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Ader

2 - Peter Paul RUBENS (Siegen, 1577 - Antwerp, 1640) The Battle …
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Estimate €2,000,000 - €3,000,000
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Peter Paul RUBENS (Siegen, 1577 - Antwerp, 1640) The Battle of the Amazons Canvas 89 cm x 135.5 cm Provenance : Private collection, France (Provence), since the late 20th century. Exhibition : Rubens, A Master in the Making, London, National Gallery, 26 October 2005 - 15 January 2006, pp. 48-49, no. 4 (notice by David Jaffé). Bibliography: - Catalogue of the exhibition Rubens and Brueghel: A working Friendship, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum and The Hague Mauritshuis, 2006-2007, no. 33 ; - A.M. Logan, Ruben's Drawings after Julius Held, in Oud Holland, CXX, nos. 3-4, 2007, pp. 160-180; - V. Kopecky, Die Beischriften des Peter Paul Rubens. Uberlegungen zu handschriftlichen Vermerken auf Handzeichnungen, doctoral thesis, University of Hamburg, under the supervision of Prf. Dr. Martin Warnke, 2008, I, n. 376, II, fig. 51c, pp. 87-89, 124 ; - F. Villemur, "De l'Air! Les Amazones de Claude Deruet (1588-1660)" in G. Leduc, Réalité et Représentations des Amazones, conference at the Université Charles-de-Gaulle, Lille III, 14-16 June 2007, Paris 2008, no. 10, pp. 65-88 ; - K. Lohse Belkin, Copies and Adaptations from Renaissance and later Artists. German and Netherlandish Artists (Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XXVI.1), London-Turnout, 2009, I, no. 2, pp. 99, 100 ; - D. Jaffé with the participation of G. Tonelli, Ruben's Massacre of the Innocents. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2009, n° 21, pp. 102, 126, 150 ; - A. Neumeister, Alte Pinakothek: Flämische Malerei, Ostfildern, 2009, p. 282 ; - J. Wood, Copies And Adaptations From Renaissance and Later Artists. III. Artists working in Central Italy and France (Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XXVI.2), I-II, London-Turnout, 2011, no. 18, pp. 217, 220 ; - K. Brosens, Subjects from History: The Constantine Series (Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard XIII. 3), London-Turnout, 2011, no. 20, p. 203 ; - M. Daiman, "Peter Paul Rubens: Broker of Peace, Painter of Violence', in Aspects of Violence in Renaissance Europe, Burlington - Aldershot, 2013, pp. 151-184 ; - E. McGrath, G. Martin, F. Healy, B. Schepers, C. Van de Velde, K. de Clippel, Corpus Rubenianum Jacob Burchard, part XI, Mythological Subjects 1. Achilles to Thr Graces, vol. 1, Brussels, 2016, pp.132-140, no. 7 (notice by Bernt Schepers), repr. in colour vol 2, fig. 71 and quoted p. 6. Discovered by David Jaffé in 2005, our painting was the inspiration for the National Gallery exhibition in London on the precocious genius of Rubens' early work. Twenty years ago, the importance of our work was hailed in numerous glowing reviews (see the Rubenianum bibliography). From his youth, Rubens painted compositions combining dozens of nude and clothed figures in movement, demonstrating a rather surprising ambition and precocious virtuosity. Their subjects are drawn from Greek and Roman antiquity. The battle of the Amazons, women equal to men, courageous, beautiful and valiant warriors dressed only in coloured drapery, against Greek horsemen in armour, was of particular interest to Rubens, as he painted it on several occasions. The first time was in Antwerp, in collaboration with Jan I Brueghel (Potsdam, Sanssouci Castle, ill. 1) around 1597-1598, the second when he stayed in Mantua around 1603-1606, and the third again in a famous swirling version in 1618 (Munich, Alte Pinakothek, ill. 2). Between the first two early paintings, the composition was completely revised. Instead of a Flemish-style woodland setting, Rubens here opted for a more Italianate landscape, with great attention paid to the interplay of the rising dust above the battle and the sunlight glinting through the clouds. The arched bridge, moved from right to left and highlighted, is a gateway to the battlefield, preluding a whole ballet of spears that chop up the background. Like a giant wave, the Greek cavalry surges ashore and down the bridge, crushing everything in its path. Animals and human beings form a powerful diagonal that crashes into the foreground, forming a pyramid with a bare-headed Greek cavalryman at the top. From the top of this pyramid, two horses separate, guiding the eye towards the frieze of swirling bodies in the foreground. The foreground is treated like an ancient sarcophagus frieze. Using a mythological pretext, Rubens paints a battle scene at its most dramatic, a favourite Renaissance subject. Despite the horror of severed heads and impaled bodies, the palette gives the scene a dreamlike quality. You can almost hear the screams escaping from gaping mouths and the clang of trumpets, as horses and riders are decimated by the descending phalanx of spears.
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About the sale Antique paintings - Decorative Arts
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Auction time 06/16/2026 at 2:30 PM
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