Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640), The Calydonian Boar Hunt, about 1611–1612, Oil on panel, 23 5/16 × 35 5/16 in., 2006.4, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Rubens: Picturing Antiquity at the Getty Villa Museum, November 10, 2021–January 24, 2022, is the first exhibition to focus on Rubens’s fascination with the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome.

This single-venue presentation demonstrates some of the intriguing ways in which the innovative artist both celebrated and transformed his diverse sources, including antiquities from his own collection.

Peter Paul Rubens, The Discovery of the Infant Erichthonius, about 1616, oil on canvas. LIECHTENSTEIN: The Princely Collections, Vaduz-Vienna. Image © LIECHTENSTEIN, The Princely Collections, Vaduz-Vienna / SCALA, Florence / Art Resource, NY 2021

Rubens was one of the most erudite artists of the 17th century. Throughout his life he read classical literature in the original languages, studied the physical remains of ancient (primarily Roman) civilization, collected marble sculptures and carved gems, and conducted lively correspondence with fellow antiquarians across Europe.

“This important exhibition examines how Rubens’s fascination with ancient Roman antiquities inspired his many classicizing paintings, which are among the most erudite and sophisticated images in European art,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “Rubens had an extraordinary ability to translate ancient sculptures and gems into dynamic and colorful compositions, adopting the classical attributes of robust strength and idealized beauty as hallmarks of his own art. The first exhibition to focus on this key aspect of European painting, Rubens: Picturing Antiquity will be a rare opportunity to explore the impact that ancient art had on Rubens’s distinctively expressive Baroque style.”

Peter Paul Rubens, Belvedere Torso, 1600-1603, black chalk and charcoal on paper. Rubenshuis, Antwerp. Image: Collectie Stad Antwerpen, Rubenshuis.

In 1600, Rubens traveled to Italy and was soon employed as court artist by Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua. During the next eight years in Italy, he avidly studied a variety of ancient marble sculptures and reliefs in Mantua and Rome. This exhibition unites for the first time the ancient sarcophagus panel depicting Meleager’s hunt for the ferocious Calydonian boar the artist saw in Rome and Getty’s The Calydonian Boar Hunt by Rubens (acquired in 2006). The pairing provides a brilliant example of Rubens’s transformation of ancient sculpture into a vivid composition that enthralls viewers.

While in Rome, Rubens was able to gain access to important private collections of antiquities. This immersive experience had a profound impact on his art. On display in the exhibition, Self-Portrait with a Group of Friends in Mantua, his earliest self-portrait, attests to the camaraderie Rubens found among a circle of scholars and artists devoted to the ideals of classical antiquity.

Peter Paul Rubens, Drunken Silenus, about 1608, black chalk on paper. The British Museum, London. Bequeathed by William Fawkener, 1769, T,12.58. Image © The Trustees of the British Museum

Rubens took an innovative approach to drawing after classical sources. He studied individual sculptures over and over again, copying them from many and often unusual points of view, with painstaking attention to both their overall composition and specific details. “He sought to convey a sense of flesh and blood in these figures, depicting them with dynamism, pathos, and drama,” notes Davide Gasparotto, senior curator of paintings and chair of curatorial affairs at the Getty Museum and co-curator of the exhibition. “These qualities became the distinguishing traits of Rubens’s own art.” On display in the exhibition are remarkable chalk drawings that show Rubens’s process of studying well-known and celebrated ancient sculptures.

Jeffrey Spier, senior curator of antiquities at the Getty Museum and co-curator of the exhibition, emphasizes the importance of rare, portable antiquities to Rubens’s pictorial inventions. “Rubens was an avid collector of ancient gems, each a unique work carved by hand. He appropriated and reinterpreted imagery from these rare objects as well as ancient coins for his own compositions.” Rubens’s painting of a spectacular cameo, known as the Gemma Tiberiana, will be on display in the exhibition. One of the highlights of the exhibition is the Gemma Constantiniana, a huge cameo possibly owned by Rubens, and a key source of inspiration for him.

Silenus with a Wineskin, Roman, AD 200-300, marble. Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Image: bpk Bildagentur / Photo: Elke Estel / Hans-Peter Klut / Art Resource, NY.

Rubens’s elaborate designs for the city of Antwerp’s triumphal entry to celebrate the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand in 1635 were the most ambitious and eloquent expression of his deep knowledge of the political theater of the classical past. The display includes Rubens’s lively oil sketches for the Stage of Welcome, as well as the commemorative volume, Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi (1642), written by Jan Gaspar Gevaerts and illustrated with engravings of the triumphal arches and other features by Theodoor van Thulden (Getty Research Institute).

The Triumph of Constantine (Gemma Constantiniana), Roman, about AD 320-330, sardonyx in a seventeenth-century gilt and jeweled setting. Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden.

Ancient stories about the lives and loves of the gods supplied Rubens with stimulating subjects for painting. He synthesized these familiar literary sources and incorporated overt references to ancient sculpture to convey his highly individual vision of a living classical past. Diana and Her Nymphs on the Hunt, acquired by J. Paul Getty, will be on view for the first time following cleaning and restoration of the frame. The exhibition features major international loans, including the important ancient statue Silenus with a Wineskin from Dresden, shown with Rubens’s chalk drawing and oil painting of the Drunken Silenus, and Rubens’s extraordinary interpretation of an ancient fertility myth, The Finding of Erichthonius (Vaduz-Vienna).

Peter Paul Rubens, Study of the Belvedere Torso (verso), 1601-1602, red chalk on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase, 2001 Benefit Fund, 2002, 2002.12b. Image: www.metmuseum.org

Cameo with the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, Roman, 50-25 BC, sardonyx. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Henry Lillie Pierce Fund. Photograph © 2021 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Peter Paul Rubens, Julius Caesar, 1625-1626, oil on panel. The Leiden Collection, New York.

Peter Paul Rubens, Triumph of Henry IV, about 1630, oil on panel. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Rogers Fund, 1942, 42.187. Image: www.metmuseum.org