Annotated Mona Lisa, The - Strickland, Carol [37]
Despite the bold elasticity of Borromini’s buildings, the structures were unified and cohesive. The scalloped walls of St. Ivo’s Church in Rome continuously taper to the top of a fantastic six-lobed dome, with the dome’s frame being identical to the shape of the walls below — an organic part of a whole, as opposed to a separate Renaissance dome set upon a supporting block. The variety of curves and counter-curves typical of Borromini’s work can be seen in San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, where the serpentine walls seem in motion.
Borromini, facade, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, 1665-67, Rome. Borromini’s trademark was alternating convex and concave surfaces to create the illusion of movement.
FLEMISH BAROQUE
The southern Netherlands, called Flanders and later Belgium, remained Catholic after the Reformation, which gave artists ample incentive to produce religious paintings. The story of Flemish Baroque painting is really the story of one man, Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577 — 1640).
“A prince of painters and a painter of princes,” an English ambassador said of Rubens. He led a charmed life, which took him to all the courts of Europe as both painter and diplomat. He was truly a European rather than regional painter, working for rulers of Italy, France, Spain, and England as well as Flanders. As a result, his work perfectly synthesized the styles and concepts of the South and North.
A rare creative genius who had it all, both worldly success and personal happiness, Rubens was outgoing, classically educated, handsome, vigorous, and well traveled. He spoke six languages fluently and had inexhaustible stamina. A visitor to Rubens’s studio recalled the maestro painting a picture while listening to Ovid in the original Latin, carrying on a learned conversation, and dictating a letter — all at the same time. As one patron said, “Rubens had so many talents that his knowledge of painting should be considered the least of them.”
Energy was the secret of Rubens’s life and art. His output of more than 2,000 paintings was comparable only to Picasso’s. He was swamped by commissions, which made him both wealthy and renowned. He rose each morning at 4 A.M., and worked nonstop until evening. Still, he needed an army of assistants to keep up with the demand for his work. His studio has been compared to a factory, where Rubens did small color sketches in oil of his conception or outlined a work full-size, to be painted by assistants (which is how van Dyck got his start), then finished by the master himself.
His studio in Antwerp (open to visitors today) still retains the balcony Rubens designed overlooking his work area, where customers could watch him paint huge pictures. One recalled how Rubens stared at a blank panel with arms crossed, then exploded in a flurry of quick brushstrokes covering the entire picture.
RELIGIOUS PAINTING. One painting that created a sensation, establishing Rubens’s reputation as Europe’s foremost religious painter, was “The Descent from the Cross.” It has all the traits of mature Baroque style: theatrical lighting with an ominously dark sky and glaringly spot-lit Christ, curvilinear rhythms leading the eye to the central figure of Christ, and tragic theme eliciting a powerful emotional response. The English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds called the magnificent body of Christ “one of
Rubens, “The Descent from the Cross,” c.1612, Antwerp Cathedral. This painting, full of Baroque curves and dramatic lighting, established Robens’s reputation.
the finest figures that ever was invented.” His drooping head and body falling to the side conveyed the heaviness of death with intense, you-are-there accuracy.
FAT IS BEAUTIFUL. Rubens was probably best known for his full-bodied, sensual nudes. He was happily married to two women (when his first wife died, he married a 16-year-old). Both were his ideal of feminine beauty that he painted again and again: buxom, plump, and smiling with golden hair and luminous skin.
As the art historian Sir Kenneth Clark wrote in The