Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Contents The Highlights ADAM AND EVE THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS THE MADONNA DI VALLICELLA, ST. GREGORY THE GREAT AND SAINTS SAMSON AND DELIAH RUBENS AND ISABELLA BRUNT UNDER A HONEYSUCKLE BOWER THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS LANDSCAPE WITH CARTERS THE RAPE OF THE DAUGHTERS OF LEUCIPPUS A TIGER HUNT PORTRAIT OF SUSANNA FOURMENT HENRY IV RECEIVING THE PORTRAIT OF MARIE DE’ MEDICI THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN LUDOVICUS NONNIUS PEACE AND WAR THE GARDEN OF LOVE VENUS AND ADONIS CONSEQUENCES OF WAR SELF-PORTRAIT The Paintings THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS The Drawings LIST OF DRAWINGS The Biographies RUBENS by S. L. Bensusan RUBENS by Jennie Ellis Keysor RUBENS by Sarah K. Bolton © Delphi Classics 2015 Version 1 Masters of Art Series Sir Peter Paul Rubens By Delphi Classics, 2015 The Highlights Siegen, a German city in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia — Rubens’ birthplace Possible self-portrait of Rubens as a young man THE HIGHLIGHTS In this section, a sample of some of Rubens’ most celebrated works is provided, with concise introductions, special ‘detail’ reproductions and additional biographical images. ADAM AND EVE Peter Paul Rubens was born in the German city of Siegen, Nassau-Dillenburg, to Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks. Following the increased religious turmoil and persecution of Protestants during the Duke of Alba’s reign of the Spanish Netherlands, Rubens’ Calvinist parents fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568. Jan Rubens settled at the court of Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William I of Orange, in Siegen in 1570, becoming first the legal advisor and then the lover of Anna. In consequence of his father’s imprisonment for this affair, Rubens’ mother decided to return to Cologne the following year. In 1589, two years after his father’s death, Rubens moved with his mother to Antwerp, where he was then raised as a Catholic. Religion was to figure prominently in much of his work and the artist later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter- Reformation style of painting. In Antwerp, Rubens received a humanist education, studying Latin and classical literature, before starting his artistic apprenticeship with Tobias Verhaeght at the age of fourteen. Subsequently, he studied under two of the city’s leading painters of the time, the late Mannerist artists Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen. Much of Rubens’ earliest training involved copying the works of great masters, such as woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger and Marcantonio Raimondi’s engravings after Raphael. Rubens completed his education in 1598, at which time he entered the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master in his own right. Held in the Rubenshuis in Antwerp, Adam and Eve, a panel depicting the fall from grace of the biblical first humans, is one of the few surviving paintings from this period. The panel demonstrates the influence of Otto van Veen, Rubens’ last and most influential teacher. The use of colour, with predominant