Rubens and Spain: For the Sheer Love of Art
Lecture
Alejandro Vergara, Senior Curator of Flemish and Northern European Paintings at the Museo Nacional del Prado, explores in this talk the art of Peter Paul Rubens through the lens of the Spanish Royal Family’s collection.
This talk will focus on the art of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) by way of the collecting of his paintings by the Spanish Royal Family. During the lifetime of the artist his homeland, the Southern Netherlands (what we now know as Belgium) was a part of the Spanish Monarchy, ruled by a Spanish princess, Isabel Clara Eugenia. She made Rubens her court painter and trusted diplomatic advisor. She also contributed to the taste for Rubens’s art of her nephew Philip IV, King of Spain: more Rubens paintings could be seen in his palaces in Madrid than in any other European city.
This tale of art collecting allows us to consider the fascinating phenomenon of cultural diffusion. It is also an invitation to see with the eyes of Phillip IV. Rubens was the most successful painter in Europe during his lifetime. What did his art bring to the walls of the King’s palaces? Which are its virtues? What do his paintings bring to our lives still today?
The lecture is free for Meadows Museum members and $10 for the general public.