Waldemar on Rubens
January 6 2015
Picture: BBC
I greatly enjoyed Waldemar's hour-long programme on Rubens, which was on BBC2 last weekend. I can't think of a better presenter to do Rubens justice - you get the sense watching the film that Rubens and Waldemar would have been best buddies. You can catch it here on iPlayer.
Update - ahead of the Royal Academy's new show on Rubens, Jonathan Jones of The Guardian says he wasn't much cop:
The very energy of Rubens has something brittle about it. He cannot stop for fear of looking into the dark. He seems terrified of Caravaggio’s shadows, Rembrandt’s eyes, Velazquez’s mirror. His art endlessly moves on, through a bewildering range of genres. It also assimilates a staggering variety of influences.
That's the opinion of someone who probably hasn't looked closely enough at Rubens. I don't mean; not seen enough of his work, but; sniff-the-canvas close-looking. Which, for me at least, reveals that when it comes to the sheer technical ability of applying paint to canvas, or as he mostly did, to panel, Rubens was an unsurpassed genius. Say what you like about Rubens' fat women and crowded compositions, but go and look at some of best-preserved, entirely autograph oils on panel, and you'll find few better passages of painting. Rubens could paint as easily as you and I breathe.
