Portraits (until 1629)

In his early portraits in Italy, Rubens modelled himself on the local artistic tradition. As in his history pieces, here, too, he found his starting point in the work of the great sixteenth-century Venetians. Explicitly Venetian are the two large equestrian portraits Rubens made in his Italian period. The fine full-length portraits of ladies from the highest social circles in Genoa, painted around 1606-07, possess an even more pronouncedly Venetian stamp. Their portraits have none of the courtly formality that was so characteristic of the Low Countries tradition of portraiture. Once back in Antwerp in 1608, Rubens adapted himself again to the Netherlandish tradition. Rubens group portraits of these years are notable for their severe structure.

Up to about 1620 Rubens's portraits — like all his work — continued to be marked by an emphatic plasticity and a smooth, impasto execution which allowed the painter to depict the texture of skin and clothing with conviction and sensitivity. In the later years of the second decade, however, Rubens's portraits started to make a more supple and lifelike impression, which gives them a spontaneity and directness which they had not possessed since his years in Italy.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 5 minutes):
Alessandro Stradella: Sinfonia avanti il Barcheggio