Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt van Rijn, and the Spousal Model-Muse

H. Perry Chapman - Friday, March 11, 2016, 1:30 pm The notion that the artist’s model is also his lover and muse stems from antiquity. In the 17th-century Netherlands, Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt van Rijn painted their wives in stunningly intimate portraits and as historical, biblical, or mythological figures. It appears that they also portrayed their wives in the nude. In a time and place when artists’ studios were in their homes, group life-drawing sessions were part of studio practice, women who pos