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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.59957 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Brendel, Maria Lydia |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Art History.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001234632, proquestno: AAIMM67535, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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