Peter Paul Rubens: the supreme Baroque painter of Northern Europe.
10, Portrait of Susanna Fourment.
Also known as The Straw Hat, this famous portrait is now housed in the National Gallery, London
and presents Susanna Lunden (née Fourment), the elder sister of Rubens’ future second
wife Helena Fourment.
The portrait has been dated to the time of Susanna’s second marriage in 1622, to Arnold
Lunden, an Antwerp tapestry and silk merchant.
Her younger sister Helena became Rubens’ second wife in 1630.
The sitter’s direct glance from under the shadow of the hat, together with the ring
on her finger, suggests that the painting is a marriage portrait.
It is now believed that Rubens enlarged the painting as he proceeded, adding a third strip
of wood on the right and then enlarging the picture at the base.
The additions created a greater amount of sky, with added clouds to the right, contrasting
with the clearer sky to the left, from which the light falls across Susanna’s figure
and hands.
She is holding a gray shawl with her arms demurely crossed below a black dress with
an open chemise.
As sunlight streaks across her right cheek, slim neck and bosom, her face is rendered
in strong contrast, shaded by her hat, which is illumined by reflected light.
Her incandescent glow of skin is achieved by the artist’s thin oil glazes, which he
applied to a surface of smooth plaster of Paris, after lightly streaking the canvas
with a layer of gray charcoal to create a varied, reflecting base for the translucent
layers of pigment.
11, Henry IV receiving the portrait of Marie De’ Medici.
In February 1622 Rubens won the prestigious commission of painting twenty-four scenes
of the life and ‘heroic deeds’ of the Dowager Queen of the King of France, Henry IV.
Marie de’ Medici was the twenty-five-year-old daughter of the Medici grand duke of Tuscany
and they were married after Henry IV divorced the childless Marguerite de Valois in the
hope of a more fruitful, as well as prosperous second marriage.
Due to her mostly mundane career at the French court, Rubens had to depend on his most creative
powers of invention in order to complete the commission.
The following plate is the fourth scene in the cycle, where Henry IV is first presented
the portrait of Marie.
As the betrothed couple had not met previous to their wedding, Rubens staged their initial
meeting through this poetic scene.
Henry receives the portrait of his future bride, accompanied by Hymen, the god of marriage,
and Cupid, the god of love, who directs the King’s gaze to a portrait of Marie.
The personification of France, known as Gallia, is represented in a plumed helmet and is adorned
with a fleurs-de-lis, as she gently encourages the king.
Gathered in the clouds above, the Olympian couple Jupiter and Juno look approvingly down
on the scene, their hands joined in a symbol of concord.
The scene is, of course, entirely fictitious, though it clearly demonstrates Rubens’ deft
skill in flattering his wealthy and noble patrons and his competent ease in carrying
out grand and challenging commissions.
After negotiating the terms of the contract, the project was to be completed within two
years, coinciding with the marriage of Marie’s daughter, Henrietta Maria.
Twenty-one of the paintings depict Marie’s own struggles and triumphs in life.
The remaining three are portraits of herself and her parents.
The paintings now hang in the Paris’ Louvre in the Richelieu wing.
To execute such a large scale cycle in so short a time required the full employment
of Rubens’ studio, though the final surfaces indicate Rubens’ brushwork.
Amusingly, the artist’s greatest difficulty was getting paid for the commission and he
later wrote that the whole project had been the most unprofitable commission throughout
his career.
Nevertheless, the prolific and masterful quality of the completed cycle evinces the raw genius
and logistical brilliance of the master.
12, The Assumption of the Virgin.
This grand painting was completed in 1626 as an altarpiece for the high altar of the
Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, where it remains to this day.
The image presents the Assumption of Mary, accompanied by a choir of angels, lifting
her heavenwards in a spiralling motion, in the direction of a burst of divine light.
Around the Virgin’s tomb, the twelve apostles are depicted with gestures and expressions
of awe and reverence.
The women in the painting are thought to be Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary’s two
sisters.
A kneeling woman holds a flower, referring to the lilies that were reported to have miraculously
filled the empty coffin.
In 1618 the cathedral’s Dean, Johannes del Rio, had commissioned the altarpiece as a
family memorial.
The celebrated sculptors Jan and Robert de Noie were commissioned in 1621 to erect a
frame for the altarpiece and the foundation stone was laid on May 2, 1624.
Then Rubens began work on the full scale painting, which was interrupted in August the following
year, as Rubens and his family left Antwerp to escape the plague.
On his return in February 1626, he was given permission to close off the sanctuary in order
to work on the painting undisturbed.
The finished piece once again demonstrates the artist’s regard for the religious works
of the Venetian master Titian.
Clear parallels can be seen between Rubens’ altarpiece and Titian’s Assumption of the
Virgin (1518) on the high altar in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice.
Like Titian’s Madonna, Rubens portrays his as borne aloft by a cloud of putti, forming
a rhythmic grouping of celestial grace notes, while four angels surround her, while two
of the seraphs hold a crown of flowers.
The rich blend of colours, including vivid reds, golds and purples, indicate a typical
Venetian master’s palette. 13, Ludovicus Nonnius.
Now held in London’s National Gallery, this 1627 portrait presents Rubens’ physician
Ludovicus Nonnius, who had a successful medical practice in Antwerp and was an expert on ancient
coins.
Nonnius published numismatic commentaries with title pages designed by Rubens, while
he also wrote medical publications, including a major work on health and diet, Diaeteticon,
leading to groundbreaking work in food hygiene.
He had been among the four doctors called to attend Rubens’ wife, Isabella Brant,
prior to her death and it was likely this association that produced a close personal
bond between the artist and doctor, as displayed in the canvas.
The antique bust in the portrait is inscribed with Greek letters, indicating the name of
the father of Western medicine, Hippocrates, and so informing us of the sitter’s profession.
The doctor appears to briefly look up, while pointing to a passage in a book, engaging
us at once with the canvas.
Rubens further extends the immediacy of the portrait through the lively use of brushwork
in the face and hands, contrasting effectively with the white ruff collar and cuffs.
The expression of Nonnius’ eyes evoke a sense of the physician’s intelligence, reinforced
by the various symbols of high learning.
14, Peace and War.
Also known as Minerva Protects Pax from Mars, this large and impressive canvas, now found
in London’s National Gallery, was produced as an attempt to secure peace negotiations
between England and Spain, when Rubens was serving in his role as envoy to Philip IV
of Spain.
Due to his confident demeanour and courtly manners Rubens was quick to secure the patronage
of nobles, serving on many diplomatic missions — entirely outside of his sphere as an artist
— throughout his life.
In 1630 he presented Peace and War to Charles I of England, the greatest art collector of
the day, as a gift and the King was delighted with the painting.
The central female figure represents the Roman goddess Pax (Peace), here in her personification
as Ceres, the goddess of the earth, sharing her bounty with the various figures of the
foreground.
As a display of her fecundity, she is illustrated as actually squirting milk from her breast
into a child’s mouth.
The children of the composition have been identified as portraits of the children of
Rubens’ host, Sir Balthasar Gerbier, a painter-diplomat in the service of Charles I.
To the right of Pax is Minerva, goddess of wisdom.
She drives away Mars, the god of war, and Alecto, the fury of war.
A winged cupid and the goddess of marriage, Hymen, lead the children (the fruit of marriage)
to a cornucopia, or horn of plenty.
The satyr and leopard are part of the entourage of Bacchus, another fertility god and leopards
draw Bacchus’ chariot.
Two nymphs or maenads approach from the left, one bringing riches, the other dancing to
a tambourine.
A putto holds an olive wreath, a symbol of peace, and the caduceus (winged staff) of
Mercury, messenger of the gods.
It is a picture of two halves, with the joys and benefits of peace celebrated in brilliant
colour in the foreground, as a winged cupid and the goddess of marriage, Hymen, lead the
children (the fruits of marriage) to concord.
Yet, in the background of the image, the horrors and mindlessness of war are starkly depicted
in gloomy hues.
It is the terrifying face of Alecto, the fury of war, in the right of the canvas that strongly
underlines terror of war.