Born to a family of extraordinary painters, he was the son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and the brother of Jan Brueghel de Velours. Both he and Jan were trained by their father, and learned watercolor painting from their grandmother, Mayken Verhulst. Pieter also studied with landscape painter Gillis van Coninxloo and became a master in 1588. Perhaps the most outstanding of his numerous apprentices
No other 17th-century European painter combined artistic talent, social and economic success and a high cultural level like Rubens. Though primarily a painter, he also made numerous designs for prints, tapestries, architecture, sculpture and decorative objects. His abundant work is strikingly versatile in its subject matter, including paintings on mythological, religious and historical subjects as
Murillo was apparently a calm and sweet natured man, a fact which might explain some aspects of his personal artistic expression. Born into a family of many siblings, he was orphaned as a child and taken in by one of his sisters. He must have trained with Juan del Castillo, to judge by the characteristics of his early style. In 1645 he married Beatriz Cabrera, who bore him several children. Throug