Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen, Holy Roman Empire, present-day Germany, June 28, 1577-Antwerp, Flanders, Spanish Netherlands, present-day Belgium, May 30, 1640), also known as Peter Paul Rubens, Pieter Paul, Pieter Pauwel , Petrus Paulus, was a Baroque painter of the Flemish school. His exuberant style emphasizes dynamism, color and sensuality. His main influences came from the art of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Renaissance painting , especially Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, whose representation of anatomy he admired, and especially Titian, whom he admired. He always considered his teacher and of whom he stated "with him, painting has found its essence."

He treated a wide variety of pictorial themes: religious, historical, classical mythology, hunting scenes, landscapes, portraits; as well as drawings, illustrations for books and designs for tapestries (series of The History of Decius Mus, The History of Constantine, The Triumph of the Eucharist and The History of Achilles) . Approximately fifteen hundred of his paintings are preserved.​ Such a production was possible to the extent of his workshop, both in terms of members and proportion, where they apparently worked in a chain. His disciples or assistants were: Jacob Jordaens, Gaspar de Crayer, Theodor van Thulden, Erasmus Quellinus the Younger, Cornelis de Vos and Anton van Dyck, whose job was to complete several commissions for the Spanish Court in Madrid. To date, almost nine thousand drawings by his hand are known.

He was the favorite painter of King Philip IV of Spain, his main client, who commissioned dozens of works from him to decorate his palaces and was the largest buyer in the auction of the artist's assets that took place after his death. As a consequence of this, the largest collection of works by Rubens is preserved today in the Prado Museum, with about ninety paintings (the specific number varies according to the sources since the authorship of some of the works is in dispute), the vast majority from the Royal Collection. Other museums with outstanding representation of his art are the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen), the National Gallery in London, the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and the Museum of the History of Vienna art.

He had extensive humanist training and always had a deep interest in classical antiquity. "I am convinced that to achieve the greatest perfection in painting it is necessary to understand the ancients," he stated. He mastered several languages, including Latin, and served as a diplomat between different European courts. He was also ennobled by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. The painter Eugène Delacroix, a great admirer of his, called him the "Homer of painting" , a nickname with which he is sometimes cited.

Rubens' paintings are characterized by the vividness of their coloring, taken from the Venetian school, especially Titian. Also for the movement and vitality of the composition and for the use of figures of great carnality, the masculine ones being muscular (influence of Michelangelo) and the feminine ones sensual, represented with a loose brushstroke and often foreshortened.