Peter Paul Rubens dominated 17th-century European painting, yet his canvases capture only a small part of his extraordinary career. Beyond his dynamic Baroque compositions, Rubens served as a high-ranking diplomat, negotiating peace between warring empires, managed an industrial-scale studio workshop in Antwerp, and amassed one of Europe’s premier collections of classical antiquities. Beyond the artist, discover Rubens as a scholar, covert operative, and entrepreneur with seven little-known facts.
1. Rubens Began His Artistic Apprenticeship at Age 14
Rubens was raised Roman Catholic and received a classical education. He started his artistic training in 1591, at the relatively old age of 14, first as an apprentice to Tobias Verhaecht, then after a year with Adam van Noort, and after another four years with Otto van Veen. In 1598, he was admitted into the painter’s guild of Antwerp, recognizing him as a master, before setting off on his own to explore Italy in May 1600.
2. Rubens Learned Much About Art From Painting Copies
In Venice, Rubens was inspired by artists such as Titian, Tintoretto, and Paolo Veronese before being hired by the duke of Mantua, for whom he made copies of Renaissance paintings. In October 1600, Rubens moved on yet again and found himself in Florence to attend the marriage of Marie de Medici to King Henry IV of France. He continued to make copies of 16th-century art, which now serve art historians well.
3. Rubens Was a Collector of Art and Antiquities (Which Made Him Rich)
In August 1601, Rubens made his way to Rome, where the Baroque style reigned supreme with the revival of the styles of Michelangelo and Raphael. While serving the Duke of Mantua, Rubens was sent on his first diplomatic mission to Spain in 1603 to King Philip III and his influential minister, the Duke of Lerma. While there, he painted the famous Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma.
At the end of 1605, he made his second trip to Rome and, along with his brother Philip, began collecting and studying all forms of artwork and ancient philosophy. He collected Greco-Roman antiquities including Roman busts, carved cameos, and ancient coins; Renaissance masterpieces by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Raphael, and Andrea Mantegna; Northern Masters such as Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and Lucas van Leyden; and exotic curiosities such as oriental manuscripts and rare natural objects.
4. He Created a High-Yield Factory Workshop in Antwerp
Rubens returned to Antwerp in late 1608 after receiving news that his mother was ill. Although he was too late and she died before he made it back, he remained there to accept the role of court painter to Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella, the Spanish Habsburg regents of Flanders.
The next year, he married his first wife, Isabella Brant. He also established his painting studio in a magnificent townhouse in the city. Filled with assistants, collaborators, apprentices, and engravers, Rubens was able to produce an enormous volume of work with their help. For the most part, Rubens’ paintings would start as an oil sketch, called a modello, painted on a small panel. He would make preparatory drawings of the individuals that were to be included in the composition. From there, execution would be left to his trusted assistants, with Rubens painting the key areas himself and conducting a thorough retouch of each piece. Engravers would help reproduce many of Rubens’ paintings, which helped in the widespread dissemination of his work throughout Europe.
5. Nearly 400 Autograph Paintings Can Be Attributed Directly to Rubens’s Own Hand
In the 1600s, artists were mostly commissioned workers who painted for specific projects. Therefore, Rubens’ work became synonymous with certain political movements of the time. Once he was back in Antwerp, the Twelve Years’ Truce was being conducted between Dutch separatists and the Spanish, calling for religious changes in Flanders. Flemish churches were being refurbished, and Rubens was hired to complete the artwork for such projects. During this time, between 1610 and 1611, Rubens painted two of his greatest triptychs, The Elevation of the Cross and The Descent from the Cross.
In the decade to follow, Rubens would produce a vast number of altarpieces for Roman Catholic churches and became known as the chief artistic proponent of the Counter-Reformation spirituality movement in northern Europe. Some of his most important religious paintings from this period are The Last Judgment and Christ on the Cross. Still, even though he was a big deal in religious depictions, he also dabbled in mythological, historical, and other secular themes, such as Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus and The Hippopotamus Hunt.
In 1622, Rubens was called for one of his most notable projects by Queen Mother Marie de Medici to decorate a gallery in her newly built Luxembourg Palace. She commissioned 21 canvases to promote her life and regency of France. He became famous across Europe as “the painter of princes and the prince of painters” and often complained about being “the busiest and most harassed man in the world.” Still, he continued to take on a huge number of projects for Europe’s elite.
6. Rubens Conducted Secret Diplomatic Missions Across Europe
Rubens was well-respected by kings and prime ministers, making him an ideal diplomat, and also an ideal secret envoy and peace negotiator during the Thirty Years’ War and Eighty Years’ War. In the 1620s, he traveled between the enemy nations of Catholic Spain and Protestant England, receiving private audiences with both monarchs. As he painted their royal portraits, he also negotiated foreign policy.
His most important diplomatic mission was brokering the Anglo-Spanish Peace. In 1628, he spent eight months at court in Madrid briefing King Philip IV and his chief minister, the Count-Duke of Olivares. In 1629, he traveled to London to meet King Charles I, securing the signing of the peace treaty in November 1630.
7. Rubens’ Second Wife Hélène Fourment Reshaped His Late Masterpieces
After the death of his first wife in 1626, Rubens married again in 1630 at age 53. His new wife, Hélène Fourment, was just 16 years old and also the niece of his first wife. Hélène inspired much of Rubens’ work in the last decade of his life, as the voluptuous female figures prevalent in some of his later paintings, such as The Feast of Venus, The Three Graces, and The Judgment of Paris.
Rubens bought another house in 1635 where he spent most of his time in old age, but he continued to paint. The estate was outside Antwerp, and he composed landscape works, including Chateau de Steen with Hunter and Farmers Returning from the Fields during this period. On May 30, 1640, Rubens died from gout, which resulted in heart failure. He left behind eight children, three from Isabella and five from Helene, many of whom married into esteemed and noble families of Antwerp.
