Rubenshuis

Stand still for a moment on the Wapper, the small square in front of the house. Listen to the trams on the Meir, the main shopping street, just a few steps away. Then look at the facade in front of you. It is narrow, red brick and modest. It is a plain Flemish town house, the kind a prosperous Antwerp family might have built. Nothing here prepares you for what waits behind it.

This is the Rubenshuis, the home and studio of Peter Paul Rubens. He was the most sought-after painter in northern Europe in the early seventeenth century. Rubens bought the property in 1610. He had recently returned from about eight years in Italy, and he had just married Isabella Brant. He was in his early thirties, ambitious and already in demand. He did not simply move into this house. He rebuilt it into a statement about who he was.

Here is the first surprise. Rubens was not only a painter here. He was also an architect. He drew on what he had studied in Italy, the palaces of Genoa and the buildings of ancient Rome. He added a whole new wing in an Italian style. So the house has two characters. One side is a traditional Flemish home of brick and small windows. The other side is a Baroque palazzo, carved and theatrical. Baroque is the dramatic, richly decorated style of the seventeenth century.

The meeting point of these two worlds is the portico. This is the great stone screen with three arches between the courtyard and the garden. It looks like a Roman triumphal arch. Above it, look for the inscriptions in Latin. They come from the Roman poet Juvenal. One famous line asks the gods for a sound mind in a sound body. Rubens chose these words on purpose. It was a quiet private motto set in stone, where every visitor would pass under it.

Now think about the people who passed through this courtyard. Rubens ran one of the busiest workshops in Europe. Kings, archdukes, churches and wealthy merchants ordered paintings from him. Many of these canvases were enormous. Rubens could not paint them all alone. He often made a small oil sketch with the main idea. Then trained assistants enlarged it, and the master added the final touches. A young Anthony van Dyck worked with him for a time. Van Dyck later became the court painter of King Charles the First of England.

The studio is the heart of the house. It is a large, high room with tall windows to bring in steady light. Look up and imagine canvases several metres tall leaning against the walls. A gallery above let visitors and clients watch the work below. A painting studio was usually a messy, private place. This one was also a showroom. Rubens wanted clients to see the scale of his business and the speed of his hand.

Inside the living quarters, the mood changes. The rooms are smaller and darker, with wooden floors that creak a little underfoot. On some walls you will see gilded leather hangings. They are tooled with patterns and shine softly in the low light. These were a luxury in the Low Countries, the old name for today's Belgium and the Netherlands. They helped to keep rooms warm and gave them a glow of gold. You will also pass a kitchen with blue and white tiles and a dining room. Here the family's daily life went on, a floor away from the famous visitors.

One room deserves a slow look. It is a small semicircular gallery with a dome, built to show Rubens's collection of ancient sculpture. Rubens loved the classical world. He collected marble busts and carved gems, and he studied them closely. Light falls from an opening above, as it does in the Pantheon in Rome. The heads stand in niches in that light. It shows a painter who was also a scholar. Rubens read Latin, wrote long letters and argued about ancient history with learned friends.

There is a second surprise in his life story. Rubens was also a diplomat. He travelled to Madrid and London on secret political missions. He worked to help make peace between Spain and England. Both King Philip the Fourth of Spain and King Charles the First of England made him a knight. While he negotiated treaties, he kept painting. His art and his diplomacy often helped each other, because a portrait sitting gave him time to talk with powerful people.

The house also holds personal grief and second chances. Isabella Brant died in 1626, and Rubens wrote of his deep sorrow. A few years later, in 1630, he married Helena Fourment. She was much younger than him, and she appears in many of his later paintings. Rubens lived and worked here until his death in 1640. He is buried not far from here, in Saint James' Church, a short walk across the old town.

After Rubens died, the house slowly lost its splendour. Over the centuries it was sold, divided and altered. Much of what you see now is a careful reconstruction. The city of Antwerp bought the property in the 1930s. The restorers relied on old engravings and paintings that showed the house in its prime. Rubens himself painted the portico and the garden in the background of some works. The Rubenshuis opened as a museum after the Second World War. In recent years, parts of the site have also gone through major renovation work, so some areas may look different from older photographs.

Walk out into the garden. It is laid out in a formal seventeenth-century style, with low clipped hedges, gravel paths and a small pavilion at the far end. That pavilion was also part of Rubens's design, with classical statues placed in its arches. From here, turn back and look at the house as a whole. You can see the Flemish brick and the Italian stone side by side. One man brought them together, and in that mix you can see his whole career.

Inside the museum you will find paintings by Rubens and by artists close to him. Among them is a self-portrait. In it, the painter wears a hat and looks out with calm confidence. Look closely at the brushwork in the faces and hands. Rubens was famous for warm, living skin tones. His flesh seems to have blood beneath it. Standing in his own rooms, you see these works close to where they were made.

Before you leave, pause once more in the courtyard. Listen to the gravel under people's shoes and the murmur of voices in different languages. Rubens heard languages from all over Europe here too, from princes, merchants and students. Look up at the portico one last time and find the Latin lines. Then step back onto the Wapper, and the plain brick front will look different now that you know what is behind it.