{"id":505,"date":"2015-06-24T20:38:45","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T20:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendarees.com\/?p=505"},"modified":"2015-11-04T20:24:14","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T20:24:14","slug":"spectacular-rubens-the-tidings-october-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/?p=505","title":{"rendered":"Spectacular Rubens, The Tidings, October 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"
Installation view of \u201cSpectacular Rubens: The Triumph of the Eucharist\u201d with The Victory of Truth over Heresy, about 1622-1625, Peter Paul Rubens, oil on panel (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid), and The Triumph of Truth over Heresy, 1626-1633, woven by Jan Raes I, Jacob Geubels II, and Jacob Fobert after designs by Peter Paul Rubens, wool and silk (Tapestry \u00a9 Patrimonio Nacional, Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, Madrid).<\/div>\n
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Breathtaking, inspiring and artistically engaging, \u201cSpectacular Rubens: the Triumph of the Eucharist,\u201d a new exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum, features the work of master artist Peter Paul Rubens told in both elaborate oil sketches and monumental original tapestries woven in the early 1620s for a Franciscan convent in Spain.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the largest number of works for the Eucharist series assembled in more than half a century and the first time these tapestries have traveled to the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Rubens on a grand scale that we don\u2019t get to see often enough,\u201d said Getty curator Anne Woollett, who worked with the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain, in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and in collaboration with the Patrimonio Nacional to mount this exhibition. \u201cThe complex iconography will grab you by the soul and we hope visitors will revel in the spirituality, joy and exuberance of Ruben\u2019s unbridled creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visitors who pass under the large photo realist images of the convent doors to enter the gallery will probably gasp with awe upon seeing the large tapestries, some as big as 16 feet high and 25 feet wide. The scope, content and skilled command of the tapestries harkens to a time when art was intricately linked to royalty and the bold presentation of deep, intimate, spiritual ideas.<\/p>\n

This exhibit features four of the 20 tapestries that were originally commissioned to Rubens by the Spanish governor-general of the Netherlands, the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia. The interconnected the tapestries were intended to be hung in the Monasterio de las Descalza Reals (Convent of the Barefoot Royals) which was located near the royal palace.<\/p>\n

The Infanta had a profound sense of religious obligation, and along with her husband, Cardinal-Archduke Albert of Austria, the two established a solid Catholic state after decades of conflict.<\/p>\n

When her husband died, the Infanta exchanged her court dress for a Poor Clare nun\u2019s habit (shown in paintings at the exhibit) but continued to wage military and diplomatic campaigns to secure peace. Rubens was probably called upon to broker behind-the-scenes deals and arrangements because of his ambassadorial nature and status as court painter, explained Woollett. \u201cPatron and painter both shared a passionate and almost militant view of Catholicism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commissioning of these tapestries was viewed as a way to convince the masses of the power of the Catholic Church against the perceived heresies of the day (often depicted as Calvin and Luther).<\/p>\n

For more than 400 years, these tapestries (one on top of another) decorated the two-storied convent church on Good Friday and the Octave of Corpus Christi as well as other special circumstances. (Art scholars don\u2019t know the specific designation of where the tapestries were hung.) It\u2019s suggested the tapestries may also have been hung outside of the building for other select occasions.<\/p>\n

A Closer Look<\/h2>\n

Overall, the tapestries are illusions within illusions. Powerful figures and small angels unfurl the tapestries amidst a backdrop of architectural details like stonework and garlanded columns.<\/p>\n

Good versus evil is the main subtext for theological virtues told with images from the Old Testament, the life of Jesus and other Christian symbols. \u201cThese are bigger than liturgical statements,\u201d said Woollett. \u201cThey were meant to celebrate the nature of the love of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wool and silk tapestries, each weighing about 200 pounds, are displayed alongside six of Ruben\u2019s original oil sketches which weavers used to create the final artwork. These modelli have been recently conserved with a grant from the Getty Foundation through its Panel Paintings Initiative.<\/p>\n

The modellis, Wollett pointed out, are \u201cmirror backward images\u201d because weavers needed to work from right to left on their looms as they \u201cread\u201d the sketch design. Even though he knew weavers would have to \u201crecreate\u201d his art in a different media, Rubens \u201cshowed no concessions when it came to complex scenes,\u201d said Wollett referring to large expanses of skin, intricate illusions and demanding compositions.<\/p>\n

Weavers with specialized talent \u2014 faces, architecture, etc. \u2014 were called upon to construct specific elements, making the tapestries a many-handed creation. They, along with Rubens, did receive artistic credit for the final product.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I rounded the corner to enter the Getty museum gallery, I gasped. Out loud and loud. The sheer beauty and majesty of the paintings and tapestries was overwhelming. The curator Anne Woollett said to me: “That’s just the reaction we want to see.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-the-tidings","9":"post-with-thumbnail","10":"post-with-thumbnail-large"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":635,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}