This handsomely-produced book originated as a companion to an exhibition mounted at the J Paul Getty Museum, which in addition to its own impressive resources succeeded in acquiring an outstanding number of relevant paintings and drawings from the USA and elsewhere. It is, however, much more than an exhibition catalogue, for it addresses a major theme in the pictorial output – drawings and paintings – of the greatest Flemish artist of the 17th century. As such it has independent and lasting value.
Against the background of post-Renaissance humanism Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1557-1640), who was amply honoured by the two greatest collectors of the century, Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of Great Britain, has long been recognised as the most learned of artists to be perennially fascinated and influenced by the literary and material legacy of Antiquity. A youthful mastery of Latin and Greek at the classical school run by Rumoldus Verdonck in Antwerp, the city of his family’s adoption – where he was raised a Catholic – enabled him to gain access to the civilisation of Ancient Rome, itself the heir to the achievements of Ancient Greece.
The Getty volume explores Rubens’s intimate relation to the classical world in a series of five essays, each one of which is devoted to an important aspect of his response to Antiquity. After training with several Flemish masters he was admitted to the Guild of St Luke in 1598; he left for Italy in 1600. After visiting Venice, he entered the service of Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, owner of one of Italy’s richest art collections, including ancient sculptures. Fluent in Italian, he went to the Eternal City, which had once stood at the very centre of the Roman Empire, where he embarked on an intensive study of Roman and Hellenistic antiquities: sculptures, sarcophagi reliefs, carved gems, and coins. Between 1601-2 and 1606-8 he made innumerable drawings in chalk and ink, which he kept close to him to serve as an aide-mémoire in his compositions.
In the opening essay, “Visualising an Epic Past”, Anne T Woollett introduces us to the range of Rubens’s sources. She demonstrates his transformative power as a painter to endow ancient prototypes with emotion, sensuality and drama, for he had an active, creative and dynamic approach to Antiquity. This was as true of his handling of sacred and devotional images in accordance with the artistic canons set by the Catholic Reformation as it was of his profane and mythological subjects: “Rubens’s refashioning of the Antique also defined Flemish Baroque visual culture.” In her closing essay, “Towards a Living Past”, Woollett traces links between his interesting Roman attire and his narrative paintings and his designs for the 1635 Pompa Introitus of the Cardinal-Infante – Ferdinand of Austria, the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands – into Antwerp.
Adriano Aymonino and Eloisa Dodero examine “Rubens and the Statues of Rome”, particularly during his second stay in the city. His passion impelled him to draw at first hand such famous sculptural masterpieces as the Laocoön, the Spinario and the so-called Dying Seneca. When he left Rome for Antwerp in 1608 he carried his drawings and notes with him, and also a bust of Seneca that he had acquired; he evinced his enduring love of Romanità by building the Italianate Rubenshuis. His figure paintings continued to display his mastery of ancient sculptural anatomy and musculature.
Davide Gasparotto’s investigation of “Rubens’s Circle and the Cult of the Antique” stresses his gift for friendship and the significance of his international contacts. It draws on his vast correspondence, including his epistolary discussions with the Provençal antiquary Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. Gasparotto shows the importance of Rubens’s brother and co-resident in Rome, Philip, a student of the neo-Stoic philosopher Justus Lipsius. Taken with Lipsius’s advocacy of adorning libraries with the likenesses of the authors they contain, Rubens began introducing busts into portraits that complemented the sitter’s interests.
Jeffrey Spier’s “Rubens and the Study of Ancient Gems” deals with his preoccupation with the imagery of coins, carved gems and cameos. His 1626 sale of much of his collection to the first Duke of Buckingham did not halt his acquisitions or lessen his enthusiasm for gems; while he drew and painted such items, he failed in his ambition to publish with Peiresc a book of gem engravings.
The book is superbly illustrated with 63 figures, many in colour, and an appendix of 77 full coloured plates. It is a fine contribution to Rubens scholarship.
Dr Robert Beddard is an Emeritus Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford
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