Town Hall Theater presents the second film in their Great Art Wednesday series, “Rubens: An Extra Large Story” on Nov. 8, at 11 a.m.
These days, nobody takes Peter Paul Rubens seriously. His vast and grandiose canvases, stuffed with wobbly mounds of female flesh, have little appeal for the modern gym-subscriber. And it’s not just the bulging nudity we don’t like. The entire tone of Rubens’s art offends us. Everything in it is too big — the epic dramas full of tragedy, the fantastical celestial scenery, the immense canvases and murals adorning the walls and ceilings of Europe’s grandest palaces. All of it seems too much for modern sensibilities.
But filmmaker Waldemar Januszczak begs to differ. In Waldemar’s eyes, Rubens has been traduced by modern tastes, and a huge misunderstanding of him has taken place. By looking in detail at Rubens’s fascinating life, by understanding his art in more enlightened ways, Waldemar sets out to correct the extra-large misconceptions that have arisen about Rubens.
Tickets are $13, $8 for students and are available at townhalltheater.org, (802) 382-9222, at the THT box office (Monday-Saturday, 12-5 p.m.), or at the door one hour before show time.