Honeysuckle Bower

The Honeysuckle Bower
Artist	Peter Paul Rubens
Year	ca. 1609
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	178 cm × 136.5 cm (70 in × 53.7 in)
Location	Alte Pinakothek, Munich

The Honeysuckle Bower (ca. 1609) is a self-portrait of the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens and his first wife Isabella Brant. They wed on 3 October 1609, in St. Michael's Abbey, Antwerp, shortly after he had returned to the city after eight years in Italy.

The painting is a full-length double portrait of the couple seated in a of honeysuckle. They are surrounded by love and marriage symbolism: the honeysuckle and garden are both traditional symbols of love, and the holding of right hands (junctio dextrarum) represents union through marriage. Additionally, Rubens depicts himself as an aristocratic gentleman with his left hand on the hilt of his sword.

The couple, close-up

Isabella Brant

The hands

...
Wikipedia