Peter Paul Rubens

Notice accompagnant la présentation du livre de Rubens consacré aux "plans et élévations des plus beaux palais et édifices" de Gênes, édition de 1755. Notice parue dans le catalogue de l'exposition "Trésors de la Bibliothèque artistique" de la ville de Bruxelles, mars 2000.

A HUNTING SCENE BY PAUL DE VOS: ALLEGORY OF ARISTOCRACY, POWER AND FORCE.

We are faced with a magnificent pictorial example of aristocratic Flemish
taste from the 17th century, a masterpiece by Paul de Vos that depicts the
outcome of a hunting scene in which a pack of seven greyhounds corners
two foxes, surprised while killing a rooster. The immediacy of the
scene and the rhythm of the narrative create a composition of tremendous
dramatic intensity with an allegorical character that can be contextualized
in the struggle for Habsburg hegemony in the Netherlands. Nonetheless, it
fulfills the aesthetic standards of the time in Flanders, marked by the
preference for grandeur and the monumentality of large formats.

UNA ESCENA DE CAZA DE PAUL DE VOS: ALEGORÍA DEL USO DEL PODER Y LA FUERZA.

Nos encontramos ante un magnífico ejemplo pictórico del gusto
aristocrático flamenco del siglo XVII, una obra maestra de Paul de Vos que representa el desenlace de una escena de caza en la que una jauría de siete lebreles acorrala a dos zorros sorprendidos matando a un gallo. La inmediatez de la escena y el ritmo del relato conforman una composición de una enorme carga dramática con un carácter alegórico contextualizable en la lucha por la hegemonía de los Habsburgo en los Países Bajos, sin menoscabo de cumplir de forma excelente con los cánones de la estética del momento en Flandes, marcada por el gusto del aparato y la monumentalidad de los grandes formatos.

Ever since the transcription and publication  in 1864 of the Liggeren, the register of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke, 11th February 1618 has been widely accepted as the date on which Anthony van Dyck enrolled as
a free master and became a painter in his own right. However, an examination of the Liggeren, alongside the manuscript accounts book kept by the printer Jan Moretus II, who was Dean of the Guild in the guild year 1616–17, leads to the conclusion that Van Dyck became a free master four months earlier, on St Luke’s Day, 18th October 1617.

This  essay  examines  early  modern  alba  amicorum  as  collections  of  social  and  intel-lectual networks, personal memories, and other textual and visual materials. In what way are these ‘paper worlds’ related to collections of objects, and to networks of con-nections? How do they interact with other book and manuscript genres, such as the emblem and the costume book? Taking the album of the Dutch collector Bernardus Paludanus  (1550-1633)  as  a  case  study,  an  argument  will  be  made  regarding  the  conceptual  and  material  kinship  of  alba  with  other  forms  of  manuscript  and  print  collections. The intermediality and materiality of friendship books will be shown to be crucial aspects for understanding how this medium functioned within early modern cultures of collecting and the communal production of memory and knowledge.

Dating the wood from historical art objects is a crucial step to ascertain their production time, and support or refute attribution to an artist or a workshop. Dendrochronology is commonly used for this purpose but requires access to the tree-ring pattern in the wood, which can be hindered by preparatory layers, polychromy, wax, or integrated frames. Here we implemented non-invasive dendrochronology based on X-ray computed tomography (CT) to examine a painting on panel attributed to Rubens’ studio and its presumed dating around 1636 CE. The CT images achieved a resolution of 37.3 micron and revealed a double panelling, which was concealed by oak strips covering all four edges. The back (visible) board is made of deciduous oak (Quercus subg. Quercus), the most common type of wood used in 17th-century Netherlandish workshops, and was dated terminus post quem after 1557 CE. However, the front (original) board used for the painting has been identified through examination of the wood ana...

This painting of the young artist on a biblical theme is usually analyzed by traditional art theory emphasing the Chiaroscuro. Recently arose  the possibility of the astralmythological analysis.
This method offers at least as much information about the ideas belonging to the painting as the traditional  methods.

Estudio y catálogo de la exposición de Teodosio Magnoni en el Palacio Quintanar, que reconoce su lugar como figura esencial de la escultura en Italia durante el último medio siglo. La exposición está concebida como proyecto 'site specific' y como retrospectiva de su trabajo, con el fin de construir una serie de ambientes que permitan contemplar su evolución personal, presentada bajo el concepto de “habitar” desarrollado por el artista.

This paper examines the uses of allegory in early modern and contemporary art. I discuss allegory as a poetic and visual means, creating a multiplicity of meanings, and positing the image as a ruin. Referencing previous discussions of allegory by Walter Benjamin (1963, 2010), Peter Burke (1997), Craige Owens (1980), among others, I discuss the reliance of allegory on iconographical precedents and its fragmentary nature. These points are exemplified through paintings from the 17th century, by Peter Paul Rubens and Diego Velazquez, and contemporary artworks by Joseph Beuys and Francis Alÿs.

16° Congresso Internazionale di Studi sul XVIII Secolo: L’Antichità e la costruzione del futuro nel secolo dei Lumi (Roma, Sapienza Università-Università Tor Vergata, 3-7 luglio 2023).
Full programme available at https://www.isecs-roma2023.net/

Se già finora era nutrito il repertorio di dipinti di soggetto giocoso eseguiti da Giovanni Domenico Ferretti (1692-1768), con questo testo si rende nota l’individuazione di una nuova serie di quadri raffigurante i Travestimenti di Arlecchino, genere che ha reso celebre nel mondo il pittore fiorentino, ma che ha visto anche la partecipazione del meno noto Francesco Gambacciani (1701 - morto dopo il 1782), artista spesso all’opera per la famiglia senese dei Sansedoni. Questo gruppo è diviso in varie collezioni private, e in origine probabilmente era composto di un numero maggiore di opere rispetto ai nuclei finora conosciuti. Si compone infatti anche di tele con composizioni tratte dalle incisioni teatrali di Johann Balthasar Probst (1673-1750) su disegno di Johann Jacob Schübler (1689-1741), facenti parte di una serie di dodici scenette di uno spettacolo di Commedia dell’Arte.
Sarebbe plausibile che questi quadri costituissero uno dei gruppi che i documenti senesi testimoniano nel salotto del camino della villa di Basciano, presso Monteriggioni, oppure nel palazzo Gori Pannilini a Sinalunga, entrambi eseguiti su suggestione di Giovanni Sansedoni.

Portraiture evidently suited Jan Lievens (1607-1674) well. His earliest independent work, according to Jan Jacobsz Orlers (1570-1646), was a likeness of his mother that earned him immediate local fame.1 Later, Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) encouraged the young Lievens in the same direction. Despite his initial misgivings, Lievens produced a striking and memorable likeness of the Stadholder's secretary, even evoking his preoccupied state of mind (fig. 2).2 It was certainly the right specialty for his subsequent move to London (1632), where Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) was kept busy with portrait commissions. Lievens did not break through the market there, however, and proceeded to Antwerp (1634). He evidently sought courtly patronage, such as he later achieved with commissions in The Hague and Berlin.3 Recently, a portrait has resurfaced that strongly suggests that he did achieve at least one high-level commission for a portrait painting during his nine years in the city on the Scheldt.

Статья посвящена атрибуции французской, германской, английской и польской печатной графики: Франсуа Раго (1638–1670), Даниэль Ходовецкий (1726–1801), Уильям Элмс (годы активности 1797–1816), Станислав Подгорский (1882–1964)/ The article is devoted to the attribution of French, German, English and Polish printed graphics: Francois Ragot (1638–1670), Daniel Chodowiecki (1726–1801), William Elmes (active years 1797–1816), Stanislaw Podgorski (1882–1964).

In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Netherlandish carved altarpieces enjoyed great popularity both in the Low Countries and internationally. They were transported over land and sea to the Germanic territories (especially the Rhineland and Westphalia), France, the Iberian Peninsula, the Baltic Region, Poland, and Scandinavia. Today, over 350 of these altarpieces are preserved worldwide. Sweden was one of the principal export markets for these artworks from around 1470: in terms of the medieval “borders”, we can say that 39 Netherlandish carved retables, about ten altarpiece fragments, and two poupées de Malines are preserved there. This research aims to shed light on the way these retables were transported – at each stage of the journey – and the roles of all those involved. The talk will focus on the formal preparations to be made before a Netherlandish carved altarpiece could be transported to its foreign destination, the actual transport over land and sea, and the services provided upon arrival.

Once upon a time, political leaders evoked a “classical” style “to visually connect [the] contemporary Republic with the antecedents of democracy in classical antiquity, reminding citizens not only of their rights but also their responsibilities in maintaining and perpetuating its institutions.” This quote aptly summarizes the gist of Richard Thomson’s latest book on French art and visual culture during the first decades of the Third Republic. The words I cite here come not from Thomson, however. Quite the contrary: they appear in President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 “Executive Order on Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture.” As the source suggests, the evocation of the classical past as a model for the present is now overwhelmingly an affair of the right. And yet, this was not always the case. The strength and indeed the urgency of The Presence of the Past is its demonstration of the mutability of the political significance of past art. As Thomson shows, both left and right in Third Republic France--artists,
arts administrators, art historians, and politicians--sought to legitimize and enrich their art and ideology through dialogue with and emulation of Greco-Roman antiquity, the quattrocento, and even the painting of Peter Paul Rubens.

This chapter interprets Titian’s painting as an allegory of peace, integrating the mythological account of Mars and Venus, with a political symbol of balance, as represented by the sphere held by the female protagonist. The mythological story of Mars and Venus’ love affair as told by Lucretius, Statius, and  Plutarch, and the visual representations that followed this tradition, are discussed as the sources for Titian’s painting. Contrary to previous readings of the glass sphere held by the female protagonist as a symbol of transience or inconsistency, it is discussed as a sign of balance, in relation to an iconographical precedent. This new reading of Titian’s Allegory is strengthened by the consideration of its influence on successive allegorical paintings of peace.

The chapter is part of the volume Titian's Allegory of Marriage: New Approaches, edited by Daniel M. Unger, Amsterdam University Press

Dieses Buch widmet sich den historischen Architekturzeichnungen aus der Sammlung des Architekten Albrecht Haupt (1852–1932), die in der Technischen Informationsbibliothek Hannover aufbewahrt werden. Es sind Blätter aus allen Epochen der Neuzeit (16.–19. Jahrhundert) sowie aus vielen europäischen Ländern (Italien, Frankreich, Deutschland, Niederlande, Tschechien, Österreich, Portugal, Schweden).

Im Rahmen eines mehrjährigen Forschungsprojektes wurde der Gesamtbestand gesichtet und erschlossen. Eine Auswahl von 100 herausragenden Blättern wird in diesem Buch durch einen großen Kreis internationaler Expertinnen und Experten dokumentiert und gewürdigt. Darüber hinaus beleuchten vier einführende Beiträge die Genese und Bedeutung der Sammlung Albrecht Haupt.

Are only internists able to diagnose a disease based on the patient's appearance, gait, and behaviour? There are many cases of presenting somatic diseases in the art of painting compellingly. Still, there are also paintings where the disease, and even more so the oncological one, is hidden. It may not be widely known at the time. The work aims to rehabilitate Rembrandt's Betszeba, wrongly regarded since the 1970s as an example of breast cancer, and to show Rubens's canvases, which do not hide the deformations of breast tumors. The analysis of impurities, stains and varnish deformations is becoming more and more precise thanks to modern methods of X-ray spectrophotometry. In some cases, we see that an effect once considered a disease resulted from artifacts of reconstruction or restoration of the image. Conclusions: there is strong evidence that in the case of Rembrandt's "Bethsheba in the Bath", David's wife or Henrikje Stoffels did not have breast cancer. Other paintings made by Rembrandt and Rubens illustrate a disease. It is puzzling that the artists tried to reflect the realistic nature of the human body, regardless of the existence of possible pathology.