KNOWN for his portraits, religious works and mythological scenes, Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens is one of the most influential artists of the 17th century.
Born in Siegen in Germany in 1577 he later lived and went to school in Antwerp from the age of 10 where he worked as a court page before training as an artist and becoming a court painter to the rulers of the Netherlands, the Archduke Albert and his wife Isabella.
His best-known works include The Massacre of the Innocents, which depicts the biblical tale of Roman soldiers executing male newborns in Bethlehem, The Horrors of War, a painting of Mars, the Roman god of war being restrained by Venus, thought to be a political commentary on the Thirty Years’ War.
He is one of the leading figures in the bold and sensual Baroque style and is also known for his depictions of voluptuous, female nudes.
Rubanesque women as such can be seen in his work The Judgement of Paris which depicts the mythic Roman tale where Paris was forced to judge the most beautiful of three goddesses — Venus, Minerva and Juno — one of the events to lead to the Trojan War.
After his first wife, Isabella Brandt., died in 1626 from the plague he travelled and worked in Europe, becoming an important diplomatic figure in 17th-century European politics.
He carried out commissions for royalty in Spain, France and England, and became known as “the prince of painters and the painter of princes”.
On his return to Antwerp, at the age of 53, he married 16-year-old Hélène Fourment, with whom he had five children before his death in 1640.
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