Video: Women from Rubens's Canvases: Grotesque or Nature's Bounty?
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
June 28 marks the 439th anniversary of the birth of the famous Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens … Disputes about Rubens' "graces" have been going on for decades. Nothing is more subject to frequent changes than aesthetic ideals and beauty canons. And this topic haunts art critics and art lovers: so what did the artist embody in his works - his own preferences, the ideals of the Renaissance, or their ironic exaggeration?
Rubens' work is considered a link between two cultural eras - the Renaissance and the 17th century. As you know, ancient traditions were revived in the culture of the Renaissance, with their cultivation of the beauty of the human body, the glorification of freedom and harmony, the depiction of nudity - everything that was prohibited during the Middle Ages. An emphasized corporeality comes to replace abstract spirituality, and sensual beauty is rehabilitated. Nature is no longer opposed to God, but is perceived as his embodiment on earth, just like human beauty.
The idea of female beauty was fully consistent with the spirit of the era itself: magnificent forms were perceived as evidence of physical health and inner greatness. Brantom writes: “That is why obese women deserve preference, if only for the sake of their beauty and greatness, for they are valued for these latter, as well as for their other perfections. So, it is much more pleasant to drive a tall and handsome war horse, and the latter gives the rider much more pleasure than a small nag. Rubens largely adhered to the aesthetics of the Renaissance, although this alone cannot explain the ideal of beauty he created.
Rubens is also often called the founder of Baroque painting, although this statement is sometimes questioned. This is true when it comes to the splendor and richness of colors, the depiction of heavy figures in rapid motion, in moments of incredible emotional stress. One of his admirers, a French artist of the 19th century. Eugene Delacroix said: "His main quality is a piercing spirit, that is, an amazing life." In the work of Rubens, the baroque corporeality and ponderous beauty were really embodied, but the conventionality inherent in the baroque gives way to the pressure of living reality.
The ideal of Rubens' beauty is far from both classical canons and modern ideas about it. However, to his contemporaries, puffy beauties did not seem either overweight or ugly. The artist himself shared the tastes of most representatives of his era: he portrayed his "grace" with obvious admiration, without a shadow of irony and without exaggeration. Every millimeter of their bodily imperfections is written out with such care and love that there is no doubt: Rubens really admired this type of beauty and considered it ideal for portraying.
Confirmation that the formation of his ideals was influenced not only by the aesthetics of the Renaissance, but also by personal preferences, is the fact that the artist was married to women of this type and painted them with love and admiration all his life. The features of Isabella Brandt and Elena Fourman are endowed with female characters in many of Rubens' paintings. The art historian E. Fromentin wrote: “It seems that a certain female type settled in the artist's heart, which seemed to him ideal, since both of his wives could be equally attributed to this type of beauty. Rubens' world was closed to everyone else."
Since the time of Rubens, the concept of female beauty has significantly transformed. The history of the great weight loss: from curvy Rubens women to modern anorexic women in 500 years
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