The Holy Family with St. Elizabeth, St. John, and a Dove,
PETER PAUL RUBENS, Baroque Europe, 1609,
Oil on Wood, 54 ½ x 47 ½ (138.43 x 120.65 cm),
The piece of work is in prominent condition.
Peter Paul Rubens was the most celebrated and creative 17th-century Flemish painter who constructed on the breakthroughs of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque masters to develop a truly unique pan-European painting style. Rubens received a classical and religious education and was one of the most linguistic, scholarly, and smartest artists of his time. Rubens becomes one of the most passionate voices in the Counter Reformation by using an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement and color. Rubens admiration of Italian art convinced him leave his hometown of Antwerp in 1600 to go study art in Rome. In Rome, Rubens absorbed the works of Italian artists
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Rubens depicts the Christ Child holding a dove that represents the Holy Spirit and refers to Christ ultimate sacrifice. Saint John is wearing animal skin which is symbolic to the one he will wear as an adult preaching through the desert. Rubens uses a Flemish influence in depicting the toddlers by painting them with blonde curly hair and plump naked bodies. Although biblical figures are present, this work is not a direct scene from the bible; instead it was taken from a 13th-century text titled Meditations of the Life of Christ. The Holy Family with St. Elizabeth, St. John, and a Dove aims at restoring Roman Catholicism and its prevalence and centrality. The baroque style of art was encouraged by the Catholic Church that decided that art should communicate religious themes directly. This work doesn’t depict the lifestyle of people at that time, instead Rubens was influenced by the Counter-Reformation and asserted strongly the emotional depth of Catholicism and glorified the power and influence of the
The Lord is wearing to Christian symbols. The first symbol is his headwear. Mary Elizabeth Podles expounds that the deity’s tiara is similar to the pope, which represents the trinity (54). The trinity is the Christian expression that God is made up of the Father (God), Son (Jesus), and Spirit (Holy Spirt), and all three figures are connected to one another. This is shown in the headwear, which is made up of three layers.
The painting is of a young St. John the Baptist preaching to his congregation. St. John is an important figure in Catholicism not only for his preaching and baptisms in the River Jordan, but for his role as the last prophet and the forerunner of Jesus Christ. His preaching foretells the coming of Christ as the Messiah, and thereupon Christ’s baptism, the voice from Heaven told St. John that Jesus was God’s son. This piece by Calabrese captures John at the height of his oration. Fixed atop a decrepit tree trunk yet grappling for stability, John is shown here in his ascetic attire composed of camel hair, holding his staff and scroll bearing the words “Ecce Agnus Dei,” which translates into Beho...
John looks down towards the Christ Child, and he together with the child and Mary form a triangular composition on the left side of the frame with the Christ Child as the focus. St. John is the patron saint of Florence, referencing Sellaio’s Florentine origin. He holds his hands together similar to the Christ Child, in reference to praying for his wellbeing. He also smiles reverently, matching Christ and Mary to establish the happiness brought by Christ’s birth.
Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Italy on March 6th 1475. His family was politically prominent as his family had large land property. His father was a banker and was looking to his son to engage in his businesses. As a young boy, he has ambitions of becoming a sculptor, but his father was very discouraging of this. He wanted his son to live up to the family name and take up his father’s businesses. Michelangelo became friends with Francesco Granacci, who introduced him to Domenico Ghirlandio(biography.com). Michelangelo and his father got into a series of arguments until eventually they arranged for him to study under Ghirlandaio at the age of thirteen. Ghirlandaio watched Michelangelo work and recognized his talent for the art and recommended him into an apprenticeship for the Medici family palace studio after only one year of at the workshop. The Medici’s were very rich from making the finest cloths. Lorenzo, which was one of the most famous of the family had a soft side for art and is credited for helping the Italian Renaissance become a time of illustrious art and sculpting. At ...
...ic meanings that still are puzzling art historians today. Some of the key symbols that Stokstad points out in the text is the dove, representing the Holy Spirit; the white lilies as a symbol of the Virgin Mary. She also points out, two rather unknown symbols to the sacrilegious, the date of the Annunciation in signs of the zodiac on the floor, as well as the lone stained glass window that is symbolizing God rising above the three windows that are placed in the background behind Mary. These three windows represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The ability to create a picture of The Annunciation in one’s mind is a key factor in understanding the analysis of the work. Francisco de Zurbaran approaches the painting with a naturalistic style. The painting features a room in which a woman – like angel is seen at the left kneeling on the ground before the Virgin Mary. The figure of Mary is placed between a chair and a small wooden table draped with a green cloth. Mary disregards an open Bible on the table, as she appears solemn while staring at the floor. Floating above the two main figures in the upper left side of the painting are cherubs resting on a bed of clouds. They happily gaze down at Mary with eyes from Heaven.
The depiction of Madonna and Christ is among the most ancient and common in Christian iconography and has an extensive number of variations because apart from its symbolic religious functions, it allows one to interpret the link between mother and child in many aspects. (8)
The Raising of the Cross is an amazing piece of art and the depth of meaning contained in it is, likely, beyond my grasp. There appear to be many symbolisms in this painting and I have surely overlooked some. The style of this painting is clearly inspired by the Baroque masters of Rubens day and Ruben took the style to a new level that the world had not seen at that time. The other pieces in the series of Ruben’s paintings based around the crucifixion of Christ help to give this painting clarity and to give hints to the figures in the paintings.
...tism. The dove which has been tactfully placed above the Christ’s head, symbolizes the Holy Spirit. The other characters are angels who believed to be witnessing the baptism. The nakedness of the Christ on the other hand symbolizes humility. The general landscape in this picture displays an extraordinary naturalism. The Francesca’s work also marked the era of excessive antiquarian style of sculpturing and tactful use of oil in painting (Prescott, 2005).
Imagine pondering into a reconstruction of reality through only the visual sense. Without tasting, smelling, touching, or hearing, it may be hard to find oneself in an alternate universe through a piece of art work, which was the artist’s intended purpose. The eyes serve a much higher purpose than to view an object, the absorptions of electromagnetic waves allows for one to endeavor on a journey and enter a world of no limitation. During the 15th century, specifically the Early Renaissance, Flemish altarpieces swept Europe with their strong attention to details. Works of altarpieces were able to encompass significant details that the audience may typically only pay a cursory glance. The size of altarpieces was its most obvious feat but also its most important. Artists, such as Jan van Eyck, Melchior Broederlam, and Robert Campin, contributed to the vast growth of the Early Renaissance by enhancing visual effects with the use of pious symbols. Jan van Eyck embodied the “rebirth” later labeled as the Renaissance by employing his method of oils at such a level that he was once credited for being the inventor of oil painting. Although van Eyck, Broederlam, and Campin each contributed to the rise of the Early Renaissance, van Eyck’s altarpiece Adoration of the Mystic Lamb epitomized the artworks produced during this time period by vividly incorporating symbols to reconstruct the teachings of Christianity.
The theme can be generally recognized in this piece through color, space, and especially through use of light. The colors used in this piece are mostly calm toned, whereas the robes and shawls worn are pale blues, corals, and beiges. There are however, some harsh colored objects such as Mary’s navy blue shaul and deep coral gown, as well as Christ’s coral necklace that stand out from the rest of the colors. Mary’s veil and the angel on the lefts’ hair are translucent in certain streams of light coming from the windows throughout the room. The artists suggests that the light is dedicated not to represent the divine but to rather represent a more natural juxtaposition on the piece. The space that the characters stand in is fully used by the subjects but also has a very interesting doorway with heightened perspecti...
It has been said that no artist has ever been as well educated as Rubens. After training with three minor artists in Antwerp. Rubens set off for Italy to complete his education; a position at the court of the Duke of Mantua was quickly accepted and he stayed in Italy for eight years. His job was to travel to all the major artistic collections, especially Rome and Venice painting copies of famous works of art, especially paintings of beautiful women, for the Duke's collection. He was also sent to Spain where he had an opportunity to study the enormous collection of Titian masterworks in the Royal Collection in Madrid. Copying the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance especially and the recently unearthed sculptures of classical antiquity, Rubens sketched and painted and encompassed all that was best in Italian and Classical art. Rubens combined the lessons of Antique Sculpture with the vaunting ambition of the High Renaissance giants in an unprecedented way. He used the plastic lessons of sculpture as a composition model but insisted that flesh should look like flesh in a painting thus developing his breakthrough approach to the naked body. In this he never forgot the earthy luminous realism of the old Netherlandish tradition of the 15th and 16th century (Van Eyck, Van Weyden, Breughel). You won't appreciate Rubens the master of the female nude until you consider that he was the greatest influence on French painting from the 18th to the 20th century: Watteau, Fragonard, Delacroix, and Renoir were his among his loyal followers.
Peter Paul Rubens was an artist who was influenced by Raphael during the completion of his work called The Decius Mus cycle. In this art work, he defined a narration of a story, in tapestry form which represents an episode from the Roman history, through composing them as cartoons. During the completion of the cycle, Rubens stayed temporary in Italy and he frequently visited Genoa, a city in
Peter Paul Rubens, the epitome of influential educated artist of the 17th century, studied the “works of Veronese, Tintoretto, Titian and Caravaggio.” (Baroque Art n.d.) and even went through the hassle of reproducing one of Leonardo’s drawings to show that he had understood the composition and style of Italian Renaissance art. Having been raised in Belgium, Peter Paul Rubens was familiar with Flemish Traditional art which was primarily landscape and portraiture, consisted of vivid detail with reserved composition.
Baroque art can be described as a “distinctive new style” in which artists embraced “dynamism, theatricality, and elaborate ornamentation, all used to spectacular effect, often on a grandiose scale”. Baroque art encompasses a vast range of art from the dramatic and theatrical Italian pieces, as the quote suggests, to the more simple and every-day life but still fabulous Dutch pieces. Baroque art can hardly be contained in one description because it describes so many types of art, in great part due to the religious, socio-economic, and political scenes of the time. Religiously, the Catholic Church was responding to the Reformation by creating dramatic pieces to invoke piety and devotion. Politically, monarchies and rulers were using commissioned art to emphasize their authority and their given right to rule. Socio-economically, the middle class was rising and therefore wanting to buy and commission pieces of art to boost their reputation and validate their status in the social scene. These three changes were extremely significant but can by no means generalize the entire historical context of Baroque art. Instead, they stand as specific examples of important reasons for the range and breadth of Baroque art.