Delphi Complete Works of Peter Paul Rubens

924 Pages·2015·56.52 MB·English

by  coll.

Sir Peter Paul Rubens
(1577-1640)
Contents
The Highlights
ADAM AND EVE
THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS
THE MADONNA DI VALLICELLA, ST. GREGORY THE GREAT AND
SAINTS
SAMSON AND DELIAH
RUBENS AND ISABELLA BRUNT UNDER A HONEYSUCKLE BOWER
THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS
LANDSCAPE WITH CARTERS
THE RAPE OF THE DAUGHTERS OF LEUCIPPUS
A TIGER HUNT
PORTRAIT OF SUSANNA FOURMENT
HENRY IV RECEIVING THE PORTRAIT OF MARIE DE’ MEDICI
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN
LUDOVICUS NONNIUS
PEACE AND WAR
THE GARDEN OF LOVE
VENUS AND ADONIS
CONSEQUENCES OF WAR
SELF-PORTRAIT
The Paintings
THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS
The Drawings
LIST OF DRAWINGS
The Biographies
RUBENS by S. L. Bensusan
RUBENS by Jennie Ellis Keysor
RUBENS by Sarah K. Bolton
© Delphi Classics 2015
Version 1

Masters of Art Series
Sir Peter Paul Rubens
By Delphi Classics, 2015
The Highlights
Siegen, a German city in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia — Rubens’ birthplace
Possible self-portrait of Rubens as a young man
THE HIGHLIGHTS
In this section, a sample of some of Rubens’ most celebrated works is provided, with concise introductions,
special ‘detail’ reproductions and additional biographical images.
ADAM AND EVE
Peter Paul
Rubens was born in the German city of Siegen, Nassau-Dillenburg, to Jan
Rubens and Maria Pypelincks. Following the increased religious turmoil and
persecution of Protestants during the Duke of Alba’s reign of the Spanish
Netherlands, Rubens’
Calvinist parents fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568. Jan Rubens settled at the
court of Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William I of Orange, in Siegen in
1570, becoming first the legal advisor and then the lover of Anna. In
consequence of his father’s imprisonment for this affair, Rubens’ mother
decided to return to Cologne the following year. In 1589, two years after his
father’s death, Rubens moved with his mother to Antwerp, where he was then
raised as a Catholic. Religion was to figure prominently in much of his work and
the artist later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-
Reformation style of painting.
In Antwerp,
Rubens received a humanist education, studying Latin and classical literature,
before starting his artistic apprenticeship with Tobias Verhaeght at the age of
fourteen. Subsequently, he studied under two of the city’s leading painters of the
time, the late Mannerist artists Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen. Much of
Rubens’
earliest training involved copying the works of great masters, such as woodcuts
by Hans Holbein the Younger and Marcantonio Raimondi’s engravings after
Raphael. Rubens completed his education in 1598, at which time he entered the
Guild of St. Luke as an independent master in his own right.
Held in the Rubenshuis in Antwerp, Adam and Eve, a panel depicting the fall
from grace of the biblical first humans, is one of the few surviving paintings
from this period. The panel demonstrates the influence of Otto van Veen,
Rubens’ last and most influential teacher. The use of colour, with predominant