1635 (ca.), Peter Paul Rubens, Rubens, Helena Fourment, and Their Son Frans -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: The artist, his wife Helena, and one of their sons appear within an idealized version of the garden at the mansion Rubens built in his native city of Antwerp. The leather strap across Rubens's chest alludes to his right, as a nobleman, to carry a sword, while the rhyming ribbon tied across his son's chest playfully positions him as his father's heir. There was a nearly forty-year age gap between Rubens and his second wife, whom contemporaries widely recognized as his muse and model. The juxtaposition of her plump and pearlescent young hand with his ruddy and weathered one emphasizes both their physical disparities and their physical connection.
1635 (ca.), Peter Paul Rubens, Rubens, Helena Fourment, and Their Son Frans -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: The artist, his wife Helena, and one of their sons appear within an idealized version of the garden at the mansion Rubens built in his native city of Antwerp. The leather strap across Rubens's chest alludes to his right, as a nobleman, to carry a sword, while the rhyming ribbon tied across his son's chest playfully positions him as his father's heir. There was a nearly forty-year age gap between Rubens and his second wife, whom contemporaries widely recognized as his muse and model. The juxtaposition of her plump and pearlescent young hand with his ruddy and weathered one emphasizes both their physical disparities and their physical connection.