Prometheus bound by peter&paul rubens biography
Prometheus Bound (Rubens)
Painting by Peter Paul Rubens
| Prometheus Bound | |
|---|---|
| Artist | Peter Paul Rubens |
| Year | circa to |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | &#;cm ×&#;&#;cm (&#;in ×&#;&#;in) |
| Location | Philadelphia Museum of Art |
Prometheus Bound is an oil painting by Peter Paul Rubens, a Flemish Baroque artist from Antwerp.[1] Influenced by the Greek play, Prometheus: The Friend of Man, Peter Paul Rubens completed this painting in his studio with collaboration from Frans Snyders, who rendered the eagle.[2][1] It remained in his possession from to , when it was traded in a group of paintings completed by Rubens, to Englishman Sir Dudley Carleton in exchange for his collection of classical statues.[3] This work is currently in the collection of the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.
History
In , Peter Paul Rubens first apprenticed with a distant relative, Tobias Verhaecht, a landscape painter.[4] Rubens spent a short time in his studio, learning the basics of composing a landscape. These lessons would influence his serve , including Prometheus Bound, as the backgrounds of many of his paintings play an important role in the composition.
Rubens then apprenticed for four years with Adam van Noort, a portrait painter, known for painting mythological scenes with plentiful nudes and unrestrained images of Flemish life.[4][5] Before starting his own studio, Rubens worked with Otto van Veen, from to [4][5] Here, Rubens learned composition and the iconography of history painting, demonstrated in Prometheus Bound with the foreshortened figure positioned close to the viewer and the utilize of iconography derived from an ancient Greek play.
In , Rubens opened a studio of his own in Antwerp, while also serving as court painter to the Archduke and Archduchess in Brussels.[5] In the same period as Prometheus Bound, Rubens was also painting The Descent from the Cross, a commissioned altarpiece.[6]
Collaboration with Frans Snyders
After setting up his own studio, Peter Paul Rubens had many important commissions.
Peter Paul Rubens epitomized the "gentleman" artist archetype. Productive, professional, and moving with ease amongst both artistic and political circles, he exemplified what it meant to be a proper courtly painter of the 17th century, elevating his possess life to the same standards of leisure and excellence afforded his patrons. He famously fused a mastery of Flemish realism with the traditions of the Italian Renaissance to produce a powerful and exuberant style that epitomized the immensely popular Baroque movement, promoted by the Counter Reformation in efforts to re-establish the grandeur of the Catholic Church. This style emphasized movement, color, drama, and sensuality, and reinvigorated painting with a novel lust for life after a relatively conservative period for art.He collaborated with artists that were regarded as masters in their field of study. For Prometheus Bound, Rubens collaborated with Frans Snyders, a master of animal and hunting scenes, for the eagle.[4]
Source Material
Prometheus Bound, a Greek play attributed to Aeschylus, but thought to have been completed by another after Aeschylus' death in B.C.[2] It is possible that Prometheus Bound is the second play written by Aeschylus in a connected trilogy, followed by Prometheus lyomenos (Prometheus Unbound), of which only a few fragments have survived.[2]
In the play, the TitanPrometheus, had assisted Zeus, the King of Olympians, in establishing rule over Cronus and the other Titans, but infuriated Zeus by becoming the champion of mortals and giving them fire and the arts.[2] In the opening of the play, as punishment for stealing fire from Mount Olympus to give to humanity.[1] Zeus orders Hephaestus, Kratos (Power) and Bia (Force) to chain Prometheus to a high rock in the mountains of Scythia.
There he will suffer torment as distant as Zeus wishes, by having an eagle devour his perpetually regenerating liver every day.[2][7]
Peter Paul Rubens would have used these Greek influences to carry out his own interpretation of the story.
When he painted a classic or mythological subject, he was glorifying human creation, expressing his own joy at the beauty of the world.[5] In Prometheus Bound, he depicts a suffering victim, Prometheus, but also the beauty of the Eagle causing the torment.
Interpretation
In Rubens's interpretation, the enormous eagle's beak rips open Prometheus's torso, laying bare bloody entrails.[1] The eagle's talons gouge into Prometheus's right eye, while his left eye is focused on the predator, indicating that he is aware of his torture.
Agony is conveyed in his clenched fists, writhing legs, and tousled hair.[1] The liver was chosen as the source for torture, as Greeks regarded the liver as intelligence, soul, and the seat of life.[7]
The art of Rubens is related to the attitudes expressed by his brother Philip and his teacher Justus Lipsius regarding the Counter Reformation.[5] They studied Greek and Roman writing and ideas, but saw pagan mythology as an indirect tribute to the power of the Christians' one God.[5]
A poem written by Dominicus Baudius, a professor at the University of Leiden and friend of Rubens' brother Phillip, describes the intended response of the viewer in his Poematum:
Here, with hooked beak, a monstrous vulture digs about in the liver of Prometheus, who is given no peace from his torments as ever and again the savage bird draws near his self-renewing breast and attacks it punishingly.
He is not content with his inhuman sacrificial feast, but with his claws lacerates, here the agonized face, there the man's thigh.
The hero's nude body, powerfully muscled and steeply foreshortened, is chained at the wrist to the rock. Prometheus lies on blue and white drapery, his of the boulders on the left is a glimpse of an open landscape. The earliest mention of this painting is in a laudatory poem serene by the Leiden University professor and acquaintance of Rubens's brother Philip, Dominicus Baudius, who sought to evoke the horrible immediacy of the work, describing the scene as if the wings were alive, and imagining flames jetting from its eyes. Baudius's poem is dated 7 Aprilthus providing an terminus ante quern for the commencement of Rubens's work on the painting.He would fly murderously on the spectators, did not his chained prey detain him. He can do no more that terrify the frightened onlookers by turning his flaming eyes from one to the other. Blood flows from the chest and every part where his claws exit their mark, and his piercing eyes dart savage flames.
You might think that he moves, that his feathers tremble. Horror grips the onlookers.[8]
Rubens's Influences
Rome
Rome was in the height of the Catholic Revival, as Rubens spent countless hours making studies from figures painted by Michelangelo, in the Sistine Chapel.[5] Rubens's Prometheus Bound was influenced by the dense musculature and broad frame by Michelangelo.[1] Also in Rome at this time was Caravaggio, at the height of his career.
Although, it was unlikely that the two painters never met, Rubens was impressed by his paintings, even copying some of them.[5] Even though he had a turbulent life, Caravaggio mastered the used of tenebrism, the dramatic balance of illumination and dark, often used to highlight the figures.[5]
Venice
When he arrived in Venice in June , the city's art scene was flourishing.
Titian, regarded as one of the greatest painters, had died in , one year before Rubens was born.[5] Titian's popularity survived in Venice and Rubens studied his mastery of form, intense coloring, strong and fluid lines, and his authority of imagination.[5] Rubens also visited the Doges' Palace in Venice, which contained ceilings and walls change by paintings of Christian visions and pagan allegories.[5]
Florence
Rubens was given the opportunity to explore to Florence in October for the wedding of Marie de' Medici, bride to the Henry IV of France.
During this time, Rubens visited sites containing important Renaissance works, including the Church of San Lorenzo, which held the Medici tombs by Michelangelo.[5] He also studied the work of Ludovico Cigoli, a painter who digressed from the contorted affectation of Mannerist art.[5]
Provenance
Known for its strong feeling response, Prometheus Bound stayed in Rubens's possession from its completion in [1][9] The first recorded sale of Prometheus Bound was to the English collector Sir Dudley Carleton, in Carleton offered to trade Rubens his collection of classical statues, for a large group of paintings from Rubens's workshop, which had been overseen, or at least, finished by Rubens himself.[3] To verify he worked on Prometheus Bound by his own hand, Rubens wrote in a letter to Carleton:
A Prometheus bound on Mount Caucasus, with an eagle which packs his liver.
Original by my own hand, and the eagle done by Snyders. florins.[3]
Notes
- ^ abcdefg"Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object&#;: Prometheus Bound".
. Retrieved
- ^ abcdeHowatson, M. C. HowatsonM C. (), Howatson, M. C. (ed.), "Promē'theus Bound", The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, Oxford University Press, doi/acref/, ISBN&#;, retrieved
- ^ abcFreedberg, David.
"Peter Paul Rubens Oil Paintings and Oil Sketches"(PDF). Retrieved 30 April
- ^ abcdWhite, Christopher, ().InPeter Paul Rubens first apprenticed with a distant relative, Tobias Verhaechta landscape painter. These lessons would influence his work, including Prometheus Boundas the backgrounds of many of his paintings play an important role in the composition. Rubens then apprenticed for four years with Adam van Noorta portrait painter, known for painting mythological scenes with plentiful nudes and unrestrained images of Flemish life. InRubens opened a studio of his own in Antwerpwhile also serving as court painter to the Archduke and Archduchess in Brussels.
Peter Paul Rubens&#;: man & artist. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ abcdefghijklmnWedgwood, C.V.
(). The World of Rubens . New York: Period Incorporated.
Prometheus Bound, by Peter Paul Rubens. PROMETHEUS writhes in agony as a huge eagle, talons gripping his head and groin, devours his liver. The hero's nude body, powerfully muscled and steeply foreshortened, is chained at the wrist to the rock.
ISBN&#;.
- ^"Rubens - The End Works - Biography - ". . Retrieved
- ^ abTiniakos, Dina (August ). "Review Tityus: A forgotten myth of liver regeneration".
J Hepatol.
In the 17th century, a new kind of artist was emerging that embodied a professional and gentlemanly attitude towards work and life, and Peter Paul Rubens was one of them. Peter Paul Rubens is most well-known for his energetic paintings that portray subjects from Christian and classical history. Rubens was said to be a man that moved easily between both political and skilled circles, and an exemplar of a productive and courtly designer that was able to elevate the standards of his possess life to match those of the wealthy patrons he was commissioned by. Peter Paul Rubens was born in Antwerp, which at that time was a bustling seaport city regarded as the most affluent in Europe.53 (2): – doi/ PMID&#;
- ^Woollett, Anne T.; et&#;al. (). Rubens & Brueghel: A Working Friendship. J. Paul Getty Museum.
Prometheus Bound is a painting by the Flemish painter, Peter Paul Rubens. The painting was done using oil paints on canvas. The artist began the painting in or , and finished it before The painting measures by inches. It is currently in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
ISBN&#;.
- ^"A discussion of Prometheus Bound by Rubens". TripImprover - Get More out of Your Museum Visits!. Retrieved