Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was a Flemish Baroque painter and an advocate of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. He is famously known for his counter-reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. His paintings have a wide range of paintings of Venus in different postures and situations. Rubens was born to Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks in Siegen, Westphalia. Rubens was brought up as a Catholic. His paintings are influenced by his religious characters. He was also one of the advocates of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting. His devotion to the religion and its impression on his works was huge. He had said, “My passion comes from the heavens, not from earthly musings.” Rubens ran a large studio in Antwerp, he was also a classically educated humanist scholar, art collector, and diplomat. In addition to painting the religious and historical figures in his works, he also painted the portraits of his friends, self portraits and landscapes. Landscapes, such as his Chateau de Steen with Hunter and Farmers works are the instances of a different and personal nature of his later creations.
