The Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens - Case Study Example

The Meaning and Significance of Aspects of an Artwork: ‘The Massacre of the Innocents’ by Peter Paul Rubens of the of the School/ Institution The Meaning and Significance of Aspects of an Artwork: ‘The Massacre of the Innocents’ by Peter Paul Rubens Introduction The Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) created the well-known artwork: The Massacre of the Innocents, circa 1611-1612. The oil on oak panel is part of the Thomson collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Rubens completed his eight years of study in Italy, and returned to Antwerp in 1608. Subsequently, the works he painted, most of them important civic and ecclesiastical commissions, indicate the influence of painters he admired such as “Titian, Michelangelo, Veronese, Caravaggio and others” (Glover, 2003, p.16). The Massacre of the Innocents is Rubens’ greatest painting. In this Biblical theme, the massacre portrayed is that ordered by Herod the Great, a Roman king and an important character in Jewish history during the period of Roman domination of the Jewish people. Jesus, born of Jewish parents, was considered as the new Messiah of the Jews, who would vanquish their enemies. To thwart any attempts on his life, Herod ordered all Jewish boys to be slaughtered, in case any of them was baby Jesus. Fortunately, “the young Jesus had been spirited away by his parents” (Glover, 2003, p.16), and escaped being one of the victims of the massacre. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate Peter Paul Rubens’ painting The Massacre of the Innocents, and determine the significance of certain aspects of the artwork. Significant Meanings in Rubens’ Artwork: ‘The Massacre of the Innocents’ Rubens’ artworks prior to The Massacre of the Innocents mainly depicted violence, and sometimes erotic humor. The artist’s enthusiasm to tackle the most challenging themes were similar to that of his hero Michelangelo. This is reiterated by Cork (2003, p.42), who asserts that “sometime, in his eagerness to produce a spectacular image, Rubens delivers melodrama”. As seen in Fig.1 depicting Rubens’ Massacre of the Innocents, the artist’s dramatism is coupled with his compulsion to attack the viewer in a headlong manner with the violence in the composition. This results in viewers becoming uncomfortably conscious of the artist’s need to shock (Fig.1). Fig.1. ‘The Massacre of the Innocents’ by Peter Paul Rubens, circa 1611-1612 (AGO, 2010) Rubens, Peter Paul (Flemish, 1577-1640) Oil on oak panel The Massacre of the Innocents, circa 1611-1612 The Thomson Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO, 2010) In The Massacre of the Innocents, the butchery of mothers and children appears to assume a frenzied intensity. Rubens has produced a highly distressing image with great deliberation and thoughtful intention (Fig.1). In the illustration above of Rubens’ painting, there is a forceful sense of extreme brutality perpetrated against women and small boys. One woman is seen clawing at the cheek of her murderous, powerfully built attacker, while he pulls the baby away from her grasp. An elderly lady or grandmother near the centre of the painting desperately attempts to push away the sword aimed at her stomach, but cannot hope to prevent the assault. Other women are seen wailing heartbrokenly at the murdered infants lying across the ground. Cork (2005) argues that this extremely distressing scene is exactly as Rubens had planned to create, of the mayhem and merciless murder of innocent, helpless children and women. The scene in the artwork is alive with violence and panic. The assassins are portrayed in the nude, with Rubens painting heroic, muscular bodies similar to the work of Michelangelo. Significantly, “the pose of one of the figures, the executioner who prepares to smash a naked babe to the ground much to the horror of the desperate, imploring mother” (Glover, 2003, p.16), is borrowed directly from Michelangelo’s work. Thus, the woman at the centre of all the pain and ferocity closely resembles some female figure out of Veronese, with beautifully crimped hair and rich clothing in blood red silk. The clothing appears too splendid for a gruesome situation such as this. She is seen to be falling under the weight of another falling woman, the elderly lady about to be stabbed with a sword. As most of Ruben’s work, this painting is dazzling and magnificent to view; the scene is composed with balance and perspective, and the illustration has a centre of equilibrium. Although the theme is highly repulsive, its hideousness is irrelevant because “the subject matter is sanctified by its biblical associations” states Glover (2003, p.17). The brilliance of the artwork’s composition becomes more clearly evident on comparison with other treatments of the same scene, which Rubens would have known about. Kunzle (2002, p.35) emphasizes that “The Massacre of the Innocents was a subject which became increasingly popular in the art of the 13th and 14th centuries”. The resistance of the mothers contributes to realism and an increasing political edge, as found in paintings of the massacre in the 16th century. According to Kunzle (2002), this formidable evidence of female courage was not depicted in the Bible (Matthew 2, 16) and did not appear in the legendary narrative on Herod’s tyranny. This is endorsed by Waagen (1811), who observes that the women are portrayed in their anguish of hopelessly trying to protect their babies, while defending themselves by biting and scratching. The old woman cuts her hand by seizing the murderous sword that is about to stab her. In the earlier compositions, the visuals appear untidy, and the viewer’s eye shifts through all the details, never coming to rest. The artists who created those works were too intent upon reality. Contrastingly, Rubens sought to excel over previous renditions of the theme and “amidst all that tumult, was after the most brilliant and settled of painterly effects” (Glover, 2003, p.17). This is supported by Robertson (2012), who considers the artist’s bold, painterly technique as the rreason for the compelling image. His brushstrokes are used in a powerfully vibrant manner, to express the urgency of the narrative. The intricate composition of this group of interlocked figures is a new technique in Flemish art, and indicates the arrival of the Baroque style. To the right of the painting is the most terrible of happenings, where another powerfully built assaulter lifts a baby high above his head. It initially appears as an action denoting triumph or victory, with the man holding the child aloft in the air, like a trophy. However, the viewer’s eyes are drawn downwards, and soon the horrific realization dawns that small dead children lie scattered on the ground. Cork (2005, p.43) observes that “the plinth below the attacker is besmirched with the blood of children’s corpses heaped around its base”. The attacker is about to dash the infant’s brains against the plinth, and the helpless mother of the baby raises desperate hands in trying to save her child. The assassin appears to be even more macabre when the viewer realises that Rubens based this merciless pose on a drawing by Michelangelo of Christ rising from the tomb, showing ironic resurrection and destruction concurrently. Waagen (1811) presents a critical viewpoint to Rubens’ Massacre of the Innocents, stating that the artwork does not deserve its great reputation. “The subject can derive a really fearful and tragic interest only through a perfectly ideal treatment” (Waagen, 1811, p.85). The author perceives Rubens’ composition as a mere scene from common life, created in the genre manner; and the resulting impression is of the same revulsion produced by a modern scene of butchery occurring in front of one’s eyes. Moreover, Waagen (1811) statest that the intense coloring, light effects and spirited treatment normally found in Rubens’ paintings is absent in this composition. The Massacre of the Innocents dates back to the early part of Rubens’ career as an artist. However, at the time of creating this masterpiece at the young age of 33 years, he had attained maturity as a painter, and he considered himself as an outstanding artist. He had a long, prolific career filled with creativity and inventiveness (Cork, 2005). Glover (2003) argues that Rubens’ work in this composition is calculatedly brilliant, though cold and distant to the viewer’s perception. Each figure in the painting is executed with artistic expertise and cruel meaning. It is concluded that the haunting images of the brutal slayings of innocent baby boys and women by muscular assassins achieves the intended shocking impact among viewers, with its paradoxical contrasts of aesthetic beauty and the horrific ugliness of brutality. References AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario). (2010). Rubens, Peter Paul. The Massacre of the Innocents. The Thomson Collection. Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved from: http://www.ago.net/agoid106855 Cork, R. (2005, November 7). Blood, babies and guts: Rubens not only had a prodigious skill, but the ability to learn, says Richard Cork. New Statesman, 134(4765), 42-43. Glover, M. (2003, October 27). Ruben’s brilliance and brutality. Ruben’s National Gallery and Hermitage Rooms, London. Art: Visual Arts. The Independent (London, England), 16-17. Kunzle, D. (2002). From criminal to courtier: The soldier in Netherlandish art 1550-1672. The Netherlands: BRILL Publications. Robertson, I. 2012. The art business. New York: Routledge. Waagen, G.F. 1811. Peter Paul Rubens, his life and genius. England: Saunders and Otely Publications. Read More