Baroque · 1577–1640 · Flemish
Peter Paul Rubens
Rubens painted luminous flesh by laying thin, warm glazes over light grounds so the ground glows through. At the French Academy around 1700, the “Rubénistes” made him their model in the argument that color matters more than drawing.
Across 4 works, the colors are mostly brown (63%), black (23%) and gray (5%). On average the canvases are mid-toned, moderately saturated and warm. Signature colors, used far more here than across the collection: dark reddish brown, bistre, dark taupe, dark reddish brown and dark brown.
Color print
The swatches covering most of these canvases, averaged over every work, dark to light.
- MG 219 bistre 14.6% of canvas
- MG 177 dark taupe 10.8% of canvas
- MG 156 dark reddish brown 7.2% of canvas
- MG 222 charcoal 7.0% of canvas
- MG 168 dark amber brown 4.1% of canvas
- MG 155 dark reddish brown 4.0% of canvas
- MG 169 dark brown 3.7% of canvas
- MG 176 taupe 3.0% of canvas
- MG 185 dark golden umber 2.6% of canvas
- MG 167 brown 2.6% of canvas
- MG 223 soot 2.5% of canvas
- MG 221 blue black 2.2% of canvas
- MG 184 umber 2.1% of canvas
- MG 181 light sand 1.9% of canvas
- MG 182 golden umber 1.9% of canvas
- MG 183 golden umber 1.8% of canvas
Measurements
Works
- Samson and Delilah, c. 1609
- The Elevation of the Cross, 1609
- The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, 1618
- The Three Graces, 1630s