In Flanders, the Baroque style had a pronounced national identity and powerful vitality. Head 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 Catholic Church played main 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 during civil war from the Netherlands to Germany. 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, and also became acquainted with ancient history, 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 desire of young talents to work 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. Atmosphere family life Rubens perfectly conveyed "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 him 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, to allegory, everyday genres, portraits, and landscapes. A 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 powerful 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 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, a complex play of 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, by combining animal 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 color composition using a few light colors. 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 the most intense creative activity Rubens.
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 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 named 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 a new genre of European ceremonial baroque portrait, emphasizing social significance models, 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 last period his creativity. 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 turning into 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, hair lightly 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 large work, it contains a general idea: Rubens glorifies a 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 to the great Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel Muzhitsky. The artist depicts folk festivals full of cheerful elements (“Peasant Dance”, 1636-40, “Kermessa”, ca. 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 Western European art, especially 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. At 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 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 and 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 great school portrait art, which reached exceptional prosperity 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 Jordanes: the tables are laden with food, faces are shiny with contentment, and they break into 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's 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 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 peasant theme 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 the contribution to european art Flanders has already been done.
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, the unified Dutch art school ceased to exist, and in its place two independent art schools began to form - the Flemish and the 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 the largest province) with their painting.
At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, the traditions of the previous era were still alive here. Landscape occupied a significant place in Flemish painting. 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 that time. The artist's intelligence, extraordinary talent and education, and inexhaustible artistic imagination aroused the admiration of 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 wrote 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.
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 further development 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 prone to recording 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 seventeenth century was the time of the creation of the national art school of painting in Flanders. As in Italy, Baroque became the dominant movement here. However, Flemish Baroque differs significantly from Italian in many ways. Baroque forms are filled with a feeling of bubbling life and the colorful richness of the world, a sense of the spontaneity of the power of a mighty man and fruitful nature. Within the framework of the Baroque in Flanders, realistic features developed to a greater extent than was the case in Italy.
Peculiarities artistic culture Flanders - the thirst for knowledge of the world, nationality, cheerfulness, solemn festivity - were most fully expressed in painting. Flemish painters captured in their canvases the poeticized sensual and material beauty of nature and the image of the whole strong man full of health and inexhaustible energy.
Rubens
The head of the Flemish school of painting, one of greatest masters The brush of the past was Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). His work clearly expresses both powerful realism and a unique national version of the Baroque style. Comprehensively gifted, brilliantly educated, Rubens matured early and emerged as an artist of enormous creative scope, sincere impulses, bold daring, and stormy temperament. A born muralist, graphic artist, architect-decorator, designer of theatrical performances, a talented diplomat who spoke several languages, a humanist scientist, he was held in high esteem at the princely and royal courts of Mantua, Madrid, Paris, and London.
Rubens is the creator of huge 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.
Van Dyck
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. An artist of exceptional talent, Van Dyck remained committed to Flemish realism. In his best works - in portraits of people of different classes, social levels, different in mental and intellectual make-up - he correctly found individual similarities and penetrated into the inner spiritual essence of the model. Van Dyck's typical images give an idea of the character of an entire era in the history of Europe.
Van Dyck entered Rubens' workshop as a nineteen-year-old youth after completing his apprenticeship with van Balen. Van Dyck's early compositions on religious and mythological themes were executed under the influence of Rubens, from whom he inherited great painting skill, the ability to recreate the forms of nature with a sense of sensual concreteness and authenticity typical of the Flemings.
Jordan
The aristocratic sophistication of Van Dyck’s art was opposed by the cheerful art of Jacob Jordanes (1593-1678), close to the democratic circles of society, full of plebeian spontaneity and strength, who created a gallery of characteristic folk types. Like Rubens, whose assistant Jordan was, 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. In the villages, in the craft districts of the city, he found his heroes. In them he noticed an excess of health, energy, and satisfaction with life. They are primitive, full of spontaneous spontaneity in the manifestations of feelings, uncontrollable in their inclinations and passions. The artist captured their large, massive figures, their faces excited by passionate screams, their peculiar morals and customs. Jordan was associated with the realistic tradition of Old Dutch painting; he often drew the subjects of his paintings from proverbs, sayings, and fables; at the same time, in his painting one can feel the influence of Caravaggio - his large-figure compositions and contrasting chiaroscuro. In the painting “A Satyr Visiting a Peasant” (c. 1620, Moscow, Pushkin Museum), the plot is borrowed from Aesop’s fable, but reinterpreted in modern times folk spirit, in the tradition of Flemish art.
Flemish still life
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 “livestock shops” amaze with their noisy cheerfulness and festive decorativeness. The canvases, large in size and bright in color, served as decoration for the walls of the spacious palaces of the Flemish nobility, glorifying the beauty of earthly existence, the richness of rural life, the fruits of the earth, sea, and rivers.
Genre painting
Along with monumental painting Easel art developed in Flanders, based on the traditions of Dutch painting of the 16th century. The leading place in it was occupied by the everyday genre, which showed the sharply critical attitude of Flemish artists to the surrounding life and official art, and also reflected the intimate moods and aspects of the life of the Dutch people.
Browwer. The most democratic line of Flemish painting of the 17th century. represented 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. Unlike Bruegel, the creator of broad panoramas of people's life, Brouwer turned to specific everyday situations and expressive individual characters. He is prone to recording psychological conflicts, depicting scenes of drinking parties, games of cards and dice, which often turned into fights.
The brisk church building of the 17th century in Flanders led to massive orders for altars, tabernacles, tombstones, statues of saints, pulpits, confessionals and other decorative sculpture of the temple, which are excellent examples of art, sculpture and craft at the same time. In the first half of the 17th century, echoes of the Gothic and Renaissance traditions of the Dutch 16th century still continued to exist; under the influence of the work of Rubens, baroque trends began to appear here. Many sculptures traveled to Italy and lived there for a long time, but they assimilated Baroque principles as if through the prism of the national tradition of stone and wood carving.
The largest Flemish sculptor of the 17th century was François Duquesnoy, who long years Under the nickname “Flemish” he lived in Italy, creating his strongest works here.
In Rome, Duquesnoy acted as one of Bernini's rivals, and also collaborated with him in the Cathedral of St. Petra. However, the nature of his work differs somewhat from the spectacular works of the Italian. They have more sincerity and sincerity of feeling; he never fell into the extremes of the Baroque style. What saved him from this was his deep desire for truth and his thoroughly assimilated heritage of the ancient masters. Francois Duquesnoy returned to his homeland at the age of twenty-two, taking away the strongest impressions from his acquaintance with Rubens and his art.
Adonis Duquesnoy
In Flanders, Duquesnoy created a large number of works, but his role for Flemish sculpture was very great not only for this. He discovered the ancient plastic arts and sculpture of Bernini for Flemish sculptors. From his workshop came the largest and most gifted sculptors of mid-century Flanders - Art Quellin, Duquesnoy and others.
St. Susanna
St. Andrew in the Cathedral of St. Petra
Duquesnoy's student Art Quellin the Younger was an unusually prolific and versatile master. After his trip to Italy in 1650, Quellin, who by that time had become the most famous sculptor in Flanders, received a grandiose commission. He was asked to perform for the facades and hall of the newly built Amsterdam City Hall great amount statues and reliefs on allegorical subjects. Particularly famous are his caryatids and the relief “Judgment of Solomon” in the tribunal hall. In addition, Quellin created portraits, which, especially in his later work, are distinguished by their depth and psychologism of characterization, as well as tombstones and other decorative church sculpture.
Mercury Arthus Quellin Jr.
Samson and Delilah Quellin Jr.
Katharina Hooft
Picturesque tendencies were embodied in the work of Lucas Feidherbe, an architect and sculptor, a student of Peter Rubens. According to his design, a church was built in Louvain, for which he also created decorative reliefs. Thanks to the complex dynamic compositions of multi-figure full movement with the illusion of spatial depth, Faidherbe's reliefs can be called real paintings in stone.
The craft developed greatly in the 17th century. The products of the Flemish masters were then famous throughout Europe. Furniture inlaid with ivory and various types of wood, lace and especially tapestries, created in Flanders, could be seen in every corner of Europe in the 17th century.