Curvy Rubens by Chris The Guide
From whatevrfanzine nr.4
Whoever decided to buy Whatevr #4,
will certainly want to browse through it calmly, without being noticed too much
though, that’s “not done”. Whatever is certainly not a novel or an essay, you
don't need to lock yourself up in your study room.
Reading it in the underground could be perfect, but the paper size is too big and the passenger next to you might get annoyed when hit by your elbow. Perhaps a table in a coffee shop, but even there, a failure, the magazine is printed on A3 size, too big, the pleasure of browsing is denied again, it’s either Whatevr or the bad “caffé macciato” you just ordered. No, no way, you need peace, but not at home, for heaven's sake, no. The armchair is for a novel, or for a nap. Besides, we are talking about the new issue, brand new, and novelties need to be read immediately to breathe the new trends instantly.
I have a better idea: since this new
Whatevr has a very specific topic namely food, food and the body, and the curvy
beauty, perhaps a filthy trattoria is
the place to go. In this case though, I recommend just fatty food, no vegan,
please. If this suggestion is too obvious I can give you yet another tip, fancier,
unexpected, very fanzine.
For those lucky enough to live in or
travel to Paris or London (and in both cities, the magazine is widely
available) I know the perfect place: it
is a picture gallery, the Baroque section, more precisely the rooms dedicated
to the Prince of European painting of the 17th century: Peter Paul Rubens, who
was born in Siegen on 28 June 1577 and died in Antwerp on 30 May 1640.
For Parisians the target is Musée du Louvre, Richelieu wing, second
floor, room 18, Galerie Médicis.
For Londoners, the National Gallery
(no excuse for Brits: free of charge), level 2, room 18.
 |
| Galerie Médicis, Louvre, Paris |
There might be a few tourists
hanging around in the room, maybe a sleepy visitor or a noisy school group, but
large masses will skip these halls. Now, first flip through the pages of
Whatevr #4, take a quick read of the articles, look at the pics, “hmmm, so
these are the latest trends in fashion…” and then you will be ready to concentrate
on Rubens. Ah, do not forget to make your selfie
with the magazine in hand and the paintings in the background, that’s a must!
In the "Galerie" you will notice the gigantic paintings representing
Maria de ' Medici, wife of Henry IV and mother of Louis XIII, both Kings of
France, painted by the Flemish artist for the Palais de Luxembourg. Focus on
one particular painting: The Arrival of
Marie de ' Medici at Marseilles, I add, to join her new husband married by
proxy in Florence a few months before. The work is impressive, the elegant
Queen strides on a crimson drape adorning the bridge of the ship from which she
is finally reaching her new home, her new reign. Now look down: three nude
female figures of jubilant super-dynamic divinities appear like bitts ensuring
the mooring line. Colossal nudities, beautiful and wonderfully abundant. Here
are the nymphs, ideal of beauty and sensuality, glorifying the Queen of France
by exposing their voluptuous nudity with total grace.
For those who live across the
Channel, in London, well, the target is the National Gallery. Entering room 18
on the second floor, you’ll find The Judgement
of Paris, particularly the version of 1632-35. The myth is famous, it’s the
casus belli par excellence. Paris,
Prince of Troy, must elect the most beautiful goddess of the Olympus. The three
beautiful divas get naked to show their grace to the lucky judge. Venus will
triumph, and the other two, Minerva and Juno, won’t take it so well. To thank
the young judge for his vote Venus will help Paris to seduce and kidnap Helen,
Queen of Sparta. Obviously, her husband Menelaus will not be too happy and it
will be war, the Trojan war, the most extraordinary plot of the history of
European literature.
Now, after having seen one of the
two paintings. London or Paris, it does not matter, I am pretty positive that
you are thinking something like “those nudes are too fleshy, too fat, it is an
ode to cellulite rather than to beauty. Canon of Greek beauty? No way, those
goddesses really need a good gym session.”
This might be true but keep anyway in mind that you are
observing a painting by one of the greatest masters of all times, a true connoisseur
of beauty: Sir Rubens.
The Olympic grace and beauty of
those goddesses is shown in Rubens’ way (“Rubenesque”),
with his traditional unsettling effect, powerful and dramatic, without hiding anything, and with plenty of
colors and shapes.
Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt - the
scholar who invented the word Renaissance
- so a man who knew his stuff pretty well - wrote that the art of Rubens would
make the audience "wrapped and delivered by a giant wave, making it unable
to carry out clear analysis". I find this fully true; when I look at
Rubens’ paintings, I am always blown away, I never really know where to start looking.
His naked buttocks of goddesses are very vigorous, plump and fleshy, maybe
excessively, and undoubtedly extra-large, overweight. They have not much in
common with the waif-like athletic bodies presently cluttering the media. We’ve
got to be fair, plenty of cellulite, soft and plump thighs, quivering flesh,
but also, I must say, a lot of exploding sensuality.
It is this beauty? Maybe yes, maybe
no, but many people liked it and many are still pleased with it.
According to the painter Sir Rubens from
Antwerp, the answer is certainly yes, and personally, I fully agree.
The fact that the ancient canon of beauty was
different from the current one, is very well known and widely debated but that
the Prince of Baroque painting saw that canon in such an abundance of “meat”, may
be surprising.
The question of course is: why? There might not be an answer but certainly the topic is
juicy and I am sure that browsing Whatevr in Rubens’ company may give you some
true satisfaction.
Anyway, let’s try. Peter Paul Rubens is universally recognized as
the greatest European painter of the 17th century. He was an indefatigable artist,
an unsurpassed colorist, a creator of a brand and of a style appreciated by all
European courts. He was a pleasant and intelligent man as well, enough to act
as the confidant and diplomat for kings and princes, living in a century in
which through art you could resolve wars and alliances, weddings and
coronations. As a young man Rubens made a very long journey to Italy, basing
his artistic education on the solid foundations of the Classical and
Renaissance art as well as on his own Nordic tradition. His knowledge of ancient
art and his brilliant understanding of the modern movements, together with
every lack of fear for innovation, made him the perfect painter, the number one
on the market.
In his tome De Imitatione Statuarum - About
the Imitation of Ancient Statues - Rubens wrote: “it is necessary to follow
the example of the antique sculptors, replacing however the stone of the
statues with the living flesh”. He
really believed that painters could be capable of capturing the qualities of
the flesh but they had to avoid imitating the antiques, avoid imitating the
material character of stone.
It is indeed true that his ideal of
beauty derives from the Classics and he was certainly a great connoisseur of it.
Furthermore, if we look at the Classical and Hellenistic art, curves of female
bodies were far more pronounced than in our modern aesthetic ideal
“skinny-size-zero”. But again, Rubens goes much further, he shows cellulite, “love
handles”, softness. His female nudes once received and still do receive
criticism, they are considered ugly, unhealthy, exaggerated. But at the same time those nudes are considered
powerfully sensual as well.
At the National Gallery, London, in
the room dedicated to Rubens, the no. 18, we can admire another panel that he painted
in 1609-1610: Samson and Delilah. The
story is well-known, the super sensual blonde Delilah seduces the poor hero
Samson and gives him a tricky haircut, thus erasing his miraculous strength.
The traitor has a body both sensual and
extra-large, she is broad-shouldered and muscular, has a rounded healthy face
and bountiful soft breasts, almost saggy. Nonetheless, her sensual female
beauty has a sex drive that most of modern erotic art has not. A real hormonal explosion,
a sex bomb.
Tomaso Montanari, an well-known expert
in Italian Baroque art, describing the power of Rubens’ paintings notices a
"new art rhetoric, based on movement and color and a tool to build a strong
emotional empathy with the viewer."
This is the key, I think: empathy.
The art of Rubens is empathetic, his bodies are empathetic, emotionally
powerful and reassuring.
Rubens is universally recognized as
the greatest Baroque painter. The word “Baroque”, originally Portuguese, wanted
to describe an irregular pearl. In a generic sense therefore baroque means
bizarre, whimsical, and the term was used in contrast to Classicism, so with a
negative value.
Baroque art is in fact surprising,
exuberant, extravagant, spectacular and eye-catching. It is theatre, colors,
music, movement, drama. This is what we find in Rubens, exuberant forms,
abundant curves, living flesh.
Therefore, in conclusion, I think
that in Rubens as well as in our modern world, abundance is empathy.
Browsing Whatevr in front of Rubens’
art sounds to me as quite a surprising
combination.
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