Fine Art

Peace Embracing Plenty — History & Facts

A muscular, bare-chested woman with flowing golden hair wraps her arms around a second female figure, who wears a rose-red robe and gazes upward with wide, shining eyes. The embrace is close and tender, with the first figure's left hand resting gently on the other's shoulder, and her face pressed against the younger woman's cheek. Nestled between them, a large cornucopia overflows with fruit and flowers, its curved horn resting on the folds of the red robe and spilling grapes, apples, and blossoms into the foreground.

Light falls from the upper left, illuminating the golden drapery that wraps around the embracing figure and catching the highlights in her hair, while the folds of her garment are rendered in rich, buttery strokes. The color scheme is dominated by warm golds and reds, with accents of pale blue in the drapery that spills across the lap of the seated woman, and the creamy white of the cornucopia's horn. Rubens uses fluid, energetic brushwork, especially in the swirling yellow fabric and the textured surfaces of the columns, giving the composition a sense of movement and vitality.

The faces are painted with delicate, smooth transitions of tone, while the background architecture is sketched in with broader, more transparent washes, allowing the wood grain of the panel to show through in places. Every detail, from the clasped hands to the curling fruits, is carefully composed to draw attention to the central act of embrace, set against the solidity of the stone backdrop. Peace Embracing Plenty is created by Peter Paul Rubens between 1633 and 1634, during the 1630s.

Sources: Yale Center for British Art, record B1977.14.70 · Wikidata Q23757569 · Image source (Wikimedia Commons)

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