Peter Paul Rubens
(Siegen 1577 – Antwerp 1640)
Peter Paul Rubens was born in Siegen in Germany, but from the age of ten he lived in Antwerp, where he also went to school. At the age of 13, Peter Paul Rubens was a court page for a countess for a short time, which he did not like, so he started an education as an artist. His teachers were the painters Tobias Verhaecht (Verhaegt), Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen. In 1598 he completed his apprenticeship and was admitted to the Antwerp painters' guild.
In 1600 Rubens made his first journey to Italy to study Titian, Veronese and other artists. The Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua became aware of him and hired Rubens as court painter in Mantua. His first major work was created here, the Descent from the Cross for the chapel of Eleonora de' Medici. In Mantua Rubens found a lot of inspiration for his artistic work, for example in the frescoes of Giulio Romano and the works of Mantegna.
After a lengthy stay in Rome, Rubens traveled to the Spanish court in Madrid in 1603, acting as a bearer of gifts. In 1604 he returned to Mantua and painted a triptych for the Jesuit Church.
In Rome in 1605 Rubens created a three-part altarpiece on slates for Santa Maria in Vallicella, which he completed in 1608.
In 1608 Rubens also received news of his mother's illness and he returned to Antwerp. Even after her death, he stayed there, mourning, and waiting for the fulfillment of the promise made by the governors of the Spanish Netherlands - Archduke Albert and his wife Isabella - to appoint him court painter.
Rubens' most important patron became the Antwerp mayor, in whose house he met Isabella Brant, who became his wife.
Lucrative commissions from the upper classes followed, and in 1610 he was finally appointed court painter.
In 1611 he furnished his magnificent new home with his art collection and his daughter Clara was born. Rubens soon had many students in his studio. Pictures such as the Adoration of the Magi (1610, Madrid), the Altar of Saint Ildefonso (Vienna) and a picture showing him and his wife sitting in an arbor (Munich, Alte Pinakothek) were created during this creative period. The Elevation and Descent of the Cross, both dramatic moving images in the Church of Our Lady in Antwerp, are reminiscent of Michelangelo and Caravaggio.
Rubens was in great demand, wealthy and the number of his students grew steadily.
In 1622 Rubens followed Maria de' Medici's call to Paris to decorate her new Palais Luxembourg there with depictions of important scenes from her life - the so-called Medici cycle (1622-25).
Rubens made the sketches and then had his students do the paintings. He first revised the final versions of the paintings himself and personally brought the paintings to Paris.
In 1622 and 1623 Rubens painted cartoons for a series of tapestries for Louis XIII.
From 1623 Rubens also worked as a diplomat for peace negotiations, in the service of Archduchess Isabella. So, in 1628 he was sent to Spain for this purpose. There the painter gained the king's trust, became secretary of the Privy Council and also created several paintings during his stay in Madrid.
In 1629 he was sent from Madrid to London for peace negotiations with the English king concerning Spain and England. In 1630 the peace treaty was signed and Charles I of England subsequently knighted Rubens. Rubens was also active as a painter in London.
In 1630, after the death of his first wife, Rubens married Helene Fourment, then sixteen years old, who was often his model.
In his late work, Rubens himself almost exclusively made the sketches for the numerous commissions for paintings and left most of the execution to his students. Rubens now also had a country residence near Mechelen and no longer lived only in the city. From 1635 he mainly created easel paintings of finer execution.
Rubens died in 1640 at the age of 63 after suffering from gout for a long time.
His widow Helene commissioned the painter Johann Bockhorst (from Münster) to finish her husband's unfinished works. The proceeds from the sale of his estate amounted to 1,010,000 guilders.
Since 1963, Ruben's works have been cared for scientifically and classified by the Corpus Rubenianum, founded by the art historian Ludwig Burchard. This is not an easy task for the numerous scientists working on this project, which has been ongoing for more than half a century, since each work has to be assigned: individual, collaborative, workshop, school, etc. Of course, this attribution is also decisive for the market price of a painting and changing competences in the corpus and their new publications also ensure that the work of an art dealer never gets boring.