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Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640) Flemish STUDY HEADS OF AN OLD MAN, ca. 1612 Oil on wood panel Height 26 1/2 inches Width 19 3/4 inches Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Carlton W. Smith, 1960.82 |
When it was first acquired by the Art Institute in 1960, this work showed only
one, central study of the old man's head, nearly frontal, looking to the left.
The other study, behind and to the left, had no doubt been overpainted sometime
in the early 20th century. The intent was probably to lessen the effect of a
sketch and create the appearance of a finished portrait thereby enhancing the
work's marketability and price. In l99l, while the painting was being cleaned
and treated at a conservation facility, the decision was made to have the
overpaint removed from the second study head, thus restoring the panel to the
artist's original intent.
Peter Paul Rubens - artist, diplomat, friend of kings - is without a doubt one
of the most well-appreciated and successful painters of all time, perhaps the
perfect embodiment of the Baroque-age artist. Like his early works executed
after he returned to Antwerp, Holland, following a lengthy trip to Italy and
Spain (1600 - 1608), this sketch shows how Rubens synthesized a great number of
contemporary artistic styles into a highly vigorous, personal, artistic
vocabulary. His use of naturalism and dramatic lighting derives from his
interest in the very influential works of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
(called Caravaggio). Rubens' bold, robust forms, seen in the confident modeling
of the heads, demonstrate his study of the great High Renaissance painter and
sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti, while his preference for strong, saturated
color result from his exposure to such Venetian Renaissance painters as Titian.
Rubens' brilliant handling of the paint and his ability to capture the color and
texture of aged flesh and silky white hair contribute to the freshness and
immediacy of this preliminary study sketch. The model who sat for these studies
appears in a number of Rubens' finished paintings, most notably in Christ and
the Woman taken in Adultery in the Royal Museum in Brussels; another version
of the same painting is owned by the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio.
Dominique H. Vasseur
SUGGESTED READINGS:
Cahan, Claudia Lyn. Rubens. New York: Avenel Books (Crown Publishers),
1980.
Held, Julius S. The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1980.
