Decius Mus Addressing the Legions

Born in 1577 in Westphalia (present-day Germany) to a patrician family, who was then in temporary exile from their home of Antwerp, Peter Paul Rubens is considered one of the greatest artists of the Baroque period, and one of the few that rivaled his Italian counterparts. Following his father’s death in 1587, Rubens and his family returned to Antwerp where he acquired a classical education, and began studying fine art in 1591. Although almost all of Rubens’s early work has been lost, he was able to join the painter’s guild in 1598, and during the first years of the 17th century he moved to Italy to study the works of Renaissance for several years, and developed his own unique artistic style.