Rubens's Allegorical Inventions
Antien Knaap and
Aneta Georgievska-Shine
aqk5309@is.nyu.edu
The goal of our workshop
was to examine Rubens's varied approaches to allegory.
Walter Melion provided an excellent background on
the use of allegory in Jesuit literature, focusing
on Hieronymus Nadal's Adnotationes et meditationes
in Evangelia. As it was shown during the discussion,
the importance of this meditation manual for Rubens's
religious paintings is yet to be fully explored. Lisa
Rosenthal suggested a more complex application of
allegory in the Siegen Occasio, where, as she
has argued in a recent publication, the artist uses
conventional symbolic language to thematize the construction
of pictorial allegory itself. Lucy Davis addressed
the difficulties presented by Munich Silenus
as a painting that defies any conclusive interpretation
as a mythology or allegory. Cordula van Wyhe presented
a version of a forthcoming article on The Garden
of Love as an allegorical statement on the ideals
of chastity associated with the Brussels court under
the Archduchess Isabella. The lively dialogue after
these presentations underscored the centrality of
allegory for Rubens's oeuvre and pointed to possible
venues for further research, one of which is certainly
his exceptional skill at making his inventions rewarding
for a wide range of audiences.
<<BACK
|
