The article is a critical synopgterop30is to the painter Peter Paul Ruben from author Lisa Rosenthal. She mentions few main art pieces which done by Ruben such as The Hero Crowned by Victory and Drunken Hercules. The author generally talks about Ruben’s art in the first few paragraphs and it shows that his works are popular among his many sponsors. And also, the author uses some examples from Ruben’s art works to show the abstract characteristic male and female figures in particular causes. Moreover, she discusses about masculinity and femininity by suing those examples. She also has the curiosity about the influences from the figures in Ruben’s art works to the symbolic representations such as political milieu in 17th century. Lisa Rosenthal mainly discusses about two works from Ruben’s heritage which are The Hero Crowned by Victory and Drunken Hercules. Both of the two pieces are painted around 1612. Firstly, she provides her unique ideas of two works. For instance, she compares the main figure in each painting. In The Hero Crowned by Victory, the hero becomes a model of historical convention. However, for Drunken Hercules, the author uses “depravity” to describe the nude hero. (Rosenthal, 1993, p. 93). Moreover, She gives the idea which is the theme of symbolism and iconography that Ruben wants to display through the two pieces. Christian Knight by Pieter Serwouters and David Vinkboons is an example of the theme, Christian Knight. She talks about the Mundus and Frau Welt which is showed in two figures. Ruben was inspirited by the theme and got the idea of those elements. The author mentions that Ruben also gets the inspiration from Choice of Hercules which is a typical example of Renaissance art. According to the two art pieces by Ruben, he uses corrupt Hercules to display heathens and the goodness of Christian is represented as the triumphant hero. And the author also notice that Ruben has his own way to display the iconography. Ruben shows male figures in a clear way by using females around them. Lisa Rosenthal continues to analysis The Hero Crowned by Victory and she finds out Adonis Departing from Venus which is another work from Ruben, has much the same complex set of relations than The Hero Crowned by Victory. Moreover, the relations between Virtuous Hero and Victory are similar to Venus and Adonis. The man
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To explain, in this painting, people’s eyes are led by the lady’s earrings and her long hair. And also, Ruben painted female figures such as Venus in the same way because they all have soft skin and long hair. One more important point is the naked lady stars at the viewers from the reflection instead of looking at herself in the mirror. Lisa Rosenthal uses art work such as Justus Lipsius and his Pupils to literally explain the relationship between Ruben and Lipsius. And also she links sexuality and politics by using art works. Then, she talks about political ruler in Lipsius’s writings. It claims that as a ruler, convince other people are more important than just ask them to obey orders. The author puts Ruben’s arts and Lipsius’ political texts together in order to give the idea of the political and social background in the 17th
To explain, in this painting, people’s eyes are led by the lady’s earrings and her long hair. And also, Ruben painted female figures such as Venus in the same way because they all have soft skin and long hair. One more important point is the naked lady stars at the viewers from the reflection instead of looking at herself in the mirror. Lisa Rosenthal uses art work such as Justus Lipsius and his Pupils to literally explain the relationship between Ruben and Lipsius. And also she links sexuality and politics by using art works. Then, she talks about political ruler in Lipsius’s writings. It claims that as a ruler, convince other people are more important than just ask them to obey orders. The author puts Ruben’s arts and Lipsius’ political texts together in order to give the idea of the political and social background in the 17th