Peter Paul Rubens: The Greatest of all Learners

Peter Paul Rubens - Diana Returning from Hunt - c. 1615 - Oil on canvas, 136 x 184 cm - Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (click photo for larger image)The seventeenth century was the last period of political and artistic greatness for Flanders, and Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was the artist par excellence. The southern Catholic part of the Netherlands (which had remained loyal to the Spanish Crown while Northern Holland successfully rebelled) was soon strangled by their Northern neighbors. It wouldn’t be until the late nineteenth century that an artist of the caliber of James Ensor and, later, Rene Magritte, emerged from the rubble. Rubens was educated to be a humanist but, like all great artists, chose his profession for himself. The combination of a first-rate classical education with an innate visual genius made for an unprecedented combination in an artist. It has been said that no artist has ever been as well educated as Rubens. After training with three minor artists in Antwerp. Rubens set off for Italy to complete his education. He accepted a position at the court of the Duke of Mantua and he stayed in Italy for eight years. His “job” was to travel to all the major artistic collections, especially those in Rome and Venice, painting copies of famous works of art (especially paintings of beautiful women) for the Duke's collection. He was also sent to Spain where he had an opportunity to study the enormous collection of Titian masterworks in the Royal Collection in Madrid. Rubens combined the lessons of antiquity with the innovations of the Italian Renaissance. He developed “a phenomenal ability to analyze the different styles of painting and sculpture and then synthesis them into whatever his clients wanted…which included just about every Catholic monarch, as well as Catholic leaning Protestants like King Charles I of England, and every major religious order in Western Europe.” Rubens returned to Antwerp in 1608 from Italy, and he brought with him an interest in the heritage of Antique art and literature that developed into a cornerstone of his thinking and artistic production. After setting up home in Antwerp, he devoted himself with unfailing interest to Greek and Roman mythology, which he used for the subject of many works, mostly as private commissions. The goddess of Diana was evidently of great importance to Rubens in around 1615—because representations of her would include the hunt—another subject of great interest to Rubens. In addition, this subject was well received by the artist’s royal and aristocratic patrons, since game hunting was the exclusive preserve of the ruling class.