In what I consider a rather satisfying bit of parallelism, an essay adapted from that book appears today in the Wall Street Journal on the same day that Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize is the paper’s lead story. Rubens was a pragmatic, moderate man whose success as a diplomat was predicated on a combination of the high esteem in which he was held internationally and by his own great intelligence. Whatever one thinks about the timing of the Nobel, or of Obama generally, it’s hard to deny he shares these characteristics with Rubens.

But I’d like to think the artist can serve as a fine model for the president, or any diplomat practicing today. He was a serious and dedicated public servant, a master of what we now call “realpolitiks.” His world, like ours, was faced with intractable conflicts, and he was tireless in his efforts to resolve them. The Low Countries, then, was a land divided by sectarian violence, and his own Flemish homeland was ruled by a grossly negligent foreign occupier. (In the 16th century, Antwerp was almost a proto-Baghdad, with a full-scale Green Zone avant le lettre.)

Rubens was no revolutionary. He worked within the power structures of his day to shift policy and push ideologically opposed leaders toward reconciliation. There was never a more savvy negotiator, whether he was bargaining for European peace or setting the price on one of his very expensive canvasses. He was a peaceful man but believed in the use of military force, even its pre-emptive use, but in drastic situations only. Rubens had more than one contemporary who considered him as fine a statesman as he was an artist, and that was saying something, because in that field he was, indisputably, the tops.

“I should like the whole world to be in peace, that we might live in a golden age instead of an age of iron,” he wrote, and those words seem as applicable today as they did then.

Related:
Peter Paul Rubens, Diplomat [WSJ]

Mark Lamster is the author of Master of Shadows: The Secret Diplomatic Career of the Painter Peter Paul Rubens (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday) and writes on the arts and culture for many newspapers and magazines. He lives in Brooklyn.

We pointed that out about Obama yesterday, noting how similar his answers were to John King and George Stephanopoulos for his El-Completo-Ginsburg-Sunday-show-blitz. But then we noticed that, for all the kerfuffle about the pay-to-read Megan Fox Rolling Stone cover, she’s on the cover of Cosmopolitan, with a coverline advertising “Juicy stuff she could only say in Cosmo!” Well…not quite.

Here’s Megan Fox in Rolling Stone, talking about her “powerful, confident vagina”: “Men are scared of vaginas…[a woman is most powerful when she is] completely in charge of her sexuality.”

Here’s Megan Fox in Cosmopolitan, talking about the power of — yep — vaginas: “Women hold the power because we have the vaginas. If you’re in a heterosexual relationship and you’re a female, you win.”

Fox also talks in both magazines about using that power to mess with men’s heads, saying in RS something to the effect of, she has harnessed her sexuality and knows how to use it to mess with men’s heads. (Paraphrased from scanning it earlier in a Duane Reade.) This, however, is backed up by what she told Cosmo: “It’s fun when someone intends to put you in his back pocket, but instead, he walks away wounded. I make it a mind game so they don’t know if I’m hitting on them or mocking them.”

Rolling Stone’s Erik Hedegaard also asks her, twice, if she’s ever drawn blood during sex. She responded by being “stonily silent.” Cosmo asked her about her ideal date. She responded with a Rosh Hashanah gift to Jewish men for the ages: “A sexy sandwich with Andy Samberg and Jonah Hill.” Verdict: Cosmo FTW!

To clarify: Barack Obama does not have that last bit in common with Megan Fox. And we’re sure he likes Michael Bay just fine.

Upshot: Both Cosmo and Rolling Stone were a-twitter about their Megan Fox exclusive, but as we have seen in the past, Megan Fox doesn’t reeeaaaallly seem to care about what she says. But hey, it’ll sell magazines.

Related:
Megan Fox, America’s Sexiest Bad Girl: New Cover of Rolling Stone [RollingStone.com]
Megan Fox Hearts Jewish Men, Vagina Power [The Hollywood Gossip]
Megan Fox Cosmopolitan Magazine October 2009 [PopCrunch]
About 800 Pairs of Megan Fox’s Boobs [Mediaite]
Gawker’s Guide to Coverage of Rolling Stone’s Coverage of Megan Fox [Gawker]