Etching on paper
Tate Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/leon-kossoff-1436" aria-label="More by Leon Kossoff" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Leon Kossoff</a>
Minerva Protects Pax Mars Peace and War 5
Presented by Peter and Liz Goulds 1999
adults
Athene / Minerva
child
children
classical myths: gods and heroes
crowd
Demeter / Ceres
female
fine art and design, named works
groups
male
man
Mars
nudes
objects
people
putto
religion and belief
Rubens, Peter Paul, painting, ‘Minerva Protects Pax from Mars’
woman
<p>This print is one of many etchings executed by Leon Kossoff in response to, and literally in the presence of, oil paintings by old masters; in this case <i>Minerva Protects Pax from Mars (‘Peace and War’)</i>, 1629-30, by Peter Rubens (1577-1640), owned by the National Gallery, London. Tate owns five prints by Kossoff after this Rubens painting (Tate P11700-4). The artist’s ability to explore a number of separate responses while making drawings and prints from a single subject is illustrated in these etchings. This print was never published as an edition; Tate owns the second trial proof.</p>
paper print etching
Minerva Protects Pax from Mars (‘Peace and War’) (5)
image: 448 × 556 mm
Presented by Peter and Liz Goulds 1999
<p>
<br/>This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> is one of many <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etchings</span></a> executed by Leon Kossoff in response to, and literally in the presence of, oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> by old masters; in this case <i>Minerva Protects Pax from Mars (‘Peace and War’)</i>, 1629-30, by Peter Rubens (1577-1640), owned by the National Gallery, London. Tate owns five prints by Kossoff after this Rubens painting (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kossoff-minerva-protects-pax-from-mars-peace-and-war-1-p11700" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11700</span></a>-4). The artist’s ability to explore a number of separate responses while making <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> and prints from a single subject is illustrated in these etchings. This print was never published as an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a>; Tate owns the second trial <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/proof" title="Glossary definition for 'Proof'"><span>proof</span></a>.</p>
<p>In Rubens’s painting, an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/allegory" title="Glossary definition for 'Allegory'"><span>allegory</span></a> of war and peace, Pax (Peace) is a bountiful nude, offering her breast to Plutus, the child god of wealth. At her feet a satyr examines an overflowing horn of plenty. A winged Cupid and the goddess of marriage, Hymen, take the children to the horn of plenty. Two nymphs are approaching on the left; one of them bearing riches; another one dancing to the sound of a tambourine.  To the right of Pax, Minerva, goddess of wisdom, is holding back Mars, god of war, and Alecto, the fury of war, from destroying this scene of abundance. Kossoff’s response to this painting is a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impasto" title="Glossary definition for 'Impasto'"><span>painterly</span></a> etching. Lines swirl around the page, their curves and currents rhyming with and echoing the contours of bodies and creating a sense of movement in the work. This etching is lightly rendered in black <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a> on cream <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a>. Kossoff’s print does not compete with Rubens’s painting, nor does it seek to transcribe, copy or paraphrase it. Rather, it acknowledges the gulf that separates it from the pictorial culture of former times and reveals his desire to find points of contact with his forerunner. Kossoff has described the value of this kind of draughtsmanship as a means to building up an acquaintance with the subject of, in his words, ‘getting into’ a picture made by another artist until he feels free to ‘move about in its imaginative spaces’ (Kendall, p.19).</p>
<p>Kossoff has taken inspiration from old master paintings at The National Gallery for most of his life, since first visiting it in the late 1940s. His commitment to drawing has resulted in a decades-long dialogue with Rubens and others. For Kossoff, drawing is rooted in close observation of, and is a way of getting closer to, the subject being drawn. It involves going beyond the observed: forming a relation with the motif at a deeper level, a process involving the growth of understanding and sympathy. He sees the act of drawing as a reciprocal process; thus making graphic transcriptions of images by older artists is his way of bonding more closely with them, exploring their mysteries and celebrating their power.
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<br/>The etching plates were prepared by Ann Dowker, a London artist who later collaborated with Kossoff on biting the plates with acid, wiping them before printing, and making trial proofs. In some cases, areas of the etchings were washed with <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/aquatint" title="Glossary definition for 'Aquatint'"><span>aquatint</span></a>; in others, lines were emphasised by <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drypoint" title="Glossary definition for 'Drypoint'"><span>drypoint</span></a>. The etchings were printed by Mark Balakjian at Studio Prints, London. 
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<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Richard Morphet, <i>Encounters: New Art From Old</i>, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery, London 2000, pp.214-35, reproduced p.221 in colour
<br/><i>Past &amp; Present: Contemporary Artists Drawing from the Masters</i>, exhibition catalogue, South Bank Centre, London 1987-8, p.38
<br/>Richard Kendall, <i>Drawn to Painting</i>, London 2000
<br/>
<br/>Anna Bright
<br/>September 2005</p>

Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
adults Athene / Minerva child children classical myths: gods and heroes crowd Demeter / Ceres female fine art and design, named works groups male man Mars nudes objects people putto religion and belief Rubens, Peter Paul, painting, ‘Minerva Protects Pax from Mars’ woman