Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
From nuns to nobles, the Flemish artist loved painting unclothed women. But, as this staggering exhibition reveals, there’s so much more to him than frolicking nudes
Maria Serra Pallavicino is a queen. Technically she’s a Marchesa. But no one could look more monarchical here, in the painting by Peter Paul Rubens. She looks down imperiously from the throne where she sits swathed in silver, with an impossibly huge ruff collar of floating filigree lace tinged with gold. But it’s her intense face and dark eyes that hold you. Amid her finery, she’s engaging and mysterious, her personality more precious than her pearls.
Rubens is a painter’s painter. No great artist communicates the sheer fun of holding a paintbrush like he does. He’s an ebullient chef, laying on thick sauces of glinting, creamy colour. And women were his favourite ingredients. He lavished his attentions on them clothed and naked, at prayer and in bed. The intimacy and warmth of the results make Dulwich Picture Gallery’s show Rubens & Women a riotous feast.
