture towards the viewer, or the dead Christ, who falls like a stone from the cross, speaks of comparable pathos . Puzzles speak from crouching, contemplative female figures like Hagar or Susanna - and he kept many of these drawings only for himself. Some private drawings in the family look like snapshots .
Rubens' endeavors were towards the liveliness of the representation and the effect of color. Rubens sought to rekindle the lost religious enthusiasm, but without placing himself at the service of a church, by painting stationary objects in a lively, moving manner.
Rubens left around 1,500 pictures, a large part of which, of course, were made by student hands and only supplemented by him. In addition to the religious pictures already mentioned, the picture of the Heil is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Ignaz von Loyola, who casts out the devil , particularly typical of Rubens.
He created numerous dramatic images: the fall of the rebel angels, the fall of the damned , the great and small Last Judgment, the apocalyptic woman, the defeat of Sennacherib and the Bethlehemitic child murder (all in the Alte Pinakothek). Other biblical representations should be mentioned: the judgment of Solomon, Samson and Delilah, Christ and the penitent sinners, Lot with his wife and daughters led by two angels from Sodom (at Mr. Butler in London), numerous representations of the adoration of the kings and the Assumption of Mary (the latter in Antwerp, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Vienna), the crucifixion of Peter ( St. Peter's Church in Cologne ), the crucifixion of Christ ( Coup de lance (push with the lance), Antwerp), Christ carrying the cross ( Brussels ) and St. Cäcilia ( Berlin ).
He took a large number of pictures from classical antiquity , partly from the history of the gods, especially from the Bacchian circle (numerous Bacchanalia ), partly from the history of heroes (Decius Mus in Vienna). The following should be emphasized: the robbery of the daughters of Leucippus , the battle of the Amazons and the dying Seneca (Munich), the Venus festival and Boreas and Oreithyia (Vienna), Jupiter and Callisto (Kassel), Neptune and Amphitrite (Vienna), the bound Andromeda and Bacchanal ( Berlin), the judgment of Paris (Madrid) and Neptune on the sea (Dresden, part of the decorations executed under Rubens' direction for the entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand zu Antwerp, 1635).
Rubens liked to portray natural life and children. The seven children in the Pinakothek in Munich, who wear a mighty wreath of fruit, are remarkable.
In his animal pictures, some of which were created in collaboration with Frans Snyders , Rubens also unfolds liveliness and dramatic power. There are mostly hunts, among which the lion hunt in Munich, the wolf hunt at Lord Ashburton, the wild boar hunt in Dresden and the deer hunt of Diana in Berlin are in the foreground.
There are landscapes by Rubens that emerged predominantly from the imagination and show the elements in turmoil ( Odysseus on the Phaeacian coast in Florence , flooding with Philemon and Baucis in Vienna), as well as those that depict Rubens' homeland (Landscape with the rainbow in Munich, evening landscape in Petersburg).
His few genre pictures include farmers 'fairs and tournaments in the Louvre and farmers' dance in Madrid. The love garden exists in many copies of the conversation and shepherd pieces, of which the picture in Madrid, not the one in Dresden, is to be regarded as the original. Another conversation piece is under the name Der Schlosspark in the Belvedere in Vienna.
Among his numerous portraits, the picture in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, known by the name of the four philosophers, which Justus Lipsius , Ioannes Wowerius , Philipp Rubens and the artist himself presented, belongs to his earliest time. In Windsor Castle there are portraits of Rubens and his wife, in the National Gallery in London his family portrait, in Munich the picture of his wife with child and the double portrait of his sons in the Liechtenstein Gallery in Vienna.
The portrait of Doctor van Tulden hangs in the Pinakothek in Munich. The portrait of a girl in the National Gallery in London, known as the Straw Hat , is characterized by its chiaroscuro, and the portrait of Hélène Fourment in Vienna, clad in only a fur, is skilfully modeled.
Effect and influence on his environment
Few artists have had such a lasting impact on their time as Rubens. There is no branch of Dutch painting on which he has not had a decisive influence. Already during his lifetime he was admired as an artist- entrepreneur , and his workshop was famous all over Europe. The number of his students was therefore extraordinarily large.
The most important are: Anthonis van Dyck , Soutman, Th. Van Tulden, M. Pepyn, Abraham van Diepenbeeck , Cornelius Schut , Erasmus Quellinus II. , Justus van Egmont , I. van Hoeck etc.
Rubens recognized early on the possibilities that copper engraving opened up for the reproduction and distribution of his works. In his company he therefore ensured the training of excellent engravers , such as Vorsterman, Schelte a Bolswert , Pontius and others. The engravings were produced for trade at Rubens' expense. The old method of woodcut also served to spread Rubens' works. Rubens also worked in collaboration with printers or publishers using his workshop as a book artist on the equipment (book illustrations, cover pictures) for books.
(Painting) technique
An exhibition in the Albertina in Vienna in autumn 2004 was dedicated to the hand drawings and the oil sketches , thereby illuminating Rubens' multi-stage work process. He was legendary in the painterly shorthand of his oil sketches, through which he first developed his own ideas about planned works and then communicated with the client and the workshop.
The preparatory work included at least: drawn drafts, monochrome sketches, colored oil sketches (for the composition rich in figures) and drawings that enlarged the individual motifs. The latter were the specifications for the execution in painting or engraving.
The actual implementation was then largely carried out by workshop members, while Rubens limited himself almost exclusively to checking. Only corrections were made by the master himself. This was made possible by the virtuoso preparatory work of the oil sketches described above, which then served as a blueprint for the other artists in the workshop . This way of working was nothing unusual for the time. The immense productivity of the workshop could not be achieved otherwise. Rubens made no secret of it either. In a list of his works for sale that he describes, it also says “retouched by the master himself”. There were also pictures from his workshop that were only made from his sketches without Rubens having painted them himself. Rubens was only unusual in that he perfected the system like no other. He has even given colleagues commissioned work on his pictures. B. specialized in landscapes or flowers. His workshop was almost like a manufacture .
On the other hand, there are detailed oil sketches, from which - but crucial - details were deviated from in the implementation of the final masterpiece in a positive sense. The improvement, for example in the facial expression of the sitter, may have been made by the master's hand in the execution true to the design or by his own later retouching of the further processing carried out by his workshop (or commissioned workers) using the modello. A beautiful example of the relationship between the draft and the final version can be observed in the creation of the Last Communion of St. Francis of Assisi , which concerns the focus of the composition, the head of the saint.
“The head ... is almost identical in posture and details ... but ... (both) ... differs ... in expression. A closer look shows that really only the expression of the eye is different. On the study, the gaze appears enthusiastic and ecstatic, but it does not seem as distant from the world, as glassy as on the altar panel. The study gives the sight of a terminally ill with the emaciated, pale face, the inflamed eye, the bristle chin, open mouth - while on the altarpiece the gaze staring into death testifies to the last moment of life. An increase in expression can therefore be perceived between the two heads ... "
The characteristic of his actual technique in his pictures is that Rubens still used wood to a large extent as a picture carrier , at a time when canvas had largely established itself as a picture carrier. Approx. 50% of his pictures are executed on wood, including large-format works. Only the best material can be used for wood as a picture carrier, and joining the wood to form a board requires great craftsmanship and experience. Rubens will not have done this work himself, but commissioned skilled craftsmen to do it. For his oil sketches in particular, he preferred wood because it suited a painting technique in which a smooth surface was an advantage in order to achieve the characteristic enamel effect.
The picture boards and canvases were primed with chalk and sanded smooth. This was followed by colored insulation made from a resin binder - probably Dammar . On the one hand, this insulation was supposed to prevent the upper layers of paint from sinking in, so that the luminosity of the colors was retained, and on the other hand, it was easier to achieve the penumbra of the flesh colors. In addition, the proportions are more difficult to assess on a bright white background .
The underpainting was most likely an egg tempera oil paint with which the motifs were laid out in a loose manner as a transfer of a smaller oil sketch by the master.
This was followed by the actual paint layer, which was probably a resin-oil paint. This process was painted wet-on-wet without any intermediate drying. Resins such as Venetian resin delayed drying and thus the effects of aging. This is the only way to explain that the luminosity of the pictures has diminished so little over the years and that the traces of the work (the brushstroke) have such a delicate "melt" (soft gradient). If the picture had been created in many layers of oil (such as in the case of Titian ), a stronger yellowing would have been observed.
Finally (after it had completely dried out) some small areas were reworked or changed by painting over.
Works (selection)
This list contains 26 works by Rubens, which represent a representative cross-section of his main painterly work.
image | title | When originated | Size, material | Exhibition / collection / owner |
---|---|---|---|---|
Equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma | 1603 | 490 × 325 cm, oil on canvas | Museo del Prado , Madrid | |
The fall of the Phaeton | 1604-1605 | 98.4 × 131.2 cm, oil on canvas | National Gallery of Art , Washington, DC | |
Saint George with the dragon | 1605-1607 | 427 × 312 cm, oil on canvas | Museo del Prado , Madrid | |
Rubens and Isabella Brant in the honeysuckle arbor | around 1609 | 179 × 136 cm, oil on canvas | Alte Pinakothek , Munich | |
Erecting the cross | 1610-1611 | 462 × 640 cm, oil on canvas | Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp) | |
The Bethlehemite child murder | 1611-1612 | 142 × 182 cm, oil on panel | Art Gallery of Ontario , Toronto | |
Jupiter and Callisto | 1613 | 125.6 × 187 cm, oil on oak | Old Masters Picture Gallery (Kassel) | |
Descent from the Cross | 1612-1614 | 420.5 × 320 cm, oil on panel | Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp) | |
Coronation of the hero of virtue | 1613-1614 | 160.5 × 263 cm, oil on oak | Old Masters Picture Gallery (Kassel) | |
Saint Sebastian | around 1614 | 200 × 120 cm, oil on canvas | State museums in Berlin | |
The hippopotamus hunt | 1615-1616 | 248 × 321 cm, oil on canvas | Alte Pinakothek , Munich | |
Romulus and Remus | 1615-1616 | 210 × 212, oil on canvas | Capitoline Museums , Rome | |
The Great Last Judgment | 1617 | 608.5 × 463.5 cm, oil on canvas | Alte Pinakothek , Munich | |
The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus | 1617-1618 | 224 × 210.5 cm, oil on canvas | Alte Pinakothek , Munich | |
The fall of the damned into hell | 1620 | 288 × 225 cm, oil on oak | Alte Pinakothek , Munich | |
The lion hunt | 1621 | 249 × 377 cm, oil on canvas | Alte Pinakothek , Munich | |
Perseus frees Andromeda | 1622 | 100 × 138.5 cm, oil on canvas | Gemäldegalerie (Berlin) | |
Assumption of the Virgin | 1611-1626 | 490 × 325 cm, oil on panel | Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp) | |
Self portrait | 1628-1630 | 61.5 × 45 cm, oil on canvas | Rubens House , Antwerp | |
The love garden | 1632-1633 | 198 × 283 cm, oil on canvas | Museo del Prado , Madrid | |
Adoration of the Magi | 1633-1634 | 328 × 247 cm, oil on canvas | Kings College (Cambridge) | |
The three graces | 1630-1635 | 221 × 181 cm, oil on oak | Museo del Prado , Madrid | |
The rainbow landscape | 1636 | 135.6 × 235 cm, oil on oak | Wallace Collection , Marylebone | |
The judgment of Paris | around 1636 | 144.8 × 193.7 cm, oil on oak | National Gallery , London | |
Helena Fourment (The Furry) | 1636-1638 | 176 × 83 cm, oil on panel | Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna | |
The consequences of the war | about 1637-1639 | 206 × 345 cm, oil on oak | Palazzo Pitti , Florence |
Other works
Significant works can be found in the following museums:
Siegerland Museum, Siegen (nine paintings, extensive graphic collection); Museo del Prado , Madrid; Alte Pinakothek , Munich; Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna; Hermitage in Saint Petersburg; Royal Museums of Fine Arts , Brussels; Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe , Kassel; Musée du Louvre , Paris.

Title (approximate date of creation) current place of storage
- Adoration of the Shepherds , 1621/1622, St. Paul Benedictine Abbey (Carinthia), Picture Gallery
- The Lamentation , around 1608/1609, Gemäldegalerie Berlin
- Samson and Delilah , 1609/1610, National Gallery (London)
- Rubens and Isabella Brant in the honeysuckle arbor ( double portrait in the honeysuckle arbor ), around 1609/1610, Alte Pinakothek , Munich
- Erecting the Cross , 1610, Antwerp Cathedral
- The Massacre of the Innocents ( Bethlehem Child Murder ) 1609/1611, Art Gallery of Ontario
- Juno and Argus , around 1610, Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud
- The Descent from the Cross , 1611, Antwerp Cathedral
- Tarquinius and Lucretia , 1610/1611 (lost in World War II, re-emerged in 2003 in private ownership in Moscow, badly damaged)
- Ganymed , 1611/1612, Palais Liechtenstein , Vienna
- Prometheus' Bound, 1612, Philadelphia Museum of Art : The WP Wilstach Collection: "Prometheus Bound"
- Jupiter and Callisto , 1613, Wilhelmshöhe Palace , Kassel
- The coronation of the virtuous hero , 1613/1614, Wilhelmshöhe Palace, Kassel
- Daniel in the Lions Den , c. 1615, National Gallery of Art , Washington
- The Great Last Judgment , 1617, oil on canvas, 608.5 cm × 463.5 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- Judith with the head of Holofernes , around 1616, Braunschweig , Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum
- The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus , around 1618, oil on canvas, 224 cm × 210.5 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- The earth's alliance with water , around 1618, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. 222.5 cm × 180.5 cm
- The Battle of the Amazons , around 1618, oil on wood, 120.3 cm × & 165.3 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- The last communion of St. Francis v. Assisi , around 1619. Antwerp: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten
- The Little Last Judgment , around 1618–1620, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- Julius Caesar , 1619, Caputh Castle , Berlin
- The Fall of the Damned from Hell , around 1620, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- Perseus and Andromeda , around 1620–1621, St. Petersburg , (Russia), Hermitage
- Judith with the head of Holofernes , 1620–1622, Uffizi Gallery , Florence
- Perseus frees Andromeda , 1622, Gemäldegalerie Berlin
- Story of Constantine , Seven drafts for tapestries, 1622–1623, Editio princeps, Philadelphia Museum of Art
- The altar of Heil. Ildefonso, 1630–1632, Kunsthistorisches Museum
- The Love Garden , around 1632, Museo del Prado , Madrid
- Helene Fourment with her son Frans , around 1635, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- Andromeda , around 1638, Gemäldegalerie Berlin
- Landscape with Philemon and Baucis , 1635–1640, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
- Landscape with the Rainbow , around 1635, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- Steen Castle , 1635–1637, National Gallery, London
- The little fur , around 1638, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
- The Three Graces , 1639, Museo del Prado, Madrid
- Bathsheba at the fountain , 1635, Dresden, Alte Meister gallery
- The wild boar hunt , Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
- Hero and Leander , Dresden, Old Masters Picture Gallery
- Diana's return from the hunt , Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
- Diana and Callisto , between 1637 and 1638, Madrid, Museo del Prado
- Mercury and Argus , Dresden, Old Masters Picture Gallery
- Leda with the swan , Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
- Zephyr and Flora , Dessau-Roßlau , Mosigkau Castle Gallery
- Hercules and Omphale , around 1606, Musée du Louvre
- The apocalyptic woman , around 1623/1625, picture for the high altar in Freising Cathedral , original in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich
- The Bethlehemite Child Murder , around 1638, oil on oak, 198.5 cm × 302.2 cm, Alte Pinakothek , Munich
- The Assumption of Mary , Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
- The Crucifixion of Peter , St. Peter (Cologne)
- The Assumption of Mary , Parish Church of St. Peter and Paul, Kirchheim in Swabia
- The heal. Cäcilia , Gemäldegalerie Berlin
- The dying Seneca , 1612/1613, oil on panel, 185 cm × 154.7 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- Quos ego: Neptune soothes the waves , 1635, Dresden , Alte Meister gallery
- The Lion Hunt , 1621, oil on canvas, 248.7 cm × 377.3 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- Venus and Adonis , around 1615, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
- The four philosophers , around 1602, oil on panel, 164 × 139, Galleria Palatina in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Others
Rubens' painting Kindermord von Bethlehem , painted around 1609/1611, was inherited by a private person in 1923. Wrongly dated and mistaken for a work by van den Hoecke (1611–1651), it was given to the Upper Austrian monastery of Reichersberg , where it hung in a dark corridor for decades. The painting was finally auctioned on July 10, 2002 at Sotheby’s in London for the record price of EUR 76.7 million, making it the most expensive " old master " to date . Shortly before the auction, the painting was identified abroad as Rubens, which sparked a fierce controversy: it was suspected that the Federal Monuments Office was deceived and granted the export license under false pretenses. This was denied by the BDA; even if the painting had been recognized as Rubens in Austria, it would have granted permission to export it from Austria. This incident dominated the headlines of the cultural media in 2002 under the title Rekordrubens .
In his self-portraits of the last 30 years of his life, the artist's hands show the typical image of a progressive chronic polyarthritis .
literature
sorted by date of publication
- Hans Gerhard Evers : Peter Paul Rubens. F. Bruckmann, Munich 1942, 528 pp., 272 ills., 4 color plates (Flemish edition from De Sikkel, Antwerp 1946).
- Hans Gerhard Evers: Rubens and his work. New research. De Lage Landen, Brussels 1943. 383 pp. Taf.
- Frans Baudouin: Peter Paul Rubens. Translated from the Dutch by Karl Jacobs. Köster, Königstein im Taunus 1977, ISBN 3-7845-9300-3 .
- Reinhard Liess : The Art of Rubens. Wasmuth, Braunschweig 1977.
- Agnes Czobor: An oil study on the head of St. Francis on the large Antwerp altarpiece. In: Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis XXIV (1976–1978). Ed. Hoger Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis en Outheidkunde van het Universitair Vermögen, pp. 9-14.
- Hubert von Sonnenburg, Frank Preußer: Rubens. Collected essays on technology. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung, Munich (= communications from the Department for Restoration and Scientific Investigations (Doerner Institute) 3/1979).
- Sabine Cotté: Rubens and his world. Gondrom, Bayreuth 1980, ISBN 3-8112-0205-7 .
- Julius S. Held: The Oil-Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens: A Critical Catalog. Princeton 1980 (2 vols.)
- Günter Brucher: The Ildefonso Altar by Peter Paul Rubens. In: Kunsthistorisches Jahrbuch Graz, Graz 1982, pp. 49–78.
- Christopher White: Peter Paul Rubens. Life and art. Belser Verlag, Zurich 1988.
- Marc Morford: Stoics and Neostoics. Princeton 1991.
- Justus Müller Hofstede : Rubens and the Constantia ideal. The self-portrait from 1623. In: Matthias Winner (Hrsg.): The artist about himself and his work. Weinheim 1992, pp. 335-405.
- Matías Díaz Padrón (Ed.): El Siglo de Rubens en el Museo del Prado. Barcelona 1995.
- Christine Göttler: The Art of Purgatory after the Reformation. Mainz 1996.
- Ulrich Heinen: Rubens between sermon and art. The high altar for the Walburg Church in Antwerp. Weimar 1996 (PDF; 113 kB) ( Memento from August 22, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- Otto von Simson: Peter Paul (1577–1640): humanist, painter and diplomat. Mainz 1996.
- Christopher Brown (Ed.): Making & Meaning: Rubens's Landscapes. Exhibition catalog National Gallery, London 1997.
- Fiona Healy: Rubens and the Judgment of Paris. Turnhout 1997.
- Kristin Lohse Belkin: Rubens. London 1998.
- Ilse von zur Mühlen: image and vision. Peter Paul Rubens and God's brush. Frankfurt am Main 1998.
- Susanne Tauss: Dulce et decorum? The Decius-Mus cycle by Peter Paul Rubens. Osnabrück 2000.
- Prosper Arents, AKL Thijs (ed.): De Bibliotheek van Pieter Pauwel Rubens. Antwerp 2001.
- Ulrich Heinen: Rubens' Lipsanian crops . In: Die Gartenkunst 14 (1/2002), pp. 1–8.
- Rutger Tijs: About the shepherds 'grotto in Rubens' garden. The Influence of the Italian Renaissance on Northern Garden Concepts . In: Die Gartenkunst 14 (1/2002), pp. 9-18.
- Ulrich Heinen, Andreas Thielemann (ed.): Rubens Passioni. The culture of passions in the baroque era. Göttingen 2001, ISBN 978-3-525-47902-5 .
- Ulrich Heinen: Versatissimus in historiis et re politica. Rubens' beginnings as a diplomat. In: Rainer Budde (Ed.), Roland Krischel (Red.): Sensual Intelligence. Festschrift for Prof. Dr. Hans Ost. Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 63, 2002, pp. 283-318.
- Konrad Renger (Hrsg.), Claudia Denk (Hrsg.): Flemish painting of the baroque in the old Pinakothek. Munich u. a. 2002.
- Frits Lammertse (ed.), Alejandro Vergara (ed.): Peter Paul Rubens. The Life of Achilles. Exhibition catalog Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen / Madrid, Museo del Prado , Rotterdam 2003.
- Nils Büttner , Ulrich Heinen (ed.): Peter Paul Rubens: Baroque Passions. Exhibition catalog in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum Braunschweig (August 8 to October 31, 2004), Munich 2004.
- Kristin Lohse Belkin (Ed.), Fiona Healy (Ed.): A House of Art: Rubens as Collector. Exhibition catalog Rubenshuis Museum, Antwerp 2004.
- Ulrich Heinen: Rubens' garden and the artist's health. In: Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 65 , 2004, pp. 71–182.
- Margit Thøfner: Helena Fourment's Het Pelsken. In: Art History, 27, 2004, pp. 1–33.
- Nico van Hout: Copyright Rubens. Exhibition catalog Koninklijk Museum, Antwerp 2004.
- Kate Bomford: Peter Paul Rubens and the Value of Friendship. In: Jan de Jong et al. (Ed.): Rubens and the Netherlands. Zwolle 2006 (= Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 55, 2004), pp. 229–257
- Johann Kräftner (Ed.) Et al .: Rubens in Vienna. Vienna 2004.
- Eveliina Juntunen: PPR's image-implicit art theory in selected. mythological. Histories (1611-1618). Petersberg 2005.
- Rubens, Eleonora de 'Medici Gonzaga e l'oratorio sopra Santa Croce. Exhibition catalog Palazzo Ducale, Mantua 2005.
- Anne-Marie Logan, Michiel Plomp: Peter Paul Rubens. The Drawings. Exhibition catalog Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2005.
- Dagmar Feghelm, Markus Kesting: Rubens. Pictures of love. Prestel, Munich 2005, ISBN 978-3-7913-3353-3 (Flexo).
- Martin Warnke : Peter Paul Rubens. Life and work. Dumont, Cologne 2006.
- Nils Büttner: Mr. PP Rubens. Vandenhoeck, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-525-47906-9 . Digitized
- Ulrich Heinen: Rubens's Pictorial Diplomacy at War (1637/1638). In: an de Jong et al. (Ed.): Rubens and the Netherlands. Zwolle 2006 (= Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 55, 2004), v, pp. 196–225.
- Peter Kränzle: Peter Paul Rubens. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 8, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-053-0 , Sp. 892-908.
- Andreas Thielemann: Talking heads: Seneca portraits around 1600. In: Max Kunze, Henning Wrede (Hrsg.): 300 years “Thesaurus Brandenburgicus”. Archeology, collections of antiquities and antiquing residential furnishings in the baroque era. Munich 2006, pp. 167-206.
- Joseph Eduard Wessely : Rubens, Peter Paul . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 29, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, pp. 423-428.
- Jacob Burckhardt : Works. Critical complete edition. Volume 11. Memories from Rubens. Edited from the estate by Edith Struchholz and Martin Warnke. CH Beck, Munich 2006, 275 pp.
- Karin Hellwig: Peter Paul Rubens. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2012, ISBN 978-3-499-50710-6 .
- Gerhard Finckh , Ilka Hartje: Peter Paul Rubens. (Catalog for the exhibition at the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal , November 16, 2012 to February 28, 2013), ISBN 978-3-89202-085-1 .
Literature on Jan Rubens (selection)
- Ingrun Mann: Anna of Saxony. The Scarlet Lady of Orange . Winged Hussar Publishing, Point Pleasant, New Jersey 2016. ISBN 978-0996365727 .
- Rosine De Dijn : love, burden and passion. Women in the Life of Rubens. DVA, Stuttgart and Munich 2002. (Title deals with Jan and Peter Paul Rubens.)
- Hans Kruse : Wilhelm of Orange and Anna of Saxony. A princely marriage tragedy of the 16th century. In: Nassauische Annalen , 54, 1934, pp. 1–134.
- August Spieß: An episode from the life of PP Rubens' parents . In: Nassauische Annalen , 12, 1873, pp. 265–285.
Movies
- Peter Paul Rubens. On the trail of a genius painter. Documentary, Germany, 2012, 30 min., Script and director: Werner Raeune, production: 3sat , ZDF , first broadcast: October 27, 2012, summary by 3sat, with Gerhard Finckh and Nico van Hout.
- Rubens - A Life in Europe. Documentary film, Germany, 2018, 52:53 min., Script and direction: Christine Romann, production: Hessischer Rundfunk , arte , first broadcast: February 18, 2018 on arte, synopsis by ARD .
See also
- Rubens figure
- Rubens House
- Rubens Prize of the City of Siegen
Web links
- Literature by and about Peter Paul Rubens in the catalog of the German National Library
- Peter Paul Rubens. Biographical data and works in the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
- Peter Paul Rubens in the catalog of the Cologne Art Library (defective)
- Rubens . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 13, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 1019.
- Rubenshuis Museum in Antwerp
Works
- Peter Paul Rubens in the National Gallery , London
- Peter Paul Rubens in the Alte Pinakothek
- Works by and about Peter Paul Rubens in the German Digital Library
- Works by Peter Paul Rubens at Zeno.org .
Exhibitions
- Alexandra Matzner: Peter Paul Rubens. Power of transformation. For the exhibition at the KHM and the Städel , 2017/2018
- Peter Paul Rubens on kunstaspekte.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ spit; Kruse, passim; Man, passim; De Dijn, passim. Further evidence in the articles Anna von Sachsen and Jan Rubens .
- ^ Eleonora de 'Medici Gonzaga e l'oratorio sopra Santa Croce: pittura devota a corte - . In: CODART . ( codart.nl [accessed January 8, 2017]).
- ↑ The wedding took place in the Abbey Church of St. Michael .
- ↑ Leafed back ... , Siegener Zeitung from January 29, 2011
- ^ Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. 1000 biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 79.
- ↑ Images of cardboard boxes and tapestries in the series at Wikimedia Commons
- ↑ Gitta Bertram, Nils Büttner: Symbol / Bildsinn. Rubens as a book artist . State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-9815734-5-9 .
- ↑ dpa : World record: Rubens sold for 77 million euros. In: FAZ , July 10, 2002.
- ↑ Export permit from the monument office: record price for Rubens from Austria. ( Memento of April 13, 2003 in the Internet Archive ). In: Bundesdenkmalamt (BDA), July 15, 2002.
- ↑ dpa: "Record Rubens" went unnoticed for decades. In: Schwäbische Zeitung , July 12, 2002.
- ↑ Wolfgang Miehle: Joint and spinal rheumatism. Eular Verlag, Basel 1987, ISBN 3-7177-0133-9 , p. 11.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Rubens, Peter Paul |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Flemish painter |
DATE OF BIRTH | June 28, 1577 or June 29, 1577 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Siegen , Westphalia |
DATE OF DEATH | May 30, 1640 |
Place of death | Antwerp , Belgium |