Portrait of Nicolaes Rubens - Technique and Styles
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Portrait of Nicolaes Rubens, the Artist's Son
ca. 1634-1636
Peter Paul Rubens
The painting is an early study for the large composition Falconer with the identical young man shown three-quarter length, carrying a falcon on his arm and with a landscape in the background. Rubens conceived the composition but an apprentice or associate painted it, as just a study for Nicolaes's bust in Chicago. The hunter with the falcon is an allegory of knighthood. Associated with the sign of Jupiter and the element of air, the sense of touch and a sanguine character, it has the moral meaning which Rubens intended for his son as an indirect message on the threshold of maturity.