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
Born to a family of extraordinary artists, he was the son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and grandson of Pieter Coecke and Mayken Verhulst Bessermers. Tradition has it that she was his first teacher, as his father died when he was a child. According to writer Karel van Mander his principal teacher was Pieter Goetkind. While he was somewhat influenced by the work of his brilliant father, he always fo