Peter Paul Rubens
Biography And Paintings Of Rubens, Flemish Baroque History Painter and Altar-Piece Artist.

The Judgement of Paris (1635-8) (detail).

Rubens (1577-1640)

The most important painter of his day in Northern Europe - and one of the greatest Old Masters of the Baroque style of fine art painting which emphasized movement, color, and sensuality - Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish and European artist. He was the illustrator of the Catholic faith and divine right of kings. He was also a classical scholar, art-collector and diplomat. As a painter, Rubens is renowned for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, ceiling-paintings, portraits, landscapes, and especially his history painting with its mythological and allegorical messages. His masterpieces include: Venus at the Mirror, Samson and Delilah, The Massacre Of The Innocents, and The Judgement Of Paris. Other interesting works include: Four Studies of the Head of a Negro.

Rubens often used pupils and assistants (eg. van Dyck, Jordaens, Snyders) to complete a painting. An erudite and cosmopolitan artist, Rubens was born in Germany, settled in Antwerp (now Belgium), had a Spanish wife and became Court Painter to the Spanish Govenors of the Netherlands. He was knighted by both Philip IV, king of Spain, and Charles I, king of England.

Rubens' artworks may be divided into three groups: those painted by Rubens himself, those which he helped to paint (typically painting hands and faces), and those he merely supervised. He was assisted by a number of students and apprentices, while he often assigned certain elements of his larger paintings (eg. animals or still-life groupings) to specialists such as Snyders or Jordaens.

Paintings of Venus admiring herself were not uncommon during the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Rubens' Venus before the Mirror - an improvement on Titian's painting Venus with a Mirror - reinterprets the theme according to the spirit of the Northern Baroque. Rubens' Venus is more human than Titian's. Her figure is fuller, more curvaceous. Her golden hair cascades down her back, and instead of gazing at her own beauty she catches the eye of the viewer.

Samson and Delilah (now in the National Gallery, London) depicts an episode from the Old Testament bible story of Samson and Delilah (Judges 16).

Samson has told Delilah the secret of his enormous strength - his uncut hair. He then falls asleep on Delilah's lap, and a servant begins to cut Samson's hair.

Soldiers summoned to arrest him once his hair is shorn can be seen in the right-hand background. Behind Delilah is a statue of the Venus, the Goddess of Love, indicating that love is the cause of Samson's downfall.

The Massacre of the Innocents (which hangs in the National Gallery, London) is a biblical painting which depicts the eponymous story as related in the Gospel of Matthew. In 2002, it was auctioned for £49.5 million, still (Nov 2007) the highest auction price for an Old Master painting. The picture will continue to hang in the National Gallery, London until the completion of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

According to art experts, the drama, emotion and rich colour visible in the painting is clear evidence of the impact on Rubens of the Italian Baroque master painters like Caravaggio.

Three or four years before Rubens' death in 1640, he painted a second version of the Massacre of the Innocents. This version still survives and hangs in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Drawing studies were important to Rubens, especially when delegating the execution of a painting to others. First he would make a quick sketch, usually drawn and washed in brown ink, or occasionally painted in grisaille on a panel. Next he would produce a detailed oil sketch, which was then submitted to the client for approval or comment. Thereafter, other anatomical detail was produced in separate figure drawings. Sometimes Rubens would produce a finished painting containing elements he intended to reuse in his larger compositions. Four Studies of the Head of a Negro, (now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels) is one such figure painting. The study depicts four portraits of one and the same African man. Rubens painted him from different angles and with different expressions in preparation for one of his intended subjects to be included in his large altarpiece, The Adoration of the Magi.

At the age of 63, at the height of his powers and popularity, he died of gout. Although his relatively early death doubtless deprived Northern Europe of many masterpieces, his legacy was enormous. Under Rubens's influence, a whole school of famous artists flourished in Antwerp, while his personal output was prodigious. And even if Rubens did little but supervise a good deal of the work attributed to him, his domination and creative skills were so great that almost everything proceeding from his workshop bore the mark of his style. He excelled in all areas of art - landscape painting, portrait art, animal painting, large religious and allegorical works. Not for nothing is he considered by many art critics to be, along with Rembrandt, the most important influence in Northern Europe of his day, and the greatest ever Northern exponent of the Baroque. In 2002, his masterpiece The Massacre of the Innocents sold for a record £49.5 million.

...For a short biography of the greatest Florentine Renaissance artists, see Michelangelo Buonarroti.

• For information on art movements and styles, see: History of Art.
• For more about painting and sculpture in Ireland, see: Irish Art Guide

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