Rubens Drawing On Italy

Peter Paul Rubens was one of the most inventive and prolific artists in the history of western art. After his early training in Antwerp, Rubens spent formative periods in Italy between 1600 and 1608. This book explores the ways in which Rubens studied, copied, and adapted the work of artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian. A large group of drawings by Italian artists, many of which were owned by Rubens and extensively transformed by him, are illustrated. These works show how Ruben's dialogue with Italian art went far beyond mere imitation and how his copies and adaptations attracted the attention of scholars and collectors from his lifetime onwards. The intriguing book has been written by one of the foremost Rubens scholars, Jeremy Wood, lecturer in the history of art at the University of Nottingham. 21 colour & 78 b/w illustrations

A generous selection of Rubens' best drawings, chiefly portraits and religious and mythical scenes, that fully reveal his supreme artistic gifts. Publisher's note.

Rubens and the Eloquence of Drawing re-examines the early graphic practice of the preeminent northern Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640) in light of early modern traditions of eloquence, particularly as promoted in the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Flemish, Neostoic circles of philologist, Justus Lipsius (1547–1606). Focusing on the roles that rhetorical and pedagogical considerations played in the artist’s approach to disegno during and following his formative Roman period (1600–08), this volume highlights Rubens’s high ambitions for the intimate medium of drawing as a primary site for generating meaningful and original ideas for his larger artistic enterprise. As in the Lipsian realm of writing personal letters – the humanist activity then described as a cognate activity to the practice of drawing – a Senecan approach to eclecticism, a commitment to emulation, and an Aristotelian concern for joining form to content all played important roles. Two chapter-long studies of individual drawings serve to demonstrate the relevance of these interdisciplinary rhetorical concerns to Rubens’s early practice of drawing. Focusing on Rubens’s Medea Fleeing with Her Dead Children (Los Angeles, Getty Museum), and Kneeling Man (Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), these close-looking case studies demonstrate Rubens’s commitments to creating new models of eloquent drawing and to highlighting his own status as an inimitable maker. Demonstrating the force and quality of Rubens’s intellect in the medium then most associated with the closest ideas of the artist, such designs were arguably created as more robust pedagogical and preparatory models that could help strengthen art itself for a new and often troubled age.

"....This book is divided into three parts....The first volume is focused on the copies and adaptations that Rubens made from the work of Raphael and three younger artists, Giulio Romano, Polidoro da Caravaggio, and Perino del Vaga, who worked with him in Rome before moving to art centres elsewhere."--Author's preface.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Jan. 15-Apr. 3, 2005.

A new title in the successful Lives of the Artists series, which offers illuminating, and often intimate, accounts of iconic artists as viewed by their contemporaries. The enormous talent, range, and intellect of Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) had an immediate impact on his contemporaries and changed international perceptions about painting and painters. Lives of Rubens assembles three early biographies that illuminate this impact: rival artist Giovanni Baglione writes about Rubens’s works for the churches of Rome; Joachim von Sandrart demonstrates the highly favorable contemporary public opinion of Rubens; and painter and critic Roger de Piles staunchly defends Rubens’s work in response to criticism by the French Academy.

This book charts the evolution of Peter Paul Rubens's style from 1608 until 1620 and his rise from relative anonymity to celebrity. In 1600, Peter Paul Rubens left his home in Antwerp to travel to Italy and study the Italian masters. Eight years later, he returned to Belgium and quickly established himself as one of the foremost painters in Western Europe. This book explores Rubens's work from 1608 until 1620 and how, acutely aware of the possibilities for commercial success, he rose to fame by establishing a "brand" and promoting himself. He created multiple versions of paintings with subjects that had proven to be successful, used similar subject matter of famous artists in the past, and sought collaborators to create more ambitious works than he could have done alone. He also created a studio and workshop with numerous students and assistants, the most famous being Anthony van Dyck, who frequently collaborated with Rubens. Through paintings, drawings, and prints, this book shows how a desire for commercial success influenced and changed Rubens's artistic style. Essays delve into Italy's effect on Rubens, on the narrative aspect of his paintings, and how he managed commissions from famous patrons. Filled with new insights on the most fruitful phase of Rubens's career, this book offers a refreshing look at one of the most influential Baroque artists. Copublished by the Art Gallery of Ontario and DelMonico Books

"It is the first publication that presents the artist's entire drawn oeuvre in chronological order, previous such publications containing only selections of drawings. By leafing through the illustrations, this arrangement provides the user with a quick visual impression of the variety of techniques, media, subject and functions of Rubens's drawings at any one time. Volume I consists of the drawings of the artist's childhood, apprenticeship and first years as a master in Antwerp to his formative years in Italy, spent mostly in Mantua and Rome, with an excursion to Spain. These are the years primarily devoted to learning and absorbing the art of the past, from sixteenth-century German and Netherlandish prints to the works of the ancient and Italian Renaissance masters. A large number of these drawings consists of copies after the works of other artists, largely executed as part of the artistic training at the time. For the first time, Rubens's copies and their models are not discussed and illustrated as a separate entity but are fully integrated into the rest of his graphic oeuvre, thus showing copies and original compositions created at the same time side by side. The volume contains 204 entries, including several sheets with drawings on recto and verso. Each entry consists of a detailed physical description of the drawing, provenance, exhibition history, full bibliography and a critical, interpretive discussion. In addition, Volume I contains an essay on the history of the scholarship of Rubens's drawings, a subject that has not been treated before. All drawings by Rubens and the works by other artists he copied as well as a selection of other comparative images are reproduced in color."--from the publisher

"For the great Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), drawing was a fundamental activity. In Rubens's large Antwerp studio, drawings were made for the creation of new paintings; collaborators used them to assist the master on these paintings; and they served as instructional material for pupils. The drawings were guarded from the outside world because they were considered a kind of studio secret; the competition could exploit designs for new compositions if they were released prematurely. How precious Rubens considered his drawings is evident from his testament, which stipulated that they should be passed on to any of his sons or sons-in-law who chose to be a painter; only when it was clear, once all his children were grown, that none would become an artist or marry one could the drawings be dispersed." "This volume presents, in full-color reproductions, more than one hundred of the finest and most representative of Rubens's drawings, ranging from delightful renderings of children and elegant portraits of noblemen and women to vigorous animal studies and beautiful landscapes. Essays by Anne-Marie Logan and Michiel C. Plomp provide overviews of Rubens's career as a draftsman and of the eventual dispersal of his drawings among collectors some fifteen years after his death. The authors discuss the various functions of Rubens's drawings as preparatory studies for paintings, sculpture, prints, and book illustrations and as private studies meant largely for the artist's own enjoyment." "The volume also includes a sampling of the artist's early anatomical studies and copies after antique sculpture, made during his years in Italy (1600-1608). In all likelihood it was also in Italy that Rubens began to collect old master drawings. Eventually he amassed a large quantity of other artists' drawings, most of them by sixteenth-century Italian masters, and he retouched, restored, or reworked many of them. These retouched sheets - several of which are reproduced herein - offer additional insight into his creativity. They are also a starting point for a discussion of the fortunes of Rubens's drawings among collectors."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved