A straw poll suggests that Rubens is not popular. How can you persuade those who can't get on with him to look longer? You can offer opinions: what they find too fleshy I approve as sensual. When they complain of facile energy, empty of meaning, I praise the articulation of fictive space. But giving different labels doesn't advance the case. So why defend at all? Why not just celebrate and hope that enthusiasm will be infectious? Mainly because some of what those who don't like the paintings find repugnant is repugnant to me too. To love Rubens is to accept that he fails where other great painters succeed. No painter can do everything. But the source of Rubens's failures may also be the source of his unparalleled energy, charm and inventiveness.

LRB 1 April 2004 | PDF Download