Rubens: A Portrait

by Paul Oppenheimer

Overview

The most popular painter of his day, yet an artist whose reputation has fluctuated among art scholars and critics of the succeeding centuries, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) is chiefly remembered today for his large canvases of sensual gardens, religious scenes, and voluptuous "Rubenesque" women. In Oppenheimer's account of his life, Rubens emerges not only as a talented painter but also as an intellectual with a unique conception of beauty that proved very influential and ahead of his time. Oppenheimer explores Rubens' ideas as he tells the story of his life, which included years as a diplomat, and illuminates his response to the humanism of the Renaissance in which he lived.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461661245
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	05/21/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	301
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Paul Oppenheimer , professor of Comparative Medieval Literature and English at the City College of the City University of New York and author of Infinite Desire: A Guide to Modern Guilt, lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	List of Illustrations	xi
	Introduction	1
I.	Rubens and the Question of Beauty
1.	The True Opposites of Evil and the Demonic: Prelude	9
2.	The Artist Meets the Prince	10
3.	The Landscape of the Portrait	15
4.	Publishers, the Word and Censorship	21
5.	Musicians and the Flemish Renaissance	26
6.	Painters and the Discovery of Natural Lighting	28
7.	Light and Mannerism	31
8.	Massys, Mor, Bruegel and the New Tradition	33
9.	Poetry and Painting	37
10.	History and Painting	39
11.	Sizes and Theatres	41
12.	Political Festivals, Masques and the Bliss of Illusion	45
13.	Two Weddings and the Signs of Revolution	48
14.	Family History	53
15.	The Menace of the Reformation	58
16.	The Profanation of Art	62
17.	Philip II and the Revolt in the Netherlands	65
18.	The Flight to Germany	69
19.	Refuge in Cologne	73
20.	Disappearance and Compassion	77
21.	Release and the Tragedy of Anna von Saxon	79
22.	Birth and the Months at Siegen	83
23.	Beginnings in Cologne	86
24.	'The Common Calamity'	91
25.	The Ongoing Violence	93
26.	The Slaughter at Mons and Mechelen	94
27.	The Spanish Mutiny	96
28.	The Role of Don Juan	98
29.	The Spanish Fury	100
30.	Don Juan's Misjudgements	102
31.	Artists and the War	104
32.	The Death of Don Juan	107
33.	Alexander of Parma and the Great Betrayal	109
34.	The Theatrical Soldier	110
35.	Coups de grace	111
36.	The Family Returns to Antwerp	114
37.	Life as a Court Page	118
38.	The Apprentice Years	120
39.	The First Three Masterpieces	124
II.	The Idea of Absolute Beauty
40.	Journey to Venice	131
41.	The 'Heavenly Shew upon the Water'	133
42.	The City of Virgil, Mantegna and Giulio Romano	136
43.	The Wedding in Florence	140
44.	Copying as Innovation	141
45.	From Mantua to Rome	147
46.	The Roman Experience	150
47.	The New Aesthetic	155
48.	The New Sensuality	158
49.	The First Roman Commission	159
50.	Excursions through Italy	166
51.	Off to Spain	169
52.	Spies and a Sea Voyage	173
53.	Disaster and Ghost-Painting	176
54.	The 'Poison Reason Drinks'	181
55.	The Revolutionary Portrait	186
56.	Mantua, Friendships and Galileo	190
57.	Stock-Taking in his late Twenties	192
58.	Rubens and the History of Ideas	195
59.	The Second Stay in Rome	197
60.	Getting Rid of 'the Smell of the Stone'	202
61.	Early Fame and a Journey to Genoa	206
62.	Rejection and a Summons Home	208
III.	Beauty Human and Superhuman
63.	Grief and New Beginnings	213
64.	'The Hand of the Artist'	219
65.	The Creation of Aliveness	222
66.	The Apprehension of Beauty	227
67.	The Pacts for Beauty	230
68.	Studio Life	233
69.	The 'Lover of Antiquities'	238
70.	Jealousy, War and the Engraving Business	243
IV.	Kings, Queens, Ministers and the Angelic
71.	Large Works and the Atmosphere of Creation	253
72.	The Medici Invitation	257
73.	'The Theme Is so Vast and so Magnificent'	259
74.	Science and Art Amid the Ruins	263
75.	The Triumph of Political Theatre	265
76.	The English Experiment	273
77.	The Artist Meets the King	282
78.	Securing the Pact for Peace	285
79.	A Previous Engagement	290
80.	A Marriage of Politics and Art	294
81.	The Fantasy of Peace and War	296
V.	Rubens and Sensuality
82.	Toward a New Optics	301
83.	Mission Cancelled and a Second Marriage	303
84.	New Life, New Beauty	306
85.	Promoting War	310
86.	Beauty, Evil and the Whitehall Pictures	313
87.	Festivals of Love	321
88.	Ferdinand's Joyous Entry	326
89.	The Second Golden Apple	329
90.	Living out of Town	331
91.	'The Unfortunate Europe'	336
92.	Painting Beauty Bare	339
93.	The Chance to Do 'Something Extraordinary'	343
VI.	Apotheosis: Beauty and Physics
	Beauty and Physics	351
	Notes	355
	Select Bibliography	389
	Index	399

Editorial Reviews

Countering the current unfashionable status of this Flemish Renaissance artist (1577-1640), Oppenheimer (comparative medieval literature, English, and history of science, City U. of New York) provides sociopolitical context in arguing that Rubens' sensual style and "aesthetics of motion" presaged modern sensibilities. The book includes color plates of notable paintings including , and translations of family letters. This is a reprint of a 1999 work published by Duckworth Publishers (London, England). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

The author's analyses of Ruben's paintings are fresh and passionate, sometimes quirky.
— Mary Bringle

American Book Review

Oppenheimer has written a marvellous [sic] study on Rubens which pulls together a huge canvas setting the artist within his time, and it is like nothing I have read before.

(U. K.) Birmingham Post

The author's analyses of Ruben's paintings are fresh and passionate, sometimes quirky.

American Book Review - Mary Bringle