Rubens

Subject: Rubens Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:35 am

Rubens

Self Portrait
Peter Paul Rubens
b. June 28, 1577, d. May 30, 1640

Peter Paul Rubens was in fact a Roman Catholic, but his name showed up on a list of Calvinists. This led to the Rubens family being exiled to Germany. Ruben's upbringing as a child reflected the stressed religious conflict of his age. As a child his parents cut off his education so he could focus on his artistic talents.
After his father's death, in 1587, his family moved back to Antwerp, where his family was originally from. There, Peter Paul received early training as a courtier (renaissance man) and as an artist. By the age of 21, he accomplished being a master painter who's artistic and religious view brought him to Italy to complete his education.
In 1600, Peter Paul traveled to Venice to finish his education . While in school, he became enthrawled with the bright colors and magical forms of Titian. His great effects are apparent including the famous 21 painting cycle. Rubens produced "over 2,000 works" in his very own studio in Italy. His most well-known assistants were Anthony Van Dyck and Frans Snyders.
During the final ten years of his life, Rubens produced many portraits, scenes, and landscapes. Although he had recurring arthritis he was still a creative, well established artist during his last years. Rubens died in 1640, when gout reached his painting arm and then spread to his heart.

Subject: Re: Rubens Fri Sep 29, 2006 11:00 am

Rubens

Ruben Self Portrait
Rubens's phenomenal productivity was interrupted from time to time by diplomatic duties given him by his royal patrons, Archduke Ferdinand and Archduchess Isabella, for whom he conducted (1625) negotiations aimed at ending the war between the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic and helped conclude (1629-30) a peace treaty between England and Spain. Charles I of England was so impressed with Rubens's efforts that he knighted the Flemish painter and commissioned his only surviving ceiling painting, The Allegory of War and Peace (1629; Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace, London)

By the age of 21 he was a master painter whose aesthetic and religious outlook led him to look to Italy as the place to complete his education. Upon arriving (1600) in Venice, he fell under the spell of the radiant color and majestic forms of Titian, whose work had a formative influence on Rubens's mature style. During Rubens's 8 years (1600-1608) as court painter to the duke of Mantua, he assimilated the lessons of the other Italian Renaissance masters and made (1603) a journey to Spain that had a profound impact on the development of Spanish baroque art. He also spent a considerable amount of time in Rome, where he painted altarpieces for the churches of Santa Croce di Gerusalemme (1602; now in Hopital du Petit-Paris, Grasse, France) and the Chiesa Nuova (1607; now in Musee de Peinture et Sculpture, Grenoble, France), his first widely acknowledged masterpieces. His reputation established, Rubens returned (1608) to Antwerp following the death of his mother and quickly became the dominant artistic figure in the Spanish Netherlands