Landscape with a Rainbow
The idyllic mood of this work is distinctly different from the tense dynamism of Rubens's ?heroic? landscapes of the late 1610s, when he painted the Landscape with Stone Carriers. Rubens borrowed many elements of the composition from the Venetian masters Domenico Campagnola, Titian and Annibale Carracci. His reminiscences of Italy served the artist as inspiration for many of his works in the first half of the 1630s. However, Rubens made important changes in the motifs he took over from the Venetians: he broke the self-enclosed nature of Renaissance compositions, so that the hills on the horizon have been seemingly moved apart, the distant background is enveloped in a kind of haze, and the middle ground is flooded by light. The composition of the picture is dominated by horizontals and pastoral scenes which depict peasants against a background of serene nature: these elements all lend to the landscape an atmosphere of harmony and tranquillity.
Between 1632 and 1635
Oil on canvas (transferred from panel)
86.0 x 130.0cm
Image and text © The Hermitage Museum
Where you'll find this
The State Hermitage Museum
Permanent collection