The 4 most important RUBENS WORKS

Peter paul rubens (1577-1640) exemplifies the 17th century court painter model, very productive and professional, moving with great ease through political and artistic circles. Thus, Rubens also lived on the same level as his patron. In the artistic he stood out for merge flamenco realism with the techniques and Italian Renaissance traditions to create your own style. An exuberant and powerful style that is a basic part of the Baroque, Counter-Reformation movement and very popular.

In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we offer you a selection of some of the important works of Rubens so that you discover the main characteristics of his artistic style and the relevance of it within the history of Art.

Index

1. Characteristics of the Rubens style
2. Equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603), one of Rubens's works
3. Self-portrait with Isabella Brandt (1609)
4. The Massacre of the Innocents (1612)
5. The Three Graces (1639)

Rubens he was one of the Renaissance painters most prominent. Before knowing his works, we are going to stop briefly in his style to better know his paintings:

• Rubens style emphasizes movement and color, as well as adding sensuality and dramatic tension. A painting that shows love and interest in life.
• A sensuality that is captured in the female portraits in which Rubens shows their naked and voluptuous bodies. Some nudes that are known as Rubenesquand.
• His compositions are reloaded, being common the themes of classical history and Christianity, thus showing his inclination for the problems and political and religious concerns that he had to live.
• His workshop located in Antwerp was one of the most popular and frequented by the nobility and art collectors from all over Europe. An artistic production center that had many artists and apprentices among its members, producing a huge volume of work.
• Rubens, kind and personable person, was excellent public relations, managing to sell his works of art and always ensuring the approval of the church despite some of its contents of his works.

Although it is not easy to be left with just a few works from Rubens' prolific artistic production, we highlight Equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603).

At 26, Rubens performs this life-size work from Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, Prime Minister of Spain, appears as head of the Spanish armies mounted on a white steed, Un painting in which he offers us the image of one of the most prominent figures of seventeenth-century Europe.

In this work, Rubens portrays Lerma in the style of classical sculptures, with great precision and showing us the powerful anotomy of the horse, while representing with great delicacy the Duke's garments or elaborate armor, jewels or boots, as well as the fur of the horse.

A richness in detail and a classicism that are typical of the Baroque, opting for a composition in which the diagonals and the creation of a play of light and shadow to create a dramatic atmosphere in the armed charge that represents in the background of the box.

The composition is heir to the Equestrian Portrait of Carlos V by Titian, this portrait of Lerma being considered as the firstimportant work of Rubens.

After his return from Italy in 1609, Rubens married Isabella Brant, the two being represented together in this painting and portraying themselves as a flamenco middle class couple. They are under a honeysuckle in an indoor outdoor patio. They are both dressed elegantly, he in the chivalric style, while she appears in a dress of richly embroidered silk cloth, a wine-colored dress, with a large ruff and a top hat high.

The patio, the orchard, the flowers, the stone benches and the classic busts on pedestals, the statues and the small fountains make up a scene in which many are not missing. symbols of love and marriage like the honeysuckle itself and that both appear holding hands and leaning towards each other.

A work that reflects the intimacy of the painter's house, being a friendly painting, with a lot of charm and in which the baroque attention to detail is appreciated, the influence of Flemish artists such as Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling being notorious.

The Massacre of the Innocents it is another of Rubens' important works. This is a large painting depicting a story of the Gospel of Matthew in which King Herod orders the slaughter of all male children in Bethlehem after learning that a child born there would become "King of the Jews."

The scene is very raw, representing Rubens a really intense moment in which groups of women try to stop soldiers from killing their children. A scene full of agitation, bloody, violent and full of panic. A work in which Rubens shows the horror of war and violence which were also suffered in the Antwerp of his time with the terrible wars of religion.

The influence of Italian Baroque painters such as Caravaggio, something that was similar in the use of chiaroscuro, dynamism and the use of color.

In this iconic Rubens painting it represents The Three Graces, three divinities daughters of Zeus and called Aglaia, which means radiance, Euphrosin, which means joy, and Thalia, which means flourish. All three worked for Aphrodite preparing banquets and celebrating the joie de vivre.

The three women appear in a circle and joined by their arms, one of them appearing with her back to the viewer. The women transmit charm, sweetness and seem to shine under their transparent clothes. A composition inspired by the works and the classical techniques of ancient Greece. It is pointed out how one of the models could be one of his wives, Helen Fourment.

The work highlights both the sensual and resounding beauty of women, in addition to Rubens' enormous dominance for paint skin tones. Rubens' rotund and voluptuous nude female figure received the term of Rubenesque, still used today to describe these figures.

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• Lamster, M (2012) Rubens, the master of shadows, Tusquets Editores
• VVAA, (2004) Pedro Pablo Rubens, El Aguazul