Rubens’s debt to Giulio Romano revealed in Mantua exhibition

A new exhibition at Palazzo Te in Mantua explores the influence of Giulio Romano on Peter Paul Rubens, filling a gap in art historical scholarship. The show places Rubens's paintings and sketches meters away from Romano's original frescoes, revealing direct visual quotations. Curator Raffaella Morselli notes that Rubens, who could recite Greek and Roman poetry from memory, found in Romano's mythological scenes a revelation. Examples include the silhouette of Psyche in Rubens's Three Graces, the Banquet of the Gods in Achelous's Feast, and the Fall of Phaeton in Saint Michael Expelling Lucifer. The exhibition also highlights Rubens's practice of buying and reworking Romano's drawings, adding shadows and volumes to transform them into Baroque works. Small-scale oil sketches by Rubens show a softer, more synthetic surface. Additionally, the show introduces Jacob Jordaens, Rubens's pupil who never visited Italy but developed a style indebted to Renaissance and Mannerist art, reproducing the tale of Cupid and Psyche on his ceiling. However, poor lighting makes didactic panels and engraved copper plates nearly illegible, a problem the museum says it is addressing.