POTM Ep. VI: When Gods Tremble, Anguish of Saturn
Saturn Devouring His Son — Rubens, Peter Paul
Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), an avid collector and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands. He is thought to be the most important Flemish Baroque artist, and his highly charged compositions make references to important parts of ancient and Christian history.
Peter Paul Rubens is known for his biblical and mythological nudes, which emphasize the concepts of fertility, desire, physical beauty, temptation, and virtue. His paintings of nude women are thought to have been created to sexually appeal to his largely male audience, and he was fond of painting full-figured women, giving rise to terms like ‘Rubensian’ or ‘Rubenesque’ or ‘Rubensesque’.
Prolific for altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. He also made tapestries and prints and was in charge of the temporary decorations for Cardinal-Infant Ferdinand of Austria's visit to Antwerp in 1635.
He was raised as a Catholic and later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting. He received a Renaissance humanist education in Antwerp and studied under two of the city’s leading painters, Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen.
In 1600, he traveled to Italy and saw paintings by Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, before settling in Mantua at the court of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga. In 1606, he received his most important commission to date for the High Altar of the city’s most fashionable new church, Santa Maria in Vallicella, also known as the Chiesa Nuova. He illustrated books, which were published in 1622 as Palazzi di Genova.
Saturn Devouring His Son
Out on a stroll, his foot resting momentarily on a stone, one hand holding his staff, the other grasping his meal (his infant son) biting into the boy’s chest like a sturdy Flemish burgher stooping to a roast goose— Wyndham Lewis.
Saturn is holding a sickle, which shows him as the deity of harvest. Rubens cleverly uses the long handle of the sickle and makes it appear as a scythe, which is the weapon of the Grim Reaper.
This painting indicates that Saturn has turned into death for his children and that his face shows no mercy at all. The child suffers from the ripping of flesh, but Saturn seems so obsessed with his throne that he doesn’t care for his life.
Zero hopes for the child, and remorseless eyes make this painting the closest of all interpretations of Saturn devouring his son.
Origin and Inspiration
Rubén’s worldwide renown can be attributed to works like Samson and Delilah, Venus and Adonis, The Birth of the Milky Way, etc.
In the painting “Saturn Devouring His Son,” Saturn is depicted as an old man with a scythe in his right hand, leaning over a boy to devour him. The stars in the firmament above the cruel old man serve as a reminder that Saturn is the sixth planet in the Solar System and that its ring is only visible through a telescope.
Galileo Galilei believed that the ring was two satellites positioned on either side, and Rubens was familiar with this interpretation. The depiction of the planet’s ring system indicates that Rubens had faith in the scientific development of the age, rather than dismissing Galileo's discoveries.
Saturn was also identified with Cronos, the son of Uranus and Gaea, the personification of time, and with the Greek god of the same name, the youngest of the Titans. To prevent his sons from seizing the throne from him, he decided to kill them all by devouring them as soon as they were born.
This painting by Rubens is one of the works executed by the master himself and belongs to the series of large mythological paintings produced between 1636 and 1637, many of which are housed in the Museo del Prado. It shows Rubens at his most skilled and brilliant in his later years. He is able to hint at the dynamic force of shapes and poses without showing them in full detail. He only uses painterly techniques and is a master at making light and shadow stand out.
Also, Michelangelo's art always shows mythological figures with a lot of muscle and a bright personality. The same attribute can be found in Rubens as well, who has seen many works by Michelangelo. So, Saturn and his son are shown in great detail and are archetypes of characters from Greek and Roman mythology. The painting makes it clear that two people—Michelangelo and Galileo—were its inspirations.
Ilyan Replin and Francisco Goya, both working in the 1800s, painted similar subjects, likely inspired by a Rubens painting of the same subject. Both pieces are excellent examples of the literary theme they illustrate, which is emotionless and even morbidly comic.
