Западноевропейское искусство от Джотто до Рембрандта

Rubens was the man of extraordinary character and intelligence. One visitor recounted how Rubens could listen to a reading of Roman history in Latin, carry on a learned conversation, paint a picture, and dictate a letter all at the same time.

Rubens first emerged on the international scene during his visit to Italy in 1600 where he remained for eight years. Artistically Rubens was an adopted Italian, with little interest in the Early Netherlandish masters. With indefatigable energy he set out to conquer the fortress of Italian art. He made hundreds of drawings and scores of copies after Roman sculpture as well as paintings.

An early work in Antwerp Cathedral, the Raising of the Cross, a panel more than fifteen feet high, painted in 1609-10, shows the superhuman energy with which Rubens attacked his mighty concepts. This central panel of a triptych is a complete picture in itself. There is no hint of Caravaggio's psychological interests. The executioners, whose muscularity recalls Michelangelo's figures, raise the Cross, forming a colossal pyramid of struggling figures. In this painting the typical High Renaissance interfigural composition is transformed into a Baroque climax.

The power of Rubens can be seen at its greatness in the Fall of the Damned, painted about 1614-18, a waterspout of hurling figures raining down from Heaven, from which the rebels against divine love are forever excluded.

As his style matured, Rubens's characteristic spiral-into-the-picture lost the dark shadows of his early works and took on a Titianique richness of colour.

In 1621-25 Rubens carried out asplendid commission from Maria de'Medici, dowager Queen of France, widow of Henry iv, and regent during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Twenty one large canvases represent an allegorized version of the Queen career, showing her protected at every point by the divinities of Olympus. The series were originally installed in a ceremonial gallery in the Luxembourg Palace. All the canvases show the magnificence of Rubens's compositional inventiveness and the depth of his Classical learning; but Henry iv Receiving the Portrait of Maria de ' Medici is one of the best. The ageing King, whose helmet and shield are taken by Cupids, is advised by Minerva to accept as his second bride the Florentine princess, whose portrait is presented by Mercury, as Juno and Jupiter smile upon the proposed union. The happy promise of divine intervention; the youthful figure; the grandeur of the armoured king, and the distant landscape make this painting one of the happiest of Rubens's allegorical works. The Queen never paid for the series. But when she was driven out of France by her former protege Cardinal Richelieuw, she took refuge in Flanders. Rubens helped to support her during her twelve years of exile – a remarkable tribute not only to the generosity of a great man but also to the position of a Baroque artist who could finance a luckless monarch.

In 1630, then 53 years old Rubens married Helene Fourment, a girl of 16. The artist's happiness received its perfect embodiment in the Garden of Love painted about 1638, a fantasy in which seven of the Fourment sisters are happily disposed throughout the foreground before the fantastic fountain-house in Rubens's own garden in Antwerp. Cupids fly above the scene with bows, arrows, a rose garland, and torches, and on the right sits a statue of Venus astride a dolphin. All the movements of Rubens's colour, all the energy of his composition are summed up in the radiance of the picture, the happiest Baroque testament to the redeeming power of love.

Make sure you know how to pronounce the/allowing words:

Antwerp; Luxembourg; Cologne; Protestant; emigre; Medici; dowager; protege; Richelieuw; Minerva; Flanders; Louis; regent

Notes

Raising of the Cross – «Воздвижение креста»

Fall of the Damned – «Падение проклятых»

Garden of Love – «Сад наслаждений»

Tasks

I. Read the text. Mark the following statements true or false.

1. Peter Paul Rubens was the most educated person of his time.

2. Rubens was fond of High Renaissance masters.

3. As Rubens's style matured, it took on a richness of colour.

4. Rubens's figures were disembodied and mystical.

5. In 1621-25 Rubens carried out a splendid commission from Louis XIII.

6. Rubens depicted the major Roman gods in the portrait of Maria de' MedicI.

II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?

1. When and where did Rubens first emerge on the international scene? Where was Rubens educated?

2. What could Rubens allegedly do at one and the same time? How did Rubens produce his works of art?

3. What is represented in the Raising of the Cross? What kind of painting is it? Where can the power of Rubens be seen? What is depicted in this painting?