Courtiers in Translation: Rubens’ Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione after Raphael

TY - JOUR

T1 - Courtiers in Translation

T2 - Rubens’ Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione after Raphael

AU - Payne, Edward Alan

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Around 1519, Raphael painted a portrait of his friend Baldassare Castiglione, author of the influential Book of the Courtier (1528). This portrait was later reproduced by Rubens, who may have seen the painting by Raphael, or a copy of it, during his Italian sojourn. Tracing the tensions between Rubens’ “copy,” Raphael’s portrait, and Castiglione’s book, this essay explores how Rubens’ painting problematizes the notion of visual translation in early modern Europe. I argue that his version is not merely a portrait of one person, but a conflation of four presences: the ideal courtly figure; the writer-courtier Castiglione; and the two court artists Raphael and Rubens. Ultimately, the painting represents a paradigm of collaboration and rivalry that underpins the process of translation, one involving multiple hands, works, and techniques, and thus defying the label “copy.”

AB - Around 1519, Raphael painted a portrait of his friend Baldassare Castiglione, author of the influential Book of the Courtier (1528). This portrait was later reproduced by Rubens, who may have seen the painting by Raphael, or a copy of it, during his Italian sojourn. Tracing the tensions between Rubens’ “copy,” Raphael’s portrait, and Castiglione’s book, this essay explores how Rubens’ painting problematizes the notion of visual translation in early modern Europe. I argue that his version is not merely a portrait of one person, but a conflation of four presences: the ideal courtly figure; the writer-courtier Castiglione; and the two court artists Raphael and Rubens. Ultimately, the painting represents a paradigm of collaboration and rivalry that underpins the process of translation, one involving multiple hands, works, and techniques, and thus defying the label “copy.”

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1756-1310

JO - Art in Translation

JF - Art in Translation

ER -