UNIT 3
Assumption of the Virgin
Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. He is well-known for his altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. Rubens was a classically-educated humanist scholar, art collector, and diplomat.
The Assumption of the Virgin Mary or Assumption of the Holy Virgin, is a painting by Peter Paul Rubens, completed in 1626 as an altarpiece for the high altar of the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, where it remains. It is an oil picture on panel.
According to New Testament apocrypha, Jesus' mother Mary was physically assumed (raised) to heaven after her death. In Rubens depiction of the Assumption, a choir of angels lifts her in a spiraling motion toward a burst of divine light. Around her tomb are gathered the 12 apostles — some with their arms raised in awe; others reaching to touch her discarded shroud. The women in the painting are thought to be Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary's two sisters. A kneeling woman holds a flower, referring to blossoms that miraculously filled the empty coffin.
The composition is immersed in a warm heavy atmosphere with theatrical poses and dynamic effect. What strikes most when you see the picture is the colour as if lit by the inner light and which is laid on with the lightest touch possible. That’s why this picture is a great example of the charm of Rubens’s choice of colour, which is warm and vital, and his brilliant brushwork. The sweet rounded forms of the people depicted is another typical feature of the artist’s style. Rubens liked painting women and his fondness of painting full-figured women gave rise to the terms 'Rubensian' or 'Rubenesque' for plus-sized women.