(Flemish (active Italy, Antwerp, and England), 1577–1640)
Painting dramatic compositions filled with color and movement, Peter Paul Rubens was a pioneer of the Baroque style, popular in Europe in the 1600s. He was highly successful in his own lifetime and worked with a bustling workshop of assistants to produce works for European nobles and statesmen as well as for the Catholic Church. Moving between the great courts of Europe, he gained widespread fame not only as an artist, but also as a scholar, art collector, and diplomat.