ABSTRACT
Initial indications of Peter Paul Rubens' self-emulative approach may be located in a cursory examination of the Getty Medea drawing's three figural groupings. Rubens also drew the Medea at right with a memorable facial expression that, while similarly anguished, appears less focused on the viewer. Rubens's treatment of the dead children similarly illustrates a conscious, emulative draftsman behind the quill who was keyed to how formal variation could produce a variety of rhetorical effects. Rubens's active engagement with artistic and textual models in the Getty sheet most potently points to his a priori "overcharged brain" at work in its making. In light of the inscription's importance for highlighting Rubens's Lucius Annaeus Senecan inspiration, it is noteworthy that his faint script is hardly visible and thus was likely not intended to be immediately read. Rubens's chief pictorial outlet for his interest in Senecan tragedy and the expression of the passions resided in drawings depicting tragic, impassioned female subjects.
