1577 -1640 · Flemish Baroque, diplomacy and large European workshop

Rubens sets all forms in motion: body, fabric, animal and cloud participate in a learned baroque where mythology, faith, portrait and diplomacy speak the language of color.

Born in Siegen in 1577 into an Antwerp family who had taken refuge for religious reasons, Pierre Paul Rubens returned to Antwerp as a child after the death of his father. Trained with Tobias Verhaecht, Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen, he became master of the guild of Saint Luke in 1598 then left for Italy. From 1600 to 1608, Mantua, Rome, Genoa and Madrid allowed him to study Titian, Veronese, Michelangelo, Caravaggio and ancient sculpture. From 1600 to 1608, Mantua, Rome, Genoa and Madrid allowed him to study Titian, Veronese, Michelangelo, Caravaggio and ancient sculpture. From 1600 to 1608, Mantua, Rome, Genoa and Madrid allowed him to study Titian, Veronese, Michelangelo, Caravaggio and ancient sculpture. From 1600 to 1608, Mantua, Rome, Genoa and Madrid allowed him to study Titian, Veronese, Michelangelo, Caravaggio and ancient sculpture. From 1600 to 1608, Mantua, Rome, Genoa and Madrid allowed him to study Titian, Veronese, Michelangelo, Carav specialists participate in large ensembles. Counter-Reformation altarpieces, hunts, mythologies, portraits and political cycles share powerful diagonals, luminous flesh and Venetian color. A polyglot humanist, collector and diplomat, Rubens negotiated between the courts of Spain and England and received chivalry from the two sovereigns. His portraits of Isabella Brant then Hélène Fourment introduced a private tenderness to the heart of this public career. In recent years, at Steen Castle, the landscape became more personal. The scale of his workshop did not diminish his invention: on the contrary, it showed how he conceived of painting as a system collective. The "Pierre Paul Rubens" selection notably compares Venus, Mars and Bacchus and The Hunt for the Tiger, the Lion and the Leopard. His reading favors drawing.

Rubens composes the movement even before painting the flesh: diagonal, light and color circulate energy from one body to another.