Garden of Love, c.1633 by Peter Paul Rubens
Canvas Print - 3454-RPP

The central work of Rubens's late creative period is The Garden of Love, which received unusually high praise even in its day, as evidenced, among other things, by the numerous copies. The painting undoubtedly owes its appearance to Rubens's marriage to Helene Fourment, since its essential theme is the introduction of a young woman to love and marriage. On the far left stands a young woman with girlishly gentle features. Timidly glancing at the scene before her, she pauses, while the cavalier who has his arm around her waist encourages her to go on, aided by a winged cupid with all his might. That this is a married couple is indicated by the god of love flying above, holding a yoke in his hand, a symbol of marriage. With the couple perched on the ground beside them, the man also admonishes the woman, who here seems to listen more readily to his assurances. The three seated female figures in the central group, to each of whom a cupid is attached, are characterised quite differently in their behaviour, and are undoubtedly the embodiments of the three kinds of love: the figure sitting calmly on the left as amor humanus, the middle figure looking ecstatically upwards as amor celestis, and the mature figure on the right, in whose lap the little cupid is nestled, as amor vulgaris. The experienced matron is holding the hand of a young schoolgirl in love - surely a reminiscence of the fresco Aldobrandini Wedding - who, with her timid, hesitant demeanour, corresponds to the woman, also dressed in blue, at the left end of the picture; here "the same woman is not depicted twice, but Rubens so insistently emphasizes the resemblance that one could say that the young woman perceives the realm of love as a vision before her into which she has just been ushered". The couple on the right below the fountain-statue of Venus shows us man and woman at last in full understanding: here there is no need for exhortations, the enlightened companion steps confidently forward. It is established early on that Rubens has presented himself - albeit more youthful than he was then - in the image of the man of the couple on the left. Nor can the resemblance of his young partner and the blue-clad woman on the right to his second wife be denied. "The schoolgirl in love is Helene Fourment and at the same time more than a particular woman; her predestined husband is Rubens, but more than that; the relationship between the two is seen as the embodiment of the possible relationship between man and woman in general. Venus is at once a statue of a fountain and a powerful goddess, the setting is a patrician garden in Antwerp and Venus's grove; this multi-layered characterisation, which defies clear interpretation, defines the whole narrative as a leitmotif.