"The animated, flamboyant, exuberantly sensuous style of Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) defined the Baroque movement and influenced artists such as Eugene Delacroix and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Yet, although he is one of the world's greatest painters, he remains a mystery figure who strolled the courts of Europe as both diplomat and spy. He has been admired and ignored, praised and ridiculed.".

"In presenting a re-creation of Rubens' age - its wars, art and theater, politics, and eccentricities - this biography challenges the current perceptions of the life and impact of this extraordinary man. Oppenheimer focuses on Rubens' quest for absolute beauty, an intellectual and artistic adventure illustrated by his paintings, drawings, and correspondence (including some family letters that appear here in unexpurgated English versions for the first time)."--BOOK JACKET.