Rubens Paintings
1577 - 1640 Painter, Diplomat, Netherlands, Baroque
The Three Graces,1639
Oil on wood, 87.01 x 71.26 inches [221 x 181 cm]
Museo del Prado, Madrid Mythological Art
The Three Graces is one of Rubens final paintings. Rubens had portrayed this theme several times since about 1620, but only later adopted the form that prevailed in classical Antiquity, with the three figures forming a circle so that one of them has her back to the spectator. "They were the goddesses of pleasant charm, of charitable deeds and of gratitude . .. without them nothing would be graceful or pleasing. They gave people friendliness, uprightness of character, sweetness and conversation...The Three Graces were presented as three beautiful virgins and were either completely naked or clothed in some fine, transparent fabric...They stood together all three so that two of their faces were turned towards the spectator and only one was turned away from him."
Rubens' late painting of The Three Graces magnificently illustrates the artist's extraordinary handling of incarnate or human flesh tones. Rubens builds them up using the three primary colours yellow, red and blue. An unusually high proportion of blue is evident here. In this way, the human figure bears the same primary colours that make up the appearance of the world and the entire cosmos, and all that is gathered here in the landscape and flowers, the sky and the trees.
![Sinnbild Des Frohlichen Lebensgenusses [Symbol Of The Merry Life], 1884](bmz_cache/e/e01b4437b527fa0510d12d3f5beeb01c.image.300x300.jpg "Sinnbild Des Frohlichen Lebensgenusses [Symbol Of The Merry Life], 1884")
![Sinnbild Des Frohlichen Lebensgenusses [Symbol Of The Merry Life], 1884](bmz_cache/0/056445f6739b9b955fef6bde49c2dd18.image.300x300.jpg "Sinnbild Des Frohlichen Lebensgenusses [Symbol Of The Merry Life], 1884")
