by Mark Lamster
“They almost crossed themselves”: Rubens to Chieppio, March 18, 1603, in ibid., 24. Rubens lamented that he had paid heed to the Mantuan court’s “busybodies and pseudo-experts.”
“No one can accuse me of negligence”: Rubens to Chieppio, April 2, 1603, in ibid., 29.
“I hope that for this first mission”: Rubens to the Duke of Mantua, May 17, 1603, in ibid., 30–31.
“I regret that I am poor”: Rubens to Chieppio, May 17, 1603, in ibid., 32.
“Malicious fate”: Rubens to Chieppio, May 24, 1603, in ibid., 32–34.
“God keep me from resembling them”: Ibid., 33. The most distinguished Spanish painter of the time was the preternaturally strange El Greco. A prejudice against Spanish painting of this period lasted for centuries. In his Recollections of Rubens, written at the end of the nineteenth century, the historian Jacob Burckhardt wrote, regarding Rubens’s equestrian portrait of Lerma, “There was no other painter in the whole country who could have produced anything tolerable in that genre.” (4)
“Flemish painting”: Michelangelo, quoted in Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art, 88.
Democritus and Heraclitus: Their stories were found in Seneca and Juvenal, favorites of Rubens, and more recently in an essay by Montaigne with which he may well have been familiar.
“He could still have reserved”: Rubens to Chieppio, July 17, 1603, in LPPR, 35.
“great satisfaction”: Rubens to the Duke of Mantua, July 17, 1603, in ibid., 34.
“I do not fear”: Rubens to Chieppio, Sept. 15, 1603, in ibid., 36.
fairly complimentary in his reports: Iberti to the Duke of Mantua, Sept. 15, 1603, in Rooses and Ruelens, Correspondance de Rubens et documents épistolaires (henceforth CDR), 1:210. Iberti wrote, “I believe that what he will give me is sincere, because he seems to me an honest man.”
“I should not have to waste more time”: Rubens to Chieppio, Nov. 1603, in LPPR, 37–38.
“Qui timide rogat”: The epigram is spoken by the character Phaedra in Seneca’s drama of that title, itself an adaptation of Hippolytus, by Euripedes.
“Aegeus was less anxious”: Philip Rubens to Peter Paul Rubens, 1604, quoted in Lescourret, Double Life, 241–42.
“the citie which of all other places”: Thomas Coryat, quoted in Chambers and Martineau, Splendours of the Gonzaga, xvii.
The Mantuan Circle of Friends: On the speculation that Galileo appears in the painting, see Reeves, Painting the Heavens.
that leather-bound book: According to an early biographer, Giovanni Pietro Bellori, who saw the book before its destruction in the eighteenth century, there were “observations on optics, on symmetry, on proportions, on anatomy and on architecture, with an inquiry into the principal passions of the soul, and actions based on descriptions by Poets, with examples of the work of the painters.” Quoted in Logan, Peter Paul Rubens, 18–19. The book is essential on Rubens’s work as a draftsman.
Santa Croce: A scandal involving the church’s “true cross” fragments also reflected badly on the archduke. On this, and the commission generally, see Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes, 99–101.
the son of Jean Richardot: Another of Richardot’s progeny, Guillaume, was at present traveling as a student with Philip Rubens in Italy. He appears, along with Philip, Peter Paul, Justus Lipsius, and presumably Galileo, in Rubens’s Mantuan Circle of Friends.
“out of pure necessity”: Rubens to Chieppio, Dec. 2, 1606, in LPPR, 39–40.
Rubens admired Caravaggio: On Rubens’s affinity for the Italian, and his purchase of the Death of the Virgin for Vincenzo, see Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes, 131–33.
a gentleman scholar: The art historian Julius Held has stated “flatly” that Rubens was “the most learned artist who ever lived.” Rubens and His Circle, 167.
“I know not which to praise most”: Quoted in Rooses, Rubens, 212.
“by far the best”: Rubens to Chieppio, Feb. 2, 1608, in LPPR, 42–43.
“As he is my vassal”: Archduke Albert to the Duke of Mantua, Aug. 5, 1607, in CDR, 1:388.
“It will be hard for me”: Rubens to Chieppio, Oct. 28, 1608, in LPPR, 45–46.
CHAPTER II: EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF
“Who is of so hard and flinty a heart”: Lipsius, Tvvo Bookes of Constancie, 72.
Maria had taken care: On Maria’s will, see Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes, 134. See also Rooses, Rubens, 3.
“for the bewtie”: Carleton to John Chamberlain, Dec. 15, 1616, in Sainsbury, Original Unpublished Papers Illustrative of the Life of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Henceforth, Sainsbury), 9–12.
his family’s sad story: On the Rubens family background, see Rooses, Rubens, 2–3.
a thriving metropolis: On Antwerp’s golden years, see especially Isacker and Uytven, Antwerp; Murray, Antwerp in the Age of Plantin and Brueghel;Van der Stock, Antwerp; and Sutton, Age of Rubens, especially Sutton’s essay “The Spanish Netherlands in the Age of Rubens,” 106–30, and David Freedberg’s, “Painting and the Counter Reformation in the Age of Rubens,” 131–45.
“the mother of the arts”: Van Mander, Dutch and Flemish Painters, 419.
“the metropolis of the world”: Quoted in Isacker and Uytven, Antwerp, 85.
“of all the universe”: Quoted in Honig, Painting & the Market, 4. This is the definitive source on the market scenes of Aertsen and his nephew Joachim Beuckelaer.
Charles had united the territories: This narrative is particularly indebted to the work of Geoffrey Parker, Jonathan Israel, and Simon Schama. See in particular Parker, Dutch Revolt; and Israel, Conflicts of Empires.
denuded of traditional Catholic language: See Rooses, Rubens, 3.
righteous fulminations: On the iconoclasm, see Freedberg, Iconoclasm and Painting in the Revolt of the Netherlands; and Crew, Calvinist Preaching.
“Twenty persons bore the image”: Dürer, Dürer’s Record of Journeys to Venice and the Low Countries, 42.
a standing ruin: Richard Clough, an English merchant surveying the damage to the cathedral, wrote, “It looked like a hell … They have so spoiled it that they have not left a place to sit on.” Quoted in Crew, Calvinist Preaching, 12. The catastrophe was redoubled in the 1581 “quiet Iconoclasm,” a further devastation following the removal of Catholics from positions of authority.
“send a soldier to Flanders”: Parker, Army of Flanders, 70.
“Putting in new men”: Quoted in Parker, Dutch Revolt, 107.
“We care nothing for your privileges”: Quoted in Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes, 55.
“who extirpated sedition”: Quoted in ibid., 55. The statue was eventually removed and melted down by the Spanish crown to avoid inciting the local population. See Held, “On the Date and Function of Some Allegorical Sketches by Rubens,” errata.
“Everyone must be made in constant fear”: Duke of Alva, quoted in Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes, 57.
“He who becomes master”: Machiavelli, The Prince, chap. 5, in Chief Works.
“A goodly sum”: Quoted in Geyl, Revolt of the Netherlands, 102.
“Thou takest away”: Excerpt from the Ghent Paternoster, in R. G. D. Laffan, Select Documents of European History (London: Methuen, 1930), 103.
Jan and Maria Rubens: On the saga of the Rubens family, and Jan’s affair with Anna of Saxony, see Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes, 41–71; and Rooses, Rubens, 5–15. Both are reliant on Bakhuizen van den Brink’s Het huwelijk van Willem van Oranje met Anna van Saxen.
“every satisfaction”: Maria Rubens to Jan Rubens, quoted in Rooses, Rubens, 8.
“How could I have the heart”: Maria Rubens to Jan Rubens, quoted in ibid., 9–10.
“for the sake of my poor children”: Maria Rubens to Johan of Nassau, quoted in Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes, 67.
“the little girl”: Ibid., 66.
Alva’s terror was only just beginning: On Alva and the beginning of the Dutch rebellion, see Parker, Dutch Revolt, 99–168; and Geyl, Revolt of the Netherlands, 98–118.
The Spanish Fury’s viciousnes
s: See Parker, Dutch Revolt, 169–87.
Alessandro Farnese: On Farnese’s sweeping military vision and the planned Spanish invasion of the British Isles, see Mattingly, Armada, 43.
“It is the saddest thing”: Quoted in Sutton, “Spanish Netherlands in the Age of Rubens,” 108.
even with the Scheldt closed: Flemish politicians continued to lobby for the reopening of the Scheldt during this period, to no effect.
“I will not dare to follow him”: Rubens to Johann Faber, April 10, 1609, in LPPR, 52.
“I have little desire to become a courtier again”: Ibid.
his first major commission: Abraham Janssens, who was superseded by Rubens as the preeminent master of Antwerp, also painted an allegorical celebration of the Twelve Years’ Truce.
CHAPTER III: THE PRINCE OF PAINTERS
“I cannot behold”: Domenicus Baudius to Rubens, Oct. 4, 1611, in Rooses, Rubens, 213.
handsome house: On its history and contents, see especially the works of Muller: Rubens as Collector; “Rubens’s Collection in History,” introduction to Belkin and Healy, House of Art, 11–85; “Perseus and Andromeda on Rubens’s House;” and “Rubens’s Museum of Antique Sculpture.” See also Rooses, Rubens, 145–55; and Baudouin, “Rubens House at Antwerp.”
something new to his neighbors: The painter Frans Floris had built a classically inspired home for himself in the sixteenth century, but it was of less sophisticated design.
“suited to housing families”: Quoted in Lescourret, Double Life, 243.
“in imagination alone”: McGrath, “Painted Decoration of Rubens’s House,” 245. On the trompe l’oeil frieze on the Rubens house, see this essay and Muller’s “Perseus and Andromeda on Rubens’s House.”
Willem van Haecht: The artist depicted the scene several years after the occurrence of the event it represented. See Baudouin, Pietro Pauolo Rubens, 286.
Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc: On Peiresc, and on antiquarianism generally, see Miller, Peiresc’s Europe.
large room on the first floor: The most convincing account of the studio’s design and operation is Muller, “Rubens’s Collection in History.”
could wait a year or more: In May 1611, Rubens wrote a letter to an important client, Jacob de Bie, apologizing for not being able to find a place for someone he had recommended, with the excuse that he had already rejected over a hundred applications, including those from family members.
“Abandon and audacity alone”: Quoted in Alpers, Making of Rubens, 153.
“When we kept silent”: Otto Sperling, quoted in Belkin, Rubens, 5.
crabbelingen: On Rubens’s technique, see especially Logan, Peter Paul Rubens, 3–18.
Designs for the large tapestries: Though they are not nearly so revered today, tapestries were both valued aesthetically and generally more expensive than paintings, owing to their size and the immense costs of their manufacture.
“He sends less competent judges”: Quoted in Rooses, Rubens, 214. One dealer compared his intransigence in bargaining to the biblical Medes, whose laws were inalterable.
100 guilders per day: The annual income requirements for a baron and for a prince were 6,000 and 14,000 guilders, respectively. On Rubens and his income, see Filipczak, Picturing Art in Antwerp, 73–88.
“dolcissima professione”: Quoted in LPPR, I.
He could regularly be seen: The English diplomat Thomas Roe, who met the artist in Antwerp, wrote that Rubens had “grown so rich by his profession that he appeared everywhere, not like a painter but a great cavalier with a very stately train of servants, horses, coaches, liveries, and so forth.” Quoted in White, Peter Paul Rubens, 73. 78 He didn’t drink to excess: According to his biographer Roger de Piles, “He maintained a great aversion against too much wine and good living, as well as gambling.” See “Life of Rubens” (1681), in Baglione, Sandrart, and de Piles, Lives of Rubens, 80.
“my secretary”: In Italian, “mio secretario”: Brueghel to Ercole Bianchi, Dec. 9, 1616, in CDR, 2:92. Rubens frequently collaborated with his friends, usually genre specialists. On the valuation of collaborative works, see Honig, Painting & the Market.
“Medio Deus omnia campo”: On this phrase, see Muller, “Rubens’s Collection in History,” 15.
His passions were released in his work: Svetlana Alpers has argued that the artist sublimated his more carnal urges into the figure of Silenus, a fat and happy drunk from Greek mythology. Rubens painted this obscure character with an oddly persistent regularity. See Alpers, Making of Rubens, 101–57.
“deprived the world”: Rubens to Faber, Jan. 14, 1611, in LPPR, 53–54.
a group portrait: Now in the collection of the Pitti Palace, and commonly known as The Four Philosophers. Van den Wouvere is the fourth figure in the painting.
“a voluntarie sufferance”: Lipsius, Tvvo Bookes of Constancie, 9.
His erudition was legendary: On Lipsius, see especially Grafton, Bring Out Your Dead, chap. 12; and Miller, Peiresc’s Europe. Rubens’s last child, a daughter born in February 1641, eight months after the painter’s death, was named Constantia.
“The Peripatetic sage”: Montaigne, Complete Essays of Montaigne, 31. Montaigne may have been a model for Rubens, in that he was a moderate Catholic and cultural figure conscripted into political service. Unlike Rubens, however, he was born into the aristocracy.
Kunstkammers: On Antwerp’s private galleries, in particular that of Rubens, see especially Muller, “Rubens’s Collection in History.” The Byzantine vase, now known as the “Rubens Vase,” is in the collection of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.
“You surpass all the painters”: Peiresc to Rubens, in Rooses, Rubens, 344.
“The reason for comparing”: Rubens to Peiresc, Aug. 3, 1623, in LPPR, 91.
a practical brand of humanism: On antiquarianism and politics generally, see Miller, Peiresc’s Europe. On the education of authority figures, see 64–65.
“His conceit and vanity”: Rubens to Pierre Dupuy, March 16, 1628, in LPPR, 245. On the specific contents of Rubens’s collection, see Muller, “Rubens’s Collection in History.”
“In order to achieve”: Quoted in Logan, Peter Paul Rubens, 33n.
special gallery for his statues: See Muller, “Rubens’s Collection in History;” and “Rubens’s Museum of Antique Sculpture.”
Carr was swept up in a scandal: On Carleton and Carr, see especially Brotton, Sale of the Late King’s Goods, 59–65. See also Donovan, Rubens and England.
“I am by mischance made a master”: Carleton to John Chamberlain, Feb. 20, 1617, in Sainsbury, 300.
“I finde some of my owne heads wanting”: Carleton to Chamberlain, March 25, 1617, in ibid., 301.
“I find that at present”: Rubens to Carleton, April 28, 1618, in LPPR, 60–61.
easier for him to move: “To persons who are always in motion, as my situation obliges me to be, a thing of so much weight is not convenient,” Carleton wrote. Carleton to Rubens, April 27, 1618, in Sainsbury, 32.
“You, sir, may calculate”: Ibid.
“They are so well retouched”: Rubens to Carleton, May 12, 1618, in LPPR, 61–62.
“I cannot subscribe to your denial”: Carleton to Rubens, May 22, 1618, in Sainsbury, 37.
unsurpassed garden of court artists: Also on the archdukes’ payroll were Otto van Veen, Jan Brueghel, Joos de Momper, Frans Francken, and Sebastian Vrancx.
grand Habsburg tradition: On the archdukes’ court and reign, see especially Israel, “The Court of Albert and Isabella, 1598–1621,” in Conflicts of Empires, 1–22; and David Freedberg, “Painting and the Counter Reformation in the Age of Rubens,” in Sutton, Age of Rubens, 131–45.
“She is a princess endowed”: Rubens to Jacques Dupuy, July 20, 1628, in LPPR, 276–77.
That piety was something: See Israel, “Court of Albert and Isabella,” 1–22; and Freedberg, “Painting and the Counter Reformation,” 131–45.
more than sixty altarpieces: See Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes, 151; and
Freedberg, “Painting and the Counter Reformation,” 133–34.
a new phase of conflict: On hostilities during the truce, see Israel, Dutch Republic, 66–95; and Geyl, Netherlands in the Seventeenth Century, 18–83.
Calderón’s very mission: See Israel, Dutch Republic, 16–17.
most beautiful present: See Rooses, Rubens, 125.
downfalls would come in quick and ugly succession: See Israel, Dutch Republic, 60–65.
“The thing they enjoy”: Translation adapted from Elizabeth McGrath, Subjects from History, pt. 13 of the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchardt (London: Harvey Miller, 1997), 1:129.
Nowhere was Rubens’s genius better appreciated: The Englishman Henry Peacham, author of a 1634 primer on aristocratic behavior, The Compleat Gentleman, lauded Rubens as “the best story teller of his generation.” (110)
Howard toured Italy: On the Howards as connoisseurs, see Brotton, Sale of the Late King’s Goods, 41, 54.
“break off negotiations at once”: Rubens to Carleton, May 28, 1619, in LPPR, 71.
Rubens got the privileges: The Dutch States General passed a resolution granting Rubens his rights on June 8, 1619, provided that he supply one plate for each work to be copyrighted. The resolution noted the recommendation of “lord Carleton, ambassador of the king of Great Britain.” See Rooses, Rubens, 327.
“Thoes bewtiful lions”: Danvers to Carleton, Aug. 7, 1619, in Sainsbury, 49.
“Ruined”: Rubens to William Trumbull, Jan. 26, 1621, in ibid., 50. 98 “touched and retouched”: Ibid.
“scarce doth look like a thing”: Toby Matthew to Carleton, Nov. 25, 1620, in ibid., 53.
no hiding Danvers’s dissatisfaction: Danvers’s secretary carped that Rubens had not “shewed his greatest skill in it.” Thomas Locke to Carleton, March 18, 1621, in ibid., 57.
“In every painters [sic] opinion”: Danvers to Carleton, May 27, 1621, in ibid., 57–58.
“less terrible”: Rubens to Trumbull, Sept. 13, 1621, in LPPR, 77.
CHAPTER IV: A GOOD PATRIOT