Rubens: Sensation & Sensuality

Peter Paul Rubens, Venus Frigida, 1614, oil on panel, 145.1 x 185.6 x 3.8 cm (©
Peter Paul Rubens, Venus Frigida, 1614, oil on panel, 145.1 x 185.6 x 3.8 cm (© Lukas - Art in Flanders VZW/Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. Photograph: Hugo Maertens)

Julie Beckers reviews the exhibition Sensation and Sensuality: Rubens and his Legacy at BOZAR, The Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, on view through January 4, 2015.

Beckers writes that "the much anticipated exhibition combines the 'sensational' – the forceful, loud, sometimes violent and barbaric scenes Rubens often created in the service of Catholic propaganda or absolutist rulers – and the 'sensual', which can be distinguished through more informal work such as family portraits, landscapes and pastoral scenes... The visitor witnesses a play in six acts: violence, power, lust, compassion, elegance and poetry. In each of these sections, work by Rubens is being juxtaposed with that of artists who form next generations’ cohorts."