Rubens and the eloquence of drawing

'Rubens and the Eloquence of Drawing' re-examines the early graphic practice of the preeminent northern Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640) in light of early modern traditions of eloquence, particularly as promoted in the late 16th- and early 17th-century Flemish, Neostoic circles of philologist, Justus Lipsius (1547-1606).

Focusing on the roles that rhetorical and pedagogical considerations played in the artist's approach to disegno during and following his formative Roman period (1600-08), this volume highlights Rubens's high ambitions for the intimate medium of drawing as a primary site for generating meaningful and original ideas for his larger artistic enterprise.