Leseprobe

351 “ Fortunately, that masterpiece has been excellently preserved which is the immortal and unforgettable frontispiece to the Thirty Years’ War, by the hand of one who alone was supremely qualified to create it. ” 1 Thus wrote the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt in his Erinnerungen aus Rubens (Recollections of Rubens), pub- lished in 1898, in reference to the Horrors of War (fig. 2).2 This remarkable painting is not only one of the most fre- quently discussed works by the artist Peter Paul Rubens (fig. 1), but is also one of the best documented. It was ordered directly from Rubens in 1637 by Justus Sustermans, a painter employed at the Florentine court. This fact is documented by a letter written in Italian and sent by Rubens to his col- league on 12 March 1638.3 In it he thanks him for sending a book and expresses the hope that his last letter has arrived.4 It is also evident from this letter that Rubens was paid on that day by a certain Signor Schutter for the painting deliv- ered to Sustermans. The general theme of the work is the destructive power of violent conflict.5 Rubens employs the entire repertoire of allegorical imagery to express the abom- ination of war.The Horrors of War is the visual expression of a longing for peace, which Rubens also regularly attests to in writing, and which is understandable given his biography. Only between 1609 and 1621 were the guns silent in Antwerp. It was a short intermission in the war in the Neth- erlands. In other parts of Europe, the fighting continued. Apart from these few years of truce, Rubens experienced nothing other than war throughout his life. Even his child- hood was overshadowed by the consequences of that military conflict that had begun long before he was born. As part of the Burgundian heritage, the Netherlands belonged to the dominion of the Spanish King Philip II.His centralist policy, which disregarded the long-standing privileges of the towns and the Estates, had exacerbated the prevailing discord. Added to this were economic difficulties and religious con- flicts, which were only intensified by the brutal crackdown on the spread of reformist confessions. The military inter- vention under the new governor on behalf of the Spanish crown, Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, did not lead to peace, but turned what had been isolated upris- ings into all-out war.The seven northern provinces, roughly equivalent to the modern-day Netherlands, refused to sub- mit. For eighty years, from 1568 to 1648, the United Prov- inces fought for and defended their independence from Habsburg rule. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) NILS BÜTTNER FIG. 1 Peter Paul Rubens , Self-Portrait , c. 1638, oil on canvas, h. 110 cm, w. 85.5 cm, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, inv. no. 527