Goethe and Rubens

Motivated by a show of Rubens drawings at the MET, and some portraits she saw last summer in Vienna, “Goethe Girl” explores Goethe’s take on Rubens.

“..but looking through his writings on art I discovered that Rubens was a lifelong enthusiasm.

Here’s a quote from Goethe on Ruben’s female figures: “What the painter hasn’t loved, doesn’t love, he should not portray, cannot portray. You find Rubens’ women too fleshy! I tell you, they were his women, and had he populated heaven and hell, the air, the earth, and the sea with ideal beings, then he would have been a bad husband, and powerful flesh would not have grown from his flesh nor [powerful] bone from his bone.”

Read the entire essay here.