TY - BOOK ID - 34131235 TI - Portraits AU - Huemer, Frances AU - Nationaal centrum voor de plastische kunsten van de 16de en de 17de eeuw (Antwerpen) PY - 1977 VL - 19/4 SN - 0905203089 0905203577 9781909400580 1909400580 9780905203089 PB - London: Harvey Miller, DB - UniCat KW - Rubens, Peter Paul KW - Portraits KW - portraits KW - Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard KW - Rubens, Petrus Paulus, KW - Rubens, Peter Paul, KW - Bruegel, Jan I, KW - Bruegel, Jan II, KW - portretten KW - Catalogs KW - Painting KW - easel paintings [paintings by form] KW - Rubens, Petrus Paulus, - 1577-1640 KW - Rubens, Petrus Paulus, - 1577-1640 - Catalogs KW - portretten. KW - Rubens, Peter Paul. KW - italianisanten. KW - Faber, Johann Joachim. KW - Italië. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:34131235 AB - Rubens was mesmerised by faces. He studied physiognomy, the pseudo-science that began making headway in the sixteenth century, which postulated that a person's character could be read from their facial features. He made geometrical analyses of the faces of ancient emperors and heroes. He invested a great deal of time in detailed anatomical studies, sometimes based on nature, and equally often on antique busts and coins. At times it seems as though the master wanted to know and understand every nook and cranny of the human face. To this end he studied man himself and the way in which the ancients dealt with nature. His best portrait copies, thus, are not strictly copies but rather studies in which art history, craftsmanship, literature and theory merge into an emulation of art and nature. They are works in which the artist was looking for what ultimately captivated him the most: man in all of his myriad facets, and the perspectives art afforded to better understand man. ER -