Honeysuckle Bower
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
| The Honeysuckle Bower |
| Pieter Paul Rubens, ca. 1609 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 178 × 136.5 cm |
| Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
The Honeysuckle Bower (ca. 1609) is a self-portrait of the artist, Pieter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), and his first wife, Isabella Brant (1591–1626). Rubens and Isabella wed on October 3, 1609, in St. Michael's Abbey in Antwerp, shortly after he had returned to the city after eight years in Italy.[1]
The painting is a full-length double portrait of the couple seated in a bower of honeysuckle. They are surrounded by love and marriage symbolism: the honeysuckle and garden are both traditional symbols of love, and the holding of right hands (junctio dextrarum) represents union through marriage.[2][3] Additionally, Rubens depicts himself as an aristocratic gentleman with his left hand on the hilt of his sword.[4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Kristin Lohse Belkin, Rubens, London: Phadon (1998): 95-98. ISBN 0-7148-3412-2
- ^ Martin Schawe, Alte Pinakothek Munich, 2nd. ed., Munich: Prestel (2002): 76. ISBN 3-7913-2239-7
- ^ Hans Vlieghe, Flemish Art and Architeture 1585-1700, New Haven: Yale University Press (1998): 121-2. ISBN 0-3000-7038-1
- ^ Belkin, 98.
