080086 SE Rubens and Italy (2023S)

When the young Rubens reached Venice in May 1600 at the beginning of his Italian journey, he must have been engaged almost immediately by Duke Vincenzo I of Mantua as a court artist - what was probably intended as a humanistic educational journey became a turning point in Rubens' biography. After taking up his post in Mantua, at that time one of the most vital artistic centres in northern Italy, a diplomatic mission took him to Spain to the court of Philip II, followed by a longer stay in Rome, and he also accompanied the Duke to the rich port city of Genoa and to Milan. During these eight years, the prolific Fleming produced numerous outstanding works, in addition to drawings, studies and sketches that document the lasting impressions of ancient works and the great masters of Italy on the young painter. In addition to the artistic impulses, the cultural practices that the young painter acquired or refined during this period are almost equally important: the aesthetic innovations of the post-Tridentine church reform with its theologically based visual rhetoric, the elaborate interactions at court as well as knowledge of the latest innovations in music, theatre, poetics, and not least the valuable contacts into the highest circles of aristocrats and collectors, as well as into the circles of scholars and academies. Until the end of his life Rubens was able to draw on this wealth of experience and on an astonishingly precise repertoire of compositional means, motifs, figures and affective expressive gestures that he had acquired during this period.

In the seminar, we will get to know and deepen stylistic, art-theoretical, rhetorical and iconographic aspects of Rubens' art on the basis of works created in confrontation with Italian models. This gives us the opportunity to observe the older exemplary masters of Italy and their effect on artistic discourses and techniques after 1600. With the help of selected sources (art theoretical and art biographical writings, letters, Hofmann tracts, festival descriptions, etc.) we will also practise source-based work and gain a vivid idea of the cultural horizon of the time.

Language skills of English and Italian are required.