Honeysuckle Bower

The Honeysuckle Bower

Artist	Peter Paul Rubens
Year	c. 1609
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	178 cm × 136.5 cm (70 in × 53.7 in)
Location	Alte Pinakothek, Munich

The Honeysuckle Bower is a self-portrait of the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens and his first wife Isabella Brant, executed c. 1609. They wed on 3 October 1609, in St. Michael's Abbey, Antwerp, shortly after he had returned to the city after eight years in Italy.^[1]

The painting is a full-length double portrait of the couple seated in a bower (wikt) of honeysuckle. They are surrounded by love and marriage symbolism: the honeysuckle and garden are both traditional symbols of love, and the holding of right hands (junctio dextrarum) represents union through marriage.^[2]^[3] Additionally, Rubens depicts himself as an aristocratic gentleman with his left hand on the hilt of his sword.^[4]

Details[]

The couple, close-up
Isabella Brant
The hands

External links[]

Media related to Honeysuckle Bower by Peter Paul Rubens at Wikimedia Commons

Web Gallery of Art

Notes[]

^ Kristin Lohse Belkin, Rubens, London: Phadon (1998): 95–98. ISBN 0-7148-3412-2
^ Martin Schawe, Alte Pinakothek Munich, 2nd. ed., Munich: Prestel (2002): 76. ISBN 3-7913-2239-7
^ Hans Vlieghe, Flemish Art and Architecture 1585–1700, New Haven: Yale University Press (1998): 121–122. ISBN 0-300-07038-1
^ Belkin, 98.

show v t Peter Paul Rubens
Paintings and drawings	The Descent from the Cross (1600–1602) Leda and the Swan (1601, 1602) The Deposition (1602) Self-Portrait in a Circle of Friends from Mantua (1602–1605) Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603) Portrait of a Young Woman (1603) Hercules and Omphale (1603) Heraclitus and Democritus (1603) Virgin and Child (c. 1604) The Fall of Phaeton (c. 1604/1605) (1604–1605) The Gonzaga Family in Adoration of the Holy Trinity (1604–1605) Transfiguration (1604–1605) The Circumcision (1605) Portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria (1606) Portrait of a Noblewoman with a Dwarf (1606) Portrait of Giovanni Carlo Doria on Horseback (1606) Madonna della Vallicella (1606–1608) Susanna and the Elders (1607) Adoration of the Magi (Prado) (1609; 1628–29) Samson and Delilah (1609–10) Honeysuckle Bower (1609–10) Coronation of the Virgin (1609-1611) Juno and Argus (1610) Raising of the Cross (1610–11) Conversion of Saint Paul (1610–1612) Massacre of the Innocents (c. 1611) Venus Frigida (1611) Prometheus Bound (1611–12) The Four Philosophers (1611–12) Antwerp Resurrection (1611–12) Visitation (ca. 1611–1615) Roman Charity (1612) Ecce Homo (1612) Descent from the Cross (1612–1614) Saint Teresa of Ávila's Vision of the Holy Spirit (1612–1614) Saint Teresa of Ávila's Vision of the Holy Spirit (c.1614) The Tribute Money (1612–1614) The Defeat of Sennacherib (1612–1614) The Four Continents (1610s) Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter (1612–1614) Portrait of a Commander (1613) The Crowning of the Virtuous Hero (1613–14) The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (1613–1615) The Death of Adonis (1614) St Sebastian (c. 1614) Madonna della Cesta (1615) Ixion, King of the Lapiths, Deceived by Juno, Who He Wished to Seduce (1615) Daniel in the Lions' Den (1615) Bacchanalia (c. 1615) The Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt (1615–16) The Tiger Hunt (1615–16) Theodosius and Saint Ambrose (1615–16) Florence Resurrection (1616) The Virgin and Child Surrounded by the Holy Innocents (1616) Erichthonius Discovered by the Daughters of Cecrops (c. 1616) The Wolf and Fox Hunt (c. 1616) The Lion and Leopard Hunt (c. 1616) Romulus and Remus (1615–16) Saint Stephen Triptych (1616–17) Two Women with a Candle (1616–17) Descent from the Cross (1616–17) The Meeting Between Abraham and Melchizedek (1616–17) Christ and the Penitent Sinners (1617) Mars and Rhea Silvia (1617) The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (1617) The Great Last Judgement (1617) A Bearded Man (c. 1617–18) Adoration of the Magi (Lyon) (1617–18) The Five Senses (1617–18) Two Satyrs (1618) Medusa (1618) The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus (c. 1618) Christ Triumphant over Sin and Death (c. 1618) The Prodigal Son (1618) The Union of Earth and Water (c. 1618) Tigress with Her Cubs (1618) Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee (1618–1620) St Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy (1619–20) The Small Last Judgement (1619) Conversion of Saint Paul (1620s) The Fall of the Damned (ca. 1620) Landscape with Philemon and Baucis (ca. 1620) Portrait of a Young Man in Armor (ca. 1620) Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1620) Perseus Freeing Andromeda (1620) Saints Dominic and Francis Saving the World from Christ's Anger (1620) The Virgin Mary and Saint Francis Saving the World from Christ's Anger The Rape of Orithyia by Boreas (1620) Christ on the Cross (1620) The Three Graces (1620–1623) Isabella Brant (c. 1621) The Lion Hunt (1621) Marie de' Medici cycle (1621–1630) Portrait of Susanna Lunden (1622) Perseus and Andromeda (c. 1622) The History of Constantine (1622–1625) Self-Portrait (1623) The Conversion of Saint Bavo (1623–24) Diana and Her Nymphs Leaving for the Hunt (1623–24) Adoration of the Magi (Antwerp) (1624) The Reconciliation of Esau and Jacob (1624) Christ Appointing Saint Roch as Patron Saint of Plague Victims (1623–1626) Portrait of Infante Isabella Clara Eugenia (1625) The Triumph of the Church (1635) Assumption of the Virgin Mary (1625–26) Angelica and the Hermit (c. 1626–1628) Henry IV at the Battle of Ivry (1627) The Triumphal Entry of Henry IV into Paris (1627) The Annunciation (1627–28) The Fall of Man (1628–29) The Rape of Europa (1628–29) Minerva Protecting Peace from Mars (1629–30) Cimon and Pero (1630) Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (c. 1630) The Crowning of Saint Catherine (1631) The Ildefonso Altarpiece (1630–31) Last Supper (1630–31) Odysseus on the Island of the Phaecians (1630–1635) The Finding of Erichthonius (1632–1634) The Garden of Love (c. 1633) Adoration of the Magi (Cambridge) (1634) The Rape of the Sabine Women (1634–1636) The Feast of Venus (c. 1635) The Dance of the Villagers (1635) Helena Fourment with Her Son Frans (1635) The Village Fête (1635–1638) Mercury and Argus (1635–1638) Hercules's Dog Discovers Purple Dye (c. 1636) Helena Fourment with Children (1636) A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning (1636) Saturn (1636) The Rainbow Landscape (1636) Het Pelsken (1636–1638) The Origin of the Milky Way (c. 1637) Consequences of War (c. 1638) Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides / Deianira Listens to Fame (1638) The Three Graces (1636–1638) The Rape of Ganymede (1636–1638) Diana and Callisto (1637–38) Helena Fourment with a Carriage (1638) Self-Portrait (1638–39) Bacchus (1638–1640) The Peasants Returning From The Fields (1640) Judgment of Paris (various)
Tapestries	The History of Constantine (1622–1640) (with Pietro da Cortona)
Books	Palazzi di Genova (1622)
Museums	Rubenshuis
People	Rubens family Isabella Brant (first wife) Helena Fourment (second wife) Nicolaas Rubens, Lord of Rameyen (son) Albert I Rubens (son) Jan Rubens (father) Maria Pypelinckx (mother) Philip I Rubens (brother) Tobias Verhaecht (teacher) Adam van Noort (teacher) Otto van Veen (teacher) Nicolaas II Rockox (friend)
Related	Poussinists and Rubenists Rubens (1977 film) Rubenesque

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