Pieter Paul Rubens
1577-1640
A Short Overview
of his Life and Paintings on Stamps
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Pieter Paul Rubens A Short Overview Page 1 Page 2 |
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Rubens was born in Siegen, Westphalia (now part of Germany), on June 28, 1577; the following day was the feast day of St Peter and St Paul, and this accounts for his Christian names. His father, Jan Rubens, was a lawyer who, having fallen under suspicion of having Protestant sympathies, had fled Antwerp to escape the persecution to which Protestants were being subjected in a city that was strongly Catholic. After Jan’s death in 1587, his widow and children returned to Antwerp. Pieter Paul had been baptized a Protestant, but he became a very devout Catholic and much of his later work was done in the service of the Church.
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Belgium 1930, 1939, and 1977. Self Portrait. The stamp to the right re-appeared in a modern version, both as single stamp and a block of 3, in 1977, at the occasion of the International Rubens Year, celebrating his 400th birth anniversary. The modern stamp is so dark, that one can only barely see the red shadow surrounding Rubens' hat. The 1977-sheet contains three identical stamps as shown above right, the only difference being the ID-numbers of the stamp (11, 12, and 13, inserted in parenthesis after the year of issuance). The stamp shown above has No. 11. Click here to see the sheet. The link will open in a new window.
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Few early paintings by Rubens survive, and they suggest that at this stage in his career he was diligent rather than brilliant. However, he blossomed prodigiously during a period of eight years that he spent based in Italy, from 1600 to 1608.
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Ambitious young artists from northern Europe often
visited Italy early in their careers to see the great treasures of ancient and
Renaissance art, but Rubens was exceptional in the depth of his immersion in the
country’s culture. He became highly knowledgeable about Classical
civilization, able to discuss it on equal terms with leading scholars, and he
spoke and wrote Italian so fluently that it became his favourite language among
the six he knew; in later life he usually signed his letters Pietro Paolo
Rubens.
Soon after arriving in Italy, Rubens was fortunate enough to attract the attention of the art-loving Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (whose father Giovanni Francesco was painted in the famous Gonzaga-Cycle by Jacopo Tintoretto). Vincenzo’s patronage provided him with a wonderful artistic education, for he visited many of the country’s major cultural centres to make copies of famous pictures for the ducal collection.
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goodwill mission bearing gifts to Philip III. In Madrid he saw the superb
Spanish royal art collection, including many pictures by Titian, an artist whom
Rubens revered and who influenced him greatly. The most important part of his
artistic education, however, Rubens obtained in Rome, where he worked in
1601-1602 and again in 1606-1608.
The great masters of the High Renaissance, such as Raphael and Michelangelo, and the finest contemporary Italian painters, particularly Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci, were major inspirations of his style, which became powerfully self-confident and full of muscular energy. Rubens returned to Antwerp in 1608 because his mother was very ill; she died before he arrived. He had every intention of returning to his beloved Italy, but he was soon so successful in Antwerp that he remained there. The below three paintings issued by Liechtenstein are splendid examples of Rubens' prolific art.
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In 1609 he became court painter to Archduke Albert and his wife, Infanta Isabella, who governed the country on behalf of Spain, and in the same year he married Isabella Brant, the daughter of an eminent lawyer.
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Rubens had returned to his country at a propitious time for an artist. Until 1609, Flanders (more correctly known as the Spanish Netherlands, to which modern Belgium roughly corresponds) was at war with its northern neighbour (the Dutch Republic, modern Holland). However, in that year the two countries agreed to a 12-year truce; the arts had suffered greatly during the war, and in this period of reconstruction many buildings were rebuilt or redecorated. Rubens was to paint many pictures for Flemish churches, and the works that resoundingly established his reputation as the greatest painter in the country are two huge altarpieces in Antwerp Cathedral: "The Raising of the Cross" (1609-1610) and "The Descent from the Cross" (1612-1614).
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At the occasion of the opening of the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, Austria and Liechtenstein issued in 2005 a joint issue of Rubens' painting "Venus in front of the Mirror". For Rubens and his time this painting represented the ultimate symbol of beauty, and it is for certain a most sensual work, showing Venus fully aware of her face in the mirror, with her dark-skinned maid next to her in the background.
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Austria and Liechtenstein 2005. Joint issue of "Venus in front of the Mirror".
Comores 1977. Fragment of the same painting.
Liberia 1985. Fragment of the painting "Venus in front of the Mirror", but only showing the face in the mirror.
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Sources and links:
Microsoft Encarta 2002.
Encyclopedia Britannica 2002.
E.H. Gombrich: "Story of the Art" (Danish edition, ISBN 87-01-79921-5.
Other Baroque painters and artists on this site:
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| Revised 24-jul-2006. Ann Mette Heindorff Copyright © 1999-2007. All Rights Reserved |
