Art e Dossier

This is the second and final version of the large altarpiece for the Roman church of the Oratorians, and it would be a fundamental text for the future development of Roman baroque painting. The first subject of the painting, that was to contain the old and miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary was probably suggested by Flaminio Ricci, rector of the church. Since he could not celebrate Philip Neri who had not yet been canonized, he chose Gregory the Great who, according to tradition, had established the first church dedicated to the Virgin in that area. The Oratorian fathers rejected the first version that was completed in 1607 and Rubens proposed doing a second one, in situ, painted on slate slabs. In the main section Rubens decided to paint only the Virgin in glory, surrounded by cherubs and adored by angels, he then flanked it with two other compositions with saints that take up the entire choir of the church.

This mythological painting was probably done for Vincenzo I Gonzaga, duke of Mantua whom Rubens met during his trip to Venice; the duke engaged the artist to work for his court. Rubens clearly felt the influence of Vaenius (Otto van Veen) one of his earliest teachers, even though we can already see significant elements that are evidence of his Italian sojourn – specifically Giulio Romano, Tintoretto and Marcantonio Raimondi. Paris, son of Priam had been raised as a shepherd, selected Venus among the three goddesses before him. His position is that of one of the figures in the Calling of St. Matthew by Caravaggio, an artist whom Rubens admired and copied during his stay in Rome. The river setting is emphasized by the personifications of a river and a naiad on the left; we also see Mercury, and in the center the three goddesses who submitted themselves to the judgment of Paris: Juno, Venus and Minerva. Minerva, whom we see from the rear is based on a drawing of Juno by Jacopo Caraglio after a prototype by Rosso Fiorentino, while Paris’ gesture towards Venus, diagonally crossing the canvas is derived from a 1579 engraving of Adam and Eve by Jan Saedler da Marten de Vos.

In 1608 Rubens left Rome to return to Antwerp where he became the court painter in the service of the archduke and duchess, Albert and Isabella. On 13 October of that same year he married the eighteen year old Isabella Brant, daughter of Jan Brant – chancellor of the city – and Clara de Mooy. The date of the double portrait is very close to that of the marriage; the painting is informally set outdoors; the artist has one hand on his sword, and rests his right hand on Isabella who is seated at his feet.

The painting of Samson and Delilah was one of the first Rubens did upon his return to Antwerp. As we can see from a painting by Frans Francken the Younger depicting the interior of a room in the home of Nicolas Rockox (Munch, Schloss Schleissheim) where the walls are covered with paintings and statuary from the famous Rockox collection, Rubens’ painting must have held the place of honor above the fireplace where the host’s illustrious guests could readily admire it. The biblical tale of Samson and Delilah was rather popular in the XVII century. Here, Samson’s powerful body – that recalls Michelangelo and antiquity –collapses on the beautiful Delilah who does not directly cut his hair. In a niche in the background we see a statue of Venus and the blind Cupid that emphasizes the moral of the story.

This the design for the important triptych on the main altar of the church of Saint Valpurga, the oldest parish church in Antwerp; today it is the city’s cathedral. Rubens obtained the commission through the help of Cornelis van der Geest, deacon of the haberdashers guild from 1609 to 1615 who was one of the artist’s greatest supporters when he returned home. The composition of the triptych, that we can also see from the sketch in the Louvre, is unitary – in the central and lateral panels - and the solution of a horizontal development of the scene recalls the arrangement of The Baptism of Christ and The Transfiguration. Rubens did not use this type of arrangement anymore, except in this triptych and the plans for the Conversion of St. Bavon (London, National Gallery). This sketch, that the artist himself called a “colored drawing,” reveals his working method of that period. Later he would use mixed technique sketches that became more and more numerous after 1615. He had already portrayed this subject, that was quite unusual in the Italian tradition, in one of the three paintings he did for the Rome church of Santa Croce in 1601-1602

One of Rubens most fruitful collaborations was with the painter Frans Snyders who specialized in animals and still-lifes. In this painting it was Snyders who did the superb eagle that takes up the entire right-hand portion of the composition with its spread wings. The composition is traversed diagonally and in the middle is the powerful figure of Prometheus that is clearly derived from Titian. Prometheus, son of the Titan Iapetus stole fire from the gods to give it to mankind and for this he was punished by Zeus who condemned him to be chained to a rock where an eagle would devour his liver every day.

This “sketch”, painted on a panel and then transferred to canvas is part of a series of cartoons for tapestries that had been commissioned by a Genoese merchant, Franco Cattaneo. It is the first known series of cartoons by Rubens. He came into direct contact with the world of tapestries – that had flourished in France and Flanders since the Middle Ages – in 1616. Franco Cattaneo had executed a contract with Jan Raes and Frans Sweerts, tapestry makers in Brussels, for a series depicting the History of the Consul Decius Mus. According to Bellori, if the original drawings for the tapestries were done by Rubens, the cartoons were prepared later by Antoon van Dyck who was working in Rubens’ atelier.

This painting is the result of cooperation among Rubens, Snijders and Wildens. It probably belonged to the collection of the Duke of Buckingham who purchased it directly from Rubens in Antwerp around 1626-1627. Rubens often worked with helpers who specialized in painting animals, still-lifes and landscapes, mainly Snijders, Jan Brueghel de Velours, Lucas van Uden and Jan Wildens. In this canvas it was Rubens who painted the figures – Cimon son of a noble Cypriot dressed in rough clothes, who sees the beautiful Iphigenia for the first time asleep with her companions. This moral tale, narrated by Boccaccio, in which the handsome but crude and ignorant Cimon becomes a refined gentleman after his union with Iphigenia, was very popular among seventeenth century Dutch painters.

This is one of Rubens’ mature works, and it was done for the church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Antwerp. It was displayed alternatively to another of his paintings, The Miracles of St. Francis Xavier. The founders of the Society of Jesus, one of the most important orders established during the Counter-Reformation, Ignatius of Loyola – and Francis Xavier were only canonized in 1622. The Rubens altarpieces therefore played a fundamental role in the dissemination of the iconography of the saints who founded the order – they were done prior to their canonization and were partly inspired by the engravings of Vita beati Ignatii Loyolae, published in Rome in 1609 that Rubens also worked on.

Towards the end of 1621 Rubens was commissioned to decorate the gallery of the Luxembourg Palace, the Paris residence of the queen mother, Marie de’Medici. The artist left for Paris in 1622 to study the selected program. The paintings in this series, mentioned by Bellori, were displayed in wooden frames decorated with gold arabesques, and portrayed various phases in Marie’s life. There were three phases, her youth, her life as queen and wife of Henry IV, the regency, and her role as mother of the new king. This painting of The Marriage of Marie de’ Medici is one of the most realistic of the series, and was the result of many preliminary sketches and studies. During the years that he worked in the service of Vincenzo Gonzaga Rubens personally attended the event as part of the of the Duke of Mantua’s retinue.

Rubens also obtained this commission through Cornelis van der Geest, deacon of the haberdashers’ guild from 1609 to 1615 and one of the artist’s greatest supporters after his return home. The triptych was painted for the church of St. James of Caudenberg, the parish of the Brussels court. The central panel shows St. Ildefonso, bishop of Toledo in the VII century receiving the chasuble from the Virgin Mary. In the lateral panels Saints Albert of Louvaine and Elizabeth of Hungary present the archduke and duchess, Alberto and Isabella to the Virgin.

In 1630 Rubens married for the second time; his wife was the sixteen year old Hélèna Fourment. He described the event in a letter to his friend Peiresec in 1634: “I have decided to remarry because I did not feel myself to be sufficiently mature for continence and celibacy […]. I chose a young wife from an honest, yet bourgeois family, even though I had tried to make my selection at court. I wanted a wife who would not blush when I take out my brushes. In brief, I am too fond of freedom and I would have found it too hard to lose it in exchange for kisses from an old wife.” Rubens painted her several times in memorable works such as Rubens with his Family in the Garden (Munich, Alte Pinakothek) where he portrayed the two of them in the garden of their Antwerp house shortly before the wedding, or in the portrait Hélèna Fourment with a Carriage (Paris, Louvre). In the Vienna painting, that is also known as The Little Fur or Hélèna Fourment as Aphrodite, the young woman is portrayed almost nude, as she steps out of the bath, and there is a perfect balance of form, colors and gestures. Rubens left this very intimate painting to his wife when he died in 1640.