Sir Peter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands. He is believed to be the most powerful artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His special and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, color, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style encouraged in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens was a painter producing altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and symbolic fictional figures. He was also a prolific designer of cartoons for the Flemish tapestry workshops and of frontispieces for the publishers in Antwerp.

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