ピーテル・パウル・ルーベンス

Peter Paul Rubens commanded the visual culture of seventeenth-century Europe. Born in Siegen in 1577 to Protestant refugees from Antwerp, he returned to the city at twelve and established himself as the defining artist of Flemish Baroque. His eight years in Italy—studying Titian, Tintoretto, and the classical masters—crystallized a style of unparalleled energy: muscular compositions alive with colour and movement, charged with classical learning and Counter-Reformation piety.