Peter Paul Rubens; "A Child's Head"

("Head of a Child" c. 1616, oil on canvas.)

Peter Paul Rubens

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Peter Paul Rubens, born 1557, was a Flemish artist who first came to Rome, Italy at the age of twenty-three. Here, he studied many great artworks of artists during and before his time, and also studied in Genoa and Mantua. Rubens was considered a non-conformists for he chose to not join any major artist movements or groups during his time. But like most Flemish artists, he expressed his abilities through the emphasis of textures in his paintings, and stayed as true to nature as possible. In fact, he executed the brushwork techniques to such true-to-material textures so masterfully, that he had no known rival north of the Alps. Flemish artists are known for painting in small-scale, mainly for the decoration of one's home or personal use, but Peter Paul Rubens introduced the large-scale paintings from Rome. Peter Paul Rubens was admired for his ability to bring a sense of life to the subjects that he painted, which can be seen in his painting, "Head of a Child" which is most likely his daughter, Clara Serena. The portrait itself is very simplistic; there is nothing elaborate or flamboyant. It is just an ordinary, mundane portrait of a little girl. However, through the mundane portrait, his skilled brush strokes are prominent, for the portrait seems to "breathe of life." The hints of light on the face and the lips, and form of the hair and the face depicts that.

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