Sinnlich, weiblich, flämisch: frauenbilder rund um Rubens

Curator

• Dr. Gerlinde Gruber

Information from the museum, 22 July 2007

Three outstanding masterpieces by Pieter Paul Rubens formed the starting-point for this presentation: The "Fur Coat", Cimon and Iphigenia, and his Self Portrait. For the first time these paintings are presented in the context of works by contemporary Flemish artists that have not been shown in the Gallery for a long time, either because of their size or a lack of wall-space.

Rubens' sensual rendering of his ideal of female beauty has greatly influenced our idea of baroque exuberance in the context of catholic Flanders; it was also of seminal importance for his contemporaries. However, there were also other ideals of female beauty - as documented here - that illustrate the different roles played by women in mythology, everyday life, and religion.

The authors of these different ideas about feminine beauty and female types were almost always men; the models were created, so to speak, from a male vantage-point - represented in the exhibition by two portraits by Rubens and van Dyck, respectively. This makes the show's only picture painted by a woman even more important: Michaelina Woutiers courageously depicted herself with bared breast in the retinue of Bacchus. For this she selected a cool, classical expression, and did not shy away from using a large format.

Inspired by a picture of a Flemish collection of artworks and curiosities, the paintings are presented together with Kunstkammer objects. Modern visitors are thus confronted with a - for them - surprising, challenging opulence. Even if Flemish seventeenth-century "gallery-pictures" depict imaginary collections, they document contemporary ideals of presenting art; their cramped arrangement remained the standard for hanging paintings until the early twentieth century.