[My Article]Narrative Art:

Frank

I've just did a research on the painting below and written an analysing article about it.




















Peter Paul Rubens
Peace and War
c.1629
80x117 in(203.5x298cm)
oil on canvas
Natioanal Gallery, London

As a renown painter in early 17th-century Europe and representative of Baroque painting, Rubens cited the properties of Baroque painting in his own artworks.
Rubens's own successful and fulfilled lifestyle is reflected in the material blessings shown in Peace and War. He was happily married, never lacked material comfort, and become very wealthy.
Rubens worked extremely rapidly, and he employed a large studio of assistants, some of whom became famous in their own rights. Rubens worked out the basic ideal in rapid, fluent sketches, which his assistants would use to do the large-scale painting. Models would pose for the artists so that detailed drawings could be made from life. Rubens himself provided the finishing painting and final alterations. He was a prodigiously hard worker and was very strict to his assistants. Most of the time，his patrons were perfectly satisfied to have a painting produced in this manner. The idea that the artist should paint every brushstroke of his work is relatively recent and even Rubens would not accept.
In this representative work. Rubens depicted a scence of alteration from blessings of peace to the turbulence of war. The whole scene was apparently separated by two parts. On the left side, followers of Bacchus were shown, one carrying a basin which is full of golden cups and pearls, and the other dancing with a tambourine. Because of the glowing color of the skin of the followers. They become the eye-catching part of the left side. Complementaries are placed together to give colors heightened intensity. orchestrated color is one of the main proterties in this painting.
In front of the two followers, a satyr holds out a horn of fruit as an offering to the three children on the right. A winged cupid invites them to eat fruit. Right between the satyr and cupid is a lying leopard rolling around like a domesticated giant cat.
Another transition in this scene is Minerva, the goddess of wisdom who use her shield to hold Mars, the armored god of war.
The underlying design is a diagonal line from bottom right to top left. Above the diagonal are the gloom of war, bellow the diagonal are the brightness of peace. This is the most awesome composition I've ever seen!
In the Great Artists Explained, the author think the children who are shown in the scene is the beneficiaries of Peace and the older child among them is the god of marriage: Hymen.


Reference: Great Artists Explained and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque