The Honeysuckle Bower is a self-portrait of the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens and his first wife Isabella Brant, painted c. 1609.The couple is seated in fine clothes within a garden composition and a vine of honeysuckle is placed overhead. The symbolism of the double-portrait alludes to meanings of love and marriage, such as the holding of right hands (dextrarum iunctio), and the concept of the garden of love. The pose of the two figures and their fine clothing signify self-fashioning by Rubens. They wed in 1609, the same year that work was created; it was ultimately given to Isabella's father Jan Brant and would later end up in the collection of Johann Wilhelm II of Düsseldorf. The couple would be married for seventeen years, and have three children before Isabella died in 1625. Her death would have a profound impact on Rubens and through his loss he created an posthumous portrait.
Description The painting is a full-length double portrait of the couple seated in a bower (wikt), also called an arbor of honeysuckle. The couple is dressed in fine clothing of an aristocratic class within this portrait while also maintaining a casual and adoring pose. They are surrounded by love and marriage symbolism: the honeysuckle and garden are both traditional symbols of love, and the holding of right hands (junctio dextrarum) represents union through marriage.
Symbolism The honeysuckle plant has had various meanings over the years. Most notably, the meaning that is still associated with the flower, began in the Middle Ages. The overall qualities that the honeysuckle plant symbolized was the idea of lasting pleasure; it also had meanings of steadfastness and permanence. This became a typical symbol found in paintings in the time of Rubens. The Garden of Love was a popular literary concept and symbol around the same time that the painting was created. The initial concept may have come from symbols of paradise that were present in medieval cloister gardens. Another element that may have influenced this was Roman de la Rose, as well as the role of the garden in aristocratic society. In these scenes, women depicted as objects of admiration by their suitors and the garden is full of joyfulness and music. In this painting Rubens and Isabella join their right hands in an act of Dextrarum iunctio. Dextrarum iunctio was the ceremony of joining the right hands of a couple together, and it has ancient Roman origins. This symbol most likely referred to the idea of harmony within the marriage of Rubens and Isabella. Additionally, Rubens depicts himself as an aristocratic gentleman with his left hand on the hilt of his sword. The sword is an important piece in Ruben's noble portrayal here, since the carrying of a sword was a symbol only permitted to those of the elite class. Rubens gained permission when he became the court painter for governors of the Netherlands.
The symbols found within the artwork point to self-fashioning by Rubens, because of the aristocratic portrayal and symbolism. This can be seen in the orange silk stockings, the bejeweled hat on his head, and the collar around his neckline. One detail to note is the unbuttoned collar which signifies a marriage formed through an intellectual match. In her left hand, symbolizing both her gentility and femininity, Isabella holds a fan. The pose of the two figures is more casual and modest compared to the noble clothing that they are wearing. Isabella is seated on the ground and recalls the Madonna of Humility, thus constructing an image as a virtuous wife. At the same time, the pose that Rubens constructs Isabella in also displays his attention to her and his overall devotion as a husband.
Historical context They wed on 3 October 1609, in St. Michael's Abbey, Antwerp, shortly after he had returned to the city after eight years in Italy. Rubens was thirty-two and Isabella Brant was eighteen at the time, they would go on to have three children together and seventeen years of marriage, before Isabella died in 1625. Most likely she died from the bubonic plague. When Isabella died, Rubens was tremendously impacted and wrote letters and crafted a posthumous portrait of her. Within this portrait, Rubens, gives the lasting message of eternal friendship and love.
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