Religious iconography of Peter Paul Rubens in European depiction art

Peter Paul Rubens has become one of the most important names of the Baroque Period with his artistic practices. At the beginning, Rubens adhered to the heritage of Italian art and created his works with his unique style, which he synthesized by being influenced by the Baroque Period and the master artists of the period. Rubens; He guided the artists after him with his original sense of art and successful works. The artist, who lived between 1577 and 1640, has many works -mostly monumental- on religious, mythological and profane subjects. Preferring to emphasize human values in his works, Rubens emphasized human compassion, perseverance and sacrifice; He associated it with examples of heroism taken from classical literature, ancient history and mythology. With this understanding, the artist has the ability to create human figures like mythological heroes by deeply processing even an ordinary event with mythology and allegory. It is possible to say that his works are the product of great genius. In our study, works related to religious iconography were examined, and in this sense, 68 works of the artist in religious iconography were identified. These works made by Rubens were firstly compared within themselves and then with the works made by artists of the past and their contemporaries or by late artists. The adherence of the works to the traditions, the artist's commitment to iconography and the style reflected in his works were examined according to Erwin Panofsky's method of "Iconographic and Iconological Art Critique".