coll. - Delphi Complete Works of Peter Paul Rubens

Peter PaulRubens was born in the German city of Siegen, Nassau-Dillenburg, to Jan Rubensand Maria Pypelincks. Following the increased religious turmoil and persecutionof Protestants during the Duke of Albas reign of the Spanish Netherlands, RubensCalvinist parents fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568. Jan Rubens settled at thecourt of Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William I of Orange, in Siegen in1570, becoming first the legal advisor and then the lover of Anna. Inconsequence of his fathers imprisonment for this affair, Rubens mother decidedto return to Cologne the following year. In 1589, two years after his fathersdeath, Rubens moved with his mother to Antwerp, where he was then raised as aCatholic. Religion was to figure prominently in much of his work and the artistlater became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformationstyle of painting.

In Antwerp,Rubens received a humanist education, studying Latin and classical literature,before starting his artistic apprenticeship with Tobias Verhaeght at the age offourteen. Subsequently, he studied under two of the citys leading painters ofthe time, the late Mannerist artists Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen. Much of Rubensearliest training involved copying the works of great masters, such as woodcutsby Hans Holbein the Younger and Marcantonio Raimondis engravings afterRaphael. Rubens completed his education in 1598, at which time he entered theGuild of St. Luke as an independent master in his own right.

Held in the Rubenshuisin Antwerp, Adam and Eve, a paneldepicting the fall from grace of the biblical first humans, is one of the fewsurviving paintings from this period. The panel demonstrates the influence of Ottovan Veen, Rubens last and most influential teacher. The use of colour, withpredominant cool hues of green and blue and the finely clear contours are alsoreminiscent of van Veens work. Rubens treatment of the figures and thelandscape is notably static and precise, though his forthcoming time in Italy wouldallow the young artists style greater freedom, when his use of colour wouldbecome more expressive.

The poses ofthe figures are taken from a print of the subject by Marcantonio Raimondi afterRaphael, though Rubens gives them new life, with Adam more muscular and closelyobserved, as the head is turned out of pure profile to allow more expression tobe seen in the face. Eve is more idealised in form and beauty, perhaps hintingat the young artists limited experience of painting the female nude. She issofter and more sensuous than Vacnius figures, her raised hand enclosing theapple as if she is about to bite it, while the close proximity of Adams openhand to her arm stresses the tension of the moment.

Althoughlittle is known about the early history of the panel, it may be one of theworks described as beautiful, which according to Rubens mothers will of1606, he deposited in her house before leaving for Italy in 1600.