The Flemish Powerhouse

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was the Baroque era's most successful artist — a painter, diplomat, and businessman who ran a massive workshop in Antwerp. His paintings are oceans of flesh, fabric, and color. Figures twist and tumble across enormous canvases, some big enough to fill a wall. Nothing is still; everything moves.

Rubens's ability to paint human skin — luminous, warm, seemingly alive — was unmatched. He painted plump bodies not because he lacked skill for thin ones, but because Baroque aesthetics valued abundance, energy, and physical vitality. His figures radiate the joy of being alive in a body.