In Literature

Master of Shadows (2009)

Rubens was not only a painter, he was a spy. In this book, author Mark Lamster focuses on the often overlooked diplomatic career of Rubens. Because he spent a great deal of time traveling between European capitals and painting high-ranking leaders, the Spanish crown hired him to serve as their personal diplomat and secret agent. During this time under the employ of the Spanish government, he accomplished much, including a peace treaty with England. Some even claim that his diplomatic skills surpassed his skills with a brush. An interesting read for those curious about the artist’s lesser-known and arguably more exciting career.

The Other Adonis (2001)

Frank Deford, senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated and writer of multiple sports fiction novels, strays from his usual in this book. In it, couple Floyd “Bucky” Buckingham and Constance Rawlings approach psychiatrist Nina Winston for help. They feel a deep connection with Rubens’ Venus and Adonis and believe that they are the reincarnated forms of the models. When Nina investigates through hypnotism, she finds that they are indeed the reincarnations of the models, although their genders are reversed. She also finds that Constance’s former incarnation Ollie was a serial killer. In short, Deford attempts to blend historical fiction, romance, mystery, and a touch of pseudoscience in this single novel. Whether he is successful or not is up to the reader.

On TV

Palettes: Great Artists and their Paintings – Peter Paul Rubens (1998)

In this fourteen-part series of roughly half-hour installments, Alain Jaubert of the Louvre, with the help of sophisticated technologies, observes various artists and the construction most famous paintings, from the content to the composition to the color. Other artists in the series include Cezanne, da-Vinci, Monet, Picasso, Rembrandt, and Vermeer.

The Dutch Masters – Rubens (2000)

This series consists of six separate pieces on famous Dutch painters, among them Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Rubens. Over the course of 50 minutes, various art historians discuss key events in Rubens’ life. They also look at both his style and his technique and specifically discuss his best paintings, from his abundance of portraits to his later, mythology-inspired works, such as The Judgment of Paris.