Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)Though Peter Paul Rubens was an international diplomat, savvy businessman, devout Catholic, fluent in six languages, an intellectual who counted Europe's finest scholars among his friends, Peter Paul Rubens was always first a painter. Few artists have been capable of transforming such a vast variety of influences into a style utterly new and original. After study with local Antwerp painters, Rubens began finding his style in Italy, copying works from antiquity, Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo and Titian, and contemporaries like Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio. Returning to Antwerp, Rubens became court painter to the Spanish Viceroys, eventually receiving commissions from across Europe and England. Rubens's impact was immediate, international, and long lasting. The works of Thomas Gainsborough and Eugène Delacroix, among others, testify to his posthumous influence.
The Death of Seneca: This beautiful work of the Dutch master Rubens was completed in about 1615. It depicts the scene of Seneca’s suicide in his bath at the orders of the emperor Nero in A. D. 65. Seneca was the son of a philosopher who had exerted considerable influence on the young emperor. This work is currently displayed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
 The Abduction of Ganymede: This piece is a depiction of a scene from Greek mythology when the Lord of Heaven takes for himself the most beautiful boy in the world. Zeus has adopted the form of an eagle.  Eros and Zeus: This work depicts a scene from the Greek religion in which Love supplicates the king of Heaven for a favor.
 Anatomical Studies: In a technique known by the French term écorché,three figures appear as if without skin. Drawn in luminous light brown ink, the principal figure demonstrates the muscular structure of the back, buttocks, and legs. Fascinated with the structure of the human body, Peter Paul Rubens then drew two subsidiary views of the same powerful form and a detail of the left arm from a different angle.
|
