A minion of fortune, a man generously endowed with everythingthat only nature can give, that is Rubens. Peter Paul was versatile, gifted, had a beautiful appearance, a talent to capture everything on the fly, a tenacious memory that allowed him to be one of the most educated people of his time. He was fluent in 6 languages, was well-versed in music, poetry and other types of art, had the talent of a brilliant diplomat. In addition, he was extremely lucky.
But the greatest glory in time and space Rubens provided the genius of an unsurpassed artist.
Titanium
Wizard, "the king of artists, the artist of kings" -what kind of epithets did not award the contemporaries of this talented and surprisingly prolific genius of the Baroque era. An interesting and tempting made the boring era of the Duke of Alba, an amazing master of painting Rubens, whose paintings adorn all the museums of the world.
He was magnificent in all genres - portrait, historical and religious canvases, landscape, canvases on mythological scenes - everything was subject to him, in everything he reached the top.
Amazing fertility
The artist left descendants thousands of them signedpaintings, which speaks of his performance and the number of talented students. Many paintings in all genres, including those written on famous plots from the “Myths and Legends” of ancient Greece and Rome. He wrote Prometheus and the Amazons, drunken Dionysus and Silen, the story of the abduction of Ganymede and the daughters of Leucippus, the Calydonian hunt and the head of Medusa and the feast of the Roman goddess of love, Venus. The artist knew the mythology. Very many scenes captured by Rubens, whose paintings are the best illustrations of the ancient Mediterranean tales.
The fullness of the heroes of Rubens
True, healthy heroessometimes they differ from slender young men and women depicted on ancient amphoras, and the concept of “beautiful” is inextricably linked with fatness. Here is the son of King Troy Ganymede, known for his extraordinary beauty, because of which Zeus, in the form of an eagle, kidnapped him and made him his butler to have a fairy tale prince before his eyes, on the canvas of Rubens looks more like a thick overgrown, frightened to blue. In the great Flemish, as a rule, several works are devoted to one plot. On one of them, the legendary son of Troy is not bad at all, but the eagle on all canvases is simply magnificent. That's the beauty of Perseus in the picture is somewhat peculiar. But this, of course, private opinion. Obviously, Rubens least wanted to paint "beautiful."
One of the most famous ancient greek heroes
The painting "Andromeda and Perseus" is a masterpieceworld painting. Her plot is very popular. Perseus, who killed Medusa the Gorgon, the most terrible and omnipotent of the three serpent-haired daughters of the two sea deities of Forkias and Keto, is known even to people who are far from mythology. The ability of the Gorgon killed by the hero to turn all living things into stone, without exaggeration, is familiar to everyone. It came about it because right in the center of the picture the severed head of the monster carefully attached to the surface of the mirror shield donated to the hero by Athena Pallas for the realization of precisely this feat - the murder of Medusa - was carefully written out. In general, the Olympic gods very well equipped the great son Danae, who gave birth to him from Zeus. The plot of the appearance of the hero of the world is also well known. The king of Argos, Acrisius, learning that he would die by the hand of his grandson, hid his daughter Danae in a dungeon. But you will not hide from the thunderer - he leaked to his beloved in the form of a golden rain.
The whole world
So, on the canvas "Andromeda and Perseus" is veryscrupulously depicts all the armor - gifts of the gods. True, the data is different, who gave what specifically, but the basic version is as follows. Invisible cap gave Hades. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, gave his winged sandals and showed the hero the way. The god of fire - the blacksmith Hephaestus - gave a sharp curved sword, since only this weapon could cut through the skin of Medusa, covered with scales. The picture also shows Pegasus, who was born from the body of the murdered Gorgon Medusa. According to the plot of the myth, Perseus freed Andromeda without the help of a winged horse. But the artist characterizes the great hero, presenting to the viewer the testimony of his great deeds.
It must be said that the myth of “Perseus and Andromeda” is very popular among writers, poets and artists, but it’s just Rubens’s painting that immediately appears before the eyes when this pair is mentioned.
The essence of the story
The plot of the picture is as follows.The great hero of Greece, the founder of Mycenae, the future center of Greek civilization, flew over the sea and saw a beautiful girl chained to a rock, with an expression of horror on her face. Downing, Perseus learned that Andromeda, and it was she, the daughter of the Ethiopian arrogant Queen Cassiopeia and the king Kefay, was told to sacrifice the sea monster sent by Poseidon to punish the girl’s mother for her long tongue. Cassiopeia was very proud of the beauty of her daughter and claimed that she overshadowed the nereid, the children of the sea god Nerea. The Queen forgot that the Olympians are vindictive and can not stand the slightest competition. A terrible giant fish began to regularly devastate the country. The Oracle said that the monster must give Andromeda, and the troubles will cease.
Son of Zeus to the rescue
Но Персей решил иначе, он разрубил гефестовским sword shackles and sent the girl to the shore, after asking the beautiful parents who were standing right there, if they would give Andromeda to him as a wife if the monster was killed. After receiving consent, he rushed to meet fate. The fight was terrible, winged sandals were soaked, the sword did not help, but Medusa's head was rescued by Perseus. He showed it to the fish, and she turned into stone, turning into a coastal rock. The hero returned to the shore to the betrothed. Andromeda and Perseus lived happily ever after. She bore him seven children: a beautiful Gorgofon and six sons, the eldest of whom was Pers, the ancestor of the Persian people, and the younger Elejron was the father of Alcmena, mother of Hercules. That is, the greatest hero of ancient Greece is Perseus's great-grandson. There is no need to talk about the role of Zeus in this whole story - he was the father of both Perseus and Hercules.
"And now, beauty-maiden, I want to marry you ..."
Описание картины Рубенса можно начать с указания the exact moment of this touching story - the winner returns to an embarrassed and happy lover who just so happily escaped death. There is everything in the picture - both the solemnity of the moment (the goddess of victory Nick puts his helmet on the hero) and the joy of meeting lovers over the head of the fallen monster. Merry angels symbolize the joy and gratitude of the entire Ethiopian people freed from the misfortunes, who, according to legend, dumped a noisy crowd to the seashore. You can endlessly talk about the artist's palette, which shocks the audience of the XXI century, just like contemporaries. Hundreds of books are written about his skill and perfection in brushing, about his methods of applying paints to a canvas, his vivacity flowing from his canvases.
Top of creativity
"Andromeda and Perseus" - a brilliant canvasthe creator of the Baroque school, an excitingly bright, life-affirming style of artistic expression. Only great creators, and there are not so many of them, become the founders of any trend in art. Peter Paul Rubens perfectly mastered the power of plastic imagination, the dynamism of forms and rhythms. The decorative beginning triumphed in his works. All this together formed the basis of his work. In his work “Perseus and Andromeda” Rubens showed that he had reached the heights to which the three previous generations of masters of his homeland of Flanders aspired, namely merging together the great classical tradition of the masters of ancient Greece and Rome, which the Renaissance revived, with the realism of the masters of the South Dutch (Flemish ) painting schools.
Realism - the basis of creativity
1577 –1640 - the life of a brilliant artist.Rubens wrote his undisputed masterpiece “Perseus and Andromeda” in the years 1620-1621, that is, being a mature master, with his own recognizable manner of writing. And the realism of the great Flemish made sound a new Greek myth. He brought the heroes to life. And Perseus is like a real man, able to protect his beloved and without winged sandals, and Andromeda is not like an Ethiopian black princess, but a Flemish girl - beloved, with a bright blush, with beautiful fair hair, which Rubens so successfully managed. About this his manner, which one author called the "riddle of valiers", successfully solved by the master. This means that “Perseus and Andromeda” is a picture in which Peter Paul used a glaze. This technique, as a result of the use of which turns a deep iridescent color. This happens due to the application of translucent paints of the same tone on the main color scheme.
Wonderful color range
In this picture a big role was played by the contrastthe metal dark armor of the hero with the tender naked body of a girl - she is defenseless, he can protect. So captured the moment of the meeting of heroes on the canvas by Rubens "Perseus and Andromeda." The description of the painting can be ended with the words about the free confident manner of writing of the great artist and the beautiful rich palette of the canvas. Local contrasting spots scattered around the picture - burgundy, blue, brown - are combined into a common color flow. It highlights and dominates the bright pink-pearl body of the beauty. Poet John Richards owns such lines, inspired by this picture: "... and the dark shell of the son of Danai shades the sweet-snowy body ...". The best version of this immortal work is kept in the Hermitage.
