Thursday, February 9, 2017

Rubens, Furini & van der Werff in Russia

Peter Paul Rubens
Cartoon for Arch of Hercules
Joyous Entry at Antwerp of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand
1634
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

The Hermitage in Saint Petersburg owns a set of oil cartoons by Peter Paul Rubens created as designs for the large temporary constructions that greeted the Spanish Regent, Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, when he enacted the traditional Joyous Entry upon his arrival at Antwerp in the 1630s. These cartoons were acquired in England in the 18th century by agents of Catherine the Great and shipped to Russia. They had formed part of the vast art collection sold following the death of that famously rich and domineering Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745).

Peter Paul Rubens
Cartoon for Arch of Ferdinand
Joyous Entry at Antwerp of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand
1634
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Peter Paul Rubens
Cartoon for Temple of Janus
Joyous Entry at Antwerp of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand
1634
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Peter Paul Rubens
Scene of Congratulations
Joyous Entry at Antwerp of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand
1634
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Peter Paul Rubens
Cartoon of Mercury Embarking
Joyous Entry at Antwerp of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand
1634
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Francesco Furini
Andromeda
ca. 1636
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Francesco Furini (1603-1646) trained in his native Florence, but made the crucial pilgrimage to Rome in 1619, where he fell in with a new shadowy style propagated by followers of recently-deceased Caravaggio. Back in Florence, Furini became a successful fresco painter. His easel-works tended toward 'rather morbidly sensuous depictions of the female nude,' according to curators at the National Gallery in London. There is a good supply of just those paintings at the Hermitage, though all but the Andromeda (above) are laboring under old coats of yellowed varnish (an effect formerly called 'patina' and now routinely removed or reduced in most  but not all  museums).

Francesco Furini
The Three Graces
1633
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Francesco Furini
Penitent Magdalene
before 1646
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Francesco Furini
Penitent Magdalene
before 1642
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Francesco Furini
Penitent Magdalene
before 1646
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Adriaen van der Werff (1659-1722), active in Rotterdam, shared some obvious characteristics with his predecessor Furini in Florence  similar pale nudes emerge from similar chiaroscuro (as below). Yet these paintings were definitely less dark three hundred years ago, when new. In many cases, the fashionable concentrations of dark pigment that prevailed in the 17th century have suffered chemical changes over time, darkening well beyond the artists' intentions.

Adriaen van der Werff
Sarah bringing Hagar to Abraham
1696
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Adriaen van der Werff
Lot and his Daughters
1711
oil on panel
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Adriaen van der Werff
The Expulsion
1700
oil on panel
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Adriaen van der Werff
Self-portrait
1696
oil on panel
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg