The Sublime and the “Beholder’s Share”: Junius, Rubens, Rembrandt

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640 ), The Fall of Phaeton, c. 1604/1605, probably reworked c. 1606/1608, Patrons' Permanent Fund

One of the innovative elements in Franciscus Junius’s treatise The Painting of the Ancients (four editions, 1637–94) was the first discussion of Longinus’s concept of the sublime in the context of the figurative arts. Junius’s translation of his own treatise into English (1639) prepared the ground for the importance of the sublime in British aesthetics. Yet scrutiny of the underlying conceptions of The Painting of the Ancients reveals that his interpretation of this ancient concept was idiosyncratic. His interest in Longinus was not motivated by philosophy but rather by the painterly illusionism perfected in Netherlandish studios. This essay explores how Junius used the sublime to explain the “beholder’s share” in the artist’s evocation of a virtual reality. It points out the practical context in which his theory arose and how it relates to extant works, focusing on Rubens’s The Andrians and Rembrandt’s The Blinding of Samson.

DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2016.8.2.2

Acknowledgements

Research for this article was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. I would like to thank Stijn Bussels, Bram Van Oostvelt, and the participants in the NIAS seminar sponsored by the starting grant “Elevated Minds” of the European Research Council.

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Review: Peer Review (Double Blind)
DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2016.8.2.2
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Recommended Citation:
Thijs Weststeijn, "The Sublime and the “Beholder’s Share”: Junius, Rubens, Rembrandt," Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 8:2 (Summer 2016) DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2016.8.2.2