Peter Paul Rubens. Lamentation of Christ

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Born June 28, 1577
Siegen, Westphalia
Died May 30, 1640 (aged 62)
Antwerp, Southern Netherlands
Nationality Flemish
Field Painting, Diplomacy
Movement Baroque
Influenced by Michelangelo, Titian, Caravaggio, Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Influenced Antoine Watteau, Eugène Delacroix

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640) was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. He is well-known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.

In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp which produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically-educated humanist scholar, art collector, and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV, King of Spain, and Charles I, King of England.