2015 The Rubenianum Quarterly 1 Book launch at Rubens’s country estate ‘Het Steen’ Work in progress On 17 March a small company travelled from Rubens’s town house to his country estate In terms of Rubens research, we are currently witnessing at Elewijt near Mechelen. Spring pleasantly announced itself through the chirping of an exceptionally productive time, of which this issue of birds while the morning sun poured into the landscape surrounding the impressive cas- The Rubenianum Quarterly once again offers ample tle. One would almost forget that four centuries have passed since the days when Rubens proof. In these pages, special attention goes to the once- and his family used to take the exact same route to escape the city buzz for some coun- in-a-lifetime family reunion established by the Rubens try air. The occasion for this historic ride? The book launch of no less than five Brepols/ House in the exhibition ‘Rubens in Private. The Master Harvey Miller publications – to some extent all connected to Rubens or landscapes or Portrays his Family’. Furthermore, we proudly introduce both – set at the unique location of Het Steen. Rubens acquired the estate in 1631 and the latest volume of the Corpus Rubenianum transformed it into a second home to bring his young wife and children and enjoy the last Ludwig Burchard. It was recently presented to the years of his successful life. public, along with studies on Rubens’s landscapes as Once the guests had arrived, Corina Kleinert kicked off the launch by presenting a well as on Ludwig Burchard himself. short history of Het Steen before introducing her own book about Rubens’s ideas on While this new Corpus part brings us closer to Nature and Art. The location for a presentation of a book on Rubens’s landscapes, of the realization of this magnum opus, good news for course, couldn’t have been more appropriate than the very spot where Rubens found its digital component has reached us just recently. inspiration for the various landscape paintings he produced at the end of his life. Hans Complementing the grants we gratefully received from Vlieghe then presented his and Hans Devisscher’s new addition to the Corpus Rubeni- The Samuel H. Kress Foundation, additional Flemish anum, devoted to the youth of Christ. Yours truly followed with a presentation on the funding has now definitely secured the completion of conference proceedings on Ludwig Burchard – edited together with Prisca Valkeneers the ‘Digitizing the Corpus Rubenianum’ project by mid- and Koen Bulckens – contextualizing the man who initiated the Corpus Rubenianum 2016. This will greatly expand the online presence of enterprise. Sabine van Sprang made us return to landscape painting as she introduced the Corpus in an updated and illustrated form. Further us to her book on the principal Flemish landscape painter at the beginning of the 17th good news is that, due to her vigorous efforts, cataloguer century: Denijs van Alsloot. And Katlijne Van der Stighelen rounded off the official part Karen De Meyst is still entirely on schedule. of that morning with remarks on the conference proceedings she and Hannelore Mag- But in a global perspective a great deal more is going nus edited on the history of early modern emotions and art history. All five books were on. For just over a year, print scholars Simon Turner to be presented more elaborately later that day at the Rubenianum, but our curiosity and Jaco Rutgers have been compiling the long-awaited had certainly been aroused while we sat down for an exclusive Rubenesque lunch, in- and much-needed volumes on prints after Rubens in the cluding mousse au chocolat à la Hélène accompanied by a Châteauneuf-de-Rubens. Near ‘New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings the glowing fireplace and with a romantic view from the castle’s windows we could all and Woodcuts’ series. Both Rubens’s personal imagine Rubens relishing his Vin d’Ay and watching his savoury figs and pears grow in the engagement with the print production after his works, as garden. | Lieneke Nijkamp well as the countless reproduction prints in the centuries after Rubens, make theirs an enormous undertaking, on which a report will follow in our Quarterly’s summer issue. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Dr Anne-Marie Logan indefatigably continues working on her complete catalogue of Rubens’s drawings, that is to appear as a part of the highly regarded Brepols ‘Pictura Nova’ series. This striking coincidence of ambitious and encompassing standard works on Rubens’s oeuvre goes on to demonstrate the need to map and analyse his vast and influential artistic legacy. Obviously, all publication projects mentioned here will benefit from their respective advancements, as well as from the ever-reliable study collections at the Rubenianum. Véronique Van de Kerckhof Photo by Kwong Gueng To Gueng Kwong by Photo Director of the Rubenianum Corpus Rubenianum Hans Devisscher & Hans Vlieghe: some of their youthful servants, while the The Life of Christ before the Passion. 1. The Youth of Christ background is reserved for the royal retinue. (Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part V/1), London: Harvey Miller, 2014 To make the members of the retinue visible to the viewer, and to enable them to watch the Adoration scene, they are frequently The paintings that Rubens devoted to compositional types: one in which the placed on a flight of steps. This idea of scenes from Christ’s youth are among shepherds or shepherdesses stand or kneel using a flight of steps to fill the composition the most impressive and influential around the manger, and a second type plane with figures to the top was a new examples of art expressing Roman Catholic in which the shepherds are depicted as a and typically Rubensian device. For the spirituality as reasserted by the Council single close-knit group that approaches the horizontally elaborated type with the broadly of Trent. The vast majority of these manger from the left or the right. Rubens conceived procession of the royal retinue, works are Rubens’s numerous images of did not introduce either of these two Rubens again drew on the existing tradition, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the compositional schemes; in both cases he as crystallized in works by Veronese, Bassano Adoration of the Magi. The oldest sources built on existing artistic traditions. For works and Maarten de Vos. for these and other scenes from Christ’s in which shepherds and shepherdesses are Both the Adoration of the Shepherds early years are of course the accounts in sitting or kneeling around the manger, their and the Adoration of the Magi are the Gospels of St Luke and St Matthew. attention totally absorbed by the Child subjects that are wholly attuned to the However, these are extremely brief and being shown to them by the Virgin Mary, iconographical views of the Counter- do not give artists sufficient material are very common in Netherlandish art of Reformation. Essentially, all these scenes on which to base their paintings. From the sixteenth century, as we see in works by revolve around the glorification of Christ the earliest times, artists therefore drew Frans Floris and Maarten de Vos. The second by angels, shepherds and kings, together on other sources: passages from the type, with the group of shepherds rushing symbolizing the community of Christian Apocrypha, prefigurations in the Old to the scene, appears rather to be Italian believers. In line with the views of the Testament, descriptions in legends and in origin. It can certainly be encountered, Counter-Reformation, the compositions are pious tales, and details from the Mystery in any case, in works by Titian and Jacopo never complex: they exude simplicity and Plays. In his interpretations of the themes Bassano. clarity. As far as possible, the protagonists of the Adoration of the Shepherds and the The images of the Adoration of the Magi are placed in the foreground. With their Adoration of the Magi, Rubens built to a can also be divided into two distinct types. direct appeal, these lucid compositions forge large extent on the artistic tradition that Unlike those depicting the Adoration of a psychological connection: the viewer feels had developed in the Low Countries and the Shepherds, these types are largely directly involved in the event, and even has Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. distinguished by their compositional the sense of participating in it. The believer is Rubens’s images of the Adoration of format – either horizontal or vertical. thus invited to join the angels, shepherds and the Shepherds are always set in a stable, The horizontal scenes focus heavily on the kings in glorifying the Christ Child. These suggested by the presence of a hay loft, a kings’ retinue, which takes the form of a Adoration scenes therefore encapsulate the hay rack, an impressive beam structure or magnificent procession. In the scenes with concept that the salvation of humankind is miscellaneous farming implements. These a vertical format, the foreground is generally made possible by faith in Jesus Christ and his scenes can be divided into two distinct occupied by the Holy Family, the kings and sacrifice, and by its commemoration in the Eucharist. The emphasis on the Eucharist and on Mary’s role, it should be added, is entirely consistent with the views of the Counter-Reformation. By emphasizing this emphatically Catholic idea, the Roman Catholic Church sought to affirm its own principles as opposed to those of Reformed Protestants. Although Rubens’s scenes from the earliest days of Christ, before or after his birth, constitute a far smaller proportion of his religious oeuvre than the Adoration scenes described above, they are equally illustrative of the approach dictated by Counter-Reformation theorists.
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