{"id":6946,"date":"2016-04-22T15:14:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T15:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/?p=6946"},"modified":"2016-04-22T17:30:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T17:30:31","slug":"a-painters-post-peter-paul-rubens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/?p=6946","title":{"rendered":"A painter\u2019s post: Peter Paul Rubens"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am particularly excited to be announcing the publication of EMLO\u2019s first art historical correspondence, that of the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens<\/a>. For those who have not delved into this painter\u2019s letters before, I should explain that the majority of Rubens’s\u00a0surviving correspondence is related\u00a0to his alternative career as a diplomat \u2014 he embarked upon this path in his early twenties, working for the Gonzaga in Mantua, and from 1609 was employed in the service of Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella in Brussels. Rubens\u00a0travelled extensively through Italy, Spain, England, and the United Provinces, and as he travelled he dispatched letters, reports of situations, and accounts of his work.<\/p>\n

\"'Self

‘Self portrait with his first wife, Isabella Brandt’, by Peter Paul Rubens. 1609\u201310. Oil on canvas mounted on panel, 178 by 136.5cm. (Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Inv. Nr. 334; source of image: Wikimedia Commons)<\/p><\/div>\n

Rubens was a close friend to a number of scholars, including Peiresc and Pierre Dupuy, as well as to printers such as Bathasar Moretus, to fellow painters Jan Brueghel the elder and Diego Vel\u00e1zquez, and he was a devoted and caring husband and father.\u00a0It\u2019s unfortunate that so little of his personal correspondence appears to have survived. Charles Ruelens (1820\u20131890), inaugural editor of the Codex Diplomaticus Rubenianus<\/em> (upon which EMLO’s calendar is based), speculated that the number of letters written by Rubens himself over the course of his life \u2014 just one side of the correspondence \u2014 could have been close to eight thousand in total. From\u00a0the invaluable six-volumed\u00a0Codex Diplomaticus Rubenianus<\/em>, which was initiated in 1887 by Ruelens and completed in 1909 by Max Rooses (1839\u20131914), and the edition of English translations published in 1966 by Ruth Sanders Magurn, we know today of just 250 letters from Rubens. Despite the overriding diplomatic content of most letters, at times Rubens could not resist mentioning his own painting\u00a0\u2014 his \u2018dolcissima professione<\/em>\u2018 \u2014 as well as\u00a0the antiquities, art, and coveted\u00a0collections he encountered. It’s worth noting that\u00a0significant further work within EMLO could be done on\u00a0the metadata for\u00a0these letters: for example, it would be useful to identify the works of art mentioned in the texts, to record, and to link them and, in time, these might\u00a0form part of\u00a0an index of works of art mentioned in correspondence which could be charted in particular places at given points in time; people, places, and events mentioned could be identified also and linked within the union catalogue; keywords could be added; manuscript versions and their material details could be collected.\u00a0There are many lenses through which this correspondence could be examined, and EMLO would welcome enquiries\u00a0from students searching for topics and subjects on which to work who might consider in the course of their research enriching this, or similar, correspondence metadata. EMLO is extremely accommodating, willing to assist, and anyone interested in working with correspondence in the union catalogue has only to be in touch.<\/p>\n

Whilst considering the enrichment of\u00a0existing resources, I would like to mention also a call released recently\u00a0to doctoral students or post holders at Higher Education Institutions worldwide and to individuals undertaking scholarly research in the humanities. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography<\/a> is offering three research bursaries of \u00a3750 each to promote the ODNB online<\/a> as a source for new research in the humanities. These bursaries are intended, via a defined research project, to promote understanding of British history and culture by means\u00a0of the\u00a0Dictionary\u2019s content and its biographical data. Applications should be submitted by 12 June 2016, and further details, together with an application form, may be found on the ODNB website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am particularly excited to be announcing the publication of EMLO\u2019s first art historical correspondence, that of the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. For those who have not delved into this painter\u2019s letters before, I should explain that the majority of Rubens’s\u00a0surviving correspondence is related\u00a0to his alternative career as a diplomat \u2014 he embarked upon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.culturesofknowledge.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}