PETER PAUL RUBENS
IN THE GEMÄLDEGALERIE DER AKADEMIE DER BILDENDEN KÜNSTE WIEN
The Academy’s Picture Gallery is a monument to the endeavours of a private collector:
during the final years of his life, Count Anton Lamberg Sprinzenstein, one of the last
aristocratic collectors in Vienna, assembled a comprehensive collection of European
paintings. He admired above all virtuoso brushwork and was thus particularly interested
in paintings by Peter Paul Rubens – concentrating, however, on small-scale works that
could be displayed in his apartment in town. In 1821, the year before he died, the
Count bequeathed his collection to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, thus founding
the Academy’s Picture Gallery.
That is the reason why a university’s collection is able to contribute “small” works by
Rubens to this joint exhibition -celebrating the artist - preliminary studies, colour
sketches, “modelli” and “ricordi”.
SMALL-SCALE WORKS IN RUBENS’ OEUVRE
Today, Rubens’ “small works” are particularly admired and valued as only they allow us
to understand the creative and autograph process of painting of this outstanding
Flemish Baroque master. Today our perception of a work of art is greatly influenced by
our understanding of what constitutes an “original”, that is, the question of whether a
painting is an autograph – that is, an “authentic” – work by a particular artist. When
looking at the work of Peter Paul Rubens we should not forget that this is true only of
his oil sketches and similar preparatory works, and that it is only in these that we
encounter his very own artistic “idiom”, that is his autograph handling.
The reason for this is that during Rubens’ lifetime an artist’s creativity was measured
not in terms of the actual execution of a painting but in terms of his artistic
inventions, his ideas. This emphasis on the creative process is clearly discernible in
the contracts concluded between Rubens and his patrons for all larger commissions.
The master’s sketch was handed to an assistant who copied and enlarged the composition
according to the dimensions stipulated in the contract.
THE PAINTINGS
It is noteworthy that several of the seventeen autograph paintings by Rubens that Count
Lamberg bequeathed to the Academy are closely connected with important commissions.
For example, the Academy boasts a total of four works by Rubens from his formative
years in Italy (1600-1608). Like many other artists from the Low Countries before him,
Rubens traveled to Italy to see and study both Italian sixteenth century art and works
from classical antiquity in order to broaden his artistic horizons. Inspired by this
encounter with Italy Rubens’ style began to reflect the “grande maniera” of Italian
Early Baroque art, and this he subsequently transplanted to his hometown of Antwerp.
THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST (C. 1605)
The Academy’s Picture Gallery owns the “modello” for the first commission for an
important altarpiece that Rubens received during his stay in Italy: he had gone to
Spain in the service of his patron, Vincenzo I Gonzaga Duke of Mantua, and on his
return had stopped at Genoa to be reimbursed for his travelling expenses by the Duke’s
bankers, the Pallavicini. Rubens made the most of this fortuitous opportunity to garner
contacts and commissions. The most important commission the young and still-unknown
artist received was from the brother of the Duke’s banker who was head of the Jesuits
in Genoa. He commissioned from Rubens a painting for the main altar of the city’s
newly-erected Jesuit church of S. Ambrogio.
The painting’s subject, the “Circumcision of Christ”, was obligatory for all Jesuit
churches as the Society was keen to display in all their churches depictions of the
monogram of Christ – IHS – and the ceremony in which the child is named. Although Jesus
Christ was baptised by St John the Baptist in the river Jordan, the infant had
initially been given the name of Jesus according to Jewish customs, which included His
circumcision in keeping with Mosaic law.
THE MIRACULOUS IMAGE OF THE VIRGIN DELLA VALLICELLA IN ROME (C. 1608)
During his sojourn in Italy, Rubens concentrated not only on his development as an
artist but also on his -burgeoning career. His last important commission before
returning home was to paint the altarpiece for Rome’s most popular church, Sta. Maria
in Vallicella. However, the still relatively unknown Flemish artist would never have
been able to beat his Roman competitors without his by now excellent connections: a
friend of the Pallavicinis from Genoa was the Pope’s treasurer in Rome. He made a
private offer to the Oratorians – Sta. Maria in Vallicella was their church – to
contribute to the -decoration of the area around the main altar. This had become
necessary because the Oratorians had transferred the miraculous – and thus fervently
venerated – image of the Virgin from a side altar to the main altar. The new patron,
however, was only willing to finance the refurbishment if he could choose the artist
commissioned to execute the painting for the high altar: and he named Peter Paul
Rubens.
The Oratorians were anything but happy with this choice and tried to “control” Rubens
by including in the contract as many stipulations as possible. Rubens painted a
beautiful “Sacra Conversatione” in which the miraculous image of the Virgin appears to
St Gregory. However, the Oratorians were not happy with this composition and returned
it to the -artist. Rubens then painted a completely different second version with the
altarpiece as a tabernacle painting in which the actual venerated image of the Virgin,
visible through an opening in the altarpiece, is venerated by choirs of angels. The
Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste owns the “modello” for this second
version of the altarpiece.
Rubens also received his most important commission in his hometown of Antwerp from the
Jesuits. The Society wanted the architecture and decoration of its church to reflect
its important role in the city’s religious, political and economic life. Their newlybuilt church dedicated to St Charles Borromeo featured Antwerp’s first Baroque façade,
inspired by the Society’s mother church in Rome, “Il Gesù”. Naturally it was Peter Paul
Rubens who was chosen to decorate the ceilings and altars.
SIX OIL SKETCHES FOR THE DECORATION OF THE CEILINGS OF THE JESUIT CHURCH IN ANTWERP
(1620)
The commission to decorate the ceilings of the lateral aisles and their galleries was a
huge challenge for the efficiency of Rubens and his well-organised workshop: they had
to execute – and install – thirty-nine paintings on canvas in eighteen months. Here we
encounter for the first time the efficient division of labour between Rubens and his
assistants that -differentiated between the work of the master – who developed the
composition – and the execution of a large-scale work by the workshop.
Today the sketches for this project are dispersed among numerous museums all over the
world. Their non-material value is incalculable as the whole decoration of the nave and
side aisles was destroyed in a fire in 1718 so that the sketches are all that remains
to give us an idea of Rubens’ power of imagination.
The sketches allow today’s visitors to imagine they are looking over the master’s
shoulder, watching him at work – seeing how the idea is transferred from the brain via
arm and hand to the small wooden panel: colour and form only emerge from a tissue of
brushstrokes and intimations of colour.
THE GOOD RULE OF JAMES I: SKETCH FOR THE CEILING PAINTING ABOVE THE THRONE IN THE
BANQUETING HOUSE, WHITEHALL, LONDON (BETWEEN 1631 AND 1633)
The Academy’s Picture Gallery owns not only a group of sketches for the Jesuit church
in Antwerp but also a representative example of an oil sketch executed in connection
with an important commission that has remained in situ, i.e. installed in the location
for which it was originally designed: the ceiling decorations in the Banqueting House
in Whitehall, London, which celebrate the Stuart dynasty. The Banqueting House was the
only building to survive the fire that destroyed Whitehall Palace. Here Rubens’
painting encounters Inigo Jones’ Palladianism, the latter’s – for seventeenth-century
London – incredibly modern architectural style.
In this sketch Rubens has outlined the composition celebrating the apotheosis of King
James I. Genii place a crown of laurels on the head of the father of Rubens’ patron –
King Charles I – who is enthroned above the battle between Mars, the god of war, and
Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, while Mercury, the god of commerce, together with the
ladies Pax (peace) and Abundantia (abundance) are laughing up their sleeve: stripped of
all allegorical attributes the composition means nothing but that trade flourishes in
times of peace.
THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS (C. 1606)
Not every painting whose stylistic features might suggest it being termed a sketch was
created in connection with such a major commission or project. This “Judgement of
Paris” – one of only four paintings by Rubens executed on copper – must be regarded as
one of the artist’s most enchanting “poesias”. It is probably one of the master’s
“studies” expressing his life-long interest in this pictorial subject: the beautycontest between the three Olympian goddesses who ask Paris to be their judge.
The three mythological paintings in the Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden
Künste, “Boreas’ Rape of Oreithyia”, “The Dream of Silenus”, and “The Three Graces”,
represent the genre for which Rubens has always been famous: high Baroque history
painting.
THE MYTHOLOGIES
BOREAS’ RAPE OF OREITHYIA (C. 1615)
This abduction scene, a completely autograph work by Rubens – which was, incidentally,
chosen as the image to represent RUBENS IN WIEN in advertisements and posters – is
based on the artist’s knowledge of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”: the poet tells of the
hopeless passion of Boreas, the wild god of the cold north-wind, for Oreithyia, the
daughter of the king of Athens, and how in his anger Boreas finally turns into a
snowstorm and carries off his bride against her will.
There is nothing in Rubens’ painting to remind of us a freezing winter storm – only the
cupids are enjoying a snowball fight and trying to catch hailstones. Rubens has chosen
very different models for his composition of the group of -abductor and abducted girl.
He is not interested in depicting a winter storm but in the participants’ complex
emotions between -violence and love: how in his strong embrace the girl abducted by
force falls in love with her abductor. Rubens’ modeled his figures on depictions of the
rape of Proserpine on classical sarcophagi, although the latter does not fly through
the air but -disappears into the underworld.
DREAM OF SILENUS (BETWEEN 1610 AND 1612)
Rubens had some favourite subjects to which he returned again and again throughout his
life regardless of commissions. Most of them were drawn from Greek mythology and Rubens
approached them with the erudition of a classical scholar and archaeologist who was an
expert in antique art.
A particular favourite were subjects connected with Bacchus which feature the god of
wine and his followers – Silenus, Satyrs, nymphs and Maenads – and in which most
participants are usually inebriated.
The painting in the Academy’s Picture Gallery shows a drunken Silenus, who is dreaming
vividly despite the fact that his heavy body is paralysed as a result of his
intoxication: both the abundance of precious metal vessels and glasses and the lovers
in the background must be seen as part of Silenus’ dream. No Flemish painter would
depict a still-life of such -disparate precious objects so carelessly assembled if
these vessels were not symbols of a dream brought on by -intoxication.
THE THREE GRACES (BETWEEN 1620 AND 1624)
Raphael painted them and so did Rubens in several versions: the three graces as naked
beauties, who as daughters of Zeus brought gods as well as humanity grace, beauty and
revelry. Aglaia stood for brilliance, Euphrosyne for cheerfullness and Thalia for
blossoming. According to the Roman interpretation by Seneca the three graces symbolize
the closed circle of giving, taking and giving in return. In his famous Vienna panel
which was created between 1620 and 1624 Rubens chose a slightly different starting
point in respect of content: he brings his group of three naked woman, clad only in
transparent veils closer to the circle of meanig of the Horae – the “goddesses of the
seasons”. The idea of the “Horae of spring” is stressed by the beautiful landscape
setting surrounding them as well as by the overflowing of flowers and points out the
ethical aspect of natural fertility and seasonal ripeining.
On closer inspection these three examples – all of which seem to confirm our modern
cliché of the Flemish voluptuousness so characteristic of Rubens’ figures – turn out to
be complex “ponderings” by the grand master of the Baroque on the art of classical
antiquity and on the possibilities and limitations of a personal interpretation of
classical subjects.