PETER PAUL RUBENS
(June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640) was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish
Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized
movement, color, and sensuality. He is well-known for his Counter-Reformation
altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and
allegorical subjects.
In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp which produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically-educated humanist scholar, art collector, and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV, king of Spain, and Charles I, king of England.
Peter Paul Rubens, Helena Fourment and her Children, ca. 1636
Peter Paul Rubens, Virgin and Child, oil on wood, 65 x 48cm, 1620-24