Baroque of Northern Europe...

Baroque of Northern Europe was colorful and ornamented as well as filled with darks, lights, and magical shadows.

Peter Paul Rubens, the leading Flemish painter of this era, featured robust and foreshortened figures in swirling motion. His was called the first “pan-European” painter, taking his cues from Titan, Carracci, and Caravaggio. Because of his aristocratic education and courtly manners, he was admitted to the inner circle of royalty where he achieved greatness as the court painter to dukes, kings, and queens alike. He was also an avid art dealer which must have lent to the development of his eye and thus his own craft. He painted both religious and secular images. His Elevation of the Cross was a commission meant to reaffirm the church’s allegiance to the Catholic and Spanish Habsburg rulers. In this triptych tremendous straining forces and counterforces demonstrate Rubens’s adeptness with foreshortening, rendering of anatomy and contorted twisted figures which hearken back to Michelangelo’s sculptured and painted figures. From every panel we see power and genuine exertion from taut, elastic human bodies. Here Rubens employs strong modeling in dark and light, which heightens the drama.

Here is the triptych in its setting and a great biography on Rubens:
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/The_Elevation_of_the_Cross_(Rubens)
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/r/rubens/biograph.html

I love still life. At the Portland Museum of Art today, my friend just rolled her eyes and snorted. She’s not a fan of still life. She said they look too much like photography. AND SHE’S AN AMAZING PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER. I’m committed to winning her over.

Take Clara Peeters’ Still Life with Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit, and Pretzels. What’s not to like? A pioneer Peeters, she painted this variety of objects convincingly, from the smooth, reflective surfaces of the glass and silver goblets to the soft petals of the blooms in the vase. This painting depicts a typical 17th century meal. Every object is perfectly placed in the picture’s symmetry. The dark background sets off the wine in the goblet and frames the vase with the flowers. Like Pieter Aertsen’s Butcher’s Stall, symbolism abounds in this fanciful painting. Both wine and pretzels refer to “spiritual food” (remember: pretzels often served as bread during lent Gardners 640). Dried fruit equates to thriftiness and living within one’s means. Nuts relate to birth and rebirth as do the spring flowers she’s included. Its said she painted four paintings in the series. I’ve included links below to one other and more paintings and information on Peeters.

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Clara%20Peeters
http://www.baroque.us/painting/peeters/goblets.html
http://www.reproductionsart.com/Peeters_Reproductions.html