Antwerp, between Tuesday, 12 and Saturday, 16 January Unless on the side panels of the triptych. Let me tell you that I adore The descent from the Cross. Not , though, because of the depth of emotion that one would find in a Rembrandt or in a painting by Delacroix or in a drawing by Millet.
Nothing moves me less than Rubens when it comes to the expression of human sorrow. Rubens excels in the painting of ordinary beautiful women. But he is not dramatic in the expression.
That in his expressions, particularly in the men always excepting actual portraits Rubens is superficial, hollow, bombastic, yes, altogether conventional and nothing, like β Giulio Romano and even worse fellows of the decadence.
But all the same, I adore it because it is precisely he, Rubens , who seeks to express a mood of gaiety, of serenity, of sorrow, and actually achieves it, through the combination of colours β even if his figures are sometimes hollow etc.
Thus in The elevation of the Cross, even β the pale spot β the body a high, light accent β is dramatic in the context of its contrast with the rest, which has been pitched so low. The same thing, but to my mind far more beautiful, is the charm of The descent from the Cross, where the pale spot is repeated by the blonde hair, pale faces and necks of the female figures, while the sombre setting is immensely rich because of those various low masses, brought together by the tone, of red, dark green, black, grey, violet.
