Alleged painter of Apotheosis of St. Fidgeta; painting was hidden during the Allied invasion of Italy in World War II and is thought to be still camouflaged as a Coca-Cola sign.[St. Fidgeta & Other Parodies, 20].
A Flemish baroque painter (1577-1640) and the most renowned northern European artist of his day, and is now widely recognized as one of the foremost painters in Western art history. He is most famous for painting fleshy female nudes that presumably represented the feminine ideal in his time and place. This aspect of Rubens's work is more evident in Marilyn's drawing than in John's words, Bowen notes. Women whose measurements exceed those of the models in fashion magazines even today are sometimes described as Rubensian or Rubensesque.
Definition of apotheosis: being elevated to the status of a god. Similar in name is The Apotheosis of George Washington (1865) by Constantino Brumidi that looms above in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington D.C.
Bowen notes that it seems many Roman emperors were elevated to god-like status though it has been used by extension to refer to the canonization of Christian saints. "Still, given the etymology, it seems a little over the top - as does the sketched painting."
Myers adds an anecdote about Rubens: when asked how he was able to make his nudes seem to realistic, Rubens replied, "I keep painting and painting until I fell like pinching."
Marilyn Fitschen says her only drawing specifically modeled after a painting was the Apotheosis after Ruben's The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, "probably my favorite illustration of the chapter."
