Honeysuckle Bower: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 23:47, 10 May 2023
| The Honeysuckle Bower | |
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| Artist | Peter Paul Rubens |
| Year | c. 1609 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 178 cm × 136.5 cm (70 in × 53.7 in) |
| Location | Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
The Honeysuckle Bower is a self-portrait of the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens and his first wife Isabella Brant, executed c. 1609. They wed on 3 October 1609, in St. Michael's Abbey, Antwerp, shortly after he had returned to the city after eight years in Italy.[1]
Description
The painting is a full-length double portrait of the couple seated in a bower (wikt) of honeysuckle. They are surrounded by love and marriage symbolism: the honeysuckle and garden are both traditional symbols of love, and the holding of right hands (junctio dextrarum) represents union through marriage.[2][3]
Symbolism
The honeysuckle plant has had various meanings over the years. Most notably, the meaning that is still associated with the flower, began in the Middle Ages.[4] The overall qualities that the honeysuckle plant symbolized was the idea of lasting pleasure; it also had meanings of steadfastness and permanence. This became a typical symbol found in paintings in the time of Rubens.[4]
The Garden of Love was a popular literary concept and symbol around the same time that the painting was created. The initial concept may have come from symbols of paradise that were present in medieval cloister gardens.[5] Another element that may have influenced this was Roman de la Rose, as well as the role of the garden in aristocratic society. In these scenes, women depicted as objects of admiration by their suitors and the garden is full of joyfulness and music.[6]
In this painting Rubens and Isabella join their rights hands in an act of Dextrarum iunctio. Dextrarum iunctio was the ceremony of joining the right hands of a couple together, and it has ancient Roman origins.[7] This symbol most likely referred to the idea of harmony within the marriage of Rubens and Isabella.[7] Additionally, Rubens depicts himself as an aristocratic gentleman with his left hand on the hilt of his sword.[8] The sword is an important piece in Ruben’s noble portrayal here, since the carrying of a sword was a symbol only permitted to those of the elite class. Rubens gained permission when he became the court painter for governors of the Netherlands.[9]
The symbols found within the artwork point to self-fashioning by Rubens, because of the the aristocratic portrayal and symbolism. This can be seen in the orange silk stockings, the bejeweled hat on his head, and the collar around his neckline.[9] One detail to note is the unbuttoned collar which signifies a marriage formed through an intellectual match.[9] In her left hand, symbolizing both her gentility and femininity, Isabella holds a fan.[6]
The pose of the two figures is more casual and modest compared to the noble clothing that they are wearing. Isabella is seated on the ground and recalls the Madonna of Humility, thus constructing an image as a virtuous wife.[9] At the same time, the pose that Rubens constructs Isabella in also displays his attention to her and his overall devotion as a husband.[9]
Historical Context
Details
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The couple, close-up -
Isabella Brant -
The hands
Provenance
Notes
- ^ Kristin Lohse Belkin, Rubens, London: Phadon (1998): 95–98. ISBN 0-7148-3412-2
- ^ Martin Schawe, Alte Pinakothek Munich, 2nd. ed., Munich: Prestel (2002): 76. ISBN 3-7913-2239-7
- ^ Hans Vlieghe, Flemish Art and Architecture 1585–1700, New Haven: Yale University Press (1998): 121–122. ISBN 0-300-07038-1
- ^ a b Heilmeyer, Marina (2001). The Language of Flowers: Symbols and Myths. Munich, London, New York: Prestel Verlag. p. 36. ISBN 3791323962.
- ^ Liedtke, Walter A.; Metropolitan Museum of Art (1984). Flemish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. United States: Yale University Press. p. 180. ISBN 9780300086065.
- ^ a b Partington, Michael John. "Peter Paul Rubens, Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower – Smarthistory". smarthistory.org. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
- ^ a b Hersch, Karen K. (2010). The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 199–206. ISBN 9780521124270.
- ^ Belkin, 98.
- ^ a b c d e Melion, Woodall II, Zell III, ed. (2017). Ut Pictura Amor : the Reflexive Imagery of Love in Artistic Theory and Practice, 1500-1700. Vol. 48 (1st ed.). Boston: BRILL. pp. 439–447. ISBN 90-04-34646-5.
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External links
Media related to Honeysuckle Bower by Peter Paul Rubens at Wikimedia Commons
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