Wisława Szymborska | Le donne di Rubens

Ercolesse, fauna femminile,

nude come il fragore di botti.

Fanno il nido in letti calpestati,

nel sonno la bocca si apre al chicchirichì.

Le pupille rovesciate all’indietro

Penetrano dentro le ghiandole da cui i lieviti stillano nel sangue.

Peter Paul Rubens | Frans Snyders - Ceres with two Nymphs, 1624 | Museo Nacional del Prado

Peter Paul Rubens | Mars and Rhea Silvia, 1617

Mars and Rhea Silvia is a 1617 painting by Peter Paul Rubens, now in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna.

It shows Mars's rape of Rhea Silvia, which resulted in the birth of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.

Peter Paul Rubens | Christ Risen, 1616

"Christ Risen", "The Easter Tomb" or "The Triumph of Christ over Death and Sin" is a painting by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), executed c. 1616.

It entered the collection of Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany between 1713 and 1723 and is now in the Palatine Gallery of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678)

Jacob Jordaens è stato un pittore Fiammingo, fra i maggiori del XVII secolo.

Fu allievo, con Pieter Paul Rubens, del pittore manierista Adam Van Noort, grazie al quale fu ammesso alla gilda dei pittori di Anversa.

Suo padre era un commerciante di tessuti o di sete. La famiglia Jordaens apparteneva alla borghesia più agiata: la loro casa si situava nell'Hoogstraat (la via alta), una delle vie più conosciute per il commercio dei panni ad Anversa.

Il 15 maggio 1616 sposò la figlia minore del suo maestro Adam van Noort, Catharina, di quattro anni più anziana. È un matrimonio cattolico da cui nasceranno tre figli: Elisabeth (1617), Jacques (1625) ed Anne Catherine (1629).

Catharina van Hemessen (1528-1587) | Pittrice Fiamminga del Rinascimento

Catharina van Hemessen | Self-portrait, 1546-48 (detail) | Kuntsmuseum Basel

Catharina van Hemessen è stata una pittrice Fiamminga.

Figlia del pittore Jan Sanders van Hemessen, da cui con ogni probabilità apprese le prime tecniche della pittura, Catharina van Hemessen è la prima pittrice Fiamminga di cui si possa definire con certezza l'opera e la prima pittrice di cui si conosca un autoritratto, l'Autoritratto al cavalletto.

Modest Huys (1874-1932) | Luminist painter

Modest Huys was a Flemish🎨 Impressionist and Luminist painter.

From a young age, he worked in his father's painting and decorating business and later studied at the "Gentse Nijverheidschool" (Ghent Industrial School).

In 1891 or 1892, he came into contact with Emile Claus🎨, who encouraged his artistic inclinations.

David Vinckboons (1576-1632) | Pittore del Secolo d'oro Olandese

David Vinckboons o Vingboons o Vinckeboons o Vingbooms è stato un pittore, incisore e disegnatore Olandese del Secolo d'oro.

Appartenne ad una famiglia di artisti di origine fiamminga. Il padre Philip Vinckeboons (m.1601) era un pittore di acquerelli su tela, arte praticata principalmente nella zona di Mechelen, e fu l'unico insegnante di David.

La famiglia si trasferì ad Anversa intorno al 1585. Probabilmente a causa delle guerre di religione nei Paesi Bassi meridionali, si spostò a Middelburg nel 1586 circa, e infine ad Amsterdam dove il padre Philip divenne un cittadino nel 1591.

Il 2 ottobre 1602 David sposò a Leeuwarden Agnieta van Loon, la figlia di un notaio, da cui ebbe dieci figli: sei maschi e quattro femmine. In seguito acquistò una casa ad Amsterdam in Sint-Antoniesbreestraat, come molti altri artisti e pittori.

Adriaen Brouwer (1605-1638) | Genre painter

Adriaen Brouwer (Oudenaarde, c. 1605 - Antwerp, January 1638) was a Flemish painter🎨 active in Flanders and the Dutch Republic in the first half of the 17th century.

Brouwer was an important innovator of genre painting through his vivid depictions of peasants, soldiers and other 'lower class' individuals engaged in drinking, smoking, card or dice playing, fighting, music making etc. in taverns or rural settings.

Adam de Coster (1586-1643) | Card players by candlelight

In the absence of signed and documented works by Flemish painter🎨 Adam De Coster (1586-1643), all attributions have been based on Lucas Vorsterman's engraving after a lost original entitled "The Trick-trak player".

The present painting, which was also engraved by Vorsterman, shares a number of similarities with this key, lost work.

Both compositions are multi-figural and lit by candlelight, with a figure in the foreground partially shading the light source.

The artist adopts a low viewpoint in both paintings which means that the table-tops are hardly visible.

Abraham Brueghel (1631-1690)

Abraham Brueghel è stato un pittore Fiammingo.

Appartenente alla celebre dinastia dei Brueghel - era figlio di Jan il Giovane e nipote di Jan Brueghel dei Velluti; il suo bisnonno era il celebre Pieter Bruegel il Vecchio, Abraham Brueghel trascorse, al contrario dei suoi famigliari, quasi tutta la vita in Italia, dove giunse nel 1649.

Abraham dipinse quasi solo composizioni di fiori; la sua prima commissione importante fu quella per il nobile messinese Antonio Ruffo, un raffinatissimo collezionista che fu il primo italiano a richiedere un'opera di Rembrandt.

Rubens | Portrait of Susanna Lunden, 1622

This painting is one of the most famous by Peter Paul Rubens🎨 (Flemish Baroque Era painter, 1577-1640) in the Collection of the National Gallery, London.

The title 'Le Chapeau de Paille' (meaning The Straw Hat) was first used in the 18th century. In fact the hat is not straw; 'paille' may be an error for 'poil', which is the French word for felt.

The hat, which shades the face of the sitter, is the most prominent feature of the painting.

The portrait is probably of Susanna Lunden, born Susanna Fourment, third daughter of Daniel Fourment, an Antwerp tapestry and silk merchant. Her younger sister Helena became Rubens's second wife in 1630.

Peter Paul Rubens | Study of Two Heads, 1609

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish Baroque Era painter, 1577-1640)

Title: Study of Two Heads

Date: ca. 1609

Medium: oil on panel

Dimensions: Height: 69.9 cm (27.5 in); Width: 52.1 cm (20.5 in)

Current location: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rubens painted studies of heads after live models and artistic sources, creating a cast of characters that served in turn as models for figures in religious and mythological works.

Ambrosius Benson | Pittore manierista

Ambrogio Benzone (1495-1550), od Ambrosius Benson in fiammingo, è stato un pittore Italiano, di origine lombarda, attivo a Bruges.

Si ignorano la data precisa e il luogo della nascita, che si ipotizza sia avvenuta nei dintorni di Milano, per via del nome Ambrogio. Dovette trasferirsi piuttosto giovane a Bruges nelle Fiandre, proveniente dalla Lombardia.

Rubens | Nicolaas Rubens Wearing a Coral Neckless, 1619

Title: Nicolaas Rubens Wearing a Coral Neckless.

Date: 1619.

Author: Peter Paul Rubens (8 June 1577 - 30 May 1640).

Medium: Black and red chalk, heightened with white chalk.

Current location: Albertina, Vienna.

Robert Campin (1375-1444)

Robert Campin, now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle (earlier the Master of the Merode Triptych, before the discovery of three other similar panels), was the first great master of Flemish and Early Netherlandish painting. Campin's identity and the attribution of the paintings in both the "Campin" and "Master of Flémalle" groupings have been a matter of controversy for decades.

Campin was highly successful during his lifetime, and thus his activities are relatively well documented, but he did not sign or date his works, and none can be securely connected with him.

A corpus of work attached to the unidentified "Master of Flémalle", so named in the 19th century after three religious panels said to have come from a monastery in Flémalle.

Jean Bellegambe | Renaissance painter

Jehan Bellegambe or Jean Bellegambe (sometimes Belgamb or Belganb) (ca. 1470 - ca. June 1535-March 1536) was a French-speaking Flemish painter of religious paintings, triptychs and polyptychs, the most important of which are now held at Douai, Arras, Aix, Lille, Saint Petersburg and Chicago.

He was known as the 'master of colours' for the transparency and interplay of his colours.

He is known as Jehan Bellegambe the elder to distinguish him from his descendents who were also called Jehan.

Rogier Van Der Weyden (1399-1464)

Van der Weyden fu uno dei più grandi maestri della prima pittura fiamminga, assieme a Jan van Eyck, più o meno suo contemporaneo, e Robert Campin, suo maestro. Dal primo prese l'innovativa tecnica ad olio e l'attenzione verso la resa analitica dei dettagli, dal secondo apprese il senso pieno dei volumi, dello spazio e l'emotività umana dei personaggi.

Questi modelli vennero comunque reinterpretati in maniera personale, sviluppando un linguaggio con caratteristiche compositive e cromatiche proprie, e segnando un predominio delle figure sugli ambienti. Tipico è il senso di composto ma partecipe sentimento, con personaggi dalle molteplici sfumature psicologiche, pur sempre atteggiati entro i limiti di un dignitoso contegno. Le tinte sono di solito fredde, accostate in maniera solida e molto raffinata, come i gialli e i violetti, oppure le varie sfumature di bianchi e grigi.

Sir Anthony van Dyck | Family Portrait, 1621

"Family Portrait" is an 1621 painting by Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), a Flemish Baroque artist.

The identity of the family is not known. Earlier the painting was supposed to be the family portrait of the painter Frans Snyders.

Sir Anthony van Dyck studied under Peter Paul Rubens and was one of his most accomplished students. Van Dyck's career flourished and he went on to become England's leading court painter.

Using his own compositional techniques, van Dyck was soon ranked alongside Titian in terms of style and the relaxed elegance of his portraits helped shape English portraiture for almost two centuries.

Peter Paul Rubens (Baroque painter, 1577-1640)

Sir Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium).

He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history.

His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation.