Alejandro Vergara, Senior Curator of Flemish and Northern European Paintings, Museo Nacional del PradoThis talk will focus on the art of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) by way of the collecting of his paintings by the Spanish Royal Family. During the lifetime of the artist his homeland, the Southern Netherlands (what we now know as Belgium) was a part of the Spanish Monarchy, ruled by a Spanish princess, Isabel Clara Eugenia. She made Rubens her court painter and trusted diplomatic advisor. She also contributed to the taste for Rubens´s art of her nephew Philip IV, King of Spain: more Rubens paintings could be seen in his palaces in Madrid than in any other European city. This tale of art collecting allows us to consider the fascinating phenomenon of cultural diffusion. It is also an invitation to see with the eyes of Phillip IV. Rubens was the most successful painter in Europe during his lifetime. What did his art bring to the walls of the King´s palaces? Which are its virtues? What do his paintings bring to our lives still today?

$10; free for SMU students and Meadows Museum members at the Goya/Individual levels and above.