Pieter Paul Rubens, The Adoration of the Magi | Antwerp, KMSKA Royal Museum of Fine Arts
The Adoration of the Magi
Rubens and the Baroque
In 1624 Peter Paul Rubens painted a monumental work for the high altar of Saint Michael’s Abbey in Antwerp. The subject was a familiar Biblical scene: the visit of the three kings to the newborn Christ-child. The abbey no longer exists, but the painting remains a high point in Baroque art.
Rubens places us in the middle of the Christmas stall where Mary is showing her son Jesus to the three wise men from the East. The painter has used every means at his disposal to evoke the excitement surrounding the birth. The onlookers with their lively facial expressions look on or express their amazement with gestures. The presence of exotically dressed figures is also striking. The Ethiopian king Balthasar dominates the middle section of the painting. The palette is particularly colourful. The reddish-brown tints give the scene a warm glow. Rubens used assured brushstrokes and used chiaroscuro effects. His technique enabled him to paint fast, so that he could keep up with the stream of orders.
Kris Vandevorst
The basilica of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel breathes the spirit of the Counter-Reformation. This star-shaped, cupola-topped church is the masterpiece of the architect Wenzel Coebergher (1557-1634) and was built after being commissioned by the arch-dukes Albrecht (1559-1621) and Isabella (1566-1633) to give thanks for the capture of Ostend from the Calvinist rebels from the Northern Netherlands (1604). The Baroque basilica is today the best-known shrine of the Virgin Mary and place of pilgrimage in Flanders.
Rubens and the Baroque
Peter Paul Rubens was born in 1577 near Cologne. After the death of his father his mother returned to Antwerp, where the family came from. Rubens trained as a painter and in 1600 left to spend eight years in Italy. There he was inspired by artists like Titian and Caravaggio. Back home Rubens emerged as an exceptionally productive master, who practised every genre. Besides landscapes and portraits he painted religious and mythological scenes on a large scale. For these he drew on his wide knowledge of Classical antiquity and literary traditions. In his studio in Antwerp he made oil sketches, which his pupils worked in large format. More than two thousand paintings left his studio.
With his religious works Rubens supported the Counter-Reformation. This was the Catholic church’s answer to Protestantism. With the Counter-Reformation the church not only initiated internal reform, but wanted to make its own teachings attractive again. The flamboyant Baroque style proved particularly suited to focusing on religious truths. Because of the Iconoclastic Fury many works of art had disappeared from churches. The art of the Counter-Reformation brought Mary and the saints back triumphantly. Imposing altarpieces and sculptures were designed to appeal to church visitors with easily recognisable subjects. This new décor changed the interior of many church buildings.
Focal points
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Charles I during the Hunt or Le Roi à la chasse. Anthony van Dyck was portrait painter to the English royal family during the reign of Charles I (1600-1649). He helped determine the image of the Stuart dynasty.
Rubens as an Inspiration: Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens
The influence of Rubens can scarcely be overestimated. Anthony van Dyck was his most talented pupil and later his assistant. Within a short space of time he managed to equal Rubens. He also went to Italy. After his return to Antwerp Van Dyck painted religious themes in a new, emotional style and developed variations on the bourgeois portrait. His international breakthrough came with his appointment as court painter to Charles I of England. In London he painted iconic works that added a new dimension to European portrait painting.
After the death of Rubens (1640) and Van Dyck (1641) Jacob Jordaens remained active for more than thirty years. The versatile artist painted both portraits and Biblical and mythological themes and in addition was active as a designer of wall hangings. He excelled at genre pieces. Those colourful and humorous scenes from everyday life usually had a moralising undertone.
Towards the end of the 17th century the great blossoming was over, but the legacy of the great Antwerp Baroque painters proved indestructible. In the 19th century Romantic artists like Gustaaf Wappers and Nicaise De Keyser again took their inspiration from Rubens’ style. In 1843 Rubens was given a statue on the Groenplaats in Antwerp, and since 1946 his house on the Wapper has been a museum. It attracts around 200,000 visitors a year from all over the world.
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado
Clara Peeters, Still-Life with flowers, gilded cup, almonds, dried fruit, sweets, biscuits, wine and a tin jug.
Clara Peeters
Baroque painting is often associated with religious and mythological scenes, executed in a bombastic style. But the Baroque period also had another side. Very popular with the rich bourgeoisie were also small and refined still lifes: scenes of bouquets, set tables or precious glassware. Women artists often specialised in this genre. They were not allowed to draw live nudes. Hence they chose subjects for which no anatomical knowledge was necessary.
Clara Peeters was one such painter of still lifes. This contemporary and fellow-townswoman of Rubens was very successful during her lifetime, but today little is known about her. Her scenes of crockery and cutlery, fishes, sugar dishes, flowers and shells demonstrate a particularly sharp observational capacity, refined technique, and subtle use of colour. The laid tables look attractive. But don’t be mistaken: each object in a Baroque still life refers to transience. The most magnificent flowers will fade, the cheese will be covered in mould, the wine glass will smash to smithereens. It was advice to viewers to use their time well in the short life granted to them.
Women were for a long time undervalued in the history of European art, but that is gradually changing. In 2016 Clara Peeters, as the first female artist ever, was given a monographic exhibition at the Prado in Madrid.
Discover more on this topic
Meer vrouw op straat – Antwerpen
Bron: VRT archief, De chinezen – 3 ma 2020
Een nacht in het museum – Wim Willaert
Bron: VRT archief, KMSKA – 20 sep 2022
Een nacht in het museum – Wim Willaert
Bron: VRT archief, KMSKA – 20 sep 2022
Weg van het meesterwerk – Rubens – Diana & haar nimfen maken zich klaar voor de jacht
Bron: VRT archief, Sylvester Productions – 4 sep 2019
Kunstwerk XL
Bron: VRT archief, KMKSA – 22 sep 2022
Journaal
Bron: VRT archief – 17 feb 2009
Non-fiction
Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture
Yale University Press, 2016.
Rubens, Van Dyck & Jordaens. Vlaamse schilders uit de Hermitage
Mercatorfonds, 2011.
Van Dyck. A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings
Yale University Press, 2004.
Een huis vol kunst: Rubens als verzamelaar
BAI, 2004.
Rubens: De schilder van mythen en goden
Meulenhoff, 2017.
Rubens’s House
Brepols, 2022.
Liefde, leed en passie: de vrouwen van Rubens
Van Halewyck, 2002.
The Age of Rubens. Diplomacy, Dynastic Politics and the Visual Arts in early seventeenth-century Europe
Brepols 2016.
Van Dyck and the Making of English Portraiture
Yale University Press, 2022.
Van Quinten Metsijs tot Peter Paul Rubens
BAI, 2009.
Jordaens. The Making of a Masterpiece
Statens Museum for Kunst, 2008.
De Grote Rubens Atlas
Lannoo, 2018.
Rubens doorgelicht: Schilderijen uit verdwenen Antwerpse kerken
Snoeck, 2013.
Pieter Paul Rubens
De Bezige Bij, 2004.
De Brieven Van Rubens
De Bezige Bij, 2006.
Oude meesteressen: vrouwelijke kunstenaars in de Nederlanden
Van Halewyck, 1998.
Black is Beautiful. Rubens tot Dumas
WBooks, 2008.
Rubens. Schilder van schetsen
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2022.
De meester van de schaduw: Peter Paul Rubens, geheim agent
De Bezige Bij, 2009.
De mooiste meesterwerken van Rubens
Het Laatste Nieuws, 2004.
Overzicht van leven en werk van de Vlaamse schilder (1577-1640)
Snoeck, 2004.
Rubens privé: de meester portretteert zijn familie
Marot, 2015.
Hoofd- en bijzaak. Portretkunst in Vlaanderen van 1420 tot nu
Davidsfonds –Waanders Uitgevers, 2008.
Van Dyck
Lannoo, 1998.
Elck zijn waerom: vrouwelijke kunstenaars in België en Nederland, 1500-1950
Ludion, 1999.
Copyright Rubens: Rubens en de grafiek
De Bezige Bij, 2004.
Sensatie en sensualiteit: Rubens en zijn erfenis
Mercatorfonds, 2014.
Rubens: een genie aan het werk
Lannoo, 2007.
Jordaens en de Antieken
Mercatorfonds, 2012.
Rubens and the Human Body
Brepols, 2018.
The Young Van Dyck
Thames & Hudson, 2013.
Anthony Van Dyck and the Art of Portraiture
Modern Art Press, 2021.
Rubens en Breughel: een artistieke vriendschap
WBooks, 2006.
Fiction
De Graveur
Horizon, 2022.
Rubensrood
Triloga, 2007.
Het geheim van de Vlaamse Meesters
De Eenhoorn, 2019. (9+)
Suske en Wiske: De Raap van Rubens (nr. 109)
Standaard, 1977.
Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture
Exhibition
Van Dyck: a collection of 449 paintings
Over Van Dyck en zijn invloed
Rubens, opera in verf
Rubens bewandelt het leven
Stay at home Museum
Episode 3: Rubens
Learn From Masters, Jacob Jordaens, a collection of 154 paintings
