Peter Paul Rubens

Who is Peter Paul Rubens?

Peter Paul Rubens was born in Siegen, in what is now Germany, while his family lived in exile, but the family returned to Antwerp when he was a child, and Antwerp remained his home and workshop base for the rest of his life. He became the dominant figure of the Flemish Baroque, running one of the largest and most productive painting workshops in European history, producing altarpieces, portraits, mythological scenes, and monumental cycles for royal and church patrons across Europe. Trained in Antwerp and later in Italy, where he absorbed the influence of Titian and the Roman Baroque, Rubens developed a dynamic, richly colored, and physically vigorous style seen in works such as "The Descent from the Cross" (1612-1614) in Antwerp Cathedral and the Marie de' Medici cycle for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. Beyond painting, he served as a court diplomat for the Spanish Habsburg rulers of the Southern Netherlands, helping negotiate peace between Spain and England in the 1620s. He was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England in recognition of his diplomatic service.

Sources: Rubenshuis Museum, Antwerp — biographical archive · Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium — Rubens catalogue · Kristin Lohse Belkin, Rubens (Phaidon, 1998)