Sir Peter Paul Rubens (June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640) is a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasizes movement, color, and sensuality.

He is well-known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.

In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produces paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens is a classically educated humanist scholar, art collector, and diplomat who is knighted by both Philip IV, King of Spain, and Charles I, King of England.