Early life Peter Paul Rubens was born on 28 June 1577 in
Siegen,
Nassau, to
Jan Rubens and
Maria Pypelincks. Upon his return to Antwerp, he became a lawyer and held the office of
alderman in Antwerp from 1562 to 1568. Jan Rubens married Maria Pypelincks, who came from a prominent family originally from
Kuringen, near
Hasselt. A large portion of the nobility and bourgeoisie in the Spanish Netherlands at the time sided with the
Reformation and Jan Rubens also converted to
Calvinism. In 1566 the Low Countries were the victim of the
iconoclastic fury, referred to in Dutch as the
Beeldenstorm () during which
Catholic art and many forms of church fittings and decoration were destroyed in unofficial or mob actions by
Calvinist Protestant crowds as part of the
Protestant Reformation. The ruler of the Low Countries—the Catholic Spanish king
Philip II—reacted to the unrest by ordering the severe repression of the followers of the Reformation. In 1568, the Rubens family, with two boys and two girls (Jan Baptist (1562–1600), Blandina (1564–1606), Clara (1565–1580) and Hendrik (1567–1583)), fled to Cologne. As Calvinists, they feared persecution in their homeland during the harsh rule of
the Duke of Alba, who, as the
Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, was responsible for implementing the harsh repression. Jan Rubens became in 1570 the legal adviser of
Anna of Saxony, the second wife of
William I of Orange who at the time lived in
Cologne. She later moved to Siegen about 90 kilometres from Cologne. Jan Rubens would visit her there while his family remained in Cologne. He and Anna of Saxony had an affair, which resulted in a pregnancy in 1571. Rubens was imprisoned in
Dillenburg Castle and faced the threat of execution for his transgression. The adulterers' daughter, Christina of Dietz, was born on 22 August 1571. Upon the repeated pleas of his wife and the payment of a bail bond of 6,000
thalers, Jan Rubens was permitted to leave prison after two years. The conditions of his release were a ban on practising as a lawyer and the obligation to take up residence in Siegen where his movements would be supervised. This put the rest of the family, who had joined Jan in Siegen, in financial difficulty. During this period two sons were born:
Philip in 1574, followed in 1577 by Peter Paul who, although likely born in Siegen, was reportedly baptised in Cologne. Anna of Saxony died in 1577. The travel ban imposed on Jan Rubens was lifted in 1578 on condition that he not settle in the Prince of Orange's possessions nor in the hereditary dominions of the Low Countries and maintain the bail bond of 6,000 thalers as security. He was allowed to leave his place of exile in Siegen and to move the Rubens family to Cologne. While in Siegen, the family had of necessity belonged to the Lutheran Church in Cologne. The family now reconverted to Catholicism. The eldest son, Jan Baptist, who may also have been an artist, left for Italy in 1586. Jan Rubens died in 1587 and was buried in Cologne's
St. Peter's Church, a Catholic church. Acting on his ambition to pursue a career as an artist, he began an apprenticeship with the landscape painter
Tobias Verhaecht in 1592. This family connection possibly explains the choice for Verhaecht as his first master. Rubens left Verhaecht's workshop after about one year as he wished to study history painting rather than landscape painting. He subsequently studied with another Romanist painter,
Otto van Veen. Van Veen offered Rubens the intellectual and artistic stimulation that suited his temperament. Van Veen had spent five years in Italy and was an accomplished portraitist and had a broad Humanist education. He knew Spanish royalty and had received portrait commissions as a court painter to
Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and Infanta
Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, the sovereigns of the
Spanish Netherlands. Rubens completed his apprenticeship with van Veen in 1598, the year he entered the
Guild of St. Luke as an independent master. As an independent master, he was allowed to take commissions and train apprentices. His first pupil was
Deodat del Monte who would later accompany him on his trip to Italy. He seems to have remained an assistant in van Veen's studio after becoming an independent master. His works from this period, such as the
Adam and Eve (
Rubenshuis, Antwerp, c. 1599) and the
Battle of the Amazons (
Sanssouci Picture Gallery, Potsdam) show the influence of his master van Veen. where he saw paintings by
Titian,
Veronese, and
Tintoretto. The colouring and compositions of Veronese and Tintoretto had an immediate effect on Rubens's painting, and his later, mature style was profoundly influenced by Titian. His visit to Venice coincided with that of Duke
Vincenzo I Gonzaga of
Mantua. It is possible that he was hired by the Duke during his stay in Venice or that Otto van Veen, who was court painter to Archdukes Albert and Isabella, joint governors of the Spanish Netherlands, had introduced Rubens to the Duke during the latter's visit to the Brussels court. The small Duchy of Mantua was renowned as an art centre and the Duke as an avid art collector with a
rich collection of Italian masters. Rubens mainly painted portraits of the Duke's family and also copied the famous Renaissance paintings in the Duke's collection. '', c. 1604/1605, probably reworked c. 1606/1608,
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Rubens came in Rome also under the spell of the recent, highly naturalistic paintings by
Caravaggio. He later made a copy of Caravaggio's
Entombment of Christ and recommended his patron, the Duke of Mantua, to buy
The Death of the Virgin (
Louvre). He remained a strong supporter of Caravaggio's art as shown by his important role in the acquisition of
The Madonna of the Rosary (
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) for
St. Paul's Church, Antwerp after he had returned home. During this first stay in Rome, Rubens completed his first altarpiece commission,
St. Helena with the True Cross for the Roman church of
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Rubens travelled to Spain on a diplomatic mission in 1603, delivering gifts from the Gonzagas to the court of
Philip III of Spain. While there, he studied the extensive collections of Raphael and Titian that had been collected by
Philip II. He also painted an
equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma during his stay (Prado, Madrid) that demonstrates the influence of works like Titian's
Charles V at Mühlberg (1548;
Museo del Prado, Madrid). This journey marked the first of many during his career that combined art and diplomacy. , 1619 He returned to Italy in 1604, where he remained for the next four years, first in Mantua and then in
Genoa. In Genoa, Rubens painted numerous portraits, such as the
Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), and the portrait of Maria di Antonio Serra Pallavicini, in a style that influenced later paintings by
Anthony van Dyck,
Joshua Reynolds and
Thomas Gainsborough. He made drawings of the many new palaces that were going up in Genoa. These were later engraved and published in 1622 as
Palazzi di Genova. From 1606 to 1608, he was mostly in Rome when he received, with the assistance of Cardinal
Jacopo Serra (the brother of Maria Pallavicini), his most important commission to date for the High Altar of the city's most fashionable new church,
Santa Maria in Vallicella also known as the Chiesa Nuova. The subject was
St. Gregory the Great and important local saints adoring an
icon of the Virgin and Child. The first version, a single canvas (now at the
Museum of Grenoble), was immediately replaced by a second version on three slate panels that permits the actual miraculous holy image of the "Santa Maria in Vallicella" to be revealed on important feast days by a removable copper cover, also painted by the artist. His brother Philip was also at the time of his second residence in Rome as a scholar. The brothers lived together on Via della Croce near
Piazza di Spagna. They thus had the opportunity to share their common interest in Classical art. , the
Honeysuckle Bower'', ,
Alte Pinakothek Rubens's experiences in Italy continued to influence his work even after his return to Flanders. His stay in Italy had also allowed him to build a network of friendships with important figures of his time such as the scientist
Galileo Galilei whom he included as the central figure in the friendship portrait he painted in Mantua known as the
Self-Portrait in a Circle of Friends from Mantua. Rubens continued to correspond with many of his friends and contacts in Italian, signed his name as "Pietro Paolo Rubens", and spoke longingly of returning to the peninsula—a wish that never materialised. Rubens was a polyglot who corresponded not only in Italian and Dutch, but also in French, Spanish and Latin. His mother tongue and most commonly used idiom remained, however, the dialect of Brabant. This is demonstrated in that he wrote his most spontaneous letters in that dialect and also used it for the notes on his drawings and designs. by
Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, and
Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, sovereigns of the
Spanish Netherlands. '', 1610–11,
Antwerp Cathedral He received special permission to base his studio in Antwerp instead of at their court in
Brussels, and to also work for other clients. He remained close to the Archduchess Isabella until her death in 1633, and was called upon as a painter and also as an ambassador and diplomat. Rubens further cemented his ties to the city when, on 3 October 1609, he married
Isabella Brant, the daughter of a leading Antwerp citizen and humanist, Jan Brant. In 1610, Rubens moved into a new house and studio that he designed. Now the
Rubenshuis Museum, the Italian-influenced villa in the centre of Antwerp accommodated his workshop, where he and his apprentices made most of the paintings, and his personal art collection and library, both among the most extensive in Antwerp. During this time he built up a studio with numerous students and assistants. His most famous pupil was the young
Anthony van Dyck, who soon became the leading Flemish portraitist and collaborated frequently with Rubens. He also often collaborated with the many specialists active in the city, including the animal painter
Frans Snyders, who contributed the eagle to
Prometheus Bound (, completed by 1618), and his good friend the flower-painter
Jan Brueghel the Elder. Rubens built another house to the north of Antwerp in the
polder village of
Doel, "Hooghuis" (1613/1643), perhaps as an investment. The "High House" was built next to the village church. in
Antwerp, designed by himself Altarpieces such as
The Raising of the Cross (1610) and
The Descent from the Cross (1611–1614) for the
Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp were particularly important in establishing Rubens as Flanders' leading painter shortly after his return.
The Raising of the Cross, for example, demonstrates the artist's synthesis of
Tintoretto's Crucifixion for the
Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice,
Michelangelo's dynamic figures, and Rubens's own personal style. This painting has been held as a prime example of Baroque religious art. Rubens also produced a number of pictures for the epitaphs of his friends and associates, including
The Rockox Triptych for his close friend
Nicolaas Rockox. Rubens relied on the production of
prints and book title-pages, especially for his friend
Balthasar Moretus, the owner of the large
Plantin-Moretus publishing house, to extend his fame throughout Europe during this part of his career. In 1618, Rubens embarked upon a printmaking enterprise by soliciting an unusual triple privilege (an early form of
copyright) to protect his designs in
France, the
Spanish Netherlands, and
Dutch Republic. He enlisted
Lucas Vorsterman to engrave a number of his notable religious and mythological paintings, to which Rubens appended personal and professional dedications to noteworthy individuals in the Spanish Netherlands, United Provinces,
England, France, and
Spain. He recruited a number of engravers trained by
Christoffel Jegher, whom he carefully schooled in the more vigorous style he wanted. Rubens also designed the last significant
woodcuts before the 19th-century revival in the technique. '', 1613-15
Marie de' Medici Cycle and diplomatic missions (1621–1630) In 1621, the Queen Mother of France,
Marie de' Medici, commissioned Rubens to paint two large allegorical cycles celebrating her life and the life of her late husband,
Henry IV, for the
Luxembourg Palace in Paris. The
Marie de' Medici cycle (now in the Louvre) was installed in 1625, and although he began work on the second series it was never completed. Marie was exiled from France in 1630 by her son,
Louis XIII, and died in 1642 in the same house in Cologne where Rubens had lived as a child. After the end of the Twelve Years' Truce in 1621, the Spanish
Habsburg rulers entrusted Rubens with diplomatic missions. While in Paris in 1622 to discuss the Marie de' Medici cycle, Rubens engaged in clandestine information gathering activities, which at the time was an important task of diplomats. He relied on his friendship with
Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc to get information on political developments in France. Between 1627 and 1630, Rubens was very active as a diplomat. He travelled between the courts of Spain and England in an attempt to bring about peace between the Catholic
Spanish Netherlands and the Protestant Dutch Republic. He also made several trips to the Dutch Republic as both an artist and a diplomat. Some members of the courts he visited did not treat him as an equal as they held that courtiers should not use their hands in any art or trade, but he was also received as an equal gentleman by many others. Rubens was raised by
Philip IV of Spain to the nobility in 1624 and knighted by
Charles I of England in 1630. Philip IV confirmed Rubens's status as a knight a few months later. Rubens was awarded an honorary
Master of Arts degree from
Cambridge University in 1629. Rubens was in Madrid for eight months in 1628 to 1629. In addition to diplomatic negotiations, he executed several important works for Philip IV and private patrons. He also began a renewed study of Titian's paintings, copying numerous works including the Madrid
Fall of Man (1628–29). During this stay, he befriended the court painter
Diego Velázquez and the two planned to travel to Italy together the following year. Rubens, however, returned to Antwerp and Velázquez made the journey without him. '', 1628–29, Prado, Madrid His stay in Antwerp was brief, and he soon travelled on to London where he remained until April 1630. An important work from this period is the
Allegory of Peace and War (1629;
National Gallery, London). It illustrates the artist's lively concern for peace, and was given to Charles I as a gift. While Rubens's international reputation with collectors and nobility abroad continued to grow during this decade, he and his workshop also continued to paint monumental paintings for local patrons in Antwerp. The
Assumption of the Virgin Mary (1625–26) for the Cathedral of Antwerp is one prominent example.
Last decade (1630–1640) Rubens's last decade was spent in and around Antwerp. Major works for foreign patrons still occupied him, such as the ceiling paintings for
Inigo Jones's
Banqueting House at the
Palace of Whitehall, but he also explored more personal artistic directions. '' In 1630, four years after the death of his first wife Isabella, the 53-year-old painter married the sister of her brother-in-law, the 16-year-old
Helena Fourment. In his letters he stated that he would rather remarry a 16-year-old girl from the bourgeoisie than a lady from the nobility and explained that the primary reason for remarrying was sexual. Helene became the older artist's muse and was the inspiration for the voluptuous figures in many of his paintings from the 1630s, including
The Feast of Venus (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna),
The Three Graces and
The Judgement of Paris (both Prado, Madrid). In the latter painting, which was made for the Spanish court, the artist's young wife was recognised by viewers in the figure of
Venus. In an intimate portrait of her,
Helena Fourment in a Fur Wrap, also known as
Het Pelsken, Rubens's wife is even partially modelled after classical sculptures of the
Venus Pudica, such as the
Medici Venus. In 1635, Rubens bought an estate outside Antwerp, the
Steen, where he spent much of his time. Landscapes, such as his
A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning (National Gallery, London) and
Farmers Returning from the Fields (Palatine Gallery,
Palazzo Pitti, Florence), reflect the more personal nature of many of his later works. He also drew upon the Netherlandish traditions of
Pieter Bruegel the Elder for inspiration in later works like
Feasting and dancing peasants (c. 1630; Louvre, Paris).
Death Rubens died from heart failure as a result of his chronic
gout on 30 May 1640. He was interred in
Saint James' Church, Antwerp. A burial chapel for the artist and his family was built in the church. Construction on the chapel started in 1642 and was completed in 1650, when Cornelis van Mildert (the son of Rubens's friend, the sculptor
Johannes van Mildert) delivered the altarstone. The chapel features a marble altar portico with two columns framing the altarpiece of the
Virgin and child with Saints painted by Rubens himself. The painting expresses the basic tenets of the Counter-Reformation through the figures of the Virgin and saints. In the upper niche of the retable is a marble statue depicting the Virgin as the Mater Dolorosa, whose heart is pierced by a sword, which was likely sculpted by
Lucas Faydherbe, a pupil of Rubens. The remains of Rubens's second wife,
Helena Fourment, and two of her children (one of whom was fathered by Rubens) were later also laid to rest in the chapel. Over the coming centuries about 80 descendants from the Rubens family were interred in the chapel. At the request of
canon van Parijs, Rubens's epitaph, written in Latin by his friend
Gaspar Gevartius, was chiselled on the chapel floor. In the tradition of the Renaissance, Rubens is compared in the epitaph to
Apelles, the most famous painter of Greek Antiquity. == Work ==