PETER PAUL RUBENS
PROF. RONALD E. STEEN
Art Historian & Art Educator

Illustration: Detail, “The Disembarkation of Maria de Medici at Marseilles ”, 1621-1625, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris

  Ten Sessions: Tuesdays, October 5, through December 14, 2009 , 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
(Excluding Thanksgiving week, Tuesday, November 23^rd )

ABOUT THE RUBENS SERIES: (June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640 ) was a prolific seventeenth century Flemish painter and engraver, a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color and sensuality.  He is well-known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and historical paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.
            In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp which produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe , Rubens was a classically-educated humanist scholar, art collector, and diplomat, who was knighted by both Philip IV, King of Spain, and Charles I, King of England, for his peacemaking efforts within the European political stage.  He enjoyed the esteem of his contemporaries and maintained a voluminous correspondence with foreign dignitaries and scholars, who treated him as one of their own.
            He worked in major European countries, specifically the courts of the Duke of Mantua in Italy, Philip III and IV in Spain, Maria de Medici in France, and Charles I in England as well as the Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella in Antwerp.
            What is exciting about this course is that works by his contemporaries in every country that he visited and worked in will be presented along with his, putting him and them in historical context.

            Subsequent series will cover the work in England of Anthony van Dyck, Rubens’ student, architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren as well as the Baroque in Austria which will include Johann Fischer von Erlach, Johan Lucas von Hildebrandt, Johann Balthazar Neumann and Johann Baptist Zimmermann.

ABOUT THE SERIES FORMAT: The series will present the works of the artists in chronological order and will include information about their work, techniques, influences, style, and life and their significance for the history of Baroque art country by country.  Further information about characteristics of the period as well as a cast of characters will be included.  This series will include the state of the research on this topic at this time in history.  The current facts as known not how the facts were acquired will be the focus.  Works in local public collections in Southern California will be highlighted.

NOTE: This series is complete unto itself and not having been part of prior series on the art of the Italian Renaissance including Mannerism Part I or II will not cause participants any disadvantages.  

GUIDELINES:
-         Membership is not extended beyond registered members and membership is not transferable.
-         No full or partial refund will be paid after the deadline date, unless there is a waiting list.
-         A member may bring one guest free to any of the last five lectures during the series.  A guest can attend only once.