'Rubens and his Legacy'
August 25 2014
Picture: National Gallery of Australia
I see that the Royal Academy will have an exhibition early next year called 'Rubens and his Legacy'. No further details are given by the RA yet, save the dates on the friends' page; 24th January-10th April.
Before that, the show will be in Brussels at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, opening on 25th September. But the Bozar website for the exhibition begins unpromisingly, with this curious comparison:
Rubens was the Quentin Tarantino of his day, making Flanders one of the world’s foremost regions for painting. The Flemish master-painter developed his own personal style, crafting scenes that exuded lust and were marked by violence, as well as compassion and elegance. These themes inspired artists all over the world for many centuries to come. In this unique exhibition by BOZAR, in collaboration with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp and the Royal Academy of Arts in London you can rediscover the work of this indomitable genius that has withstood the test of time as well as that of his heirs. You can also see canvases by Van Dyck, Watteau, Delacroix, Manet and Kokoschka as well as engravings by Rembrandt and Picasso.
The show is curated by Nico Van Hout, who, amongst other things, is currently writing a volume of the Corpus Rubenianum on Rubens' head studies.