Global InformationPeter Paul Rubens information
Sir Peter Paul Rubens | |
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 Self-Portrait, 1623, Royal Collection | |
| Born | 28 June 1577 Siegen, Nassau-Dillenburg, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 30 May 1640 (aged 62) Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands |
| Nationality | Flemish |
| Education | Tobias Verhaecht Adam van Noort Otto van Veen |
| Known for | Painting, drawing, tapestry design, print design |
| Movement | Flemish Baroque |
| Spouses | Isabella Brant
(m. 1609; died 1626)Helena Fourment (m. 1630) |
| Children | 8, including Nikolaas and Albert |
| Parents |
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Sir Peter Paul Rubens (/ˈruːbənz/ ROO-bənz,[1] Dutch: [ˈrybə(n)s]; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat.[2] He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens was a painter producing altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. He was also a prolific designer of cartoons for the Flemish tapestry workshops and of frontispieces for the publishers in Antwerp.
He was born and raised in Germany, to parents who were refugees from Antwerp in the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium), returning to Antwerp at about 12. In addition to running a large workshop in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. Rubens was a prolific artist. The catalogue of his works by Michael Jaffé lists 1,403 pieces, excluding numerous copies made in his workshop.[3]
His commissioned works were mostly history paintings, which included religious and mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. He painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house. He also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the royal entry into Antwerp by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria in 1635. He wrote a book with illustrations of the palaces in Genoa, which was published in 1622 as Palazzi di Genova. The book was influential in spreading the Genoese palace style in Northern Europe.[4] Rubens was an avid art collector and had one of the largest collections of art and books in Antwerp. He was also an art dealer and is known to have sold an important number of art objects to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.[5]
He was one of the last major artists to make consistent use of wooden panels as a support medium, even for very large works, but he used canvas as well, especially when the work needed to be sent a long distance. For altarpieces he sometimes painted on slate to reduce reflection problems.
- ^ "Rubens". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ Weststeijn, T. (2008). The Visible world: Samuel van Hoogstraten's art theory and the legitimation of painting in the Dutch Golden Age. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978 90 8964 027 7.
- ^ Nico Van Hout, Functies van doodverf met bijzondere aandacht voor de onderschildering en andere onderliggende stadia in het werk van P. P. Rubens Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, PHD thesis Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2005. (in Dutch).
- ^ Giulio Girondi, Frans Geffels, Rubens and the Palazzi di Genova, pp. 183–199.
- ^ Joost vander Auwera, Arnout Balis, Rubens: A Genius at Work : the Works of Peter Paul Rubens in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium Reconsidered, Lannoo Uitgeverij, 2007, p. 33.