The Gift of Rubens. Rethinking the Concept of Gift-Giving in Early Modern Diplomacy (original) (raw)
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Focusing on the period of Rubens’s most intensive involvement in diplomacy, between the spring and winter of 1629, this essay examines how the artist’s experience as a diplomatic emissary affected the evolution of his most celebrated works: the ‘Allegory or Peace and War’, now in the National Gallery, London. It identifies aspects of this work’s iconography that have previously gone unnoticed — particularly in the artist's use of colour — or which have been misconstrued; and it suggests that there was also a profoundly important literary dimension to the way in which Rubens expected this iconography to be ‘read’. With great specificity and directness, Rubens used painting as a source of diplomatic counsel in the highly factionalised court politics of the day. Finally, the essay suggests that the painter’s use of this classically-derived iconographic schema, rich in literary allusion, was intimately linked to his own self-assertion as a ‘pictor doctus’: an embodiment of the Renaissance ideal of the artist whose combination of skill and learning (‘ars et ingenium’) qualified him for gentle or even aristocratic rank.
The Seventeenth Century, 2007
1 'Friendship', with a rich variety of meanings, pervaded early-modern social and political culture, from the levels of individual interactions to the high politics of international relations. It meant more than affection, restricted to the realms of private life among social equals. Courtiers, clients, and patrons linked friendship with obligation, alliance and favouritism in the politicised worlds of public life and the court, encompassing horizontal and vertical social relations. 2 Princes too could have friends within their realms, when, as Francis Bacon (1561-1626) observed in his essay on friendship, 'they raise some persons to be as it were companions and almost equals to themselves'. 3 Even at the level of international politics 'amicitia' had a political role to play in delineating mutual obligations between princes. For as the legal historian Randall Lesaffer has argued, early-modern treaties were in essence personal agreements between individuals where friendship had assumed specifi c legal connotations which 'amounted to the express declaration by the treaty partners not to damage each other's interests'. 4 In this light, friendships between individuals and families could on one level express affection, but also much more-political affi nity, dynastic affi liation, obligation, and social hierarchies, multiple identities that featured both openly and tacitly in many of Anthony van Dyck's portraits. His 'friendship portraits' marked for posterity the affection and intimacy between spouses, families and friends in conjugal, double and group portraits. While work has been conducted on gift-giving in early modern Europe stressing its functions in patron-client relations where the giver was inherently the subordinate seeking patronage, the gift of a portrait by Van Dyck could also affi rm friendship and intimacy between social equals. 5 This aspect of patronage was strikingly recorded in the artistic exchanges in 1635 between the Bourbon Henrietta Maria (1609-69) queen-consort of Charles I (1600-49), and her older sister, Marie-Christine (1606-63), duchess of Savoy. 6 The delicate group portrait of the princes Charles and James Stuart, and princess Mary (1635), now in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin, served as a diplomatic gift from London MUP_17C22_02_Osborne2.indd 1 MUP_17C22_02_Osborne2.indd 1 16/7/07 12:11:11 16/7/07 12:11:11 VAN DYCK, ALESSANDRO SCAGLIA AND THE CAROLINE COURT 25 to Turin (the return gift of Marie-Christine's children is now lost), an act of communication between blood sisters from dynastically-related courts where the group portrait as a gift, and possibly the choice of Van Dyck as artist, held special signifi cance for both courts. 7 Van Dyck's portraits could also record a further type of friendship, between the artist and sitter. His pictorial output made references to the close affi nities he himself established in the course of his travels around the sovereign states of Europe. The double portrait (c. 1627) of the brothers Lucas (1591-1661) and Cornelis de Wael (1592-1667) served as a gift to thank them for providing the artist with lodgings in Genoa during his stay in the city. Similarly the portraits of the collectors and artistic brokers Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666) and François Langlois (1588-1647) recorded their friendships with Van Dyck (respectively 1628 and c. 1634-7). The three probably met fi rst in Italy and subsequently knew each other at the Stuart and Bourbon courts in London and Paris. 8 This association between the artist and sitter can also be seen in the double portrait in The Prado, Madrid, of Van Dyck himself and Endymion Porter (1587-1649), a pro-Spanish client of George Villiers (1592-1628) duke of Buckingham, and an ambassador in the service of Charles I. Porter's credentials as a patron and broker, operating on behalf of the Caroline court, were strong. He was instrumental in the acquisition of the Mantuan collection for Charles I in 1628, the greatest cultural achievement of the king's reign, and he was on close terms with Daniel Mytens I (1590-1647) and Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639), both of whom worked in London. He had probably fi rst met Van Dyck even earlier, on the artist's fi rst trip to England in 1620, and it is thought to have been Porter who brokered Charles I's initial commission from Van Dyck, Rinaldo and Armida (1628-9). 9 Christopher M. S. Johns has suggested that it was the brokering of this painting that encouraged Charles I to invite Van Dyck to England, effectively affi rming Porter, 'of polished manner and courtly ease', as an artistically sophisticated friend of Van Dyck. Moreover, the equestrian portrait of Charles I as the consummate courtier, Le Roi à la chasse (c. 1635), according to Johns, recorded this special relationship between king, broker and painter, as he tentatively identifi es the unknown equerry in the painting as Porter. 10 In a wider context, the double portrait of Porter and Van Dyck (c.1635) opens up discussion for yet another type of friendship that possibly existed not so much between the patron and Van Dyck, but among a group of courtiers from around Europe who acted as artistic patrons and collectors, who viewed themselves as effective equals and for whom the very act of commissioning and collecting served to affi rm a collective identity, or to demonstrate their social credentials. 11 Porter's family was not especially distinguished, but since the mid-sixteenth century his family had cultivated contacts with Spain, and he himself had an international profi le as a courtier, coming from a relatively small but cosmopolitan world that mixed collecting with diplomacy. Another member of this European courtly world was one of his friends, the Abate Alessandro Cesare MUP_17C22_02_Osborne2.indd 2 MUP_17C22_02_Osborne2.indd 2
Vincenzo Gonzaga, Peter Paul Rubens and the mission in Spain. New documents and echoes
Rubens e la cultura italiana: 1600-1608, 2020
Durante una campagna di ricerca archivistica riguardante il fondo delle Minute e quello relativo alla Corrispondenza dei Paesi del Ducato presso l’Archivio di Stato di Mantova, sono stati ritrovati alcuni documenti inediti afferenti alla missione diplomatica in Spagna di Pietro Paolo Rubens, per conto di Vincenzo I Gonzaga: in particolare, da tale documentazione si circostanziano meglio le ragioni diplomatiche della missione, vale a dire l’ottenimento da parte di Vincenzo Gonzaga di un titolo presso la corte di Spagna; inoltre, emergono dettagli importanti inerenti al rapporto tra il pittore e il duca di Mantova, inizialmente molto deluso dalle ingenti spese sostenute da Rubens a danno delle casse dello Stato gonzaghesco. In occasione della medesima ricognizione archivistica, è stata trovata un’altra importante lettera scritta dell’ambasciatore Annibale Iberti nel 1605, dopo la conclusione della missione in Spagna: inviata da Nizza probabilmente a un ignoto destinatario genovese (cui il delegato mantovano chiede di salutare il pittore fiammingo), può costituire la prova di un passaggio di Rubens nella capitale ligure prima del secondo soggiorno romano. ------ Some unpublished documents relating to the diplomatic mission in Spain of Pietro Paolo Rubens, on behalf of Vincenzo I Gonzaga, have been found during an archival research campaign concerning the Minute fund and that relating to the Correspondence of the Duchy countries at the State Archive of Mantua. This documentation better details the diplomatic reasons of the mission, namely the obtaining by Vincenzo Gonzaga of a role at the Spanish court; furthermore, from the new letters found important details emerge relating to the relationship between the painter and the Duke of Mantua, initially very disappointed by the huge expenses sustained by Rubens to the detriment of the coffers of the Gonzaga State. Another important letter, written by Ambassador Annibale Iberti in 1605, after the conclusion of the mission in Spain, was found during the same archival reconnaissance: this document was probably sent from Nice to an unknown Genoese recipient (to whom the Mantuan delegate asks to greet the Flemish painter) and may constitute proof of a trip by Rubens to the Ligurian capital before the second Roman stay.
The Politics of Painting: Velázquez and Diplomacy in the Court of Philip IV
Letras Hispanas, 2006
The influence of Diego Velázquez on the history of art cannot be overstated, but studies to date have not taken note of his impact on Spanish politics during the mid-seventeenth century. In short, Velázquez was as much a politician as an artist, his position in the Spanish court required both responsibilities. In the years 1659-1660 the painter played an especially remarkable role in the affairs of state when he was called upon to make court preparations for the Paz de los Pirineos, a peace accord ending nearly thirty years of war between the two reigning European superpowers, France and Spain. The treaty was contingent upon the royal marriage of the Spanish princess María Teresa, daughter of king Philip IV, to French king Louis XIV (Philip's nephew). In simple terms, we might say Velázquez's involvement in the treaty and wedding celebrations appeared only to be artistic: he produced a few paintings, chose tapestries, sculptures, paintings, and furniture for exhibition, and determined the precise placement of other works of art for the treaty negotiations in Madrid, and also for the wedding celebrations near the Spanish border with France. However, in light of the importance European courts placed upon aesthetics and their ability to project certain attitudes, Velázquez's actions had theoretical and real political consequences for the success of the treaty and marriage. His decisions set the overall tone for political events, and helped shaped their outcome. This study recontextualizes the courtly celebrations of the Peace of the Pyrenees to examine how Velázquez's role had ideological implications on European diplomacy, thus highlighting his political contributions as statesman in early modern Spain.
European Diplomatic Gifts, Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries: Guest Editor's Introduction
Studies in the Decorative …, 2007
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2020
Despite Rome and Mantua being considered the artistically most influential and fruitful periods of Rubens’s Italian journey, the painter visited several other cities. As one of these, Florence and the way the city and its art influenced the Flemish master still demands deeper investigation. Rubens visited Florence at least twice: in October 1600, when he attended – in the retinue of his patron Vincenzo Gonzaga – the marriage of Maria de’ Medici, and in March 1603, while he was on his way to Spain for a diplomatic mission, again, in the name of the Mantuan Court. This paper aims at providing a holistic perspective on both Rubens’s stays in Florence and on the artworks he encountered and studied there. By doing so, it seeks to shed new light on his Florentine sojourns, arguing, moreover, that he visited the city primarily in the role of a diplomat rather than in that of an artist. Reverberations of Florentine art, however, can be found throughout his oeuvre, especially when referring to the works of art by his compatriot Giambologna, which had a crucial impact on Rubens’s multidimensional understanding and handling of figures.
Diplomacy and Culture in the Early Modern World, Oxford. 31 July to 1 August 2014
The conference builds upon the recent ‘cultural turn’ in diplomatic studies that has seen more innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to a subject that was once viewed in heavily bureaucratic and constitutional terms. Scholars are increasingly appreciating the importance of ritual and other forms of symbolic communication in diplomatic practices and the role of diplomatic processes in cultural exchanges. Diplomats were important political brokers whose actions could have profound implications for international relations, but they played an equally important role in the transfer and adaptation of cultural ideas and artefacts through their activities as cultural agents, authors and brokers. The profound impact of diplomacy on culture in this period is, moreover, seen in the increasing prominence of representations of diplomacy in literature and a range of other media. The aim of this conference is to further our understanding of early modern diplomatic practices, of the dynamics of diplomatic exchanges both within and without Europe, and how diplomatic ideas and practices interacted with other cultural and political processes. The keynote lecture ‘Diplomacy as a Social Practice: Recent Research Perspectives’ was delivered by Professor Christian Windler (Bern). The conference featured two panel discussions: one on the impact of the ‘diplomatic moment’ and another on future directions in diplomatic studies. Papers and panels addressed aspects of diplomatic culture in Europe and the wider world including gender, gifts, material culture, the dissemination of information, archival practices, international law, cross cultural exchanges and translation, as well as the impact of diplomacy on literary writing and representations of diplomacy. The paper abstracts are available at: http://www.textualambassadors.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/abstracts1.pdf