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diff --git a/41541-0.txt b/41541-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af5aafc --- /dev/null +++ b/41541-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,927 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41541 *** + +MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR + +EDITED BY T. LEMAN HARE + + +RUBENS + + + + +IN THE SAME SERIES + + + ARTIST. AUTHOR. + + VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN. + REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN. + TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. + ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. + GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. + BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. + ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. + BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. + FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. + REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. + LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. + RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. + HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. + TITIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN. + MILLAIS. A. LYS BALDRY. + CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. + GAINSBOROUGH. MAX ROTHSCHILD. + TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN. + LUINI. JAMES MASON. + FRANZ HALS. EDGCUMBE STALEY. + VAN DYCK. PERCY M. TURNER. + LEONARDO DA VINCI. M. W. BROCKWELL. + RUBENS. S. L. BENSUSAN. + WHISTLER. T. MARTIN WOOD. + + + _In Preparation_ + + VIGÉE LE BRUN. C. HALDANE MACFALL. + BURNE-JONES. A. LYS BALDRY. + HOLBEIN. S. L. BENSUSAN. + J. F. MILLET. PERCY M. TURNER. + MEMLINC. W. H. JAMES WEALE. + ALBERT DÜRER. HERBERT FURST. + FRAGONARD. C. HALDANE MACFALL. + CONSTABLE. C. LEWIS HIND. + RAEBURN. JAMES L. CAW. + CHARDIN. PAUL G. KONODY. + BOUCHER. C. HALDANE MACFALL. + WATTEAU. C. LEWIS HIND. + MURILLO. S. L. BENSUSAN. + + + AND OTHERS. + + + + +[Illustration: PLATE I.--ELIZABETH OF FRANCE, DAUGHTER OF HENRY IV. +Frontispiece (In the Louvre) + +The Princess is seen to great advantage in this fine portrait. The fair +complexion of the sitter is remarkably preserved, the white ruff, the +jewels, and the gold brocade are very cleverly handled. Another portrait +of Princess Elizabeth, painted in Madrid, may now be seen in St. +Petersburg.] + + + + +Rubens + +BY S. L. BENSUSAN + + +ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR + + +[Illustration] + + +LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK + +NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + Page + I. Introduction 11 + + II. The Painter's Life 21 + + III. Second Period 35 + + IV. The Later Years 45 + + V. The Painter's Art 55 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Plate + I. Elizabeth of France, Daughter of Henry IV. Frontispiece + In the Louvre + Page + II. Christ à la Paille 14 + At Antwerp Museum + + III. The Four Philosophers 24 + In the Pitti Palace, Florence + + IV. Isabella Brandt 34 + In the Wallace Collection + + V. Le Chapeau de Paille 40 + In the National Gallery + + VI. The Descent from the Cross 50 + In the Cathedral, Antwerp + + VII. Henry IV. leaving for a Campaign 60 + In the Louvre + + VIII. The Virgin and the Holy Innocents 70 + In the Louvre + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTION + + +The name of Peter Paul Rubens is written so large in the history of +European art, that all the efforts of detractors have failed to stem the +tide of appreciation that flows towards it. Rubens was a great master +in nearly every pictorial sense of the term; and if at times the +coarseness and lack of restraint of his era were reflected upon his +canvas, we must blame the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries rather +than the man who worked through some of their most interesting years, +and at worst was no more than a realist. There may have been seasons +when he elected to attempt more than any man could hope to achieve. +There were times when he set himself to work deliberately to express +certain scenes, romantic or mythological, in a fashion that must have +startled his contemporaries and gives offence to-day; but to do justice +to the painter, we must consider his work as a whole, we must set the +best against the worst. + +[Illustration: PLATE II.--CHRIST À LA PAILLE (At Antwerp Museum) + +Whatever the Biblical story Rubens chose, he handled it not only with +skill, but with a certain sense of conviction that is the more +remarkable in one who owed no allegiance to the Church. There is fine +feeling and deep reverence in the "Christ à la Paille," in addition to +the dramatic feeling that accompanied all his religious pictures. The +colouring, though very bold, is most effective; in the hands of a less +skilled painter such a display of primary colouring might well have +seemed violent or even vulgar.] + +Consider the vast range of achievements that embraced landscape, +portraiture, and decorative work, giving to every subject such quality +of workmanship and skill in composition, as none save a very few of the +world's great masters have been able to convey to canvas. And let it be +remembered, too, that Rubens was not only a painter, he was a statesman +and a diplomat; and amid cares and anxieties that might well have filled +the life of any smaller man, he found time to paint countless pictures +in every style, and to move steadily forward along the road to mastery, +so that his second period is better than the first, in which he was, if +the expression may be used with propriety, finding himself. The third +period, which saw the painting of the great works that hang in Antwerp's +Cathedral and Museum to-day, and is represented in our own National +Gallery and Wallace Collection, was the best of all. Passing from his +labours as he did at a comparatively early age, for Rubens was but +sixty-three when he died, he did not suffer the slow decline of powers +that has so often accompanied men who reached their greatest +achievements in ripe middle age and shrink to mere shadows of a name. He +did not reach his supreme mastery of colour until he had lived for half +a century or more, and the pictures that have the greatest blots upon +them from the point of view of the twentieth century, were painted +before he reached the summit of his powers. It is perhaps unfortunate +that Rubens painted far too many works to admit of a truly +representative collection in any city or gallery. The best are widely +scattered; some are in the Prado in Madrid, others are in Belgium, some +are in Florence. Holland has a goodly collection, while Antwerp boasts +among many masterpieces "The Passing of Christ," "The Adoration of the +Magi," "The Prodigal Son," and "The Christ à la Paille." Munich, +Brussels, Dresden, Vienna, and other cities have famous examples of both +ripe and early art that must be seen before the master can be judged +fairly and without prejudice. It is impossible to found an opinion not +likely to be shaken, upon the work to be seen in London or in Paris, +where the Louvre holds many of the painter's least attractive works. It +may be said that Peter Paul Rubens is represented in every gallery of +importance throughout Europe, that the number of his acknowledged works +runs into four figures, and that there are very few without some +definite and attractive aspect of treatment and composition that goes +far to atone for the occasional shortcomings of taste. For his +generation Rubens sufficed amply. He was a man of so many gifts that he +would have made his mark had he never set brush to a canvas, although +time has blotted out the recollection of his diplomatic achievements or +relegated them to obscure chronicles and manuscripts that are seldom +disturbed save by scholars. To nine out of ten he is known only as a +painter, and his fame rests upon the work that chances to have given his +critics their first view and most lasting impression of his varied +achievements. It may be said that among those who care least for Rubens, +and are quite satisfied to condemn him for the coarseness with which he +treated certain subjects, there are many who are prompt to declare that +in matters of art the treatment is of the first importance and the +subject is but secondary. However, Rubens is hardly in need of an +apologist. His best work makes him famous in any company, and there is +so much of it that the rest may be disregarded. Moreover, we must not +forget that the types he portrayed from time to time with such amazing +frankness really existed all round him. He took them as he found them, +just as the earlier painters of the Renaissance took their Madonnas from +the peasant girls they found working in the fields, or travelling to the +cities on saint days and at times of high festival. Many a Renaissance +Madonna enshrined on canvas for the adoration of the devout could remove +the least suspicion of sanctity from herself, if she did but raise her +downcast eyes or smile, as doubtless she smiled in the studio wherein +she was immortalised. For the artist sees a vision beyond the sitter, +and under his brush the sanctification or profanation of a type are +matters of simple and rapid accomplishment. If another Rubens were to +arise to-day, he could find sitters in plenty who would respond to the +treatment that his prototype has made familiar. Perhaps to the men and +women with whom he was thrown in contact, these creations were +interesting inasmuch as they afforded a glimpse into an under-world of +which they knew little or nothing. The offence of certain pictures is +increased by the fact that, when Rubens painted them, he had not +attained to the supreme mastership over colour, and inspiration of +composition, that came to him in later life. But in a brief review of +the artist's life and work enough has been told of the aspects upon +which his detractors love to dilate. It is time to turn to his brilliant +and varied career, and note the incidents that have the greatest +interest or the deepest influence upon his art work. + + + + +II + +THE PAINTER'S LIFE + + +Peter Paul Rubens was born in A.D. 1577, at Siegen in Germany, where his +father, Dr. John Rubens, a man of great attainments, was living in +disgrace arising out of an old intrigue with the dissolute wife of +William the Silent. But for the necessity of shielding the reputation of +the House of Orange, there seems no doubt that John Rubens would have +paid the death penalty for his offence. It is curious to reflect that, +had he done so, Peter Paul would have been lost to the world, for the +intrigue would seem to have occurred in the neighbourhood of the year +1570, while Peter Paul was not born until seven years later. When the +child was one year old the Rubens family was allowed to return to +Cologne, where John Rubens had gone on leaving Antwerp in 1568. Here +Peter Paul and his elder brother, Philip, were brought up, in utter +ignorance of the misfortunes that had befallen their father, whose death +was recorded when his famous son was nine or ten years old. After his +decease the boys' mother decided to return to Antwerp, where her husband +in his early days had enjoyed a considerable reputation as a lawyer, and +held civic appointments. Although much of the family money must have +been lost, perhaps on account of the fall in values resulting from the +terrible war with Spain, there would seem to have been enough to enable +the widow and her two sons to live in comfort, if not in luxury. +Peter Paul was sent to a good school, where he made progress and became +very popular, probably because he was strikingly handsome, considerably +gifted, and very quick to learn. + +[Illustration: PLATE III.--THE FOUR PHILOSOPHERS (In the Pitti Palace, +Florence) + +This picture was probably painted in Italy. The man sitting behind the +table with an open book before him is Justus Lipsius the philosopher. To +his left is one of his pupils, and on the right we see Philip Rubens, +pen in hand, and Peter Paul himself standing up against a red curtain.] + +At the age of thirteen school-days came to an end, and the boy became a +page in the service of the widowed Countess of Lalaing, whose husband +had been one of the governors of Antwerp. Here, at a very impressionable +age, Rubens obtained first his acquaintance with and finally his mastery +over all the intricacies of courtly etiquette. In quite a short time he +became a polished gentleman, in the sixteenth-century acceptation of +that term. But the instinct to study art already developed made the +duties of a page seem tiresome and unattractive, and we learn that the +boy importuned his mother to be allowed to study painting. Apparently +he had shown sufficient promise to justify the request, and he was +placed, first under an unknown painter named Verhaecht and then under +Adam van Noort, with whom he remained four years before passing to the +studio of Otto van Veen, a scholar, a gentleman, and a painter of +quality. The life here would seem to have developed in Rubens many of +the qualities that were destined to bring him fame and great rewards. By +the time he was twenty, the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp received him as +a member, and a year later he received an appointment from the city to +assist his master in some civic decorations. So the glittering years of +his first youth passed, happily, prosperously, and uneventfully, and +when he was no more than twenty-three Peter Paul Rubens turned his steps +towards Italy, then, as Paris is now, the Mecca of the pilgrim of the +Arts. + +If we wish to find some explanation for the splendid colouring that +makes the masterpieces of Rubens the delight of every unprejudiced eye, +we may surely be content to remember that he saw Venice with the +enthusiastic eye of twenty-three in the year 1600. Even to-day when +Venice, vulgarised to the fullest extent that modern ingenuity can +accomplish, has become no more than a remnant most forlorn of what it +was, it is one of the world's wonder cities. When the seventeenth +century was opening its eventful pages, the memory of wonderful +achievements was upon the great city of the Adriatic, it was still a +power to be reckoned with. The season of pageants had not passed, and +the luck that seemed destined to accompany Rubens throughout his career +was in close attendance upon him here. The Duke of Mantua. Vincenzo +Gonzaga, saw some of his work, and was so struck by its quality that he +sent for the young painter. The man seemed worthy of his creations, and +the Duke promptly offered him a position in his suite, an offer too good +to be declined. Thereafter the sojourn in Venice was a short one. +Mantua, Florence, and Genoa were visited in turn, and in Mantua, after +some months travelling to and fro, the Court settled down, and Rubens +was enabled to study the splendid collection of works that the city's +rulers had collected. In the late summer of the following year Rubens +would seem to have visited Rome, where he faced the terrible heat +without any ill effect and devoted himself with untiring energy to a +study of the work that is to be seen there and nowhere else. It would +appear that he was well received by the leading artists of the day, that +he made a friend of Caravaggio, and he was soon commissioned to paint an +altar-piece for the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem. The work, +done in three parts, is now we believe in the possession of the French +Government, and is to be seen in Grasse or one of the neighbouring towns +of the Mediterranean littoral. When Rubens' leave of absence expired--it +must not be forgotten that he was in the service of Mantua's ruler, and +was not his own master--he returned to the north, where the Duke would +seem to have employed him for a time as an art expert. We may imagine +that politics and art were closely connected, and that Rubens soon knew +responsibility in connection with both. The work must have been very +well done in each case, for rather more than a year later, when it +became necessary in the interests of Mantua's political position to send +a message to the King of Spain, Rubens was the chosen envoy. + +Nowadays the journey from Mantua to Madrid may be accomplished without +extraordinary exertion in forty-eight hours, but three hundred years ago +such a journey must have savoured of adventure, more particularly as the +painter-diplomat was in charge of the splendid presents sent to Philip +by the Duke. Nearly a year passed before Rubens returned to Mantua. His +mission executed, he was rewarded with the grant of a regular income, +and after executing some more work at home to the complete satisfaction +of his patron, he returned to Rome, this time in the company of his +brother. + +They lived near the Piazza di Spagna, where the Roman models and +flower-sellers congregate to this day, and tourists are as the sand upon +the sea-shore for multitude. Philip Rubens, smitten by the weakness to +which so many men have succumbed before and since, celebrated his +journey by writing a book. It was printed by the famous Plantin Press, +with one of whose directors Peter Paul had been at school, and was +illustrated by the artist. We may suppose that the work Rubens had done +in Rome on the occasion of his earlier visit had satisfied its +purchasers, for he received another commission for the Chiesa Nuova, but +was recalled before it was completed, and taken to Genoa by the Duke of +Mantua. However, he soon returned to Rome, where he remained until the +close of 1608 and then left for Antwerp, where his mother, who had been +living in that city for some years, was dangerously ill. Rubens does +not seem to have known how ill she was, for he arrived in Antwerp too +late to see her. She was a woman cast in heroic mould, most generous of +wives, most devoted of mothers. + +[Illustration: PLATE IV.--ISABELLA BRANDT (In the Wallace Collection) + +Naturally enough Rubens painted many portraits of his first wife. There +is the delightful work in the Pinacotek at Munich where the painter sits +by her side, there are others in the Uffizi at Florence, and the great +Hermitage Gallery at St. Petersburg.] + +Perhaps the shock of her death awoke Rubens to the disadvantages +attaching to the paid service of any man, perhaps he was beginning to +realise his own quality and to know that he could stand alone. Perhaps +he saw, too, that Italy had taught him as much as his years would allow +him to assimilate, enough to make a man of mark in Antwerp. We have no +certain information on these points, we can do no more than make +surmises, but we do know that Rubens wrote to the Duke of Mantua, +thanking him for all the favours and marks of confidence that he had +received, and acquainting him with his decision to resign from his +service. With the return to Antwerp the era that opened with the +visit to Venice eight years before comes to a close, and we enter upon +the most strenuous period of the artist's life. + + + + +III + +SECOND PERIOD + + +Rubens carried an assured reputation with him to Antwerp. The story of +his success had doubtless been spread through the town by people who +were in touch with the Italian courts, and it is hardly likely that his +elder brother Philip, now secretary to the Antwerp Town Council, and a +man wielding considerable influence, had forgotten to tell the story of +his brother's progress. Antwerp was in the early enjoyment of a period +of peace following disastrous war, and it was quite in keeping with the +spirit of the times that the leading citizens, who had taken a prominent +part in the world of strife, should now turn their thoughts to the world +of art and should endeavour to take their part in the friendly +competition that all prosperous cities waged against one another in +their pursuit of beauty; and this competition led to the enriching of +churches and council-chambers with the finest ripe fruits of +contemporary art. Antwerp had established a circle for the exclusive +benefit of those who had travelled in Italy, because it was recognised +on all sides that the best mental and artistic development was +associated with Italian travel. Rubens was admitted at once to the +charmed circle on the initiative of his friend Jean Breughel, the animal +painter, with whom Rubens collaborated in a picture that may be seen +to-day at the Hague, and is called "The Earthly Paradise," a quaint +medley of two styles that cannot be persuaded to harmonise. + +Peter Paul lived with his beloved brother Philip, to whose influence we +are probably justified in tracing the first two commissions that were +given to the young painter. One was to take part in the work of +re-decorating the Town Hall, the other was to prepare an altar-piece for +the Church of St. Walpurga. For the Town Hall Rubens painted the first +of his long series of "Adorations," and though it is emphatically one of +the works of his first period, and is far from expressing the varied +qualities that have given him enduring fame, it created sufficient +sensation in Antwerp to bring him the position of Court painter, with a +definite salary and a special permission to remain in the city of his +choice. Had he been a lesser man he would have been called away to +attend the Court in Brussels. + +Undoubtedly Rubens was a patriot, a man to whom the fallen fortunes of +his city appealed very strongly. We must never forget that the endless +wars stirred up by Spanish ambition had roused the best instincts of +patriotism the world over, and though Rubens was not a warrior, he was a +statesman and a patriot, who knew that his hands and brain could serve +his city in their own effective fashion, one in no way inferior in its +results to that of the fighting men. Perhaps we may trace to all the +mental disturbance of this era the artist's first great transition, for +the Rubens who painted in Antwerp after his return from Italy and gave +the "Descent from the Cross" to his city, is quite a different man +from the one who painted the earlier pictures. He has matured and +developed, has completed the period of assimilation through which all +creative artists must pass, has gathered from the talents, from the +genius of the men he has studied, the material for founding a style of +his own. He begins to speak with his own voice. + +[Illustration: PLATE V.--LE CHAPEAU DE PAILLE (In the National Gallery) + +This is a portrait of Suzanne Fourment, a sister of the painter's second +wife, painted when the sitter was about twenty-one years old. The +serenity of the girl's mind is admirably expressed in this sparkling +work, and is one of Rubens' successful essays in portraiture. Another +study of Suzanne Fourment may be seen in Vienna.] + +It is well that Rubens' industry was on a par with his talents, for +commissions poured in upon him in the first years of his return from +Italy. They came not singly but in battalions, and very soon we find +Peter Paul Rubens following the fashion of his time and establishing a +studio school. Naturally enough there were plenty of young men who +wished to become his pupils, and plenty of old ones who had just missed +distinction and were anxious for any work that was remunerative. Rubens +realised that if he could but turn their gifts to the best advantage +they would at least be as valuable to him as he could be to them. +Consequently he responded to the suggestions that were made to him on +every side, and gathered the cleverest unattached men of his city to the +studio, giving each one his work to do. Let us place to his credit the +fact that there was no disguise about this procedure, it was open and +unabashed. Rubens would even send pupils to start a work that had been +commissioned, and would not appear on the scene until the first outline +of the picture was on the canvas. Then he would come along and with a +few unerring strokes correct or supplement the composition, to which his +pupils could pay their further attentions. Rubens received high prices +for his work, but would give his name to a picture in return for a +comparatively low fee, if the purchaser would but be content to have his +design and leave the painting to pupils. It may be said that Rubens was +always fortunate in his selection of assistants, just as he was +fortunate in other affairs of life. The great Vandyck was among those +who worked in his studio, Snyders the celebrated animal painter was +another; it is said that Rubens never touched his work. + +Like the Florentine painters of the Renaissance, Rubens was by no means +satisfied to devote himself entirely to paint. He had been greatly +impressed during his sojourn in Italy by the extraordinary beauty of the +palaces of Genoa--a beauty, be it added, that charms us no less to-day +when time has added its priceless gifts to the architects' design. +Rubens published a book on the Genoese palaces, with something between +fifty and one hundred drawings of his own, most carefully made. He found +time to make illustrations for the famous Plantin Press, to which we +have referred already. He superintended the work of engraving his own +pictures, and in short showed himself a man competent to grasp more than +the common burden of interests, and to deal with them all with a rare +intelligence coupled with sound business instinct. Although the +painter's education had not been great, he had acquired scholarship at a +time when classical education was considered of the very highest value, +and no man who lacked it could claim to be regarded as a gentleman. He +maintained correspondence with friends in the great cities of Europe, +and as he had great personal attractions and a perfect charm of manner +with which to support his industry and achievements, there is small need +to wonder at his progress. Success would indeed have been a fickle jade +had she refused to surrender to such wooing. + + + + +IV + +THE LATER YEARS + + +When the painter had passed his fortieth year he received a commission +from the Dowager Queen Maria de Medici to paint certain panels for her +palace in Paris, and in order to see them properly placed and to get a +comprehensive idea of the scheme of decoration, he betook himself with +the first part of his finished work to the French capital. There is no +doubt that Rubens was already regarded in the governing circles of +Antwerp as something more than a painter. His relations with the ruling +house had brought him into touch with diplomatic developments--he had +handled one or two with extreme tact, delicacy, and success. The Infanta +Isabel relied upon him in seasons of emergency, and although the +political value of his first visit to Paris in 1623 cannot be gauged, it +is fairly safe to assume that his second visit to the capital two years +later was far more concerned with politics than paint. To put before the +reader a brief story of the complications of the political situation +between France, Spain, and the Low Countries would make impossible +demands upon strictly limited space, but those who wish to understand +something of the politics of his time may be referred to the works of +Emile Michel and Max Rooses on Peter Paul Rubens and his time. They will +find there far more historical and biographical matter than can be +referred to in this place. Suffice it to say that from 1625 Rubens must +be regarded as a diplomatist quite as much as a painter, but curiously +enough the development of the political side of his life did nothing to +destroy the quality of his painting. In fact he seems to have travelled +along the road of diplomacy to his best and latest manner, to have seen +life more clearly, and the problems of his art more intelligently than +before, to have brought to his work something of the quality that we +call genius. The one gift that the gods denied him was poetic fancy, a +quality that would have kept him from the portrayal of types and +incidents that we are apt to regard, with or without justification, as +ugly, that would have made his classicism pleasing to eyes that read it +at its true value. But Rubens was one of the men who have to fight, not +against failure but against success; and the shrewd practical nature +that made him what he was served as an effective barrier against +acquisition of the qualities that would have lifted him to the region +that always remained just beyond his reach. + +1628 was a very interesting year in the painter's life, for he was sent +on a mission to the Court of Spain, where he met Velazquez, who was +instructed to show him all the art treasures of the capital. What would +we not give to-day for an authentic account of the conversations that +these men must have held together? Rubens was at the zenith of his fame, +if not of his achievement, Velazquez was unknown save in Seville and +Madrid, and was fighting against every class of disadvantage on the road +to belated recognition. Let those who sneer at Rubens and can find no +good about him, remember that he it was who turned Velazquez' +attention to Italy. Rubens found time to paint portraits of several +members of the royal family, and these works are fine likenesses enough, +though they do not pretend to rival Velazquez' achievements in the same +field. The diplomatic business was conducted with so much skill that +Philip entrusted his visitor with a mission to Paris and London. In the +last-named city Rubens was received by Charles I., who conferred a +knighthood upon him, and approved of his commission to decorate the +banqueting-chamber at Whitehall. + +[Illustration: PLATE VI.--THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS (In the Cathedral, +Antwerp) + +Here we have Rubens in his most realistic mood and in all his strength. +Not only is the composition of a very complicated picture quite masterly +and the colour scheme most happily distributed, but the contrast in the +expression on the faces round the dead Christ is expressed in most +dramatic fashion. The eye and the mind see the tragic drama at the same +moment; although the subject had been treated hundreds of times already, +the painter found it possible to give the theme a fresh and enduring +expression.] + +Back again in Antwerp, Rubens found his talents sorely tried by the +diplomatic developments in which the restless ambition of Maria de +Medici involved all the countries subject directly or indirectly to her +influence. He found himself compelled to go twice to Holland in the +early thirties, but the death of the Infanta Isabel in 1633 removed him +awhile from the heated arena of politics. Rubens prepared Antwerp for +the visit of the Archduke Ferdinand, the Spanish governor, the city +being decorated for this occasion at a cost of 80,000 florins. The work +was so successful that the Archduke paid a special visit of +congratulation to the artist, who was laid up in his room by an attack +of gout. Two or three years later, some warnings that his strength would +not hold out much longer availed to turn Rubens from the life of Courts +and capitals, and he purchased for himself the Château de Stein, a very +beautiful estate that is preserved for us by the delightful picture in +the National Gallery. There he settled down for awhile to fulfil certain +commissions for the King of Spain, and doubtless had he been permitted +to remain in retirement his health would have been the better and his +life the longer. But Antwerp could not dispense with the services of her +painter-diplomat, and many a time when he would have been in his studio +working at his ease, some urgent message from the city would drag him +away. In the winter of 1639 he passed some months in Antwerp, working as +best he could in the intervals of severe attacks of gout. The King of +Spain's commission was still unfinished, and some feeling that he +himself would never be able to complete it led Rubens to engage a larger +number of assistants than usual, and to content himself with directing +their efforts and supplementing them as occasion arose. He seems to have +known that death was near, for he made his will and prepared to meet the +end. It came with May in 1640, when the painter was in the sixty-fourth +year of a brilliant and useful life. + +Rubens was twice married, first to Isabel Brandt, who became his wife +when she was eighteen and he was thirty-two, shortly after his return to +Antwerp from the service of the Duke of Mantua. A portrait of the two +sons this wife bore him may be seen in Vienna. Isabel Brandt did not +live to see her boys, Albert and Nicholas, grow to manhood. She died in +1626, some say from the plague that swept Antwerp in that year. Four +years later the painter married the beautiful Helena Fourment, when he +was fifty-four and she was sixteen, and she survived him. He seems to +have been a good and affectionate husband and father. In fact, it is +hard to find among the biographers of Rubens anybody who speaks ill of +the artist as a man. + + + + +V + +THE PAINTER'S ART + + +Turning from a survey of Rubens' life to a consideration of his art, the +three divisions to which his work groups itself naturally, are very +clearly seen. Up to the time of his marriage with Isabel Brandt his work +may be referred to the first division, and in art it may be said that no +man's earliest pictures are of much consequence save for their promise +of higher things. They do little more than mark his progress, record +impressions he has received from strong personalities, and mark his own +path through the influences of different schools and varied appeals, to +the complete expression of himself. Rubens was never a slavish imitator, +he never assumed the mantles of the men he admired, as so many great +painters have done. Goya, for example, was a man whose range of thought +and capacity for receiving impressions were so great that he has painted +after the manner of half-a-dozen masters, and there are pictures to be +seen in Madrid to-day that are painted with Goya's brush and recall +Fragonard. Such instances may be multiplied, and Rubens is to be admired +for the restraint that marked this side of his early work. + +From the time of his marriage down to the season when he became +recognised on all sides as a diplomatist, let us say roughly from 1610 +to 1626, we get the second period, and to this may be referred the +greater part of the work that has given offence--the presentation of the +coarsest types of men and women in a state of nature--the treatment of +some of the grossest incidents in mythological stories in fashion that +leaves nothing to the imagination. + +We are justified in asking ourselves whether the extraordinary +development of the painter's social and political life did not avail to +arrest in late middle age any tendencies he might otherwise have had to +express still further the coarser side of classical subjects. By the +time he reached the forties, Rubens was the companion and even the +trusted counsellor of princes and rulers. Such refinement as Western +Europe boasted was to be met in the circles he frequented. The greatest +work of the greatest masters was within his reach, and he had travelled +to the point at which a man is able to select as well as to admire, at +which he can distinguish clearly between the points that make for a +picture's strength and those that detract from it. + +Rubens on arriving in Italy in the days when he had first taken service +under the Duke of Mantua, was doubtless unduly impressed by Michel +Angelo and Raphael. On no other grounds can we account for the delight +that his earliest pictures manifest in the portrayal of massive and even +ugly limbs. Doubtless he was influenced too by Titian, though we cannot +agree that it was his admiration for the master that made him copy the +King's Titians in the Prado, for it is more probable that on this +occasion he simply obeyed instructions. Moreover, Rome appealed to him +more than Venice did. The wistful purity of a Bellini Madonna, the +exquisite loveliness of a Bellini child or cherub, left him unmoved, but +a Titian or a Tintoretto at its biggest, if not at its best, pleased +him, and when he came in Rome to the works of Raphael and Michel Angelo +he would seem to have looked no further for inspiration. Doubtless he +heard many interesting theories of art in Rome, where, as we have said, +Caravaggio, who wielded considerable influence in the art world, was +among his friends. But Rubens thought out things for himself, and +learned to quell his own instincts and to subdue his own faults as they +were revealed to him. + +[Illustration: PLATE VII.--HENRY IV. LEAVING FOR A CAMPAIGN +(In the Louvre) + +Here the painter, leaving mythology and allegory for a time, is seen in +one of his most effective historical pictures. Henry IV., who is leaving +for the war in Germany, is seen conferring upon his Queen the charge of +the kingdom.] + +Violence is perhaps the characteristic of Rubens' early work. He has the +grand manner without the grand method, his contrasts of light and shade +and even of colour amuse where they do not offend, and his drawing is by +no means remarkable or inspired. At best it is correct. We feel that we +cannot see the wood because of the trees, that the blending has not been +sufficiently skilful to bring about proportion and harmony, and that the +expression of a giant form with prize-fighter's muscles in the +foreground of a canvas is sufficient to fill the painter with a delight +that enables him happily to ignore the rest. It is the enthusiasm of +clever youth, the youth of a man in whose veins there is enough and to +spare of very healthy blood, in whose mental equipment refinement has +been overlooked. + +The death of his mother, the distressful plight of his favourite city, +the responsibility of his commissions, his marriage and the fruits of +his Italian travel brought about the second period, and started the +traditions that give Antwerp a school and a name in the history of +European art. The violence passes slowly from the canvases, the +straining after effect that is so obvious and often so unpleasing in the +earlier pictures goes with it. The chiaroscuro is more subdued and +consequently more pleasing, only in the handling of colour the painter +is still clumsy and heavy. Rubens, the great colourist, seems to have +been born when the artist was more than forty years old. + +Some of the best work of the second period is in Antwerp and Brussels, +but it is to be found scattered all over Europe, and there are examples +in private collections in this country. Perhaps the dominant impression +that these works leave is one of certain difficulties created to be +overcome. Just as the painter in his first manner revelled in his +strength, so in his second period he rejoices in his skill. It was left +to the later years to weld strength and skill into the service, on +pictures that could stand for both and emphasise neither. Mythology +continued to hold him, indeed we must never forget that Rubens lived in +the age of pseudo-classicism, and is to be counted among its victims. To +his second period belongs such work as the disgusting "Procession of +Silenus" now in Munich, a picture in which the grossness of the theme is +only rivalled by the vulgarity of the treatment. Some of Rubens' +apologists have held that this class of work was painted as a protest +against vice, but such apologies are far-fetched. Rubens needs no +apologist. Consider his work as a whole, and what is good dwarfs what is +bad. Doubtless, had he been able in the later days to re-possess and +destroy some of his more tainted pictures, he would have done so. It +will be remarked by all who know Rubens' work intimately, that +throughout his life he was happier with a Venus than a Madonna, more at +home with some great classical figure, than with the picture of Christ. +He did not respond to Christianity in the sense that the Venetians +responded to it, he could not for all his reputation have painted a +Madonna as Bellini did, and there is no reason to believe that he would +have cared to do so. Then again we may not forget that Rubens the +artist, and Rubens the courtier, and Rubens the special envoy, were +closely associated with Rubens the man of business, who would always +have painted for choice the work likely to find immediate acceptance. +There were times when some legend of Saint or Martyr moved him +strangely, and he turned to it with a measure of inspiration not often +excelled by the greatest of the Renaissance artists; but these occasions +were rare, although Antwerp preserves one of the most effective results +of such inspiration in the "Last Communion of St. Francis." It may be +remarked in this place that to see Rubens at his best, one must not go +to the National Gallery or to the Louvre or to the Prado--Antwerp and +Vienna hold some of the finest examples of his second and third manner. +And we must never forget that Art is concerned with treatment, and that +subject is of secondary interest to artists. + +When he became recognised as a diplomatist whose services were required +by Europe's greatest potentates, Rubens had passed the meridian of life. +He had known prosperity from the very earliest days, he had no occasion +to paint pictures of the sort so admirably summed up by the offensive +word "pot-boiler." Kings and Queens and Emperors were offering him +commissions, he was, if we may say so, on his best behaviour. He rose +to the height of every great occasion. The commission that Maria de +Medici gave him for her palace seems to have brought him to his third +and latest manner, and from that year until death overtook him Rubens +was one of the great masters of European art. If we could eliminate all +the pictures of his first manner and a considerable portion of those +belonging to his middle period, his claims would hardly be denied by the +representatives and supporters of any school. He seems to have received +added inspiration from his child wife, and there are few more delightful +pictures than one to be seen in Munich in which Rubens and Helena +Fourment are walking from their garden to their château. Perhaps even in +the later days woman was nothing more than a thing of beauty for a +man's delight, and man was no more than a godlike animal, but a +well-defined measure of refinement was always beyond their painter's +mental or artistic conceptions. It is sufficient for us that the appeal +of nature came to him with great strength. The Château of Stein in our +National Gallery and the Rainbow Landscape in the Wallace Collection +gives sufficient evidence of this, while such a work as the Garden of +Venus in the Prado suggests the limitations that were with him +throughout his life. It is fair to say that in the later years they were +not expressed so prominently in his work. + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--THE VIRGIN AND THE HOLY INNOCENTS +(In the Louvre) + +In this picture Rubens allows his brush to run away with him as though +for sheer joy in its capacity. Perhaps his study of the Virgin is a +little commonplace, a little too suggestive of the exuberance of +Flanders rather than the refinement and spirituality of Nazareth. But +the studies of the Holy Innocents are a delight, and make the canvas +supremely attractive. It will be seen that the grouping of the children +results in every possible difficulty that an artist may have to face, +but that Rubens has encountered them all with sure, hard, and steady +eye, in fashion worthy of Tintoretto himself.] + +Finally we have to consider and acknowledge his triumphs as a colourist. +It may be said that Rubens, for all his gifts, required more than twenty +years of unremitting labour to obtain his mastery over colour, but +when once it was his he retained the gift to the last hour. In the early +days Rubens as a colourist was a person of no importance, the grossness +of his composition and the tameness of his drawing were not redeemed by +the handling of pigment. In the second period the use of paint is far +more skilled, but it does not blend, neither does it glow. In the later +years it acquires both gifts, and the exquisitely luminous quality of +some of his pictures, the marvellous delicacy of flesh tint, that must +have astonished and delighted his patrons, is preserved to us to-day. In +fact it may be said that Rubens has preserved his colour to a larger +extent than many great painters who came after him. He is far more +reliable in this aspect of his art than is our own Sir Joshua, whose +portraits have long ceased to tell the story they must have told to +delighted and flattered sitters. It was no effort of genius that made +Rubens a supreme colourist in the later years. He came to his kingdom by +dint of sheer hard work, but for his painstaking devotion to labours +such results could not have been achieved. + +The spirit of the Renaissance travelled very slowly from Italy to the +Netherlands, and that its influence was felt in the sixteenth century +did not lead to any very marked divergence from the traditions that the +art of the Netherlands was following. Italian form and Italian sentiment +met with little response there, and there is no doubt that the eighty +years of conflict with Spain which led to the recognition of the +Republic, turned men's thoughts away from art. By the time it was +possible to revive a school, the Netherlands were looking to life +rather than to faith, and even the classicism of the period that turned +Rubens towards pictures illustrating mythological incidents could not +help him to create imaginary figures. This is as it should have been, +for it made eighteenth-century art what it was through the influence of +Rubens and Vandyck. He filled his canvas with the types he saw around +him, and while nobody will dispute the virtue of the Netherlands, there +will be few found to assert that it produced the Latin type of +womanhood. The people of the Netherlands do not belong to the Latin +races; that is why they did not respond earlier to the Renaissance, that +is why they look at what seems to be their worst rather than their best +in some of Rubens' most ambitious works. Yet by reason of his long +sojourn and hard study in Italy, Rubens did do something considerable +to bring Italian art and tradition into the Netherlands, and if he could +not establish it there, the cause of failure was that the genius of the +country was opposed to it. Among the painters who worked for Rubens or +were greatly influenced by him the best known are Anthony Vandyck, Frans +Snyders, Abraham Janssens, Jacob Jordaens, and Jan Van Den Hoecke. Then +again, of course, it must not be forgotten that he exercised a very +great influence upon David Teniers, and that he served the interests of +art development far more than he could have done by giving fresh life to +an art form that had served its time and purpose. + +Rubens the landscape painter, the painter of religious and mythological +subjects, has rather obscured Rubens the portrait painter, and this is +not as it should be, for many will be inclined to agree that it is as a +portrait painter that Rubens was often at his best. Visitors to Florence +will not forget the portrait group entitled "The Philosophers," that may +be seen in the Pitti Palace. Our Wallace Collection has a delightful +portrait of Isabel Brandt, and the National Gallery holds the portrait +of Suzanne Fourment, "Le Chapeau de Paille," while Amsterdam and other +cities hold portraits of his second wife, the famous portrait of +Gervatius is to be seen in Antwerp, and there are several delightful +examples of his portraiture in Brussels. It was in these schools of art +that Rubens has succeeded in pleasing many who turn with feelings not +far removed from disgust from his unshrinking studies of the coarse +overblown or overgrown womanhood. He contrived either to confer a +measure of dignity upon his sitters or to conserve one. His portraits +of his two wives, and the portrait group in the Pitti Palace that +introduces his brother, are full of a deep feeling for which we may look +in vain to many of his larger canvases. Just as the pianist or violinist +will turn from playing some wonderful concerto bristling with +difficulties for the soloist and calculated to delight the ears of the +groundlings, and then taking up some simple piece by a great master will +infuse into it all the qualities that the showy concerto hid, so Rubens +turned from the wars and loves of gods and goddesses, from Bacchic +carnivals and groups in which nudity is insisted upon sometimes at the +expense of relevance, and would paint portraits that will be a delight +as long as they remain with us. Rubens painting the portrait of wife or +brother or friend, and Rubens covering vast canvases with glittering +and sometimes meretricious work are two different men. We may admire the +latter, but we come near to intimate appreciation of the former. In the +portraits the man is revealed, in the big pictures we see no more than +artist, and some of us fail to realise how clever he is, how many +problems of composition and tone and light and shade he has grappled +with and overcome in manner well-nigh heroic. + +The secret of his changing moods is of course beyond us, but perhaps one +may hazard an explanation for the difference in the quality of the work +done. As far as we can see from a study of the painter's work and life, +he approached mythology and Christianity from a purely pictorial +standpoint, and did not believe in one or the other. "The Procession to +Calvary," "The Crucifixion," "The Descent from the Cross," "The Flight +into Egypt," "The Adoration of the Magi," "The Draught of Fishes," "The +Raising of the Cross," "The Assumption of the Virgin," "The Last +Supper," "The Circumcision," "The Flagellation," and the rest, were no +more and no less to him as subjects than "The Drunken Hercules" or "The +Battle of the Amazons," "The Garden of Venus" or "The Judgment of +Paris." They were popular subjects for effective treatment, pictures +that would make a sure appeal to those who loved either the sacred or +the profane in art, pictures to be executed with all possible skill at +the greatest possible speed, and with a measure of assistance regulated +by the price that was to be paid for them. But the portraits of his +friends, of the brother he loved, and of the wives to whom he was a +devoted husband, stood on quite a different plane. He felt the human +interest attaching to them, and this human interest brought to his +canvas certain qualities that belong to the heart rather than the head, +and have given them a claim that is not disputed even by the painter's +most severe critics. + + +The plates are printed by BEMROSE & SONS, LTD., Derby and London + +The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rubens, by Samuel Levy Bensusan + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41541 *** |