During his eight-year Italian sojourn (1600-1608), Sir Peter Paul Rubens became familiar with villeggiatura, a form of villa life (unique to Italy) modeled on the antique garden. Rubens' experience was personal, for a close examination of a select number of his works demonstrates that he fully assimilated this humanistic tradition. He participated in the intellectual currents of his time, the source of ars hortulorum. In his pictures, Rubens took over forms found in gardens of antiquity, the Renaissance or the Baroque and, in certain instances, recreated the mood, function and sense found in these gardens and as described by literary works. Most important, Rubens' own life of villeggiatura is clearly made evident in several of these paintings. / His preference for the humanistic hortus over the garden traditions of other countries reveals Rubens' admiration, shared with other humanists for the ancients and their culture which provided personal models for poise and enlightenment. / The result of this study focuses on a new dimension to our understanding of Rubens' oeuvre, his involvement with villeggiatura and the ars hortulorum.

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When considering the patronage of Maria de Medici following her return from exile in 1621, one must take into account the forty-eight monumental paintings she commissioned from Peter Paul Rubens. The contract between artist and patron specified two sets of twenty-four canvases: one dedicated to the life of Maria and the other to the life of King Henry IV. Maria intended the paintings to illustrate her continuation of the King's policies and the legitimacy of her own rule---themes that echoed her vast propaganda campaign. One reason for numerous scholarly interpretations of the Medici series is the incomplete nature of the Henry cycle. This thesis supports the idea espoused by one, and possibly two scholars (and then only in a selected fashion), that Maria and Henry's lives must be understood as unified and complementary in order to interpret the original commission correctly. Through the investigation of all extant material relating to the king's gallery, and how it contributes to the viewer's understanding of the Queen's gallery, as well as Maria's objectives, this idea comes into focus.

In 1622 Maria de Medici commissioned two series of twenty four paintings for the galleries in her new home in the Palais du Luxembourg from the renowned artist Peter Paul Rubens. The Henri cycle was to illustrate the "triumphs" of her late husband the King, and the Maria cycle was to illustrate the Queen's "illustrious life and heroic deeds". This thesis proposes that the Maria de Medici cycle cannot be disassociated from the Henri IV cycle because the Queen's intention was to present her reign as a continuation of his and to prove that she was equally capable to rule the French nation. Chosen by Henri as his successor, Maria overcame obstacles that originated in his reign and that jeopardised the throne for her son and the Bourbon line. / Although the Henri IV cycle was never completed, the paintings and sketches that exist make it possible to link the two galleries by the pivotal event of marriage. The Maria cycle addresses and resolves issues stemming from this union. The repetition of specific images and themes in the two cycles represents Maria's unique qualifications and reinforces the equality of the two sovereigns. Maria completed the mandate that Henri authorised her to carry out, ensuring peace at home and in Europe, thus justifying her designation as a heroine Queen.

Peter Paul Rubens' creative genius, as expressed with consummate mastery in his paintings, is but one of the many elements that have compounded to establish his fame. He is also renowned as a man of immense erudition. Indeed, his reputation is such that it is taken for granted that his great learning informed all aspects of his art in a fundamental way. / In accordance with this kind of thinking, current scholarship on Rubens accepts, as a matter of course, that the artist, whilst creating his painted works, followed the dictates of a colour theory, as we would know it today. In fact, on the basis of circumstantial evidence, it has been accepted that Rubens invented a colour theory that may be seen as innovative for his time. / This thesis assesses the evidence which has led researchers to formulate such a conclusion. As a consequence, it investigates the circumstances of Rubens association with Francois de Aguilon during the final stages of the latter's publication of his book on optics, the Opticorum libri sex. ... As well, the artist's correspondence with his friend, Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc, which contains allusions to an autograph manuscript purported to contain Rubens' thoughts on colour, is re-examined. Indeed, this very correspondence reveals that Rubens did not consider himself particularly knowledgeable about the theoretical aspects colour. / On the basis of a thorough review of these existing documents; an investigation into relevant biographical circumstances; and an examination of the artist's technique, it is here proposed that Rubens did not consciously apply theoretical principles to his craft, but rather, that any of the discernable elements of what is considered to be modern colour theory are in the paintings only because the demands of the painter's craft serendipitously parallel art historians' theoretical hindsight.

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