How to Appreciate Rubens’ Saturn

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Follow the steps below to gain appreciation of Peter Paul Rubens' Baroque style through an examination of his painting, Saturn. Read on to learn more.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Step1

Be familiar with the artistic movement of the era. True to the Baroque’s obsession with realism, Rubens makes his figures live. The picture is far gorier and more disturbing because Saturn and the infant look like people we might know. Rubens gives the young child being devoured a clear identity. It is a male child whose cherub-like appearance will illicit the tenderness and pity of the viewer.

Step2

Know the artist’ personal touch. Rubens’ personal style has a naturalistic tendency—all these human figures express a fleshly sensuous reality that could make the viewer blush when he looks at them in the nude. It is not just the fact that he used real models but that he portrayed them in all their human veracity. It is not the fact that we are aware that the figure is naked but rather that we feel its nakedness. When you look at Saturn, you should feel as though you could touch and rub his sagging, aging skin. NOTE: Rubens’ portrayal of anatomy is the origin of the word “rubenesque.”

Step3

Note Rubens’ artistic license. This representation of the Saturn as an old, tired man makes him look more desperate. However, this is not the case in Greek mythology: the gods do not age or die.

Step4

Deduce the artist’s message. Remember that Rubens converted to Catholicism and thus fell in with the religious fervor of the Counter-Reformation that influenced all forms of art.

Step5

Note the metaphors. The realism of the painting does not allow us to see this painting as pure allegory. (Remember that Saturn represents time within whose “bending sickle’s compass” we all pass--remember, time devours all of us, his children). However, this painting will illicit an emotional, if not judgment from the viewer because the characters are made real through Rubens’ realistic portrayal.