Born into a family of Calvinists, he received his artistic training in Antwerp where he enrolled in the guild of pai
nters of St. Luke in 1598. Between 1600 and 1608 he visited various cities in Italy. In Venice he made copies of paintings by Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto; in Mantua he worked for Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga; and in Genoa and Rome he studied the artists of
the Renaissance, in particular his contemporaries Carracci and Caravaggio. While in Rome he painted several canvases of sacred subjects for the basilica of Santa Croce in Jerusalem (\i Exaltation of the Cross\i0 , \i Jesus Crowned with Thorns\i0 and
\i Raising of the Cross\i0 , 1602, now in Grasse, H⌠pital de Petit Paris). These early works, together with his canvases for the church of the Trinitα in Mantua (now split between the Ducal Palace in Mantua and the museums of Vienna, Antwerp, and Nancy) an
d the \i Circumcision\i0 (1605, Genoa, SantÆAmbrogio), are characterized by complex and imposing compositions that denote his adoption of the new baroque style. During his stay in Italy Rubens also painted the \i Adoration of the Shepherds\i0 (1608, Fe
rmo, San Filippo Neri) which shows a strong influence of Italian art from the Venetians to Correggio and the Roman baroque of the early part of the century. On his return to Antwerp and with the help of the rulers of the Low Countries, Alberto and Isabel
la, Rubens set up his famous house \i cum\i0 studio where van Dyck among others worked. In 1609 he married Isabella Brant and painted his famous \i Portrait of the Artist with his Wife\i0 (Munich, Alte Pinakothek). At the height of his fame he received
important public commissions in his home city. In particular the \i Raising of the Cross\i0 (1610) and the \i Descent from the Cross\i0 (1610-14), in Antwerp Cathedral, along with the paintings for the Jesuit Church (1620-25), show the influence of Ca
ravaggioÆs realism. Over the same period he executed the grandiose cycle of allegories of the \i Life of Maria deÆ Medici\i0 (Paris, Louvre). Rubens also painted a number of landscapes that are described in great detail and characterized by a solemn atm
osphere (\i Landscape with Philemon and Baucis\i0 , 1630, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum and \i Autumnal Landscape with the Castle of Steen\i0 , 1635, London, National Gallery). Rubens alternated his work as a painter with diplomatic missions that took
him to Madrid and then to the court of Charles I of England (1628-30). After these journeys, Rubens adopted warmer and more luminous tones in his pictures, evoking atmospheres of peace and quiet and denoting the influence of the works by Titian he had s
een in Madrid (see in particular, \i HΘlΦne Fourment with her Son\i0 [1635, Munich, Alte Pinakothek] and the \i Garden of Love\i0 [Madrid, Prado]).
