The crowd is pressing more than usual, clad in festal garb; tell me, my friend, what means this concourse? All Rome is swaying to and fro, mad as it were with joy. Because this day recalls the memory of a triumph the most gorgeous: Peter and Paul, both of them victors in death sublime, have ennobled this day with their blood. . . .
It is Prudentius, the great Christian poet of the fourth century who, in the above words, bears witness to the enthusiasm wherewith the solemnity of the apostles was celebrated at Rome in his time.—From Dom Gueranger’s JUNE 29: STS. PETER AND PAUL, APOSTLES, The Liturgical Year.
Image: Statues of Saints Peter and Saint Paul in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican
In 1577, Calvinist Magistrate Jan Rubens named his second son Peter Paul because the baby was born during the Vespers of yesterday’s Vigil of today’s Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
Peter Paul Rubens was born in Flanders and was raised a Catholic by his mother after his father’s death. He grew up to be a prolific artist in the extravagant lush Baroque style, and he also was a classically educated scholar and diplomat knighted twice, by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England.
“Religion figured prominently in much of his work, and Rubens later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting (he had said ‘My passion comes from the heavens, not from earthly musings’).”—Wikipedia
Several years after Sir Peter Paul Rubens’ first wife died, after he was an established painter, he married his wife's niece Hélène Fourment—when she was 16 years old and he was aged 53. The opulent figure of Sir Ruben’s young wife is the reason why full-figured women are called Rubenesque.
Hélène inspired the voluptuous figures in many of his paintings from the 1630s, including The Feast of Venus (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), The Three Graces and The Judgement of Paris (both Prado, Madrid). In the latter painting, which was made for the Spanish court, the artist's young wife was recognized by viewers in the figure of Venus. In an intimate portrait of her, Hélène Fourment in a Fur Wrap, also known as Het Pelsken, Rubens's wife is even partially modelled after classical sculptures of the Venus Pudica, such as the Medici Venus. . . .
Rubens was quite fond of painting full-figured women, giving rise to terms like 'Rubensian' or 'Rubenesque' (sometimes 'Rubensesque').—Wikipedia
When a son (his fourth child after three daughters) was born, he named the boy Peter Paul after himself.
Image: Rubens, his wife Helena Fourment, and their son Peter Paul (1639). By Peter Paul Rubens. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain.
H/T: Mary McCleary for posting this painting on Facebook.