Rubens

This volume is a biography of prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). This work presents "a vivid portrait of Rubens's enormous life against a background of the turbulent history of his times. Without neglecting his paintings, [the author] also gives the reader a fascinating picture of Rubens's career as an accomplished diplomat." The author offers a fascinating picture of war-torn Europe, court intrigue, and the interchanges between the painters, scientists, diplomats, churchmen, and political leaders of the age. Rubens is a painter whom everyone acknowledges as great but few people have understood.