Rubens and the Stoic Baroque: Classical Stoic Ethics, Rhetoric, and Natural Philosophy in Rubens’s Style

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dc.contributor.authorNutting, Catherine M.
dc.contributor.supervisorCampbell, Erin J.
dc.date.accessioned2018-01-18T15:52:14Z
dc.date.copyright2017en_US
dc.date.issued2018-01-18
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Art History and Visual Studiesen_US
dc.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy Ph.D.en_US
dc.description.abstractRubens is known as a painter; he should also be defined as an art theorist. Following Robert Williams’ theory that Early Modern art became philosophical, I believe that style can connote art theoretical interests and philosophical models, and that in Rubens’s case, these included the classical Stoic. While it would be possible to trace Rubens’s commitment to Stoicism in his subject matter, I investigate it in his style, taking a Baxandalian approach to inferential criticism. I focus on Rubens’s formal choices, his varied brushwork, and his ability to create a vibrant picture plane. My study is divided into chapters on Ethics, Logic, and Physics. In Chapter One I treat Stoic moral philosophy as an influence in the design of Rubens’s paintings, consider similarities between classical and Early Modern interest in viewer/reader response, and argue that Baroque artists could use style to avoid dogma while targeting viewers’ personal transformation. In Chapter Two I focus on Rhetoric, a section of the Stoic philosophy of Logic. Stoic Logic privileged truth: that is, it centred on investigating existing reality. As such, Stoic rhetorical theory and the classical literature influenced by it promoted a style that is complex and nuanced. I relate this to the Early Modern interest in copia, arguing that this includes Rubens’s painterly style which, apropos copia, should be better termed the Abundant Style. In Chapter Three I explore similarities between Stoic Natural Philosophy and the Early Modern artistic interest in the unified visual field. The Stoics defined the natural world as eternally moving and mixing; with force fields, energy, and elements in constant relationships of cause/effect. The Stoic concept of natural sympathy was a notion of material/energetic interrelatedness in which the world was seen as a living body, and the divine inhered in matter. I consider ways that these classical Stoic concepts of transformation, realism, and vivified matter might be discerned in Rubens’s style.en_US
dc.description.embargo2025-12-14
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/8985
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectArt Historyen_US
dc.subjectPeter Paul Rubensen_US
dc.subjectBaroqueen_US
dc.subjectBaroque Paintingen_US
dc.subjectSeventeenth-Century Antwerpen_US
dc.subjectSeventeenth-Century Arten_US
dc.subjectStyleen_US
dc.subjectBaroque Styleen_US
dc.subjectStoicismen_US
dc.subjectStoicism and Arten_US
dc.subjectEarly Modern NeoStoicismen_US
dc.subjectAntwerp NeoStoicismen_US
dc.subjectFlemish NeoStoicismen_US
dc.subjectSeventeenth-Cenury Flemish Arten_US
dc.subjectSeventeenth-Cenury Flemish Paintingen_US
dc.subjectFlemish Baroque Paintingen_US
dc.subjectStoicism and Styleen_US
dc.subjectStoic Ethicsen_US
dc.subjectStoic Ethical Philosophyen_US
dc.subjectStoic Rhetoricen_US
dc.subjectStoic Rhetorical Philosophyen_US
dc.subjectStoic Physicsen_US
dc.subjectStoic Natural Philosophyen_US
dc.subjectRoger de Pilesen_US
dc.subjectSenecaen_US
dc.subjectSeneca Naturales Questionesen_US
dc.subjectTacitusen_US
dc.subjectTacitus's Styleen_US
dc.subjectTacitus and Stoicismen_US
dc.subjectStoic continuumen_US
dc.subjectBaroque unityen_US
dc.subjectJustus Lipsiusen_US
dc.subjectEarly Modern Libraryen_US
dc.subjectMacchiaen_US
dc.subjectSententiaeen_US
dc.subjectStyle and Meaningen_US
dc.subjectQuintilianen_US
dc.subjectDiogenes Laertiusen_US
dc.subjectEpictetusen_US
dc.subjectChrysippusen_US
dc.subjectMarcus Aureliusen_US
dc.subjectEarly Modern Art Theoryen_US
dc.subjectRubens as a Theoristen_US
dc.subjectAntwerp Humanismen_US
dc.subjectFlemish Humanismen_US
dc.subjectHumanism in Flanders and Brabanten_US
dc.subjectThe Selfen_US
dc.subjectThe Early Modern Selfen_US
dc.subjectStyle for Truthen_US
dc.subjectThe Continuumen_US
dc.subjectNature Aliveen_US
dc.subjectStoic Optimismen_US
dc.subjectSeventeenth-Century Stoic Optimismen_US
dc.titleRubens and the Stoic Baroque: Classical Stoic Ethics, Rhetoric, and Natural Philosophy in Rubens’s Styleen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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