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108-827: Young Peter Paul Rubens , then in the employ of the Mantuan Duke, admired the Gonzaga cameo as the finest in existence. During the War of the Mantuan Succession , it was carried off by the imperial troops to Vienna and was preserved in the Prague Castle treasury through the Thirty Years' War . At the end of the conflict, the Swedes marched into Prague and looted the imperial treasury. Several years later

216-720: A Fur Wrap , also known as Het Pelsken , Rubens's wife is even partially modelled after classical sculptures of the Venus Pudica , such as the Medici Venus . In 1635, Rubens bought an estate outside Antwerp, the Steen , where he spent much of his time. Landscapes, such as his A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning (National Gallery, London) and Farmers Returning from the Fields (Pitti Gallery, Florence), reflect

324-573: A court painter Rubens was not required to register his pupils with the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke . About 20 pupils or assistants of Rubens have been identified, with various levels of evidence to include them as such. It is also not clear from surviving records whether a particular person was a pupil or assistant in Rubens's workshop or was an artist who was an independent master collaborating on specific works with Rubens. The unknown Jacob Moerman

432-442: A cousin of his mother. This family connection possibly explains the choice for Verhaecht as his first master. Rubens left Verhaecht's workshop after about one year as he wished to study history painting rather than landscape painting. He then continued his studies with one of the city's leading painters of the time, the artist Adam van Noort . Van Noort was a so-called Romanist , a term used to denote artists who had travelled from

540-543: A diplomatic mission in 1603, delivering gifts from the Gonzagas to the court of Philip III . While there, he studied the extensive collections of Raphael and Titian that had been collected by Philip II . He also painted an equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma during his stay (Prado, Madrid) that demonstrates the influence of works like Titian's Charles V at Mühlberg (1548; Prado, Madrid). This journey marked

648-436: A great deal of physical, sometimes aggressive, action. The concepts Rubens artistically represents illustrate the male as powerful, capable, forceful and compelling. The allegorical and symbolic subjects he painted reference the classic masculine tropes of athleticism, high achievement, valour in war, and civil authority. Male archetypes readily found in Rubens's paintings include the hero, husband, father, civic leader, king, and

756-490: A long time, especially during the French Revolution , history painting often focused on depictions of the heroic male nude. The large production, using the finest French artists, of propaganda paintings glorifying the exploits of Napoleon , were matched by works, showing both victories and losses, from the anti-Napoleonic alliance by artists such as Goya and J. M. W. Turner . Théodore Géricault 's The Raft of

864-582: A network of friendships with important figures of his time such as the scientist Galileo Galilei whom he included as the central figure in his friendship portrait he painted in Mantua known as the Self-Portrait in a Circle of Friends from Mantua . Rubens continued to correspond with many of his friends and contacts in Italian, signed his name as "Pietro Paolo Rubens", and spoke longingly of returning to

972-477: A number of engravers trained by Christoffel Jegher , whom he carefully schooled in the more vigorous style he wanted. Rubens also designed the last significant woodcuts before the 19th-century revival in the technique. In 1621, the Queen Mother of France, Marie de' Medici , commissioned Rubens to paint two large allegorical cycles celebrating her life and the life of her late husband, Henry IV , for

1080-834: A period of renewed prosperity in the city with the signing of the Treaty of Antwerp in April 1609, which initiated the Twelve Years' Truce . In September 1609 Rubens was appointed as court painter by Albert VII, Archduke of Austria , and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain , sovereigns of the Habsburg Netherlands . He received special permission to base his studio in Antwerp instead of at their court in Brussels , and to also work for other clients. He remained close to

1188-479: A pregnancy in 1571. Rubens was imprisoned in Dillenburg Castle and under threat of execution for his transgression. The illegitimate daughter, Christina of Dietz, was born on 22 August 1571. Thanks to the repeated pleas of his wife and by paying a bail bond of 6,000 thalers , Jan Rubens was permitted to leave prison after two years. The conditions of his release were a ban on practising as a lawyer and

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1296-495: A prime example of Baroque religious art. Rubens used the production of prints and book title-pages, especially for his friend Balthasar Moretus , the owner of the large Plantin-Moretus publishing house , to extend his fame throughout Europe during this part of his career. In 1618, Rubens embarked upon a printmaking enterprise by soliciting an unusual triple privilege (an early form of copyright ) to protect his designs in France,

1404-536: A private teacher, Peter Paul first took up a position as a page to the countess Marguerite de Ligne-Arenberg, whose father-in-law had been the governor general of the Spanish Netherlands. The countess was the widow of Count Philippe de Lalaing and probably lived in Oudenaarde. Even though intellectually and temperamentally suited for a career as a courtier, Rubens had from a young age been attracted by

1512-597: A removable copper cover, also painted by the artist. His brother Philip was also at the time of his second residence in Rome as a scholar. The brothers lived together on Via della Croce near Piazza di Spagna. They had thus the opportunity to share their common interest in Classical art. Rubens's experiences in Italy continued to influence his work even after his return to Flanders. His stay in Italy had also allowed him to build

1620-559: A renewed study of Titian's paintings, copying numerous works including the Madrid Fall of Man (1628–29). During this stay, he befriended the court painter Diego Velázquez and the two planned to travel to Italy together the following year. Rubens, however, returned to Antwerp following the death of his mother and Velázquez made the journey without him. His stay in Antwerp was brief, and he soon travelled on to London where he remained until April 1630. An important work from this period

1728-512: A specific and static subject, as in portrait , still life , and landscape painting . The term is derived from the wider senses of the word historia in Latin and histoire in French, meaning "story" or "narrative", and essentially means "story painting". Most history paintings are not of scenes from history , especially paintings from before about 1850. In modern English, "historical painting"

1836-505: A traditional motif in European art for centuries. Rubens was quite fond of painting full-figured women, giving rise to terms like 'Rubensian' or 'Rubenesque' (sometimes 'Rubensesque'). His large-scale cycle representing Marie de' Medici focuses on several classic female archetypes like the virgin, consort, wife, widow, and diplomatic regent. The inclusion of this iconography in his female portraits, along with his art depicting noblewomen of

1944-462: Is a moment in a narrative. The genre includes depictions of moments in religious narratives, above all the Life of Christ , Middle eastern culture as well as narrative scenes from mythology , and also allegorical scenes. These groups were for long the most frequently painted; works such as Michelangelo 's Sistine Chapel ceiling are therefore history paintings, as are most very large paintings before

2052-407: Is above another who only produces fruit, flowers or seashells. He who paints living animals is more than those who only represent dead things without movement, and as man is the most perfect work of God on the earth, it is also certain that he who becomes an imitator of God in representing human figures, is much more excellent than all the others ... a painter who only does portraits still does not have

2160-655: Is generally not used in art history in speaking of medieval painting, although the Western tradition was developing in large altarpieces , fresco cycles, and other works, as well as miniatures in illuminated manuscripts . It comes to the fore in Italian Renaissance painting , where a series of increasingly ambitious works were produced, many still religious, but several, especially in Florence, which did actually feature near-contemporary historical scenes such as

2268-453: Is sometimes used to describe the painting of scenes from history in its narrower sense, especially for 19th-century art, excluding religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects, which are included in the broader term "history painting", and before the 19th century were the most common subjects for history paintings. History paintings almost always contain a number of figures, often a large number, and normally show some typical states on that

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2376-541: Is the Allegory of Peace and War (1629; National Gallery , London). It illustrates the artist's lively concern for peace, and was given to Charles I as a gift. While Rubens's international reputation with collectors and nobility abroad continued to grow during this decade, he and his workshop also continued to paint monumental paintings for local patrons in Antwerp. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary (1625–26) for

2484-425: Is the painting of scenes from secular history, whether specific episodes or generalized scenes. In the 19th century, historical painting in this sense became a distinct genre. In phrases such as "historical painting materials", "historical" means in use before about 1900, or some earlier date. History paintings were traditionally regarded as the highest form of Western painting, occupying the most prestigious place in

2592-793: The Battle of the Amazons (Bildergalerie, Potsdam-Sanssouci) show the influence of his master van Veen. This style was characterised by a pronounced Italianate mannerism constrained by the Antwerp workshop tradition and the Italian art theory of the Renaissance. In 1600 Rubens travelled to Italy with his first pupil Deodat del Monte. They stopped first in Venice , where he saw paintings by Titian , Veronese , and Tintoretto . The colouring and compositions of Veronese and Tintoretto had an immediate effect on Rubens' painting, and his later, mature style

2700-680: The Chiesa Nuova . The subject was St. Gregory the Great and important local saints adoring an icon of the Virgin and Child. The first version, a single canvas (now at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble), was immediately replaced by a second version on three slate panels that permits the actual miraculous holy image of the "Santa Maria in Vallicella" to be revealed on important feast days by

2808-513: The Guild of St. Luke as an independent master. As an independent master, he was allowed to take commissions and train apprentices. His first pupil was Deodat del Monte who would later accompany him on his trip to Italy. He seems to have remained an assistant in van Veen's after becoming and independent master. His works from this period, such as the Adam and Eve ( Rubenshuis , Antwerp, c. 1599) and

2916-607: The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg . In Vienna , there is a rival Hellenistic cameo, of lesser quality, which the Habsburgs also described as the "Gonzaga cameo", probably on assumption that it had not been stolen by the Swedes in 1648. This results in considerable confusion between the two. Set against the dark layer, their majestic white profiles, hers soft and feminine, his decisive and virile, are

3024-811: The Impressionists (except for Édouard Manet ) and the Symbolists , and according to one recent writer " Modernism was to a considerable extent built upon the rejection of History Painting... All other genres are deemed capable of entering, in one form or another, the 'pantheon' of modernity considered, but History Painting is excluded". Initially, "history painting" and "historical painting" were used interchangeably in English, as when Sir Joshua Reynolds in his fourth Discourse uses both indiscriminately to cover "history painting", while saying "...it ought to be called poetical, as in reality it is", reflecting

3132-537: The Low Countries to Rome to study the work of leading Italian artists of the period such as Michelangelo , Da Vinci, Raphael and Titian and had created upon their return home artworks that reflected their engagement with these Italian innovations. Rubens' apprenticeship with van Noort lasted about four years during which he improved his handling of figures and faces. He subsequently studied with another Romanist painter, Otto van Veen . Van Veen offered Rubens

3240-838: The Luxembourg Palace in Paris. The Marie de' Medici cycle (now in the Louvre) was installed in 1625, and although he began work on the second series it was never completed. Marie was exiled from France in 1630 by her son, Louis XIII , and died in 1642 in the same house in Cologne where Rubens had lived as a child. After the end of the Twelve Years' Truce in 1621, the Spanish Habsburg rulers entrusted Rubens with diplomatic missions. While in Paris in 1622 to discuss

3348-689: The Protestant Reformation . The ruler of the Low Countries - the Catholic Spanish king Philip II - reacted to the unrest by ordering the severe repression of the followers of the Reformation. In 1568, the Rubens family, with two boys and two girls (Jan Baptist (1562–1600), Blandina (1564–1606), Clara (1565–1580) and Hendrik (1567–1583)), fled to Cologne. As Calvinists, they feared persecution in their homeland during

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3456-895: The Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium ) and moved 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. 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

3564-671: 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. Rubens was an avid art collector and had one of the largest collections of art and books in Antwerp. He

3672-412: The hierarchy of genres , and considered the equivalent to the epic in literature. In his De Pictura of 1436, Leon Battista Alberti had argued that multi-figure history painting was the noblest form of art, as being the most difficult, which required mastery of all the others, because it was a visual form of history, and because it had the greatest potential to move the viewer. He placed emphasis on

3780-475: The "Intimate Romantic", and in French it was known as the "peinture de genre historique" or "peinture anecdotique" ("historical genre painting" or "anecdotal painting"). Church commissions for large group scenes from the Bible had greatly reduced, and historical painting became very significant. Especially in the early 19th century, much historical painting depicted specific moments from historical literature, with

3888-502: The 16-year-old Helena Fourment . Hélène inspired the voluptuous figures in many of his paintings from the 1630s, including The Feast of Venus (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), The Three Graces and The Judgement of Paris (both Prado, Madrid). In the latter painting, which was made for the Spanish court, the artist's young wife was recognised by viewers in the figure of Venus . In an intimate portrait of her, Helena Fourment in

3996-425: The 19th century. The term covers large paintings in oil on canvas or fresco produced between the Renaissance and the late 19th century, after which the term is generally not used even for the many works that still meet the basic definition. History painting may be used interchangeably with historical painting , and was especially so used before the 20th century. Where a distinction is made, "historical painting"

4104-627: The Archduchess Isabella until her death in 1633, and was called upon as a painter and also as an ambassador and diplomat. Rubens further cemented his ties to the city when, on 3 October 1609, he married Isabella Brant , the daughter of a leading Antwerp citizen and humanist, Jan Brant. In 1610, Rubens moved into a new house and studio that he designed. Now the Rubenshuis Museum, the Italian-influenced villa in

4212-479: The Baroque tradition of depicting women as soft-bodied, passive, and to the modern eye highly sexualised beings, his nudes emphasise the concepts of fertility, desire, physical beauty, temptation, and virtue. Skilfully rendered, these paintings of nude women are thought by feminists to have been created to sexually appeal to his largely male audience of patrons, although the female nude as an example of beauty has been

4320-545: The Cathedral of Antwerp is one prominent example. Rubens's last decade was spent in and around Antwerp. Major works for foreign patrons still occupied him, such as the ceiling paintings for the Banqueting House at Inigo Jones 's Palace of Whitehall , but he also explored more personal artistic directions. In 1630, four years after the death of his first wife Isabella, the 53-year-old painter married her niece,

4428-635: The Catholic Spanish Netherlands and the Protestant Dutch Republic . He also made several trips to the Dutch Republic as both an artist and a diplomat. Some members of the courts he visited did not treat him as an equal as they held that courtiers should not use their hands in any art or trade, but he was also received as an equal gentleman by many others. Rubens was raised by Philip IV of Spain to

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4536-901: The English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood continued to regard history painting as the ideal for their most ambitious works. Others such as Jan Matejko in Poland, Vasily Surikov in Russia, José Moreno Carbonero in Spain and Paul Delaroche in France became specialized painters of large historical subjects. The style troubadour (" troubadour style") was a somewhat derisive French term for earlier paintings of medieval and Renaissance scenes, which were often small and depicting moments of anecdote rather than drama; Ingres , Richard Parkes Bonington and Henri Fradelle painted such works. Sir Roy Strong calls this type of work

4644-566: The French state, but after the fall of Napoleon in 1815 the French governments were not regarded as suitable for heroic treatment and many artists retreated further into the past to find subjects, though in Britain depicting the victories of the Napoleonic Wars mostly occurred after they were over. Another path was to choose contemporary subjects that were oppositional to government either at home and abroad, and many of what were arguably

4752-530: The French term peinture historique , one equivalent of "history painting". The terms began to separate in the 19th century, with "historical painting" becoming a sub-group of "history painting" restricted to subjects taken from history in its normal sense. In 1853 John Ruskin asked his audience: "What do you at present mean by historical painting? Now-a-days it means the endeavour, by the power of imagination, to portray some historical event of past days." So for example Harold Wethey 's three-volume catalogue of

4860-415: The Italian masters. The Hellenistic sculpture Laocoön and His Sons was especially influential on him, as was the art of Michelangelo , Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci . Rubens came in Rome also under the spell of the recent, highly naturalistic paintings by Caravaggio . He later made a copy of Caravaggio's Entombment of Christ and recommended his patron, the Duke of Mantua, to buy The Death of

4968-485: The Latin school of Rombout Verdonck in Antwerp, where they studied Latin and classical literature. Philip later became a prominent antiquarian , librarian and philologist but died young. In 1590, the brothers had to interrupt their schooling and go to work, in order to contribute financially to their sister Blandina's dowry. While his brother Philip would continue with his humanistic and scholarly education while working as

5076-479: The Marie de' Medici cycle, Rubens engaged in clandestine information gathering activities, which at the time was an important task of diplomats. He relied on his friendship with Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc to get information on political developments in France. Between 1627 and 1630, Rubens was very active as a diplomat. He travelled between the courts of Spain and England in an attempt to bring about peace between

5184-492: The Medusa (1818–1819) was a sensation, appearing to update the history painting for the 19th century, and showing anonymous figures famous only for being victims of what was then a famous and controversial disaster at sea. Conveniently their clothes had been worn away to classical-seeming rags by the point the painting depicts. At the same time the demand for traditional large religious history paintings very largely fell away. In

5292-683: The Southern Netherlands at the time sided with the Reformation and Jan Rubens also converted to Calvinism . In 1566 the Low Countries were the victim of the iconoclasic fury, referred to in Dutch as the Beeldenstorm ( pronounced [ˈbeːldə(n)ˌstɔr(ə)m] ) during which Catholic art and many forms of church fittings and decoration were destroyed in unofficial or mob actions by Calvinist Protestant crowds as part of

5400-494: The Southern Netherlands, and United Provinces. He enlisted Lucas Vorsterman to engrave a number of his notable religious and mythological paintings, to which Rubens appended personal and professional dedications to noteworthy individuals in the Southern Netherlands, United Provinces, England , France , and Spain . With the exception of a few etchings , Rubens left the printmaking to specialists, who included Lucas Vorsterman, Paulus Pontius and Willem Panneels . He recruited

5508-470: The Virgin ( Louvre ). He remained a strong supporter of Caravaggio's art as shown by his important role in the acquisition of The Madonna of the Rosary ( Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna ) for the St. Paul's Church in Antwerp after he had returned home. During this first stay in Rome, Rubens completed his first altarpiece commission, St. Helena with the True Cross for the Roman church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme . Rubens travelled to Spain on

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5616-416: The Younger , Pieter Soutman , David Teniers the Elder , Frans Wouters , Jan Thomas van Ieperen , Theodoor van Thulden and Victor Wolfvoet (II) . He also often sub-contracted elements such as animals, landscapes or still-lifes in large compositions to specialists such as animal painters Frans Snyders and Paul de Vos , or other artists such as Jacob Jordaens . One of his most frequent collaborators

5724-554: The ability to depict the interactions between the figures by gesture and expression. This view remained general until the 19th century, when artistic movements began to struggle against the establishment institutions of academic art , which continued to adhere to it. At the same time, there was from the latter part of the 18th century an increased interest in depicting in the form of history painting moments of drama from recent or contemporary history, which had long largely been confined to battle-scenes and scenes of formal surrenders and

5832-409: The battle weary. Paintings from Rubens's workshop can be divided into three categories: those he painted by himself, those he painted in part (mainly hands and faces), and copies supervised from his drawings or oil sketches . He had, as was usual at the time, a large workshop with many apprentices and students. It has not always been possible to identify who were Rubens's pupils and assistants since as

5940-399: The best painters above all on their production of large works of history painting (though in fact the only modern (post-classical) work described in De Pictura is Giotto 's huge Navicella in mosaic). Artists continued for centuries to strive to make their reputation by producing such works, often neglecting genres to which their talents were better suited. There was some objection to

6048-407: The best-received. From 1760 onwards, the Society of Artists of Great Britain , the first body to organize regular exhibitions in London, awarded two generous prizes each year to paintings of subjects from British history. The unheroic nature of modern dress was regarded as a serious difficulty. When, in 1770, Benjamin West proposed to paint The Death of General Wolfe in contemporary dress, he

6156-404: The cameo resurfaced in the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden . There is little record of its subsequent history. It is assumed that the Queen took it with her to Italy, bequeathing it to her favourite, Cardinal Decio Azzolini . It was subsequently acquired, with the rest of Christina's art collection, by Livio Odescalchi , Duke of Bracciano and nephew of Innocent XI . In 1794, the cameo

6264-446: The centre of Antwerp accommodated his workshop, where he and his apprentices made most of the paintings, and his personal art collection and library, both among the most extensive in Antwerp. During this time he built up a studio with numerous students and assistants. His most famous pupil was the young Anthony van Dyck , who soon became the leading Flemish portraitist and collaborated frequently with Rubens. He also often collaborated with

6372-1153: The classic statement of the theory for the 18th century: Celui qui fait parfaitement des païsages est au-dessus d'un autre qui ne fait que des fruits, des fleurs ou des coquilles. Celui qui peint des animaux vivants est plus estimable que ceux qui ne représentent que des choses mortes & sans mouvement; & comme la figure de l'homme est le plus parfait ouvrage de Dieu sur la Terre, il est certain aussi que celui qui se rend l'imitateur de Dieu en peignant des figures humaines, est beaucoup plus excellent que tous les autres ... un Peintre qui ne fait que des portraits, n'a pas encore cette haute perfection de l'Art, & ne peut prétendre à l'honneur que reçoivent les plus sçavans. Il faut pour cela passer d'une seule figure à la représentation de plusieurs ensemble; il faut traiter l'histoire & la fable; il faut représenter de grandes actions comme les historiens, ou des sujets agréables comme les Poëtes; & montant encore plus haut, il faut par des compositions allégoriques, sçavoir couvrir sous le voile de la fable les vertus des grands hommes, & les mystères les plus relevez. He who produces perfect landscapes

6480-445: The coming centuries about 80 descendants from the Rubens family were interred in the chapel. At the request of canon van Parijs, Rubens's epitaph, written in Latin by his friend Gaspar Gevartius , was chiselled on the chapel floor. In the tradition of the Renaissance, Rubens is compared in the epitaph to Apelles , the most famous painter of Greek Antiquity. His biblical and mythological nudes are especially well-known. Painted in

6588-575: The day, serve to elevate his female portrait sitters to the status and importance of his male portrait sitters. Rubens's depiction of males is equally stylised, replete with meaning, and quite the opposite of his female subjects. His male nudes represent highly athletic and large mythical or biblical men. Unlike his female nudes, most of his male nudes are depicted partially nude, with sashes, armour, or shadows shielding them from being completely unclothed. These men are twisting, reaching, bending, and grasping: all of which portrays his male subjects engaged in

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6696-431: The embodiment of the authority that will bring prosperity to their subjects. Diana Scarisbrick The cameo shows the profiles of a man and a woman which conceivably possess family likeness. This capita jugata type of portrait, showing two superimposed profiles, is known from the coins issued by Ptolemy II Philadelphus in Hellenistic Egypt . Such portraits show Ptolemy with his sister and wife, Arsinoe II . Ptolemy

6804-399: The figures of the Virgin and saints. In the upper niche of the retable is a marble statue depicting the Virgin as the Mater Dolorosa whose heart is pierced by a sword, which was likely sculpted by Lucas Faydherbe , a pupil of Rubens. The remains of Rubens's second wife Helena Fourment and two of her children (one of whom was fathered by Rubens) were later also laid to rest in the chapel. Over

6912-510: The first of many during his career that combined art and diplomacy. He returned to Italy in 1604, where he remained for the next four years, first in Mantua and then in Genoa . In Genoa, Rubens painted numerous portraits, such as the Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), and the portrait of Maria di Antonio Serra Pallavicini, in a style that influenced later paintings by Anthony van Dyck , Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough . He made drawings of

7020-418: The genre. In the Raphael Rooms in the Vatican Palace , allegories and historical scenes are mixed together, and the Raphael Cartoons show scenes from the Gospels, all in the Grand Manner that from the High Renaissance became associated with, and often expected in, history painting. In the Late Renaissance and Baroque the painting of actual history tended to degenerate into panoramic battle-scenes with

7128-477: The harsh rule of the Duke of Alba , who as the Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands was responsible for implementing the harsh repression. Jan Rubens became in 1570 the legal adviser of Anna of Saxony , the second wife of William I of Orange who at the time lived in Cologne. She later moved to Siegen about 90 kilometres from Cologne. Jan Rubens would visit her there while his family remained in Cologne. He had an affair with Anna of Saxony, which resulted in

7236-423: The highest perfection of his art, and cannot expect the honour due to the most skilled. For that he must pass from representing a single figure to several together; history and myth must be depicted; great events must be represented as by historians, or like the poets, subjects that will please, and climbing still higher, he must have the skill to cover under the veil of myth the virtues of great men in allegories, and

7344-410: The ideal of the 'pictor doctus' (learned painter), who understands that painting requires not only practice, but also on knowledge of art theory Classical art and literature and the masters of the Italian Renaissance. He also introduced Rubens to the 'code of conduct' which court painters needed to respect to become successful. Rubens completed his apprenticeship with van Veen in 1598, the year he entered

7452-418: The intellectual and artistic stimulation that suited his temperament. Van Veen had spent five years in Italy and was an accomplished portraitist and had a broad Humanist education. He knew Spanish royalty and had received portrait commissions as a court painter to Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, the sovereigns of the Habsburg Netherlands . Van Veen instilled in Rubens

7560-495: The last great generation of history paintings were protests at contemporary episodes of repression or outrages at home or abroad: Goya 's The Third of May 1808 (1814), Théodore Géricault 's The Raft of the Medusa (1818–19), Eugène Delacroix 's The Massacre at Chios (1824) and Liberty Leading the People (1830). These were heroic, but showed heroic suffering by ordinary civilians. Romantic artists such as Géricault and Delacroix, and those from other movements such as

7668-399: The like. Scenes from ancient history had been popular in the early Renaissance , and once again became common in the Baroque and Rococo periods, and still more so with the rise of Neoclassicism . In some 19th or 20th century contexts, the term may refer specifically to paintings of scenes from secular history, rather than those from religious narratives, literature or mythology. The term

7776-507: The lives of the great, or of scenes centred on unnamed figures involved in historical events, as in the Troubadour style . At the same time scenes of ordinary life with moral, political or satirical content became often the main vehicle for expressive interplay between figures in painting, whether given a modern or historical setting. By the later 19th century, history painting was often explicitly rejected by avant-garde movements such as

7884-500: The main cities of Italy to further his studies. He was awarded the degree of doctor of ecclesiastical and civil law by the Sapienza University in Rome. Upon his return to Antwerp he became a lawyer and held the office of alderman in Antwerp from 1562 to 1568. Jan Rubens married Maria Pypelinckx, who came from a prominent family originally from Kuringen , near Hasselt . A large portion of the nobility and bourgeoisie in

7992-520: The many new palaces that were going up in Genoa. These were later engraved and published in 1622 as Palazzi di Genova . From 1606 to 1608, he was mostly in Rome when he received, with the assistance of Cardinal Jacopo Serra (the brother of Maria Pallavicini), his most important commission to date for the High Altar of the city's most fashionable new church, Santa Maria in Vallicella also known as

8100-453: The many specialists active in the city, including the animal painter Frans Snyders , who contributed the eagle to Prometheus Bound ( c.  1611–12 , completed by 1618), and his good friend the flower-painter Jan Brueghel the Elder . Rubens built another house to the north of Antwerp in the polder village of Doel , "Hooghuis" (1613/1643), perhaps as an investment. The "High House"

8208-467: The mid-nineteenth century there arose a style known as historicism , which marked a formal imitation of historical styles and/or artists. Another development in the nineteenth century was the treatment of historical subjects, often on a large scale, with the values of genre painting , the depiction of scenes of everyday life, and anecdote . Grand depictions of events of great public importance were supplemented with scenes depicting more personal incidents in

8316-538: The more personal nature of many of his later works. He also drew upon the Netherlandish traditions of Pieter Bruegel the Elder for inspiration in later works like Feasting and dancing peasants (c. 1630; Louvre, Paris). Rubens died from heart failure as a result of his chronic gout on 30 May 1640. He was interred in the Saint James' Church in Antwerp. A burial chapel for the artist and his family

8424-523: The mysteries they reveal". By the late 18th century, with both religious and mytholological painting in decline, there was an increased demand for paintings of scenes from history, including contemporary history. This was in part driven by the changing audience for ambitious paintings, which now increasingly made their reputation in public exhibitions rather than by impressing the owners of and visitors to palaces and public buildings. Classical history remained popular, but scenes from national histories were often

8532-466: The nobility in 1624 and knighted by Charles I of England in 1630. Philip IV confirmed Rubens's status as a knight a few months later. Rubens was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Cambridge University in 1629. Rubens was in Madrid for eight months in 1628–1629. In addition to diplomatic negotiations, he executed several important works for Philip IV and private patrons. He also began

8640-768: The novels of Sir Walter Scott a particular favourite, in France and other European countries as much as Great Britain. By the middle of the century medieval scenes were expected to be very carefully researched, using the work of historians of costume, architecture and all elements of decor that were becoming available. An example of this is the extensive research of Byzantine architecture, clothing, and decoration made in Parisian museums and libraries by Moreno Carbonero for his masterwork The Entry of Roger de Flor in Constantinople . The provision of examples and expertise for artists, as well as revivalist industrial designers,

8748-454: The obligation to take up residence in Siegen where his movements would be supervised. This put the rest of the family, who had joined Jan in Siegen, in financial difficulty. During this period two sons were born: Philip in 1574, followed in 1577 by Peter Paul who, although likely born in Siegen, was reportedly baptised in Cologne. Anna of Saxony died in 1577. The travel ban imposed on Jan Rubens

8856-433: The paintings of Titian (Phaidon, 1969–75) is divided between "Religious Paintings", "Portraits", and "Mythological and Historical Paintings", though both volumes I and III cover what is included in the term "History Paintings". This distinction is useful but is by no means generally observed, and the terms are still often used in a confusing manner. Because of the potential for confusion modern academic writing tends to avoid

8964-553: The peninsula—a wish that never materialised. Rubens was a polyglot who corresponded not only in Italian and Dutch, but also in French, Spanish and Latin. His mother tongue and most commonly used idiom remained, however, the dialect of Brabant. This is demonstrated in that he wrote his most spontaneous letters in that dialect and also used it for the notes on his drawings and designs. Upon hearing of his mother's illness in 1608, Rubens planned his departure from Italy for Antwerp, but she died before he arrived home. His return coincided with

9072-470: The phrase "historical painting", talking instead of "historical subject matter" in history painting, but where the phrase is still used in contemporary scholarship it will normally mean the painting of subjects from history, very often in the 19th century. "Historical painting" may also be used, especially in discussion of painting techniques in conservation studies, to mean "old", as opposed to modern or recent painting. In 19th-century British writing on art

9180-422: The prevailing historical narrative of national history in the popular mind. In France, L'art Pompier ("Fireman art") was a derisory term for official academic historical painting, and in a final phase, "History painting of a debased sort, scenes of brutality and terror, purporting to illustrate episodes from Roman and Moorish history, were Salon sensations. On the overcrowded walls of the exhibition galleries,

9288-536: The set of three huge canvases on The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello , the abortive Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo and the Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci , neither of which were completed. Scenes from ancient history and mythology were also popular. Writers such as Alberti and the following century Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists , followed public and artistic opinion in judging

9396-499: The sharply defined quality of the "neoclassical" workmanship indicates a later date than is commonly recognized. He identifies the figures as Tiberius and Livia represented "in very generalized form so that they would simultaneously evoke the imagery of a Ptolemaic cameo and, through it, the imagery of Alexander". Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( / ˈ r uː b ən z / ROO -bənz ; Dutch: [ˈpeːtər pʌul ˈrybəns] ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640)

9504-415: The term, as many writers preferred terms such as "poetic painting" ( poesia ), or wanted to make a distinction between the "true" istoria , covering history including biblical and religious scenes, and the fabula , covering pagan myth, allegory, and scenes from fiction, which could not be regarded as true. The large works of Raphael were long considered, with those of Michelangelo, as the finest models for

9612-455: The terms " subject painting " or "anecdotic" painting were often used for works in a line of development going back to William Hogarth of monoscenic depictions of crucial moments in an implied narrative with unidentified characters, such as William Holman Hunt 's 1853 painting The Awakening Conscience or Augustus Egg 's Past and Present , a set of three paintings, updating sets by Hogarth such as Marriage à-la-mode . History painting

9720-468: The victorious monarch or general perched on a horse accompanied with his retinue, or formal scenes of ceremonies, although some artists managed to make a masterpiece from such unpromising material, as Velázquez did with his The Surrender of Breda . An influential formulation of the hierarchy of genres, confirming the history painting at the top, was made in 1667 by André Félibien , a historiographer, architect and theoretician of French classicism became

9828-500: The woodblock prints of Hans Holbein the Younger and Tobias Stimmer , which he had diligently copied, along with Marcantonio Raimondi 's engravings after Raphael . Acting on his ambition to pursue a career as an artist, he began an apprenticeship with the landscape painter Tobias Verhaecht in 1592. Verhaecht was married to Suzanna van Mockenborch, who was a granddaughter of Peter Paul Rubens' stepfather Jan de Landmetere and also

9936-446: Was Jan Brueghel the Elder . Lost works by Rubens include: [REDACTED] Media related to Peter Paul Rubens at Wikimedia Commons History painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story , most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible stories , opposed to

10044-542: Was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasised movement, colour, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation . Rubens

10152-580: 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 the Holy Roman Empire (modern-day Germany ), to parents who were refugees from Antwerp in the Duchy of Brabant in

10260-424: Was also an art dealer and is known to have sold important art objects to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham . 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 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

10368-652: Was born in Siegen , Nassau to Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks . His father's family were long-time residents of Antwerp tracing their lineage there back to 1350. Records show that a certain Arnold Rubens bought 'a house with court' in the Gasthuisstraat in Antwerp in 1396. The Rubens family belonged to the well-to-do bourgeois class and its members were known to operate grocery shops and pharmacies. Jan Rubens decided to study law and lived from 1556 to 1562 in

10476-551: Was built in the church. Construction on the chapel started in 1642 and was completed in 1650 when Cornelis van Mildert (the son of Rubens's friend, the sculptor Johannes van Mildert ) delivered the altarstone. The chapel is a marble altar portico with two columns framing the altarpiece of the Virgin and child with saints painted by Rubens himself. The painting expresses the basic tenets of the Counter Reformation through

10584-758: Was built next to the village church. Altarpieces such as The Raising of the Cross (1610) and The Descent from the Cross (1611–1614) for the Cathedral of Our Lady were particularly important in establishing Rubens as Flanders' leading painter shortly after his return. The Raising of the Cross , for example, demonstrates the artist's synthesis of Tintoretto's Crucifixion for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, Michelangelo 's dynamic figures, and Rubens's own personal style. This painting has been held as

10692-547: Was buried in Cologne's St Peter's Church , a Catholic church. The widow Maria Pypelinckx returned with the rest of the family (i.e. Blandina, Philip and Peter Paul) to Antwerp in 1590, where they moved into a house on the Kloosterstraat. Until his death in 1587, father Jan had been intensively involved in his sons' education. Peter Paul and his older brother Philip received a humanist education in Cologne which they continued after their move to Antwerp. They studied at

10800-400: Was firmly instructed to use classical costume by many people. He ignored these comments and showed the scene in modern dress. Although George III refused to purchase the work, West succeeded both in overcoming his critics' objections and inaugurating a more historically accurate style in such paintings. Other artists depicted scenes, regardless of when they occurred, in classical dress and for

10908-659: Was lifted in 1578 on condition that he not settle in the Prince of Orange's possessions nor in the hereditary dominions of the Low Countries and maintain the bail bond of 6,000 thalers as security. He was allowed to leave his place of exile in Siegen and to move the Rubens family to Cologne. While in Siegen, the family had of necessity belonged to the Lutheran Church in Cologne; the family now reconverted to Catholicism. The eldest son, Jan Baptist, who may also have been an artist, left for Italy in 1586. Jan Rubens died in 1587 and

11016-593: Was one of the motivations for the establishment of museums like the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. New techniques of printmaking such as the chromolithograph made good quality reproductions both relatively cheap and very widely accessible, and also hugely profitable for artist and publisher, as the sales were so large. Historical painting often had a close relationship with Nationalism , and painters like Matejko in Poland could play an important role in fixing

11124-596: Was part of Pius VI 's collection in Vatican . The invading French took it with them to Paris where it entered the collection of Napoleon and Empress Joséphine . After Napoleon's downfall, Alexander I of Russia paid a visit to the Château de Malmaison and offered Joséphine every assistance in his power. As a sign of gratitude she presented the cameo to the Tsar. Since then, the so-called Malmaison cameo has been kept in

11232-470: Was profoundly influenced by Titian. His visit to Venice coincided with that of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga of Mantua . It is possible that he was hired by the Duke during his stay in Venice or that Otto van Veen, who was court painter to Archdukes Albert and Isabella, joint governors of Flanders, had introduced Rubens to the Duke during the latter's visit to the Brussels court. The small duchy of Mantua

11340-571: Was registered as his pupil while Willem Panneels and Justus van Egmont were registered in the Guild's records as Rubens's assistants. Anthony van Dyck worked in Rubens's workshop after training with Hendrick van Balen in Antwerp. Other artists linked to the Rubens's workshop as pupils, assistants or collaborators are Abraham van Diepenbeeck , Lucas Faydherbe , Lucas Franchoys the Younger , Nicolaas van der Horst , Frans Luycx , Peter van Mol , Deodat del Monte , Cornelis Schut , Erasmus Quellinus

11448-402: Was renowned as an art centre and the Duke as an avid art collector with a rich collection of Italian masters. Rubens mainly painted portraits of the Duke's family and also copied the famous Renaissance paintings in the Duke's collection. With financial support from the Duke, Rubens travelled to Rome by way of Florence in 1601. There, he studied classical Greek and Roman art and copied works of

11556-464: Was the dominant form of academic painting in the various national academies in the 18th century, and for most of the 19th, and increasingly historical subjects dominated. During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods the heroic treatment of contemporary history in a frankly propagandistic fashion by Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros , Jacques-Louis David , Carle Vernet and others was supported by

11664-558: Was the first Hellenistic ruler to marry his sister; and it was at his court that the image of the twin deities, theoi adelphoi , gained currency. To shore up the identification, it has been argued that the woman's head on the cameo is covered with a sort of bridal veil. J. J. Pollitt of Yale University believes that it is the Vienna cameo that represents Ptolemy and Arsinoe. As for the Saint Petersburg cameo, Pollitt argues that

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