DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61252#0275
INTRODUCTION.
231
Rubens was born in 1577. The Flemish school, pre-
vious to his time, had sunk into a state of mannerism and
degradation similar to that which prevailed in Italy just
before the Carracci. The imitation of the Italian painters
had been caricatured by such men as Franz Floris, Henry
G-oltzius, and Bartholomew Spranger, till every trace of
nature and simplicity was lost in the most exaggerated
forms and the most outrageous display of learning. The
Flemish painters of this time appear to most advantage in
portraiture, but even old Mirevelt, their first great name
in this style, was somewhat hard and formal.
Rubens appeared—and through the influence of his
single mind he produced a revolution as complete as that
which was effected by the Carracci, but a revolution of a
wholly different kind, more original, and in its originality
more permanent. Nothing gives us a stronger impression
of the inborn genius and power of this wonderful man,
than the fact that when he commenced his studies in Italy
at an early age, Ludovico and Annibal Carracci, and their
earliest and best followers, were living—were at the height
of their fame and ascendancy, and that Rubens not only
remained uninfluenced by their style, but adopted one
diametrically opposed to it. The two painters who, if we
may judge from the result, seem to have left the strongest
impress on his mind, were Giulio Romano and Tintoretto;
but no foreign or external influences could permanently
modify a genius of such original and uncontrollable power.
When he returned to the Netherlands after an absence of
eight years, he gradually but quickly forgot his Italian
models, and thenceforth painted in a style unlike every-
thing which had been seen in the world before. While in
the 17th century we behold all Italy overrun by the scholars
and imitators of the Carracci, in the Dutch and Flemish
schools we see everywhere Rubens. He taught his coun-
trymen to look at Nature through their own eyes, and
hence we have a race of painters, his cotemporaries and
231
Rubens was born in 1577. The Flemish school, pre-
vious to his time, had sunk into a state of mannerism and
degradation similar to that which prevailed in Italy just
before the Carracci. The imitation of the Italian painters
had been caricatured by such men as Franz Floris, Henry
G-oltzius, and Bartholomew Spranger, till every trace of
nature and simplicity was lost in the most exaggerated
forms and the most outrageous display of learning. The
Flemish painters of this time appear to most advantage in
portraiture, but even old Mirevelt, their first great name
in this style, was somewhat hard and formal.
Rubens appeared—and through the influence of his
single mind he produced a revolution as complete as that
which was effected by the Carracci, but a revolution of a
wholly different kind, more original, and in its originality
more permanent. Nothing gives us a stronger impression
of the inborn genius and power of this wonderful man,
than the fact that when he commenced his studies in Italy
at an early age, Ludovico and Annibal Carracci, and their
earliest and best followers, were living—were at the height
of their fame and ascendancy, and that Rubens not only
remained uninfluenced by their style, but adopted one
diametrically opposed to it. The two painters who, if we
may judge from the result, seem to have left the strongest
impress on his mind, were Giulio Romano and Tintoretto;
but no foreign or external influences could permanently
modify a genius of such original and uncontrollable power.
When he returned to the Netherlands after an absence of
eight years, he gradually but quickly forgot his Italian
models, and thenceforth painted in a style unlike every-
thing which had been seen in the world before. While in
the 17th century we behold all Italy overrun by the scholars
and imitators of the Carracci, in the Dutch and Flemish
schools we see everywhere Rubens. He taught his coun-
trymen to look at Nature through their own eyes, and
hence we have a race of painters, his cotemporaries and