ARTHI 6B Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Peter Paul Rubens, History Painting, Low Countries
Document Summary
Beggars from antwerp, on a public holiday. Others dressed up and dancing for alms donations. Wearing bells on his leg, foxtails worn as ornaments to move while dancing. Putting on a spectacle to encourage people to give them money. People with legs amputated, gruesome caricatures, on crutches. 2 poems in latin written on the back of the panel. Whatever is lacking in nature is lacking in this painting, so great is the talent given to our artist. Praising that bruegel accurately depicts the defects found in nature instead of trying to perfect nature. Humanist paradox: true perfection in art is ability to perfectly reproduce imperfection. Pieter paul rubens, raising of the cross , c1610-11 from spanish rule over decades. In antwerp, period of dutch revolt against the spanish: low countries want to separate. Low countries divide into 2, south in catholic and spanish control, north gain independence and form dutch republic and protestant (calvinists)
