Rubens

This interdisciplinary study argues a new reading of Ruben's Garden of Love--Conversatie a la mode or Conversatie van joffrs--situating the painting in 17th-century artistic, social, and literary contexts requisite to its appreciation. Depicting a "conversation"--A modish company, primarily women, in agreeable discourse--the Conversatie embodies ideas on manners and courtship in Rubens's polite society. As conversatie a la mode, the picture reflects Ruben's involvement with gallantry, honnetete, and la mode--concepts propagated in chic salons, courtesy literature, and fashion tracts of Paris, center of signification for bon gout, "conspicuous leisure," and civilizing play--and with ludic themes and amatory metaphors of French writers. As conversatie van joffrs, the painting reveals Ruben's familiarity with French society and fashion prints--influences evidenced in iconographic and compositional motifs--and with conventions of treatises on female beauty. Drawing on images of beautiful women in 1630s Franco-Flemish prints, Rubens pays homage to his elegant arbiters. This study reproduces those previously unpublished engravings. Doing justice to the Conversatie's overlooked contexts, this reading promises to interest both Rubens specialists and 17th-century generalists.