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Rubens
- GenresArt
143 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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January 24, 2021A basic introduction to the life and work of Peter-Paul Rubens: artist, ambassador and consummate gentleman.
By basic I mean very basic, it is a lick or perhaps just maybe a lick and a half, above rudimentary. It is one of a series of basic introductions to artists and their work, my only frame of reference is to the world of Art series which have more text and therefore more heft to them, this series though has the slight advantage of being entirely illustrated in colour throughout, but the disadvantage that the illustrations are small and the details of sections of paintings are so small (even when wearing glasses) that I regretted not having a magnifying glass or a microscope to hand. The page design is also - in my opinion - needlessly busy, this is not a book in which one can scribble notes in the margins, or indeed anywhere on the pages because you would struggle to find the space for more than a quick smiley face. I was mildly irritated that pages where given over to showing the work of artists who were not Rubens but who did not seem to illumine Rubens and his work - but perhaps the small size of the illustrations has to blame here, maybe in a larger format even I might be able to detect the influence of Caravaggio on Rubens, with Titian at least one could say there was a vague similarity in the use of colour.
I was intrigued by Rubens' work as an ambassador in that this did not interrupt his painting, maybe, I wondered it was even a part of his diplomatic style? I wondered too if this was the inspiration for the Rubenesque figure - refugees fleeing for their lives with what they can carry on their backs tend not be be so fleshy. The Rubenesque figure implies the presence of peace and plenty - people can enjoy dairy produce and put on weight. But admittedly I first had this thought in a British supermarket where I observed all of the staff were working towards or had achieved a fully Rubenesque figure - though unfortunately they wore clothes to cover their dairy fed ripeness which otherwise could have been an advertisement for the store and the nature of its produce .
I very much enjoyed the story of Rubens repainting an altarpiece for a church in Rome because the first version did not look right in the available light, I had a similar experience in a Cathedral on a wet and overcast day when for one moment the cloud shifted and sunlight fell through a window directly on to a painting by Rubens and illuminated the face of a saint, 'ah, you clever bastard' I thought, we loose that sense of the artist's intelligence now that Art is typically not to be found in the place it was intended for or designed for. I thought to myself that an artist working in Sicily (or some other reliably sunny place) would presumably have to work in an entirely different way, but maybe not.
By basic I mean very basic, it is a lick or perhaps just maybe a lick and a half, above rudimentary. It is one of a series of basic introductions to artists and their work, my only frame of reference is to the world of Art series which have more text and therefore more heft to them, this series though has the slight advantage of being entirely illustrated in colour throughout, but the disadvantage that the illustrations are small and the details of sections of paintings are so small (even when wearing glasses) that I regretted not having a magnifying glass or a microscope to hand. The page design is also - in my opinion - needlessly busy, this is not a book in which one can scribble notes in the margins, or indeed anywhere on the pages because you would struggle to find the space for more than a quick smiley face. I was mildly irritated that pages where given over to showing the work of artists who were not Rubens but who did not seem to illumine Rubens and his work - but perhaps the small size of the illustrations has to blame here, maybe in a larger format even I might be able to detect the influence of Caravaggio on Rubens, with Titian at least one could say there was a vague similarity in the use of colour.
I was intrigued by Rubens' work as an ambassador in that this did not interrupt his painting, maybe, I wondered it was even a part of his diplomatic style? I wondered too if this was the inspiration for the Rubenesque figure - refugees fleeing for their lives with what they can carry on their backs tend not be be so fleshy. The Rubenesque figure implies the presence of peace and plenty - people can enjoy dairy produce and put on weight. But admittedly I first had this thought in a British supermarket where I observed all of the staff were working towards or had achieved a fully Rubenesque figure - though unfortunately they wore clothes to cover their dairy fed ripeness which otherwise could have been an advertisement for the store and the nature of its produce .
I very much enjoyed the story of Rubens repainting an altarpiece for a church in Rome because the first version did not look right in the available light, I had a similar experience in a Cathedral on a wet and overcast day when for one moment the cloud shifted and sunlight fell through a window directly on to a painting by Rubens and illuminated the face of a saint, 'ah, you clever bastard' I thought, we loose that sense of the artist's intelligence now that Art is typically not to be found in the place it was intended for or designed for. I thought to myself that an artist working in Sicily (or some other reliably sunny place) would presumably have to work in an entirely different way, but maybe not.
April 25, 2024
It was really interesting! I didn’t know anything about the artist so it was a great introduction to him and his artwork
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews