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The Dreaming Silenus, c. 1610-12

SASHA SUDA: In The Dreaming Silenus, we encounter this god who reports to Bacchus - himself the chief partier - drunken after a long night of revelry.

Behind Silenus himself, we see two satyrs, both of whom are still indulging, and in the center right of the painting, we have a quite incredible still life. That includes contemporary glassware, tableware and other objects that would have been collected extensively in 17th century Antwerp.

NARRATOR: The beautiful panther beside Silenus was probably painted in by Rubens’s friend Frans Snyders, who specialized in animals. He and Rubens could have seen real exotic animals in the royal collection in Brussels, as well as in prints and books.

SASHA SUDA: One can't help but think that he could pounce at any moment, and all of these very fragile objects on the table could be destroyed. It's a painting that reminds us that happiness, indulgence, calm, can be momentary. But it also celebrates the everyday life and indulgences of those people who would commission such a painting.

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Lot and his Daughters, c. 1613-14, Private Collection

KIRK NICKEL: Reubens’ scene of Lot and his daughters comes from a Biblical narrative fraught with transgression.

NARRATOR: Lot and his daughters have fled the town of Sodom which God vowed to destroy, and shelter in a cave.

KIRK NICKEL: The two daughters, afraid that their father’s lineage may have come to an end, devise to get him drunk and become pregnant by him.

The scene certainly lends itself to the display of flesh, and that would have been a significant aspect in its appeal for the patron who ultimately acquired the work. Rubens also layered the scene with a surprising amount of moral ambiguity. Rubens presents Lot as the more complicated character - his leering gaze at his naked daughter presents him as perhaps the predator.

NARRATOR: And in fact, Rubens modeled Lot’s head and torso on an ancient sculpture of a Satyr – a notoriously lecherous creature. But the old man’s reclining pose draws on a famous Michelangelo painting of a young woman, who is seduced by Zeus, king of the Gods.

KIRK NICKEL: So in the single figure of Lot, Rubens is pitting references to seducer and seduced in equal parts. For those viewers who were aware of the references Rubens was making, the scene becomes all the more ambiguous and harder to read for its moral lesson -

NARRATOR: - as well as flattering to their knowledge of classical and Renaissance art.

13

The Capture of Samson, 1609-10, AIC

NARRATOR: In the center of this tumultuous scene, the Old Testament hero Samson is captured. To the left is his lover, Delilah, who has betrayed him to his enemies by allowing them to cut his hair and deprive him of his strength. In this dynamic oil sketch, Rubens is working out how to tell Samson’s story.

NICO VAN HOUT: He chooses the moment where he's captured and before he's blinded and that enables Rubens to oppose the drama of the violence, with a very quiet and rather diva-like appearance of Delilah.

Her sensuality is opposing that sort of violence that breaks loose and it always comes in mind to me that a scene like this shows Rubens as a filmmaker. We see the same tricks used in film as in in oils. You see the drama of the action with the oblique, and the foreshortening of the figure of Samson, and we see the light falling mainly upon the female actress here, Delilah.

NARRATOR: Elsewhere in this gallery, you’ll find another oil sketch – this time, showing an earlier point in the story where Delilah watches while the sleeping Samson’s hair is cut – a charged moment that will set off the catastrophic consequences we see playing out here.

14

The Annunciation, c. 1610, Kunsthistorisches Museum

NARRATOR: In a dark, nighttime setting that heightens this painting’s intensity, the Angel Gabriel arrives with momentous news for Mary.

KIRK NICKEL: Mary has just been facing away from the viewer reading the holy scripture when this tumult of heavenly light and angelic beings cascades into her bedroom. She turns to face Gabriel, her body expressing some surprise, but her face entirely placid, showing no anxiety about this moment of revelation where she is told that she will conceive a child through the Holy Spirit.

NARRATOR: The painting is full of lessons Rubens learned in Italy, including the way the figures look rounded and fully three dimensional. And the intensity of Ruben’s colors, the sense of movement in the bodies, and the billowing draperies all add visual excitement to this key moment in Christ’s story.

By these means, the painting was intended to move and enthrall those who saw it. It was commissioned by the Jesuit seminary in Antwerp. They received generous funding from the Catholic rulers of the Spanish Netherlands to assist in strengthening the Catholic faith there, in the face of growing Protestantism in northern Europe.

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Head of Medusa, Moravian Gallery in Brno

NICO VAN HOUT: The painting we've got in front of us is called the Medusa.

NARRATOR: According to some versions of Medusa’s story, she was once a beautiful young woman, who was raped by the sea god Poseidon in the temple of Athena. Unfairly blaming Medusa for having desecrated the sacred space of her temple, Athena became enraged with her.

NICO VAN HOUT: She was punished by the goddess, who transformed her long hair into horrible snakes and all sorts of small creatures you see creeping out.

NARRATOR: Anyone who looked at Medusa was turned instantly to stone. But eventually the hero Perseus managed to cut off her head by looking only at her reflection in his polished shield.

Rubens portrays Medusa’s severed head. Disturbingly, the snakes are still full of life, while her ashen face is frozen in an expression of pure horror. Around her lurk a scorpion, a lizard, spiders and a worm.

NICO VAN HOUT: Reubens really took care to look at books and to look for small images of strange creatures he could use in in this work.

NARRATOR: In his splendid Antwerp mansion, Rubens had collections of art, antiquities and curiosities, as well as an extensive library of books he could consult to help inspire details like these.

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Boar Hunt, c. 1615-17, Musées de Marseille

NARRATOR: Dynamic action. Incredible realism. A complex weaving-together of figures and animals. And a story that grabs and holds our attention, as we see this mighty boar surrounded, a spear plunged into his throat. This scene gives us a wonderful summary of Rubens’ extraordinary talent as an artist, which we’ve seen unfold in the exhibition.

The painting, made for a royal Duke, combines two of his main interests. Hunting was, of course, a noted royal and aristocratic sport. The scene echoes classical images of boar hunts – including Hercules killing the Erymanthean boar. This alludes to the Duke’s love of ancient art and culture – which Rubens shared. The Boar Hunt is also a great example of how he uses color to heighten drama, and to draw our attention to key details. Here, touches of brilliant red make our eye move quickly to different parts of the scene, including the eye of the boar, full of anger, fear, and defiance, at the moment before death.

17

Daniel in the Lions’ Den, 1614/1616, NGA

NARRATOR: Looking upward, the Old Testament hero Daniel beseeches God to save him. Angry that Daniel refused to worship the Babylonian gods, the Babylonian king had thrown him to the lions, expecting them to tear him apart.

KIRK NICKEL: So Rubens has selected a moment from that story where Daniel is alone in the pit, looking up to the heavens, praying for his safety. One of the most intriguing parts of this painting is the collection of emotional expressions that are shown through these lions.

NARRATOR: Rubens could have studied real lions in the royal menagerie in Brussels. He has done an astonishing job of conveying emotion, both through the lions’ expressions, and through Daniel’s face and his tense, knotted posture.

KIRK NICKEL: - You feel this taught sense of agitation, expectation, hopefulness, fear, all at once.

He has an interest in finding the precise moment in the narrative when human experience is stretched to some ultimate limit and this allows him to demonstrate his skill at expressing these extreme human emotions.

18

The Massacre of the Innocents, c. 1610, AGO

NARRATOR: Babies wrenched from their mothers’ arms, and dying beneath their feet. A child raised up high, to be brutally dashed to the ground. And a grandmother, about to be mercilessly killed. This violent and shocking scene pictures an event early in the life of Christ. Herod, King of Judea, heard that a child who was “King of the Jews” had been born in Bethlehem. Infuriated, he ordered his men to murder all the baby boys there. Luckily, Christ’s family had fled, following a warning from an angel, before the terrible massacre began.

SASHA SUDA: Nothing can redeem the tangle of figures at the center of the composition. Children to the bottom right of the painting are already blue and lifeless. The intensity of this image I believe is meant to convey the toxicity of one leader’s desire for power above all else.

NARRATOR: As well as displaying extreme drama and emotion, the painting shows off Rubens’ knowledge of classical art and architecture.

SASHA SUDA: The bodies of the figures are absolute quotations of antique sculptures that Rubens saw in Rome. And this ruin behind the three figures furthest to the right suggests the Roman ruins that Rubens might have encountered.

6

Holy Family with St Elizabeth, St John and a Dove, 1608-09, MMA

NARRATOR: At first glance, this portrayal of the Holy Family is endearingly intimate and playful. Leaning back in his mother Mary’s lap, the infant Christ pulls a dove away from his older cousin John. John’s mother Elizabeth appears to the right, and to the left is Joseph the carpenter, Christ’s earthly father.

But despite the sense of informality, the painting is full of symbols that point to God’s miraculous powers, and Christ’s serious future. The dove itself represents the Holy Spirit. It’s often shown hovering above Christ’s head as John baptizes him later on, when they are adults. Also, Christ’s chubby little foot points toward his wooden cradle. It subtly echoes the shape of a tomb, and in this way, foreshadows his death to save mankind.

Rubens would have painted this intimate scene for a patron’s home, rather than for a church setting – which required a more formal depiction of the Holy Family. Nearby, you’ll see another, larger version of this painting. For a successful artist with many commissions to fulfil, copying paintings, often with studio assistants helping out, was common.

5

Tribute Money, c. 1612, FAMSF

NARRATOR: This dramatic conversation is centered around the figure of Christ.

KIRK NICKEL: Rubens is well known and well-loved for his tense, dramatic action.

The moment is recounted in the gospels when the Pharisees send their followers to confront Jesus about whether the Jewish people should pay taxes to the Roman government, or if their tithes were due to God alone. This lays a verbal trap for Christ to fall into with the hope that by denouncing the Roman government, the Romans might put Christ to death.

Rubens takes this moment and turns it into a lesson about human sight. The scene seems very confrontational, everyone leaning in, craning their necks to see how Christ will answer this impossible question.

NARRATOR: In response, Christ simply takes a coin with Caesar’s head on it, saying “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God, the things that are God’s”. In this way, he astonishes his audience with his intellectual dexterity, and grasp of fundamental truth.