15       painting: museum of art history / vienna the ideal woman during the last centuries, the myth surrounding the ideal of female beauty has undergone enormous changes. from the voluptuous corpulence of baroque images of women to the merciless slimming mania of today. the image of an ideal female body has always been influenced by prefabricated, patriarchal norms. baroque painter peter paul rubens might have been one of the few who didn’t judge women’s bodies from a (male) perspective of forms and figures. when in 1638 the dutch painter peter paul rubens painted his second wife hélène fourment in all her voluptuous bodily splendour (“the little fur”) he made a statement for questioning society’s limitations because he was not only deeply in love with his wife but also with female beauty in general. during his days, rubens was a frequent guest to various european courts and churches and at the same time managed to set an example of the strong and lively female body during his highly productive creative work cycle. for him, the female body represented a seductive myth, a symbol of fertility and god-given naturalness. through his representations of exuberant zest for life, of naked goddesses, chubby mermaids and seductive nymphs, the flemish painter managed to give man back his original role and let him participate in the “real life” of nature. in spite of all the limitations and restrictions the early 16th century forced on him, rubens painted an image of human desire and sensual bodies that especially from today’s perspective seems to be extremely effective and drastic. in rubens’ paintings, the nakedness, the creases of human flesh and the beauty of the skin were turned into an insatiable mixture of lust composed of bodily shapes, natural colours and light. especially during the last years of his life, when he was already in his 50ies and married to his second wife hélène fourment, his art experienced an enormous upswing. his wife gave birth to four children and inspired rubens to paint some of his most extraordinary works of art. many of his paintings, such as “the festival of venus verticordia” or “satyrs and nymphs (allegory of fertility)”, displayed exuberant zest for life and poetic art in its manifold shades and nuances. you can see entwined couples making love in the shade of a tree, roguish-male satyrs surprising diana and her nymphs or voluptuous venus meeting adonis. during the course of his life, rubens did not only display sensual “physicalness” but also the intimacy of family life. the tenderness of his flowing, graceful brushwork adorned illuminated landscapes, fine reflections of light on fabric, blonde curls and longing children’s eyes. the cheerfulness of naturalism dominated the paintings of rubens and was expressed through precious gardens of love and gallant walks of serene beauties. the sensuality of the voluptuous female body remained at the centre of rubens’ universe for all of his life. even french painter paul cézanne referred to rubens’ point of view, when he explained the connection between landscape and man about 200 years later: in order to comprehend the geological layers of landscape, it was necessary to “unite the mountain ridges with the curves of a woman”. and rubens would definitely have agreed. helmut wolf