The seventeenth century was the time of the creation of the national art school of Flanders. As in Italy, Baroque became the dominant movement here. However, Flemish Baroque differs in many ways from Italian; realistic features are developed in it. Heyday national culture and the art of Flanders covers the first half of the 17th century, it is determined by the features of the early bourgeois revolution of the late 16th century. At the beginning of the 17th century. In Flemish art, medieval art forms were finally overcome. Secular subjects and genres spread: historical and allegorical, mythological, portrait and everyday genres, scenery. Following mannerism, the academicism of the Bolognese school and Caravaggism penetrated from Italy. Based on the crossing of the realistic tradition of Old Netherlandish painting and Caravaggism, the realistic direction developed, and the monumental Baroque style flourished. The largest artistic center in Flanders from the second half of the 16th century. became Antwerp.
Head Flemish school painting was Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Both powerful realism and the national version of baroque are clearly expressed in his work. A born muralist and easel painter, graphic artist, architect-decorator, designer of theatrical performances, a talented diplomat who spoke several languages, a scientist and humanist, he was held in high esteem at the princely and royal courts. Rubens is the creator of baroque pathetic compositions, sometimes capturing the apotheosis of the hero, sometimes filled with tragedy. The power of plastic imagination, the dynamism of forms and rhythms, the triumph of the decorative principle form the basis of his work.
The early (Antwerp period) works of Rubens (before 1611-1613) indicate the influence of the Venetians and Caravaggio. Rubens was a master of paintings with mythological and allegorical themes. In “Bacchanalia” (1615-1620, Moscow, Pushkin Museum), depicting a festival in honor of the god of wine Bacchus, mythological images are carriers of the natural elemental principle, fertility, and inexhaustible love of life. From the second decade of the 17th century. the dramatic dynamics of Rubens' compositions intensify. In “The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus” (1619-1620, Munich, Alte Pinakothek), the drama of the passions that captivate the heroes reaches its climax. Rubens's talent for painting reached its peak in the 1620s. Color has become the main expresser of emotions, organizing the beginning of compositions. Rubens abandoned local color, moved to tonal multi-layer painting on white or red ground, and combined careful modeling with light sketchiness. By this time, the creation of twenty large compositions on the theme “Life Marie de Medici"(1622-1625, Paris, Louvre), intended to decorate the Luxembourg Palace. In “Self-Portrait” (c. 1638, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) everything contributes to revealing the ideal of a person who is gifted, intelligent, and self-confident. Since the 1630s started late period artistic activity Rubens. Fed up with fame and honors, he retired from diplomatic activities, refused official orders and spent most of his life in the countryside castle of Stan. His perception of the world became deeper and calmer. The compositions acquired a restrained and balanced character. The artist focused on their pictorial perfection: the coloring lost its multicoloredness and became generalized. These last decades of Rubens's work represent the pinnacle of his artistic development. Rubens turned to the image folk life, painted landscapes, portraits of his loved ones, his wife, children, himself surrounded by them, he was especially good at images of children: “Portrait of Elena Fourman with children”, “Fur Coat”, (1638-1639, Vienna, Historical and Art Museum). (1636, Louvre, Paris). Folk basis Rubens's creativity is clearly manifested in “The Peasant Dance” (between 1636 and 1640, Madrid, Prado).
The evolution of the work of Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) anticipated and determined the path of development of the Flemish school in the second half of the 17th century. in the direction of aristocracy and secularism. The artist gravitated toward dramatic solutions to themes and focused attention on the psychological aspects of the lives of individual characters. This determined Van Dyck's appeal to portrait painting. In it he created a type of brilliant aristocratic portrait, an image of a sophisticated, intelligent, noble man. (“Family portrait”, between 1618 and 1626, St. Petersburg, Hermitage). Van Dyck spent the last ten years of his life in England at the court of Charles I. The types of portraits he developed influenced the further development of English and European portraiture.
The sophistication of Van Dyck's art was opposed by the cheerful art of Jacob Jordanes (1593-1678), who created a gallery of characteristic folk types. Like Rubens, his art is permeated with a powerful sense of the life of nature and its sensual elements. Jordanes painted altar images and paintings on mythological themes, but interpreted them in genre terms. Among the most characteristic is the “Feast of the Bean King” (c. 1638, St. Petersburg, Hermitage).
In the 17th century still life established itself as an independent genre. It reflected an interest in the material world that originated in the Dutch “painting of things” of the early 15th century. Flemish “life shops” are canvases, large in size, bright in color; they served as decoration for the walls of the spacious palaces of the Flemish nobility, glorifying the beauty and richness of earthly existence. A major master of monumental decorative still life and “hunting scenes” was Frans Snyders (1579-1657). Objects exaggerated in scale seem to be endowed with extraordinary vitality, the restless lines that outline them give rise to a dynamic, stormy rhythm. (A series of “shops” for the country hunting palace of Archbishop Trist in the city of Bruges (1620s, St. Petersburg, Hermitage). The democratic line of Flemish painting of the 17th century was represented by the work of Adrian Brouwer (1605/06-1638), a student of Frans Hals, Brouwer painted small paintings, continuing the grotesque and humorous tradition in them. genre painting Pieter Bruegel. Unlike Bruegel, the creator of broad panoramas of people's life, Brouwer turned to specific everyday situations and expressive characters. He is prone to recording psychological conflicts, depicting scenes of drinking parties, games of cards and dice, which often turned into fights. (“In the tavern”, 1630s, Munich, Alte Pinakothek).
In the second half of the 17th century. the content of Flemish painting becomes shallower. Tendencies of idealization and external entertaining appear. These features characterize the work of one of the prominent painters of the mid-17th century. David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690). In large-sized but small-figured compositions, beautiful in color and decorative design, he loved to depict cheerful meals with open-air dancing, peasant weddings (“Village Holiday”, 1646, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), creating in them idyllic pictures of joyful , a carefree, contented life.
In the 17th century Dutch art was divided into two schools - Flemish and Dutch - due to the division of the Netherlands itself into two parts as a result of the revolution; to Holland, as the seven northern provinces liberated from Spanish rule began to be called, and to the southern part, which remained under Spanish rule - Flanders (modern Belgium). Their historical development took different paths, as well as their cultural development. In Flanders, the feudal nobility and higher burghers, as well as the Catholic Church, played a major role in the life of the country and were the main customers of art. Therefore, paintings for castles, for city houses of the Antwerp patriciate and majestic altar images for rich Catholic churches - these are the main types of work by Flemish painters of this time. Scenes from the Holy Scriptures, ancient mythological scenes, portraits of eminent customers, hunting scenes, huge still lifes - the main genres of art in Flanders in the 17th century. It mixed features of both Spanish and Italian Renaissance with actually Dutch traditions. And as a result, Flemish Baroque art emerged, nationally cheerful, emotionally upbeat, materially sensual, lush in its abundant forms. The Flemish Baroque showed little of itself in architecture, but was bright and expressive in the decorative arts (wood carving, metal chasing), the art of engraving, and especially in painting.
The central figure of Flemish art of the 17th century. there was Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). The versatility of Rubens' talent and his amazing creative productivity make him similar to the masters of the Renaissance.
Born in Germany, where his parents lived for a short time, Rubens was educated in his homeland, in Antwerp: at a Jesuit school he studied Latin and modern European languages, and also met ancient history, later studied painting - first from an artist of the Old Netherlandish tradition, then from a master of the Italian movement. The artist, who in everyday consciousness is associated with the singer of almost pagan violence of the flesh, was one of the most intelligent and educated people of his time. In 1598, Rubens was included in the list of free masters of the Guild of St. Luke, and this date can be considered the beginning of the artist’s creative independence. However, in 1600 he travels for further improvement to Italy, primarily to Venice, “to meet” Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto, then to Rome, where he studies Michelangelo. He stayed in Italy until 1608, from 1601 serving as court painter to the Duke of Gonzaga in Mantua. These years were the period of formation of his art. Of the contemporary artists, Rubens was most influenced by Caravaggio during this period. In Italy he studied and fell in love with antiquity for the rest of his life.
In 1608, Rubens returned to his homeland, married a girl from a wealthy burgher family, Isabella Brandt, and settled firmly in Antwerp. From then on, he was invariably successful as an artist. The 20s and 30s are the period of the most intense creative activity Rubens. He receives orders from the church, the court, the burghers, and foreign courts order his works. First great job in his homeland there were altar images for the famous Antwerp Cathedral: “The Elevation of the Cross” (1610-1611) and “The Descent from the Cross” (1611-1614), in which Rubens created a classic type of altar image of the 17th century. It combines monumentality (for this is painting that should express the mood large number people, some very important ideas that they understand) and decorativeness (for such a picture is a colorful spot in the ensemble of the interior).
Rubens' art is a typical expression of the Baroque style, which acquires its national characteristics in his works. A huge life-affirming principle, the predominance of feeling over rationality are characteristic of even the most dramatic works of Rubens. They completely lack the mysticism and exaltation inherent in German and even Italian baroque. Physical strength, passion, sometimes even unbridledness, intoxication with nature replace the spiritualistic, veiled eroticism of Bernini's Teresa. Rubens glorifies the national type of beauty. The Virgin Mary, like Magdalene, appears as a fair-haired, blue-eyed Brabant woman with curvaceous figures. Christ even on the cross looks like an athlete. Sebastian remains full of strength under a hail of arrows.
Rubens's paintings are full of violent movement. Usually, to enhance the dynamics, he resorts to a certain composition where the diagonal direction predominates. So, in both Antwerp images, for example, the diagonal is formed by the line of the cross. This dynamic direction is also created by complicated angles and poses of interconnected figures, forming a complex spatial environment. All of Rubens' compositions are permeated with movement; this is truly a world where there is no rest.
Rubens. Raising the cross. Antwerp, cathedral
Rubens understood and loved antiquity; he often transformed myths into picturesque images. But he chose mainly those subjects that could be embodied in dynamic compositions. Jupiter kidnaps his lovers, the Amazons fight, the satyrs attack the nymphs... Bacchanalia, in which you can show the sweetness of intoxication, the hunt for lions, with their energy, swiftness and unbridled strength - everything that gives an occasion to express the joy of being, to sing the hymn of life , especially attracts the artist. Rubens' brush poetizes the sensual element. The images of classical antiquity acquire earthly authenticity without becoming grounded or losing their sublimity, as, for example, in the Hermitage masterpiece “Perseus and Andromeda”. Andromeda, who has turned into a blond, full of health Flemish woman, Perseus, full of power, who freed the beauty from the captivity of the dragon, his winged horse Pegasus, cupids, the glory crowning the hero - everything is covered in poetry and full of a feeling of jubilation. This is especially facilitated by the color of the picture, the solemn sound of blue, red, yellow. A quivering, vibrating brushstroke conveys in the finest nuances of pink and pearlescent tones all the beauty of Andromeda’s body. The transitions of light and shadow are imperceptible, there are no clear contours, all objects seem to arise from light and air. Rubens paints very fluidly, sometimes the tone of the ground shows through under the paints. True, the 1920s were generally characterized by bright colors and multicoloredness; later Rubens would gravitate toward more monochrome painting.
Rubens. Portrait of Elena Fourman with children. Paris, Louvre
Rubens's house becomes the center of the artistic life of Flanders, the cream of the artistic and scientific intelligentsia of Europe flocks there, and the most privileged people seek the artist's attention. Atmosphere family life Rubens perfectly conveyed it in “Self-Portrait with Isabella Brandt” (1609-1610), depicting himself and his wife under the canopy of blooming honeysuckle, in elegant, even formal costumes, devoid of any pose or pretentiousness, radiating youthful happiness.
In 1623-1625. Rubens receives an order for a cycle of 21 paintings from the French queen Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV, to decorate the Luxembourg Palace. The genius of Rubens turned themes of little interest and no historical significance (marriage and the regency of the queen) into a brilliant creation of monumental and decorative art. Scenes from the life of Marie de Medici cannot be described in the full sense historical paintings, in them historical figures coexist with ancient deities, real events coexist with allegories. But no matter what he depicts, everything has the character of convincing truth, reality and fidelity to the depicted world, with all the unrestrained artistic imagination.
In 1626, Rubens lost his beloved wife. A certain period of his life is ending. Weighed down by loneliness, the artist accepts the offer of the ruler of the Netherlands, Infanta Isabella, and goes on a diplomatic mission to Spain and England (to negotiate peace between Spain and England). Greeted with honor by the English and Spanish kings as a world-famous artist, he acquires new connections, the patronage of royalty, and is elevated to the dignity of nobility and knighthood. In Spain, Rubens studied the richly presented paintings of Titian there and met the young Velazquez.
In 1630, Rubens returned to Antwerp and soon married a young distant relative from his first wife, Helena Fourment. She became the artist's muse in the last period of his work. Elena Fourman is a living embodiment of the artist’s ideal, an image as if taken from his canvases. He paints her with him on a walk, in the garden, showing her his possessions, he depicts her with children, paints her dressed and naked. In the Viennese portrait (“Fur Coat,” 1638), Elena appears naked, standing on a red carpet, with a fur coat draped over her shoulders. The portrait is built on the finest color nuances, on the contrast of thick brown fur with the velvety of the skin, the lightness of hair permeated with air, and the moisture of shining eyes. The woman’s body is painted with amazing realistic power, it seems that you feel the blood pulsating in your veins. This is a very personal, intimate image, but, as in any great work, it has a general idea: Rubens glorifies woman as a symbol of life.
In the 30s, Rubens, burdened by life in a large trading city, bought an estate with the ancient castle Sten (Steen), which is why this period of Rubens’ work is often called “Sten’s”. In this last decade of his life, Rubens wrote more for himself, guided by his own choice of themes, but he also performed many works on commission. He paints portraits, and although this genre is not the most important in his work, nevertheless it clearly fits within the framework of the style. This is a ceremonial Baroque portrait, in which greatness is conveyed by the pose of the model, and the costume, and all sorts of accessories of the setting. In the last self-portrait (1638-1639), Rubens managed, however, to show himself as a subtle psychologist: sadness, fatigue, traces of illness and many thoughts of a wise man life experience of a middle-aged man are written on this face. No less subtle in character and exquisite in color is an earlier portrait of a young woman, known as the Portrait of a Chambermaid (circa 1625).
Rubens also turns to the life of nature. Wide plains, fat herds, mighty trees, calm freedom or, conversely, raging elements are conveyed by Rubens’ brush with the same sense of realism and constant life affirmation. Feels authentic folk spirit Rubens is the heir to the great Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel Muzhitsky.
In the last decade, Rubens's painting skills have been distinguished by particular virtuosity and extreme breadth. The coloring becomes more monochrome, more generalized, the previous multicolor is lost (“Bathsheba”, 1635; “Consequences of War”, 1638).
Rubens died in 1640 in the prime of his creative powers. He had many students, a huge workshop in which many works were completed according to the artist’s sketches by his students. Van Dyck, Snyders, Jan Brueghel the Velvet were among them. But it's not about the number of students. Historical significance Rubens is that he determined the development of the Flemish school, which had a huge influence on the subsequent development Western European art, especially the 19th century.
The most famous of all Rubens' students, who studied with him for a short time, but soon became the first assistant in his workshop, was Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). Van Dyck developed early as an artist. The son of a wealthy Antwerp merchant, all his life he sought to join the family aristocracy, and his portraits and self-portraits always emphasized the aristocratism of the model, her fragility and sophistication. It is precisely such an elegant darling of fate that we see him in the Hermitage self-portrait: a tired expression is deliberately given to this rosy-cheeked face of the Fleming, the features of femininity are emphasized in nature. Beautiful, well-groomed hands are carefully depicted, the suit is aristocratically casual, and the curls are romantically developed. He writes himself now as Rinaldo, now as Paris, now. St. Sebastian. Portraiting the wealthy Antwerp burghers, who himself came from this environment, van Dyck tries in every possible way to aristocratize the models, giving them nervous expression and refinement of forms.
Mythological and Christian subjects occupy a large place in his work, which he interprets with characteristic lyricism or sad-elegiac (“Susanna and the Elders”, 1618-1620; “St. Jerome”, 1620; “Madonna with the Partridges”, early 30s years).
Van Dyck. Portrait of Charles I hunting. Paris, Louvre
But van Dyck’s main genre is portraiture. In the first, Antwerp period (late 10s - early 20s), as this time of his work is called, he painted rich burghers or his fellow artists, writing in a strictly realistic manner, with subtle psychologism. But upon arrival in Italy, this type of portrait gives way to another. Having won the love of the local Genoese nobility, van Dyck received many orders and created a ceremonial, representative portrait, in which, first of all, the class affiliation of the model was expressed. The figure is presented somewhat from below, which makes it more majestic, monumental; the accessories of a rich costume and furnishings enhance this impression. Van Dyck's portraits are decorative in their entire structure: plastic and linear rhythm, the play of chiaroscuro, which he learned from Caravaggio, and, of course, color, in which the influence of the greatest colorist Rubens merged with the influence on the artist of the Venetian color school (portrait of Paola Adorno).
In 1627, van Dyck returned to Antwerp and, since Rubens left for Spain and England during this period, he became for some time the main artistic figure in hometown. His success as a fashionable painter is enormous. Politicians, church prelates, aristocrats and wealthy burghers, local beauties, fellow artists appear in a long gallery, which included van Dyck's works of these years (paired portraits of the Stevens spouses; portrait of the artist F. Snyders, etc.).
Upon Rubens's return to his homeland, not wanting to compete with the great master, the ambitious artist left for England to serve King Charles I (1632). The English national school of painting was just taking shape, and van Dyck was greeted with joy and immediately literally bombarded with orders. Charles I grants him the title of chief painter of the king and elevates him to knighthood. Van Dyck “repays” everything by creating a gallery of ceremonial portraits of the English court aristocracy. He presents his models in rich interiors or in the open air, most often in full height, in a spectacular pose, in colorful clothes, clearly embellished. But the individual characteristics of the model, subtly captured in each individual case, Van Dyck’s inherent sense of proportion and, of course, the brilliant skill of the artist - all this together saves him from rude flattery (portrait of Thomas Wharton; portrait of Philip Wharton; portrait of Charles I on a hunt, ca. 1635 ).
For England, van Dyck was the founder of a large school of portrait art, which reached an exceptional peak in the 18th century. But for the schools of the continent, van Dyck, as a master of ceremonial portraiture, was of great importance.
F. Snyders. Fruit shop. St. Petersburg, Hermitage
Van Dyck was in many ways far from Rubens. The true follower and head of the Flemish school after the death of Rubens was Jacob Jordanes (1593-1678), the largest artist of Flanders in the 17th century. One of Rubens' best assistants in his workshop, he learned a lot from the great painter, but managed not to lose his individual features. Like van Dyck, he came from a burgher environment. Whatever topics he took on - mythological, Christian, allegorical - he always remained a sober realist who managed to preserve a healthy folk principle. His favorite genre is everyday. This is the national “Feast of the Bean King” - family feasts, repeated many times by Jordan: tables are laden with food, faces are shiny with contentment, and smiles are spreading. The artist looked for his images in the peasant environment, in the popular crowd. In another common plot, “The Satyr Visiting a Peasant” (on the theme of Aesop’s fable; versions of this picture are available in many European museums), the ancient legend takes on national Flemish features. The art of Jordan is closely connected with the Old Netherlandish traditions. IN early years Of the European masters, he was greatly influenced by Cavaraggio (“Adoration of the Shepherds”). Later, he became less interested in the effects of light and shadow contrasts. The saturation of color creates a festive composition, always splashing with fun. Jordanes's painting is lush, free, plastically powerful, showing the artist's great decorative capabilities. National color and national type are expressed in Jordanes' works with the greatest completeness and straightforwardness.
A special genre in Flemish art XVII V. there was a still life, the famous master of which was Frans Snyders (1579-1657). In his paintings, beautifully painted gifts of land and water lie in heaps on tables: fish, meat, fruit, killed game. As a rule, such still lifes served as decorative decoration for large, rich interiors, so the Flemish still life is usually large in size, unlike the Dutch (for example, the famous “Shops” of Snyders, 1618-1621: “Fish Shop”, “Fruit Shop”, executed for the bishop’s palace ).
Genre painting is represented in the art of Flanders by the exceptionally gifted artist Adrian Brouwer (Brouwer, 1601-1638). Having lived in Holland for many years, Brouwer painted small paintings on everyday themes. His heroes are peasants and urban plebs, they play cards, drink, fight, and bay songs. In Brouwer's works there is no broad decorativeness of the Flemish school; they are made in the spirit Dutch realism and are designed for close examination (“Village Doctor”). The plots are sometimes dramatic, faces, facial expressions, poses, gestures are unusually expressive, irony is intertwined with bitterness, and in this sense Brouwer continues the traditions of Bruegel (“The Fight”). His writing is masterly, artistic, full of subtle color relationships. The laconicism of language, the ability to express the main thing, wise self-restraint using minimal means, are fully manifested in Brouwer’s drawings, which in their lapidary style are very close to modern art.
In the work of Brouwer's follower - David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) peasant theme interpreted as rural festivals. In large-sized but small-figured compositions, he represents festive fun in the open air, with dancing, meals, peaceful conversations... In the second half of the 17th century. There are no major masters in Flemish painting, but Flanders has already made a contribution to European art.
In Flanders, the Baroque style had a pronounced national identity and powerful vitality. The head of the Flemish school was P.P. Rubens, who combined baroque decorativeness and realistic tendencies. Rubens's greatest contemporaries were A. van Dyck (portraiture), J. Jordaens (domestic genre), F. Snyders (still life) and A. Brouwer (peasant genre).
In the 17th century, Dutch art was divided into two schools - Flemish and Dutch - due to the division of the Netherlands itself as a result of the revolution into two parts: Holland, as the seven northern provinces freed from Spanish rule came to be called, and the southern part, which remained under the rule of Spain, - Flanders (modern Belgium). Their historical development took different paths, as well as their cultural development. In Flanders feudal nobility and higher burghers, and also The Catholic Church played a major role in the life of the country and were the main customers of art. That's why paintings for castles, for the city houses of the Antwerp patriciate and majestic altar images for rich Catholic churches - here main types of works by Flemish painters this time. Scenes from the Holy Scriptures, ancient mythological scenes, portraits of eminent customers, hunting scenes, huge still lifes are the main genres of Flanders art of the 17th century.
As in Italy, Baroque became the dominant movement in Flanders, but in Flanders, to a greater extent than in Italy, realistic features developed within the framework of Baroque. Art reflects the material beauty of nature and the image of a strong, energetic, healthy person. The everyday genre and still life are being developed.
The central figure of Flemish art of the 17th century was Peter Paul Rubens(1577-1640). The versatility of Rubens' talent and his amazing creative productivity make him similar to the masters of the Renaissance.
Born in Germany in the family of Antwerp lawyer Jan Rubens, who emigrated to Germany during the civil war in the Netherlands. After the death of his father in 1589, Rubens' mother and children returned to Antwerp, where Rubens received his education: at a Jesuit school he studied Latin and modern European languages, also became acquainted with ancient history, and later studied painting - first from an artist of the Old Netherlandish tradition, then from a master of the Italian movement . In 1598, Rubens was included in the list of free masters of the Guild of St. Luke, and this date can be considered the beginning of the artist’s creative independence.
However, in 1600 he travels for further improvement to Italy, primarily to Venice, “to meet” Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto, then to Rome, where he studies Michelangelo. He stayed in Italy until 1608, from 1601 serving as court painter to the Duke of Gonzaga in Mantua. These years were the period of formation of his art.
The years spent in Italy were filled not only with work on altar paintings for Roman, Mantuan and Genoese churches, on portraits (“Self-Portrait with Mantuan Friends”, c. 1606, “Marquise Brigida Spinola-Doria”, 1606-07), but and studying the works of antiquity, which he fell in love with all his life, as well as the masters of the Renaissance and contemporary Bolognese painters. From contemporary artists Caravaggio had the greatest influence on Rubens during this period.
In 1608, Rubens returned to his homeland, married a girl from a wealthy burgher family, Isabella Brandt, and settled firmly in Antwerp. From then on, he was invariably successful as an artist. He receives orders from the church, the court, the burghers, and foreign courts order his works.
Already in the first years of Rubens's stay in Antwerp, his workshop arose, a kind of art Academy, notable not only for the colossal number of canvases created here, designed to decorate the palaces and temples of Flanders and other capitals of Europe, but also for the attraction of young talents to working together with Rubens. At the same time, the Antwerp school of reproduction engraving emerged, reproducing the original paintings of Rubens and his circle.
Rubens's house becomes the center of the artistic life of Flanders, the cream of the artistic and scientific intelligentsia of Europe flocks there, and the most privileged people seek the artist's attention. Rubens perfectly conveyed the atmosphere of family life in "Self-Portrait with Isabella Brandt"(1609-1610), depicting himself and his wife under the canopy of blooming honeysuckle, in elegant, even formal costumes, devoid of any pose or pretentiousness, radiating youthful happiness.
The first major work at home was altar images for the famous Antwerp Cathedral: "Elevation of the Cross"(1610-1611) and "Descent from the Cross"(1611-1614), in which Rubens created a classic type of altar image of the 17th century. In it combine monumentality(for this is painting that should express the mood of a large number of people, some very important ideas that are understandable to them) and decorativeness(for such a picture is a colorful spot in the ensemble of the interior).
Rubens turned to the themes of the Old and New Testaments, to the depiction of saints, to ancient mythology and historical subjects, allegory, everyday genre, portrait, landscape. Great painter, he was also a great master of drawing (studies from life, independent compositions, portraits, sketches; about 300 drawings have survived). Rubens's art, distinguished by a lively and powerful sense of nature and inexhaustible imagination, full of various plots, action, an abundance of figures and accessories, and pathetic gestures.
Rubens' art is a typical expression of the Baroque style, which acquires its national characteristics in his works. A huge life-affirming principle, the predominance of feeling over rationality are characteristic of even the most dramatic works of Rubens. Characteristic of German and even Italian Baroque features of convention and external exaltation and mysticism, I retreat t in Rubens before the mighty pressure of living reality, physical strength, passion, sometimes even unbridledness, intoxication with nature. Rubens glorifies the national type of beauty. The Virgin Mary, like Magdalene, appears as a blond, blue-eyed Flemish woman with curvaceous figures. Christ even on the cross looks like an athlete. Sebastian is full of strength under a hail of arrows.
Rubens's paintings are full of violent movement. Usually, to enhance the dynamics, he resorts to a certain compositions where the diagonal direction predominates. So, in both Antwerp images, for example, the diagonal is formed by the line of the cross. This dynamic direction is also created by complicated angles and poses of figures, which are interconnected, forming complex spatial environment. All compositions by Rubens permeated with movement, this is truly a world where there is no peace.
The pathos of turbulent cosmic dynamics, the struggle of opposing forces dominates in the huge decorative canvases: “ Last Judgment", "Lesser Last Judgment", "The Fall of Sinners", "Battle of the Amazons"(1610s, all in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich). The element of primordial chaos is subordinated to an impeccably organized composition built along a diagonal, ellipse, spiral, on contrasts of dark and light silhouettes, color combinations and spots, streams of light and shaded pictorial masses, difficult game rhythmic harmonies. The fierce fight between people and wild animals is embodied in hunting scenes - a new genre of Flemish painting created by Rubens, which was distinguished by a more conventional character (“Hunting for a crocodile and a hippopotamus”, “Hunting for a wild boar”, 1615, "Lion Hunt" 1615-18), then by approaching reality, a combination of the animalistic genre and landscape (“Boar Hunting”, OK. 1618-20). The theme of man’s struggle with the forces of nature is already present in the artist’s early landscape works. (“Carriers of stones”, OK. 1620, Hermitage).
Rubens understood and loved antiquity, he often transformed myths into picturesque images. But he chose mainly those subjects that can be embodied in dynamic compositions, express the joy of being, sing the hymn of life. Rubens' brush poetizes the sensual element. ("Statue of Ceres", between 1612 and 1614; "Venus and Adonis" 1615; "Union of Earth in Water" OK. 1618, "Diana's Return from the Hunt", c. 1615-16, "Venus in front of the mirror" 1615-16), scenes of “Bacchanalia”, glorifying the life of nature and the generous fertility of the earth ("Bacchanalia", 1615-20, "Procession of Silenus" 1618,).
Images of classical antiquity acquire earthly authenticity without becoming grounded or losing their sublimity, as, for example, in the Hermitage masterpiece "Perseus and Andromeda." Andromeda, who has turned into a blond, full of health Flemish woman, Perseus, full of power, who freed the beauty from the captivity of the dragon, his winged horse Pegasus, cupids, the glory crowning the hero - everything is covered in poetry and full of a feeling of jubilation. This is especially facilitated by the color of the picture, the solemn sound of blue, red, yellow. A quivering, vibrating brushstroke conveys in the finest nuances of pink and pearlescent tones all the beauty of Andromeda’s body. The transitions of light and shadow are imperceptible, there are no clear contours, all objects seem to arise from light and air. Rubens paints very fluidly, sometimes the tone of the ground shows through under the paints. True, the 1920s were generally characterized by bright colors and multicoloredness; later Rubens would gravitate toward more monochrome painting.
Rubens usually created a small sketch of the future painting, applying the main drawing with brownish strokes on a light ground and building a color composition using a few light paints. Rubens's sketches - magnificent creations of his painting (some of them are in the Hermitage) - were written quickly, capturing the master's plan; After the painting was ready with the help of his students, he painted it with his brush. However, his best works are created by himself from start to finish. Rubens often adhered to the old Netherlandish custom of painting on wooden boards, covered with a thin layer of paint over a light ground and creating the effect of a mirror-polished shining surface.
The 1620s and 1630s are the period of Rubens' most intense creative activity.
In Rubens's Antwerp workshop, work was in full swing - among his customers were not only nobles and rich merchants, but also Queen of France Maria de' Medici and Queen Isabella of Spain. Rubens was called “The King of Artists and the Artist of Kings.” In 1623-1625. Rubens receives an order for a cycle of 21 paintings from the French queen Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV, to decorate the Luxembourg Palace. Topics of little interest and not historically significant (marriage and the queen's regency) are the genius of Rubens turned it into a brilliant creation of monumental and decorative art. Scenes from the life of Marie de Medici cannot be called historical paintings; in them, historical figures coexist with ancient deities, real events coexist with allegories. But no matter what he depicts, everything has the character of convincing truth, reality and fidelity to the depicted world, with all the unrestrained artistic imagination.
In the 1620s. Rubens creates new genre European ceremonial baroque portrait, emphasizing the social significance of the model, in which greatness is conveyed by the pose of the model, and the costume, and all sorts of accessories of the setting.(portrait of Marie de Medici, 1622). A special place is occupied by the finest transparent painting portrait of the Infanta Isabella's maid(1625, Hermitage).
In 1626, Rubens lost his beloved wife. A certain period of his life is ending. Weighed down by loneliness, the artist accepts an order from the ruler of the Netherlands, Infanta Isabella, and travels on a diplomatic mission to Spain and England (to negotiate peace between Spain and England). Greeted with honor by the English and Spanish kings as a world-famous artist, he acquires new connections, the patronage of royalty, and is elevated to the dignity of nobility and knighthood. In Spain, Rubens studied the richly presented paintings of Titian there and met the young Velazquez.
In 1630, Rubens returned to Antwerp and soon married a young sixteen-year-old distant relative from his first wife, Elena Fourmen (in another transcription - Faurmen). Rubens's marriage became a new stage in his life, filled with serene family happiness. He acquires an estate that includes Sten Castle (hence the name of this period - “Sten”). Disillusioned with his court career and diplomatic activities, he devoted himself entirely to creativity. The mastery of the late Rubens is brilliantly manifested in relatively small works performed in his own hand. The image of his young wife becomes the leitmotif of his work. She became the artist's muse in the last period of his work. The ideal of a blond beauty with a lush, sensual body and a beautiful cut of large, sparkling eyes was formed in the master’s works long before Elena entered his life, finally becoming the visible embodiment of this ideal. Rubens paints Helen in the form of the biblical Bathsheba (1635), the goddess of Venus (“The Judgment of Paris”, c. 1638), one of the three graces (c. 1639), includes her image in the painting “The Garden of Love” (c. 1635), as if filled with laughter and exclamations of young couples gathered in the park, the rustle of silk dresses, the trembling of light and air. There are numerous portraits of Elena in her wedding dress, with her children, with her eldest son Franz, and on a walk with her husband in the garden. The artist creates an image of a naked Elena with a velvet fur-trimmed fur coat draped over her shoulders, rare in its frankness of personal feeling and captivating painting. ("Coat", 1638, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). The portrait is built on the finest color nuances, on the contrast of thick brown fur with the velvety of the skin, the lightness of hair permeated with air, and the moisture of shining eyes. The woman’s body is painted with amazing realistic power, it seems that you feel the blood pulsating in your veins. This is a very personal, intimate image, but, as in any great work, it has a general idea: Rubens glorifies woman as a symbol of life.
In this last decade of his life, Rubens wrote more for himself, guided by his own choice of themes, but he also performed many works on commission. He paints portraits, and although this genre is not the most important in his work, nevertheless it clearly fits within the framework of the style. In his last self-portrait (1638-1639), Rubens managed, however, to show himself as a subtle psychologist: sadness, fatigue, traces of illness and many reflections of an already middle-aged man, wise from life experience, are written on this face.
Rubens also turns to the life of nature. The landscapes of the late Rubens reproduce the epic image of the nature of Flanders with its open spaces, distances, roads and people inhabiting it. Calm freedom or, conversely, raging elements are conveyed by Rubens’ brush with the same sense of realism and constant life affirmation. (“Rainbow”, 1632-35, Hermitage; “Return from the Field”, 1636-38, Pitti Gallery, Florence).
In a sense of a truly popular spirit, Rubens is the heir of the great Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel Muzhitsky. The artist depicts the full of cheerful elements folk holidays(“Peasant Dance”, 1636-40, “Kermessa”, c. 1635).
In the last decade, Rubens's painting skills have been distinguished by virtuosity and extreme breadth. The coloring becomes more monochrome, more generalized, the previous multi-color is lost.
Rubens died in 1640 in the prime of his creative powers. He gave the world about 3 thousand paintings and many drawings. He had many students, a huge workshop in which many works were completed according to the artist’s sketches by his students. Van Dyck, Snyders, Jan Brueghel the Velvet were among them. But it's not about the number of students. The historical significance of Rubens is that he essentially founded the Flemish school and determined the path of its development, which had a huge influence on the subsequent development of Western European art, especially in the 19th century.
Rubens achieved amazing perfection and ease in the art of using a brush - and this amazed the romantics. This is how Eugene Delacroix wrote about him: “...he imitated Michelangelo, but in the way only he knew how to imitate! He was filled with the greatest examples, but followed the principle that he carried within himself... He has the courage to be himself ... I sometimes sulk at him! I quarrel with him because of his heavy forms, because of the lack of sophistication and grace... But even Rubens’s mistakes do not weaken the impression of his paintings, they are so imbued with a very special quality of true courage. ... Rubens is much more akin to Homer than many ancient masters. He had a similar genius in his very spirit...”
The most famous of all Rubens' students, who studied with him briefly, but soon became the first assistant in his workshop, was Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641).
Van Dyck developed early as an artist. The son of a wealthy Antwerp merchant, all his life he sought to join the family aristocracy, and in his portraits and self-portraits the aristocratism of the model, her fragility and sophistication are always emphasized.
It is precisely such an elegant darling of fate that we see him on self-portrait: a tired expression is deliberately given to this rosy-cheeked face of the Fleming, the features of femininity are emphasized in nature. Beautiful, well-groomed hands are carefully depicted, the suit is aristocratically casual, and the curls are romantically developed. He paints himself now as Rinaldo, now as Paris, now as Saint Sebastian, and in all his religious compositions a sad-elegiac mood shines through. Portraiting the wealthy Antwerp burghers, who himself came from this environment, van Dyck tries in every possible way to aristocratize the models, giving them nervous expression and refinement of forms.
Mythological and Christian subjects occupy a large place in his work, which he interprets with his characteristic lyricism (“Susanna and the Elders”, 1618-1620; "St. Jerome", 1620; "Madonna with Partridges" early 1630s).
But van Dyck’s main genre is portraiture. In the first Antwerp period(late 10s - early 20s), as this time of his work is called, he paints rich burghers or his fellow artists, writes in a strictly realistic manner, with subtle psychologism.
But upon arrival to Italy this type of portrait gives way to another. Having won the love of the local Genoese nobility, van Dyck received many orders and created a ceremonial, representative portrait, in which, first of all, the class affiliation of the model was expressed. The figure is presented somewhat from below, which makes it more majestic, monumental; the accessories of a rich costume and furnishings enhance this impression. Van Dyck's portraits are decorative in their entire structure: plastic and linear rhythm, play of chiaroscuro, which he learned from Caravaggio, and of course, color, in which the influence of the greatest colorist Rubens merged with the influence on the artist of the Venetian color school ( portrait of Paolo Adorno).
In 1627, van Dyck returned to Antwerp and, since Rubens left for Spain and England during this period, he became for some time the main artistic figure in his hometown. His success as a fashionable painter is enormous. Politicians, church prelates, aristocrats and wealthy burghers, local beauties, fellow artists appear in a long gallery of Van Dyck's works of these years ( paired portraits of the Stevens couple; portrait of the artist F. Snyders etc.).
Upon Rubens's return to his homeland, not wanting to compete with the great master, the ambitious artist left for England to serve King Charles I (1632). The English national school of painting was just taking shape, and van Dyck was greeted with joy and immediately literally bombarded with orders. Charles I grants him the title of chief painter of the king and elevates him to knighthood. Van Dyck “repays” everything with his creation galleries of ceremonial portraits of the English court aristocracy. He presents his models in rich interiors or in the open air, most often in full height, in a spectacular pose, in colorful clothes, clearly embellished. But the individual characteristics of the model, subtly captured in each individual case, van Dyck’s inherent sense of proportion and, of course, the brilliant skill of the artist - all this together saves him from crude flattery ( portrait of Thomas Wharton; portrait of Philip Wharton; portrait of Charles I hunting).
For England, van Dyck was the founder of a large school of portrait art, which reached an exceptional peak in the 18th century. But for the schools of the continent, van Dyck, as a master of ceremonial portraiture, was of great importance.
The true follower and head of the Flemish school after the death of Rubens was Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), the greatest artist of Flanders in the 17th century.
One of Rubens' best assistants in his workshop, he learned a lot from the great painter, but managed not to lose his individual features. Like van Dyck, he came from a burgher environment. Whatever topics he takes on - mythological, Christian, allegorical - he always remained a sober realist who managed to preserve a healthy popular spirit. His favorite genre is everyday. Altar images and paintings on mythological themes were also created through the prism of genre solutions.
A typical work is "Feast of the Bean King"- an image of a family feast, repeated many times by Jordans: the tables are laden with food, faces are shiny with contentment, and are spreading in smiles. The artist looked for his images in the peasant environment, in the popular crowd.
In another common story - "A Satyr Visiting a Peasant"(on the theme of Aesop’s fable; versions of this painting are available in many European museums) the ancient legend acquires national Flemish features.
Jordaens' art is closely connected with Old Netherlandish traditions. In his early years, among the European masters, he was greatly influenced by Caravaggio (“Adoration of the Shepherds”). Later, he became less interested in the effects of light and shadow contrasts. The saturation of color creates a festive composition, always splashing with fun. Jordanes' painting is lush, free, plastically powerful, showing the artist's great decorative capabilities. National color, national type are expressed in the works of Jordaens with the greatest completeness and straightforwardness.
A special genre in Flemish art of the 17th century. was a still life, the famous master of which was Frans Snyders (1579-1657).
In his paintings, beautifully painted gifts of earth and water lie in heaps on tables: fish, meat, fruit, killed game. As a rule, such still lifes served as a decorative decoration for large, rich interiors, so the Flemish still life is usually large in size, unlike the Dutch (for example, the famous "Bench" Snyders, 1618-1621: “Fish Shop”, “Fruit Shop”, executed for the bishop’s palace).
Genre painting of Flanders is represented in the art of an exceptionally gifted artist Adriana Brouwer(Brouwer, Brower, 1606-1638).
Having lived in Holland for many years, Brouwer painted small paintings on everyday themes. His heroes are peasants and urban plebs, they play cards, drink, fight, shout songs.
In Brouwer's works there is no broad decorativeness of the Flemish school; they are made in the spirit of Dutch realism and are designed for close examination (“Village Doctor”). The plots are sometimes dramatic, faces, facial expressions, poses, gestures are unusually expressive, irony is intertwined with bitterness, and in this sense Brouwer continues the traditions of Bruegel (“The Fight”).
His writing is masterly, artistic, full of subtle color relationships. The laconicism of language, the ability to express the main thing with minimal means, wise self-restraint, are fully manifested in Brouwer’s drawings, which in their lapidary style are very close to modern art.
Brower's follower - David Teniers the Younger(1610-1690), in his work the peasant theme is interpreted as rural festivals and decorative elements are enhanced. In large-sized but small-figure compositions, he represents festive fun in the open air, with dancing, meals, and peaceful conversations (“Village Holiday”, “Peasant Wedding”).
In the second half of the 17th century. There are no major masters in Flemish painting, but Flanders has already made a contribution to European art.
The seventeenth century was the time of the creation of the national art school of Flanders. As in Italy, Baroque became the dominant movement here. However, Flemish Baroque differs in many ways from Italian; realistic features are developed in it. The heyday of the national culture and art of Flanders covers the first half of the 17th century, it is determined by the peculiarities of the early bourgeois revolution of the late 16th century. At the beginning of the 17th century. In Flemish art, medieval art forms were finally overcome. Secular subjects and genres spread: historical and allegorical, mythological, portrait and everyday genres, landscape. Following mannerism, the academicism of the Bolognese school and Caravaggism penetrated from Italy. Based on the crossing of the realistic tradition of Old Netherlandish painting and Caravaggism, the realistic direction developed, and the monumental Baroque style flourished. The largest artistic center in Flanders from the second half of the 16th century. became Antwerp.
The head of the Flemish school of painting was Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Both powerful realism and the national version of baroque are clearly expressed in his work. A born muralist and easel painter, graphic artist, architect-decorator, designer of theatrical performances, a talented diplomat who spoke several languages, a scientist and humanist, he was held in high esteem at the princely and royal courts. Rubens is the creator of baroque pathetic compositions, sometimes capturing the apotheosis of the hero, sometimes filled with tragedy. The power of plastic imagination, the dynamism of forms and rhythms, the triumph of the decorative principle form the basis of his work.
The early (Antwerp period) works of Rubens (before 1611-1613) indicate the influence of the Venetians and Caravaggio. Rubens was a master of paintings with mythological and allegorical themes. In “Bacchanalia” (1615-1620, Moscow, Pushkin Museum), depicting a festival in honor of the god of wine Bacchus, mythological images are carriers of the natural elemental principle, fertility, and inexhaustible love of life. From the second decade of the 17th century. the dramatic dynamics of Rubens' compositions intensify. In “The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus” (1619-1620, Munich, Alte Pinakothek), the drama of the passions that captivate the heroes reaches its climax. Rubens's talent for painting reached its peak in the 1620s. Color has become the main expresser of emotions, organizing the beginning of compositions. Rubens abandoned local color, moved to tonal multi-layer painting on white or red ground, and combined careful modeling with light sketchiness. By this time, twenty large compositions on the theme “The Life of Marie de’ Medici” (1622-1625, Paris, Louvre) were created, intended to decorate the Luxembourg Palace. In “Self-Portrait” (c. 1638, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) everything contributes to revealing the ideal of a person who is gifted, intelligent, and self-confident. Since the 1630s The late period of Rubens' artistic activity began. Fed up with fame and honors, he retired from diplomatic activities, refused official orders and spent most of his life in the countryside castle of Stan. His perception of the world became deeper and calmer. The compositions acquired a restrained and balanced character. The artist focused on their pictorial perfection: the coloring lost its multicoloredness and became generalized. These last decades of Rubens's work represent the pinnacle of his artistic development. Rubens turned to depicting people's life, painted landscapes, portraits of his loved ones, his wife, children, himself surrounded by them, he was especially successful in images of children: “Portrait of Elena Fourman with children”, “Fur coat”, (1638-1639, Vienna, Historical art museum). (1636, Louvre, Paris). The folk basis of Rubens's work is clearly manifested in “The Peasant Dance” (between 1636 and 1640, Madrid, Prado).
The evolution of the work of Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) anticipated and determined the path of development of the Flemish school in the second half of the 17th century. in the direction of aristocracy and secularism. The artist gravitated toward dramatic solutions to themes and focused attention on the psychological aspects of the lives of individual characters. This determined Van Dyck's turn to portraiture. In it he created a type of brilliant aristocratic portrait, an image of a sophisticated, intelligent, noble man. (“Family portrait”, between 1618 and 1626, St. Petersburg, Hermitage). Van Dyck spent the last ten years of his life in England at the court of Charles I. The types of portraits he developed influenced the further development of English and European portraiture.
The sophistication of Van Dyck's art was opposed by the cheerful art of Jacob Jordanes (1593-1678), who created a gallery of characteristic folk types. Like Rubens, his art is permeated with a powerful sense of the life of nature and its sensual elements. Jordanes painted altar images and paintings on mythological themes, but interpreted them in genre terms. Among the most characteristic is the “Feast of the Bean King” (c. 1638, St. Petersburg, Hermitage).
In the 17th century still life established itself as an independent genre. It reflected an interest in the material world that originated in the Dutch “painting of things” of the early 15th century. Flemish “life shops” are canvases, large in size, bright in color; they served as decoration for the walls of the spacious palaces of the Flemish nobility, glorifying the beauty and richness of earthly existence. A major master of monumental decorative still life and “hunting scenes” was Frans Snyders (1579-1657). Objects exaggerated in scale seem to be endowed with extraordinary vitality, the restless lines outlining them generate a dynamic, stormy rhythm. (A series of “benches” for the country hunting palace of Archbishop Trist in the city of Bruges (1620s, St. Petersburg, Hermitage). Democratic The line of Flemish painting of the 17th century was represented by the work of Adrian Brouwer (1605/06-1638), a student of Frans Hals. Brouwer painted small paintings, continuing in them the grotesque and humorous tradition of genre painting by Pieter Bruegel, in contrast to Bruegel, the creator of wide panoramas of folk life. Brouwer turned to specific everyday situations and expressive characters. He is inclined to record psychological conflicts, depicting scenes of drinking parties, games of cards and dice, which often turned into fights (“In a tavern”, 1630s, Munich, Alte Pinakothek).
In the second half of the 17th century. the content of Flemish painting becomes shallower. Tendencies of idealization and external entertaining appear. These features characterize the work of one of the prominent painters of the mid-17th century. David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690). In large-sized but small-figured compositions, beautiful in color and decorative design, he loved to depict cheerful meals with open-air dancing, peasant weddings (“Village Holiday”, 1646, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), creating in them idyllic pictures of joyful , a carefree, contented life.
The struggle for liberation against Spain ended differently in the north and south of the Netherlands. In 1598, the Spanish king Philip II, after a long and bloody war, was forced to make concessions. The northern Netherlands achieved full independence, and the southern provinces were granted formal sovereignty, while maintaining the authority of the royal viceroy and the Catholic Church. At the beginning of the 17th century, a single Dutch art school ceased to exist, and in its place two independent ones began to form. art schools- Flemish and Dutch. In the 17th century they experienced their greatest prosperity.
The southern provinces of the Netherlands, led by Flanders and Brabant (mostly the territory of modern Belgium), which remained under Spanish rule, lived a restless life, constantly tormented by the threat of war. However, the short respite provided by the truce from 1609 to 1621 had a beneficial effect on the spiritual life of the country. Here, at the turn of the century, a school of antiquities experts and humanists was formed. The governor himself listened to the lectures of one of them, an outstanding Flemish scientist, historian and philologist, publisher of the works of the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca, Justus Lipsia, at the University of Louvain. But the most striking page in the culture of the 17th century was the Southern Netherlands (they are called Flanders after its largest province) with its painting.
At the turn of the XVI and XVII centuries the traditions of the previous era were still alive here. Significant place Flemish painting was dominated by landscape. The youngest son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Jan Bruegel (1568-1625), nicknamed Velvet for the sophistication of his painting, continued to work.
Religious paintings were created in Catholic Flanders primarily to decorate churches. However, many compositions based on subjects from the Old and New Testaments began to be perceived as historical and decorated secular buildings.
Flemish painting found its true face after Peter Pauwel Rubens (1577-1640) returned to his homeland in 1606 after an eight-year stay in Italy. The work of this master absorbed all the most advanced and significant that was in European culture of that time. Intelligence, extraordinary talent and education, inexhaustible artistic fantasy the artist was admired by his contemporaries. A painter, historian of antiquity, archaeologist and architectural historian, he carried out complex diplomatic missions, seeking peace for his long-suffering homeland. Rubens passionately loved Flanders, felt the spirit of its people, the full-blooded attitude of the Flemish people to life was close to him, he shared their passionate dream of peace and prosperity.
The dream of happiness and abundance fueled the work of Rubens's constant assistant, the greatest master of Flemish still life, Frans Snyders (1579-1657).
Connected by strong ties with Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) was one of the largest portrait painters of the 17th century. Accuracy of observation was combined in his works with the desire to affirm the refined spiritual nobility of the model.
The heyday of the Flemish school of painting lasted barely more than three decades. The decline began to be felt soon after Rubens' death. In 1632 van Dyck left for England, and in 1657 Snyders died. And only Jacob Jordanes (1593-1678), having lived long life, continued to create his paintings in the second half of the century. His strong, sedate, rough painting gravitated towards common folk types and images.
Peasant genre scenes were painted by the painter David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690). He enjoyed success during his lifetime and was eagerly purchased by collectors in subsequent centuries. Teniers' compositions are replete with everyday episodes. The main thing for the artist was everyday life village surroundings and its regulars.