DOCUMENTATION | Exhibitions: 1648 - War and Peace in Europe |
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| Essay Volumes > Tome II: Art and culture |
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HANS-MARTIN KAULBACH
Peter Paul Rubens: Diplomat and painter of peace |
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For my own part, I should like the whole world to be in peace, that we might live in a golden age instead of an age of iron.
Letter to Pierre Dupuy, Antwerp, April 22, 1627 [1]
No other artist of the 17th century dealt with peace so intensively in his work as did Peter Paul Rubens. Nor was there another who himself labored so tirelessly for peace: for over a decade, from 1623 to 1635, Rubens served as a diplomat, first under cover of his artistic activities during secret peace negotiations in the Netherlands and later as an official delegate in London, where he arranged a peace treaty in 1630. [2] Rubens was well-versed in international politics through his travels in Italy and Spain, Paris and London; his extensive correspondence in a number of languages bespeaks the wide range of his political, artistic, and intellectual contacts. As court painter to the Spanish regents of the Netherlands, the archducal pair Albert and Isabella, he had direct access to the court in Brussels.
The great pictorial programs he created in the service of the French queen, the English king, and his home city of Antwerp explore the possibilities of peace again and again. But this theme never exhausts itself in the glorification of the patron; rather, Rubens represents the higher ideals and values, "the impetus and resolution for that which occurs, preferably in allegories." [3] His great political allegories are not composed of static personifications of abstract concepts, but rather use motifs from antique mythology to unfold human dramas. This confrontation of political reality with images of human feelings and motivations, with human accountability to normative principles, may represent art's greatest contribution to peace.
Rubens' first major commission from his home city, which he received in late 1608 upon his return to Antwerp after a number of years in Italy, was the painting The Adoration of the Magi (Madrid, Prado). The work was intended for the room in the town hall of Antwerp where negotiations took place for the truce of 1609 between Spain, the southern Netherlands, and the northern Netherlands. Abraham Janssens painted the allegory Scaldis and Antverpia for the same purpose. Rubens' political goal of peace throughout the entire Netherlands is connected with the history of the Twelve Years' Truce and with his own position in society. From the Spanish regents Albert and Isabella, he obtained permission to be absent from court in order to establish his rapidly growing workshop in Antwerp. For Rubens, loyalty to the archducal pair, above all to Isabella's own independent efforts for peace, accorded with the interests of the urban bourgeoisie in a resurgence of economic prosperity. His activity as a diplomat of peace began after the end of the truce in 1621.
But as far as I can gather from certain indications, if Spanish pride could be made to listen to reason, a way might be found to restore Europe (which seems all in chains together) to a better temperament. Secret negotiations with the Hollanders are still maintained here, but you may be sure that Spain has not given orders to deal with them in any way, in spite of the fact that our Princess and the Marquis Spinola are very much in favor of it, both for the public welfare (which is dependent upon peace) and for their own peace of mind.
Letter to Pierre Dupuy, Antwerp, May 6, 1627 [4]
In context of the secret negotiations conducted by Isabella in the Netherlands, contrary to the objectives of Philip IV of Spain, Rubens made use of a network of personal, family, and business relations. On the one hand, this situation made diplomatic exchange possible in the first place, since no normal diplomatic relations existed between Brussels and The Hague; on the other, it afforded the initial secrecy necessary with respect to the Spanish court. Rubens' first contact was with Jan Brant from The Hague, an intimate of Prince Maurice of Orange and a nephew of Rubens' first wife, Isabella Brant. Another relative, Pieter Peckius, Chancellor of Brabant and an advisor of Isabella, was also involved. Concerning these negotiations, the French ambassador to Brussels, Baugy, wrote to Richelieu: "Every day the Infanta listens to the reports of the affair given to her by Rubens, the famous painter from Antwerp, who is also known in Paris from works in the palace of the Queen Mother; he is constantly traveling back and forth from here to the camp of the Marquis Spinola and is also said to have certain special connections with Prince Henry of Orange." [5] In 1624, Philip IV agreed to Jan Brant's suggestion to convoke a conference of the parties involved. After the capture of the fort Breda by Spanish troops under Spinola in 1625, the hope temporarily existed that the United Provinces might be inclined toward peace or a truce. Rubens' criticism of Spanish policy, expressed in a number of letters, makes clear that in his opinion, it would be pointless to continue the war at all costs: "This is an intermediary stage between inactivity and offensive warfare which demands the greatest expenditure and labor, and shows slight results against a people so powerful and so well defended by both art and nature." [6]
In 1627 it became obvious that peace in the Netherlands was not to be attained by a direct route. Already in 1623, Rubens had depicted this state of tension between war and peace in two title pages for a book on the history of the Netherlands. The title page of the first volume, treating the period up to 1599, shows Mars and Pax in a conventional arrangement as framing figures next to the text. In the third volume, however (Fig. 1), which contained the history of the revolt from 1560 to the Twelve Years' Truce, Rubens dramatizes the scene: the text of the title appears on a curtain which still conceals the interior of the Temple of Janus. Discordia, Furor, and other personifications of the horrors of war throw the gates open: the worst, the outbreak of devastating war, is yet to come. [7]
In 1622, Rubens signed a contract in Paris with Marie de' Medici, queen of France, for two series of paintings intended for two galleries in her newly-built Palais du Luxembourg: twenty-four paintings representing the "History and Heroic Deeds" of Marie de' Medici, and twenty-four showing the battles, conquests, and victories of Henri IV in the manner of Roman triumphs. [8] The "Medici cycle" (in the Louvre since 1816) was completed in 1625; the "Henri cycle," on the other hand, remained unfinished as a result of the queen's political difficulties. The program was devised by the queen herself with the assistance of her adviser and confessor Claude de Maguis, Cardinal Richelieu, and Rubens' friend, the jurist and antiquarian Peiresc. Marie de' Medici was the wife of Henri IV; after his murder in 1610, she ruled until 1614 for her son Louis XIII. When the latter acceded to the throne, however, conflicts arose between mother and son, in the course of which Marie was exiled to Blois. A temporary reconciliation in 1620 made possible the commission for the Medici cycle, which was also intended to justify her controversial regency and underline her political importance.
In the paintings, for which Rubens also made preparatory oil sketches, real persons and contemporary events mingle with antique gods, genies, personifications, and symbols. Allegorical personae provide commentary upon scenes from the life of Marie de' Medici, in many cases carrying the action as well. [9] The first half of the cycle is devoted to Marie de' Medici's youth and her relationship to Henri IV up to her coronation. The goal of peace that permeates the cycle here results more from the events taking place at the allegorical level than from the actions of the queen.
The program text for The Presentation of the Portrait of Marie de' Medici to Henri IV establishes most of the details of the painting: "At Francia's request, Jupiter and Juno resolve to provide a wife for King Henri the Great. They send Hymenaios with Cupid to show the king the portrait of the queen, who views it with amorous attention. He consults with Cupid, who shows him the beauty of her form. Below, two amorettes bear away the helmet and the shield of the king, showing that this marriage of the king will secure a long peace for France." [10] The usual courtly practice of arranging a marriage through the exchange of portraits is explained by the intervention of the divine pair; Francia, the personification of France, also advises the king, appearing as a military commander in armor and sash.
The pictures of the regency of Marie de' Medici following the murder of Henri IV in 1610 show the queen in a primarily passive role. In The Council of the Gods, however (Fig. 2), she enters the assembly of the Olympian gods in allegorical guise, holding the caduceus, the serpent staff of Mercury, as the sign of an ambassador of peace. The program text mentions the gods' suggestion of "a double wedding between France and Spain. Jupiter and Juno take counsel to pacify Europe through the alliance of France and Spain." [11] The queen's policy of peace between France and Spain is resolved in heaven by the gods, their actions expressing the "regulating power" that requires the ruler's deeds to conform to universal laws. [12]
The right-hand side of The Council of the Gods shows the struggle against the war god Mars and his horrifying entourage. Minerva and Apollo, the latter rendered after the ancient sculpture Apollo of Belvedere, use their weapons to drive out the "furor" of war and the vices of anger, duplicity, and discord, which storm out of the picture toward the right. Above them, Mars too seeks to tear himself away, but Venus tries to restrain him. The 16th and 17th-century iconographic formulas for the overcoming of war, taken from mythology, are ambiguous: is Mars appeased by Venus through love or driven out by Minerva? This ambivalence will be decisive for later allegories by Rubens on the theme of peace and war.
The pictures following The Majority of Louis XIII once again make reference to internal political conflicts in France, taking as their subjects The Flight from Blois, where Marie de' Medici was exiled in 1617, and The Negotiations at Angoulême (1619), aimed at ending hostilities. In the latter painting, Mercury, the messenger of the gods and the prototype of the ambassador of peace, here modeled after the famous sculpture by Giovanni da Bologna, approaches from the right to present an olive branch to the queen, symbolizing an offer of peace. In a tension-filled interplay of gestures and glances, Cardinal La Rochefoucauld, leader of negotiations for Louis XIII, urges her to accept the olive branch, while the cardinal at her side (La Valette or Richelieu) appears to restrain her. [13]
Thus opens the concluding part of the cycle, in which "peace" is attained. Peace Concluded is the only picture in which a classical personification of peace appears: Pax, wearing a white robe, uses her torch to ignite the weapons lying on the ground. [14] This type was known from Roman coins of the imperial age and was much described and used in the 16th century. In his Iconologia, Cesare Ripa interprets the figure as follows: "Peace burns a heap of weapons with her lighted torch, subdues war, enmity, and hatred, and restrains them." [15] The monumental figure of Pax, standing in the center and dominating the image, breaks the storm of the dark powers of Furor, Fraus, and Invidia, unleashed in The Council of the Gods. On the other side of the picture, Mercury and Innocentia lead Marie de' Medici into a temple inscribed "Securitati Augustae" (to public security). The "reconciliation" that follows shows Marie, holding the caduceus, ascending to heaven with her son while the hydra of conflict is cast into the abyss as in the Fall of the Angels. [16] In the final picture, The Triumph of Truth, mother and son sit above the clouds, reconciled with one another.
The allegorical apparatus employed by Rubens makes clear that the goal - the peace, for example, concluded in The Council of the Gods - is achieved not by Marie de' Medici herself, but requires the repeated intervention of gods and mythological figures. It is in the action of the allegorical figures, in fact, that Rubens succeeds in representing the "desired reality." [17] In so doing, he makes use of a mode of panegyric in which, in a glorification of monarchy, values and goals are formulated in a manner that points beyond the real persons and events. The ruler or queen is praised for what he or she should in fact do.
Nonetheless, the Medici cycle failed to have the desired effect of justifying the regency of Marie de' Medici and securing her political influence. In 1631, she was forced to flee from France, and Rubens complains in a letter of having to concern himself with her accommodation during her exile in the Netherlands. [18]
The second great cycle of paintings representing a monarchy in which peace constitutes the theme and goal are the ceiling paintings for the Whitehall Banqueting House in London. [19] The Banqueting House was built for King James I of England by Inigo Jones in 1619-22 as a palace for courtly festivals and diplomatic receptions. There the "Masques" were also performed, elaborate stage presentations by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones glorifying the politics of the Stuart dynasty in allegorical disguise. The commission for the ceiling paintings had been planned already in 1621, though the details were not arranged until 1629-30, when Rubens was in London as a peace emissary (see below). The canvas paintings, for which Rubens made oil sketches as well, were completed in Antwerp in 1634; in 1635 they were shipped to England and installed. Today they are the only major painted cycle by Rubens still in its original location.
Contrary to tradition and the legal conceptions of the English Parliament, King James I adopted the absolutistic position of "The Divine Right of Kings," as he characterized it in a speech to Parliament in 1609: "The state of Monarchie is the supremest thing upon earth: for kings are not only Gods Lieutenants upon earth and sit upon Gods throne, but even by God himselfe they are called Gods.... Kings are also compared to Fathers of families: for a King is trewly Parens Patriae, the politique father of his people." [20]
Rubens' compositions revolve around this figure of the king seated upon "God's throne." The models for this kind of painted ceiling program, vaulting over the ruler with images of a theology of state, included Paolo Veronese's painting in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge's palace in Venice. The central picture, The Apotheosis of James I, is flanked by processions of putti [???Puttenzügen] with motifs of peace in the animal kingdom and the revival of a "Golden Age." [21] The painting The Blessings of the Reign of King James I, mounted over the throne, shows the king seated like Christ at the Last Judgment, enthroned to separate good from evil. [22] To his left. Minerva hurls Mars, Discord, and a serpent-headed monster down and away from the throne. Since Mars is shown holding the torch of insurrection rather than the sword of war, the scene presumably refers to the defeat of the conspiracy by the Catholic nobility in 1605, the "Gunpowder Plot." To the other side, the king holds his hands protectively over Pax and Abundantia, who lovingly embrace one other. Above them, Mercury points his caduceus at Discord in order to "pacify" the conflict. Two celestial genies reward the king for this decision by crowning him with a laurel wreath.
The painting at the opposite end of the ceiling shows The Union of England and Scotland (Fig. 3). [23] As the heir to both realms, James I bore the title "King of Great Britain" from 1604 on. Rubens composes the scene like a "Judgment of Solomon." Before the king's throne, personifications of England and Scotland appear with a child, interpreted as Cupid and/or the crown prince and later king Charles I. At the king's command, they hold the crowns of both realms over the head of the child, while Britannia, shown in the robe of Minerva, binds them together. Above, two putti bear the coat of arms of the United Kingdom. The small boy places his foot on a helmet as a sign that his reign will be peaceful, while another putto ignites a heap of weapons with a torch.
In these exemplary pictures, Rubens gives an interpretation of the "divine right of kings" which glorifies the king not in his "divine right," but according to the measure of just action. His rule is legitimated by his deeds as a peacemaker in the sense of "just judgment." Once again, however, the ideal formulated in Rubens' paintings did not correspond to reality. The year 1642 saw the beginning of the civil war between King Charles I and the Parliament, in which he was finally condemned to death. In 1649, he was executed on a scaffold in front of the Whitehall Banqueting House.
It is not to be thought that the United Provinces will ever voluntarily yield a single point of their title as free states, still less that they will ever recognize the King of Spain as sovereign, be it only a title without substance; yet one may hope that by means of the kings, their allies, rather than by force, the States General may be made to feel the necessity of giving some satisfaction to the King of Spain.
Letter to the Archduchess Isabella, Antwerp, January 26, 1628 [24]
After the goal of achieving peace between the southern and northern Netherlands through secret negotiations had proven unattainable, Rubens participated in the efforts to establish a peace treaty between Spain and England from 1627 on. [25] In 1625, King Charles I had entered into an anti-Hapsburg alliance with Denmark and the United Provinces, also aimed at restoring the exiled Elector Palatine Frederick V to his electorate. In the service of the Archduchess Isabella, Rubens made contact with Balthasar Gerbier, a painter and diplomat like himself who was the art agent of the Duke of Buckingham and later entered the service of the English king. Rubens met with him under the pretext of art deals and visits to artists, for example to Gerard Honthorst in Utrecht. The goal was to spur the United Provinces on to peace through a treaty between Spain and England, an aim which corresponded much more to the political interests of the southern Netherlands than of the Spanish king, who had entered into a treaty with France in 1627 providing for the common invasion of England. In preparation for negotiations in England, Rubens was now officially installed as a diplomat; he traveled to Madrid, where he was appointed not as ambassador, for which his rank was too low, but as an emissary. The Spanish king named him "Secretary of the Secret Council of the Netherlands." In a letter to the ruling minister in Madrid, Rubens summarized the goals of the peace negotiations: [26]
I have neither the talent nor the position to give advice to Your Excellency. But I consider this peace to be of such consequence that it seems to me the connecting knot in the chain of all the confederations of Europe. The very fear of it alone is already producing great effects.... I admit that for our King the peace with the Hollanders would be more important, but I doubt that this will ever come about without the intervention of the King of England. But perhaps this peace between Spain and England, made without the Hollanders, would give them something to think about, and make them decide upon peace also. And all this lies in Your Excellency's hands, ... for it is certain, in every prudent man's opinion, that once this peace is made, all the others will follow.
Letter to the Count Duke of Olivares, August 24, 1629
The peace negotiations conducted by Rubens in London in 1629-30 were observed with great suspicion by the ambassadors of France and Holland. The ambassador of Venice, as well, Alvise Contarini, later one of the two mediators of the Peace of Westphalia, wrote: "This Rubens is an ambitious and greedy man, who wants only to be talked about, and is seeking some favor." [27] The successful peace treaty in London was the climax of Rubens' diplomatic career. To be sure, he was not permitted to sign the treaty himself; for that purpose, a higher-ranking Spanish ambassador, Don Carlos Coloma, was specially sent from Madrid to London in 1630. At the farewell audience, however, Rubens was knighted by King Charles I.
On March 5, 1630, before his departure from London and on his own initiative, Rubens paid a visit to the ambassador of the United Provinces, Albrecht Joachimi, in order to speak with him directly concerning the goal of peace in the Netherlands. [28] When Joachimi stated that "there was but one way ... by chasing the Spanyards from thence," Rubens replied that while this had been "the basis of the Pacificiation of Ghent, ... such peace was worse than war." In this way, it had already become clear that peace within the Netherlands, the goal toward which Rubens had been working, could not be achieved through the London treaty.
In London, Rubens painted a picture which he presented to Charles I as a gift at the end of his peace mission, the allegory Peace and War: Minerva Protects Pax from Mars. [29] It is the only one of Rubens' paintings in which peace itself is the primary theme. The picture was not commissioned, but was painted at the initiative of the artist and diplomat himself. It is probably for this reason that the work, like almost no other painting of the 17th century, points beyond the realities of politically motivated peace treaties to the ideals and movements that lead to peace.
The complex composition organizes opposing lines of motion through the tension of intersecting diagonals. The main figures are the gods of antique mythology. As the embodiment of peace, Pax sits slightly elevated off the central axis, dominating the left half of the image where the blessings of peace abound. The figure is based not on the usual iconography of peace, but is more reminiscent of Venus. She sprays milk from her breast, thus feeding a small child clinging to her left arm. In this way she appears in the role of Eirene, the Greek goddess of peace, as the nurse or wet-nurse of Pluto, god of wealth. [30] From the right, a youthful genie and a small Cupid lead two girls in contemporary dress to Venus; Hymenaios with his torch, the boyish god of weddings, places a garland of flowers on the older girl's head. A satyr who has come from the left now kneels before Venus and offers the children fruits from a great, overflowing cornucopia. Before him, a leopard has playfully rolled onto its back and extends its claws toward the grapes. Two maenads approach from the left, the one in front bearing a golden bowl full of costly vessels and pearls under her arm, the other dancing and striking a tambourine with upraised hands. The joie de vivre that accompanies peace, full of sensual qualities, comes to expression not only in the individual attributes, but in the dynamic movement itself.
The counter-movement is the expulsion of Mars. Behind Venus, Minerva comes forward and, with powerful pressure on his shield, pushes him away from Venus and toward the right. Mars, in full armor, has drawn his sword and looks back over his shoulder at the world of peace unfolding behind his back. Next to him flees Alecto, the Fury of war, while to the upper right a harpie spreads her wings, spewing baneful fire. An additional putto flying in from above holds two symbols of peace over Pax: an olive wreath, her attribute, and the caduceus, a sign that the victory over Mars was attained through diplomacy.
At the compositional level, as well, a violent sequence of movements from left to right in the upper half of the picture reinforce the decisiveness with which Mars is driven away. In a counter-movement, the figures in the lower half of the painting move toward one another, already suggesting the goal of a pyramidal order culminating in the head of Pax. In the Renaissance, this kind of harmoniously integrated ordering scheme had been used for subjects such as the "Holy Family" around the Madonna. [31] The image of peace is thus constituted by the movement toward a harmonious order and its human motivation.
At the same time, Rubens incorporated a complex of mythological associations into his allegory. The realm of Venus - and here of Peace - includes on the one hand the joys of a Bacchanal, and on the other love, marriage, and human fertility. Although the main figures of Pax and Mars are reminiscent of images of Mars and Venus, [32] here Peace no longer emerges from the erotic relationship between Mars and Venus. According to mythological tradition, peace reigns as long as Mars rests with Venus. Rubens, too, organizes the pictorial concepts of many of his allegories of war and peace around the erotic tension between the figure of a naked woman and a man in armor. Here, however, he shows that love alone cannot end or prevent war; rather, peace must be produced by "wisdom" in political action. The peacemaking goddess "Minerva Pacifera" was known from antique coins. Unlike the purely abstract personification Pax, who is unable to overcome Mars, in the mythology Minerva had the power to hinder him or defeat him in battle. [33] Rubens was here inspired by a picture by Jacopo Tintoretto showing Minerva in this role. On the engraving by Agostino Carraci in which Tintoretto's allegory was disseminated, the text reads like a political theorem: "When Wisdom drives out Mars, Peace and Abundance rejoice together." [34]
From the allegorical level, Rubens points back to reality: the two girls are the daughters of Balthasar Gerbier and his wife Deborah Kip, with whom Rubens had stayed during his sojourn in London and for whom he painted family portraits. [35] The smaller girl looks out of the picture, making direct eye contact with the viewer. This motif constitutes a veritable invitation to the picture's intended audience, King Charles I, to participate in the occurrence, to protect peace from Mars like the goddess of wisdom, and to join the goddess Pax in participating in the joys of peace. In this way, an appeal is also made to the paternalistic element in the conception of monarchy, in which the king, like the father of a family, is seen as Parens Patriae, the father of his people.
In the letter of 1629 to the Count Duke of Olivares, written during the peace negotiations in London, Rubens had stated that the mere idea of this peace, which he viewed as "the connecting knot in the chain of all the confederations of Europe," was "already producing great effects." Indeed, his London allegory may be considered the greatest and most effective conception of peace of which the art of the 17th century was capable. Even a few years later, Rubens' own political allegories could no longer accommodate this utopian potential.
Here we remain inactive, in a state midway between peace and war, but feeling all the hardships and violence resulting from war, without reaping any of the benefits of peace. Our city is going step by step to ruin, and lives only upon its savings; there remains not the slightest bit of trade to support it. The Spanish imagine they are weakening the enemy by restricting commercial license, but they are wrong; for all the loss falls upon the King's own subjects. It is not the foes who perish, but the friends who fall.
Letter to Pierre Dupuy, Antwerp, August 10, 1628 [36]
Rubens' political goal of regaining prosperity through peace was formulated most urgently in the Pompus Introitus Ferdinandi. In this, the greatest pictorial program executed by Rubens for his home city, he was commissioned to provide decorations for the entry of the new Spanish governor of the Netherlands, the Cardinal Infante Ferdinand of Hapsburg, into Antwerp on April 16, 1635. [37] The solemn ceremonies with which the Netherlandish cities traditionally greeted their sovereigns and governors at the beginning of their reign had the highest civil and legal significance. In this way, the estates of the cities and provinces accepted the new rulers, who for their part confirmed the rights and privileges of the former. When the rebellious provinces broke with Philip IV of Spain in 1581, one of the reasons given was that he had violated the "Blijde Incomst," his oath at the ceremonial entry, and had become a tyrant. [38] The decorations at the governors' entries always included street theaters with allegorically formulated petitions to end the war and to bring back the "Golden Age," the flourishing of trade and craft. The situation of Antwerp, a center of world trade in the 16th century, had dramatically worsened since the Spanish conquest in 1585. The Hollanders had blockaded the mouth of the Scheldt and cut off the city's access to the sea, while foreign trade companies increasingly shifted their business to Amsterdam. Spain limited trade through tolls and excluded its loyal Netherlandish subjects from overseas trade with India and America. [39] It was above all with respect to these problems that Antwerp hoped for help from its new governor.
The overall direction for the program of triumphal arches, stage architectures, and tableaux vivants was entrusted to mayor Nicolas Rockox, the scholar and city secretary Caspar Gevaerts, and Rubens. Of the paintings from the Rubens workshop, only parts and fragments have survived, along with preparatory oil sketches. In 1642, Gevaerts published a complete description with extensive explanations and etched illustrations, one of the most elaborate publications of such an Intrede ever made.
The title page later designed for this publication [40] indicates the theme and mode of representation that informs the entire program: an homage to the Cardinal Infante in the context of Spanish rule, architecturally articulated and provided with allegorical commentary, in which the panegyric elements revolve around the proving of the ruler in war and peace. The portico is crowned with a portrait of the Spanish king Philip IV, with the star Hesperus (Venus) symbolizing that "the sun never sets" on his empire. The main image shows the transfer of the regency; below it, an inscription devised by Gevaerts formulates the ruler's duty: "Thou who rulest Belgium, consider: spare those who submit, but break the defiance of the rebels." [41] The herms that support the building are associated with war and peace: to the left stand Victoria and Mars, to the right Mercury and Pax with the inscription "Peace is the highest good." [42]
The first part of the entry shows the Hapsburg dynasty of rulers and Ferdinand as the victor of the battle of Nördlingen in 1634. Here his expected role as "Pacificator" is repeatedly emphasized, particularly in the street theater devoted to his late predecessor, the archduchess Isabella, who died in 1633: the kneeling figure of Belgica awaits the new governor with an imploring gesture, while from the clouds, Isabella gestures toward him as the promised prince, the one who will lead the way to peace. [43]
In the second part, arches with appeals for help make use of dramatic intensifications. While previous entries had greeted the governors with scenes showing war overcome, Ferdinand was now confronted directly with the outbreak and horrors of war: through the open doors of The Temple of Janus (Fig. 4), the furor of war breaks forth, while the direct gazes of Pax, Pietas, and the archduchess Isabella challenge the viewer to once again close the doors. [44] The drastic scene mounted on the side, in which a warrior drags a mother away from her child by the hair, numbers among the motifs repeatedly used by Rubens for the horrors of war (see below).
Next, the Stage of Mercury presented the economic results of war. Mercury, the god of trade, leaves the city, while the river god of the Scheldt lies in chains on the ground and Antverpia appeals directly to the governor, looking out from the picture with a pleading gesture. In one side niche, the starving family of an unemployed seaman is shown. [45] The following Arch of the Mint shows the American silver mines, colonial sources of Spanish wealth, from which the Netherlandish provinces remained excluded.
In order to pay for the decorations for the entry, the city of Antwerp went deep into debt, even raising the beer tax; nonetheless, its hopes remained unfulfilled. The governor did not issue new trade licenses, nor did the peace of Münster in 1648 bring about the opening of the Scheldt. [46] The peace negotiations conducted by Rubens from 1631 on with Frederick Henry of Orange likewise remained without result. [47]
I am a peace-loving man, and I abhor chicanery like the plague, as well as every sort of dissension. I believe that it ought to be the first wish of every honest man to live in tranquillity of mind, both publicly and privately, to render service to the many, and to injure no one. I am sorry that all the kings and princes are not of this humor; whatever errors the kings commit, the people must suffer for.... I hope that His Holiness and the King of England, but above all the Lord God, will intervene to quench a blaze which (not put out in the beginning) is now capable of spreading throughout Europe and devastating it.
Letter to Peiresc, Antwerp, August 16, 1635 [48]
In 1635, Rubens began a series of independent allegories on the theme of the attainment of peace and the halting of war. In them, he once again made use of constellations of mythological figures from The Council of the Gods from the Medici cycle and from his London allegory of peace: on the one hand, the attempt of Venus to restrain Mars, and on the other, the defeat of Mars by Minerva. In an oil sketch showing Mars at the head of an army marching into war (Fig. 5), [49] Rubens reversed the positions of Minerva and Mars in the London allegory of peace. Here Venus has followed her lover in order to restrain him: she lays her left hand tenderly on his shoulder, her right placatingly on his forearm, and looks into his eyes with love and pleading. While Mars does return the gaze, the diagonal motion with which he pulls away from Venus makes clear that her efforts will be in vain. The threatening cannon projecting into the picture from the left locates the mythological scene in contemporary reality. The pose of Mars in the gouache Minerva and Hercules fighting Mars (Fig. 6), for which two related oil sketches exist, [50] is a veritable mirror image. Here the struggle against war itself takes on a violent quality. Mars tramples over dead bodies and a woman thrown down with a lute, dragging a mother away from her child by the hair. Minerva attempts to seize his shoulder and restrain him from his work of destruction. Hercules has lifted his club to smite the Furies, and even Jupiter's eagle with the lightning bundle in its claw flies against Mars. The background suggests a burning city.
While this picture does not entirely exclude the possibility that the gods will succeed in taming the unbridled violence of war, in Rubens' last painting on this theme, The Horrors of War (Fig. 7), all efforts remain fruitless. [51] Above all, Minerva is missing, the goddess of wisdom, and therewith the figure whose appearance in the earlier allegories had established the conditions for peace. Rubens painted this picture in 1637-38 for the Grand Duke of Tuscany; in a letter to the latter's court painter, Justus Sustermans, he provides an extensive explanation of the image: [52]
The principal figure is Mars, who has left the open temple of Janus (which in time of peace, according to Roman custom, remained closed) and rushes forth with shield and blood-stained sword, threatening the people with great disaster. He pays little heed to Venus, his mistress, who, accompanied by her Amors and Cupids, strives with caresses and embraces to hold him. From the other side, Mars is dragged forward by the Fury Alekto, with a torch in her hand. Nearby are monsters personifying Pestilence and Famine, those inseparable partners of War. On the ground, turning her back, lies a woman with a broken lute, representing Harmony, which is incompatible with the discord of War. There is also a mother with her child in her arms, indicating that fecundity, procreation, and charity are thwarted by War, which corrupts and destroys everything. In addition, one sees an architect thrown on his back with his instruments in his hand, to show that that which in time of peace is constructed for the use and ornamentation of the City, is hurled to the ground by the force of arms and falls to ruin. I believe, if I remember rightly, that you will find on the ground under the feet of Mars a book as well as a drawing on paper, to imply that he treads underfoot all the arts and letters. There ought also to be a bundle of darts or arrows, with the band which held them together undone; these when bound form the symbol of Concord. Beside them is the caduceus and an olive-branch, attribute of Peace; these also are cast aside. That grief-stricken woman clothed in black, with torn veil, robbed of all her jewels and other ornaments, is the unfortunate Europe who, for so many years now, has suffered plunder, outrage, and misery, which are so injurious to everyone that it is unnecessary to go into detail. Europe's attribute is the globe, borne by a small angel or genius, and surmounted by the cross, to symbolize the Christian world.
Letter to Justus Sustermans, Antwerp, March 12, 1638
The blaze "capable of spreading throughout Europe and devastating it," of which Rubens wrote in 1635, can now no longer be stopped. In 1635, the year of the Peace of Prague, the Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi, and his last diplomatic activities, Rubens may still have seen a chance to end the war. If, later, Rubens could no longer depict the politics of peace as he had previously shown it in the form of Minerva, it is less the expression of individual resignation than of a political critique. Perhaps he knew the broadsheet of 1631 showing the "wailing and wounded Europe." [53] Rubens' lamenting figure of Europe once again embodies the unattained political goal of European peace. Yet there are no longer any political courts of appeal that could intercede for this Europe and prevent the destruction of her civilization. Jacob Burckhardt called this painting "the eternal and unforgettable frontispiece to the Thirty Years' War, by the hand of the one who alone was called to it in the highest sense." [54]
FOOTNOTES
1. CDR VI, p. 246; Magurn 1955, no. 106, p. 178; Baumstark 1974, p. 143; Baudouin 1977, p. 245.
2. For a definitive discussion, see Baudouin 1977, pp. 209-245; cf. Warnke 1965; Alpers 1995, pp. 25f., 53f.
3. Burckhardt 1987, p. 457; cf. Warnke 1965; Warnke 1993.
4. CDR IV, p. 252; Magurn 1955, no. 107, p. 178f.; Baumstark 1974, p. 200; Baudouin 1977, pp. 234, 236.
5. August 30, 1624; Evers 1942, p. 285; paraphrased in Baudouin 1977, p. 219.
6. Letter to Pierre Dupuy, Antwerp, January 28, 1627. CDR IV, p. 30; Baudouin 1977, p. 234.
7. Lucas Vorsterman after Peter Paul Rubens, title page to Francis van Haer, Annales Ducum Seu Principum Brabantiae Totiusq. Belgii, vol. III (Antwerp: Plantin, 1623). Copper engraving, plate 29.5 x 17.9 cm. Judson/Velde 1977, 52, cf. no. 51; exhib.cat. Williamstown 1977, no. 23.
8. Saward 1982, p. 2; cf. Thuillier/Foucart 1967; Thuillier 1969; Millen/Wolf 1989; Johnson 1993; Warnke 1993; Renger 1997; on the Henri cycle, cf. Jost 1964.
9. Warnke 1993, p. 14.
10. Warnke 1977, p. 118; Thuillier 1969, p. 56; cf. Johnson 1993, pp. 447ff.; Warnke 1993, p. 17; Held 1980, no. 60.
11. Thuillier 1969, pp. 60f.; Renger 1997, p. 43; Winner 1992, p. 41; Warnke 1993, p. 19; Saward 1982, pp. 114-127.
12. Warnke 1993, p. 19.
13. Renger 1997, pp. 54f.; Saward 1982, pp. 166ff.; cf. Millen/Wolf 1989, pp. 188f.
14. Baumstark 1974, pp. 127ff.; Renger 1997, pp. 55f.; Held 1980, no. 78, pp. 120f.
15. Cesare Ripa, Iconologia (Padua 1630), p. 550; Baumstark 1974, p. 134; Kaulbach 1991, p. 201.
16. Cf. Rubens' Fall of the Angels in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich; Renger 1997, p. 57.
17. Warnke 1993, pp. 29, 40.
18. Letter to Peiresc, December 18, 1634; Magurn 1955, p. 392; Baudouin 1977, p. 244.
19. The foundational study is Palme 1956; cf. Martin 1994; Held 1980, no. 130-140.
20. Rosenthal 1989, p. 30.
21. Baumstark 1974, pp. 143-146.
22. In the catalogue, cf. the oil sketch in Vienna, Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste; Baumstark 1974, pp. 146f.; Warnke 1977, pp. 122f.; Held 1980, no. 130.
23. Peter Paul Rubens, The Union of England and Scotland, 1632-1633, oil on wood, 64 x 49 cm. St. Petersburg, Hermitage (inv. no. 513). Fredlung 1976-78; Held 1980, no. 140; cf. no. 136f.; Martin 1994, pp. 29-34.
24. CDR IV, 165; Magurn 1955, no. 144, pp. 232f.; Baudouin 1977, p. 239.
25. On the following, see Baudouin 1977, pp. 220ff.; cf. cat. London 1970, p. 117f.; Warnke 1965, pp. 49ff.
26. CDR V, p. 177; Magurn 1955, no. 198, pp. 327-330; Baumstark 1974, p. 154; Baudouin 1977, p. 239.
27. CDR V, 72; Magurn 1955, p. 288; Evers 1942, p. 299.
28. Evers 1943, pp. 289-297; cf. Alpers 1995, p. 53.
29. Cat. London 1970, pp. 116-125; Baumstark 1974, pp. 152-162; Warnke 1977, pp. 123ff.; Brown 1979; Rosenthal 1989.
30. Vgl. McGrath 1983, pp. 52, 59; Kaulbach 1994, p. 37.
31. Warnke 1977, p. 124.
32. The personification of peace shown here is also occasionally identified as "Venus"; Warnke 1977, p. 124; on the following, see Baumstark 1974, pp. 160ff., citing Lucretius, De rerum natura, I, 29-41.
33. Baumstark 1974, p. 162; Kaulbach 1994, pp. 46f.; cf. e.g. Homer, Iliad V, 29-36, 856-861, XXI, 391-414.
34. Agostino Carracci after Jacopo Tintoretto, Sapientia Martem depellente Pax et Abandantia cogaudent, 1589. Copper engraving, 19.1 x 25.3 cm (Bartsch 118; Bohlin 148II). Kaulbach 1994, p. 46. Already before Rubens, this engraving had served as a model for allegories of peace, for example by his teacher Otto van Veen in his Allegory of Peace (ca. 1595-1597). Grisaille, oil on paper, 14.8 x 17 cm; exhib.cat. Cologne 1977, I, p. 29, Fig. E 6. In the catalogue, cf. Dirck de Quade van Ravesteyn, Allegory on the Reign of Emperor Rudolf II, 1603, oil on wood, 213 x 142 cm. Prague, National Gallery, inv. no. DO 7557. Exhib.cat. Essen 1988, pp. 255f., no. 140. Allegory on the Blessings of Peace, attributed to Jan Brueghel and Hendrick van Balen; Baumstark 1974, p. 174 with illustration.
35. Rosenthal 1989, pp. 29ff., also on the following; cat. London 1970, pp. 120f.; Brown 1979.
36. CDR IV, p. 452; Magurn 1955, no. 178, pp. 279f.; Baumstark 1974, p. 149; exhib.cat. Münster 1976, p. 230; Baudouin 1977, p. 234.
37. Foundational studies are Martin 1972; McGrath 1974; McGrath 1975a; exhib.cat. Münster 1976, pp. 222-238; Held 1980, p. 221ff.; most recently Simson 1996, pp. 444-474.
38. Holt 1986, pp. 105, 131f., 134, 137, 147; cf. Israel 1995, pp. 209-212.
39. McGrath 1974, pp. 213ff.; exhib.cat. Münster 1976, p. 230.
40. Judson/Velde 1977, no. 81; Baumstark 1974, p. 131; exhib.cat. Münster 1976, no. 181, p. 192; exhib.cat. Williamstown 1977, no. 38.
41. Gevaerts 1642; after Virgil, Aeneid VI, 851-853.
42. Silius Italicus, Punica, XI, 563f.
43. Theodor van Thulden after Peter Paul Rubens, Philip IV appoints Ferdinand Governor of the Netherlands (central picture of the Isabella stage). Etching; Gevaerts 1642, pag. 96; Martin 1972, no. 34-35; exhib.cat. Münster 1976, no. 191.
44. Peter Paul Rubens, The Temple of Janus. Oil on wood, 70 x 69 cm. St. Petersburg, Hermitage (inv. no. 500). Martin 1972, no. 44a; Baumstark 1974, p. 150f.; Held 1980, no. 161; cf. Gevaerts 1962, pp. 117ff.
45. Theodor van Thulden after Peter Paul Rubens, Mercurius Abituriens. Etchings in Gevaerts 1642, pag. 147 A and B. Martin 1972, no. 46; McGrath 1974, p. 212; McGrath 1975a; Baumstark 1974, pp. 149f.; exhib.cat. Münster 1976, no. 185; cf. Held 1980, no. 162, pp. 240-243; Alpers 1995, pp. 28f.
46. McGrath 1974, p. 216; cf. Simson 1996, p. 446.
47. Magurn 1955, pp. 360, 383ff.; Alpers 1995, p. 54.
48. CDR VI, 127; Magurn 1955, no. 237, pp. 400f.; Baumstark 1974, p. 200.
49. Peter Paul Rubens, Venus Tries to Restrain Mars, ca. 1634-1636. Oil on wood, 36.7 x 24.7 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre (Donation Salavin-Fournier, Dépôt de la Fondation de France). Baumstark 1974, pp. 188f.; Held 1980, no. 268.
50. Peter Paul Rubens, Minerva and Hercules fighting Mars, ca. 1635-1637. Gouache over black chalk on light brown paper, 37 x 54 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins (inv. no. 20.183). Burchard/Hulst 1963, no. 169; Held 1986, no. 229; Baumstark 1974, pp. 163f.; Warnke 1977, p. 128. Cf. the oil sketches in Antwerp and Rotterdam; Held 1980, no. 244 and 253; cat. Antwerp 1990, no. 18.
51. Peter Paul Rubens, The Horrors of War, 1637-38. Oil on canvas, 206 x 343 cm. Florence, Palazzo Pitti. Warnke 1965, pp. 63f.; Baumstark 1974, pp. 189-201; Warnke 1977, pp. 128-130; most recently Simson 1996, pp. 333-336.
52. CDR VI, pp. 207f.; Magurn 1955, no. 242, pp. 408f.; Warnke 1965, p. 63; Baumstark 1974, pp. 189f.; Warnke 1977, pp. 204f.; Simson 1996, pp. 333f.
53. Harms 1980ff, II, p. 223; exhib.cat. Coburg 1983, no. 93.
54. Burckhardt 1987, p. 454; Baumstark 1974, p. 201.
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