Rubens

by Charles Scribner III

Traces the life and career of the Flemish artist, shows a selection of his paintings, and discusses their background.

Genres: Art

128 pages, Hardcover

First published May 25, 1989

About the author

Charles Scribner III is an art historian, author, editor, and lecturer based in New York. He specializes in Baroque art, music, religion, and literature, especially authors published by Charles Scribner's Sons, founded in 1846.

Reviews

[Cristian Espinal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rubens, como buen representante del Barroco, pintaba el pasado alimentado por la clásica tradición católica y clasicista, mientras leía — pues había ejemplares en su biblioteca — a Kepler, Harvey y Galileo, que le mostraban a través del microscopio, la anatomía y la física la llegada del método científico y la ilustración. Fue consciente de la transición de su tiempo. Aún así, fue fiel a pintar “el espíritu de la época”.

“Su tiempo es de gigantes y él [Rubens] es uno de los mayores”.

[Sully Augustine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Library hardbound - I got it mostly for the 43 full color plates of the paintings and the stories that go with them but also found a good bit of the author's description of Rubens' life interesting. The man was a fairly formidable classical scholar and diplomat as well as an artist and entrepreneur. The author got too far into the weeds of the stories behind his trajectory as a painter and the influences on his art to hold my interest all the way through that, but I can heartily recommend the book as a well-illustrated intro to baroque art and the complex religious issues and political/international which bedeviled the seventeenth century.