Peter Paul Rubens

Happy Birthday Peter Paul Rubens!! Born in 1577, the Flemish painter considered a Baroque painter, influenced by Renaissance artists, especially Titian and Michelangelo. He painted portraits, religious works, historical and mythological scenes, etc. Rubens was a court painter as well as a diplomat for the Spanish Netherlands. After the death of his first wife, Rubens, 53, married his second wife who was 16. She was a model for many of his subsequent paintings, including the one below, titled Helene Fourment in a Fur Wrap, said to model her after previous classical sculptures of Venus such as Medicci’s Venus.