The mis-spelling is purposeful because I rue the day that Rubens ever decided to pick up a brush and become a Dutch superstar. I've seen a LOT of Rubens paintings so far, because he appears to be the most prolific painter the world has ever known. There is a lot to go around. Every major gallery I've been to has had ol' Rube highlighted in a central place of honour. For some reason they have all failed to notice that he ISN'T talented. I've now had to come to the conclusion that as a result of his outrageously large body of work galleries have had to take the stance that Rubens was a genius in order to justify their large collection of his paintings.
I've tried to stay calm, but yesterday I almost lost it. Researching Munich at my favourite Internet cafe, I was happily looking over the description of the Alte Pinakothek when I was brought to a dead halt by the following sentence: "Rubens occupies (with one of the largest collections of his work in the world) the center of the museum". WHAT? I felt sure I had already seen the largest collection of Rubens ever at the Louvre, but apparently there is more. When will it end?
Let's all hope I get out of the Alte Pinakothek alive.
5 comments:
Wow! Lighten up on old Rubens! At least you can enjoy the fact that he didn't just paint in one style. And that he loved Caravaggio possibly even more than you or me - combined.
P.S. Is that not Rubens' "Funk as Druck"?
What! You don't like Rubens? He makes me feel downright svelte.
Shawon, it is Funk and Druck. I was hoping that you would notice.
I think you don't know what to look for in Rubens. He took a quantum leap in Composition and "Flow". Flow is the UNITY that is produced in a piece by the placement of the elements. Picture a stream in which all the stuff in it flows together in one direction. It is harder to do than you think, to create a unified composition; and VERY difficult to make an "S" shaped flow as Rubens did in nearly every piece he painted! He created "Baroque" art by doing this. Composition is how the piece is cropped, and until his time, people did not crop pieces as boldly and naturally as he did, no one had done such a masterful job of it since Michelangelo. He was to painting what Einstein is to science for these reasons; and that is not considering the amazing use of paint and light and shadow he created.
I think you do not know what to look for in Rubens. he took a quantum leap in both composition and "Flow". Flow is the UNITY created by the placement of the elements. Picture a stream in which a bunch of stuff all moves in the same direction. By "building" the composition carefully; placing every element and body part and line and color where they are desired, the composition is Unified. It is harder than you might think. And Rubens made his pieces in an "S" shaped Flow; very difficult! It's hard to control all the parts and pieces to do it well. Rubens also cropped the pieces perfectly to help the composition; no one had done it so well since Michelangelo. In addition to all this is his use of "tension" (forces moving in opposing directions) and his amazing use of color and understanding of the body. But it is the other stuff that makes him to art what Einstein is to science.
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