Peter Paul Rubens, the 17th-century Flemish Baroque painter, was stuck in the past. Even though he was taught by the Renaissance masters Titian and Tintoretto, he drew inspiration from ancient Greek sculptures and mythological tales. This exhibition presents his work—from anatomical drawings to massive oil paintings inspired by ancient myths—with the objects that galvanized him. For example: alongside his 1616 painting The Discovery of the Infant Erichthonius, which depicts the Greek myth of Herse and Pandrosus, sits a Roman statue of Venus that Rubens had studied closely. The exhibition not only features the Getty Villa’s permanent collection of Greek artifacts, but antiquity gems owned by the artist himself. —J.D.

Rubens: Picturing Antiquity
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Getty Villa Museum / Los Angeles / Art
Getty Villa Museum / Los Angeles / Art
Peter Paul Rubens, “Allegory of War,” 1628 © Liechtenstein, the Princely Collections, Vaduz-Vienna/SCALA, Florence.
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