Originally published at The Catholic Thing
Peter Paul Rubens was a Catholic painter. He was not the most Catholic of Catholic painters, but he was likely the most catholic, as will become clear below.
One thinks of religious artists (i.e., male and female clerics) such as Fra Angelico, Fra Bartolomeo, and Sister Plautilla Nelli – artists whose lives were dedicated not just to painting but also to poverty, chastity, and obedience.
By contrast, Rubens was a wealthy, twice-married man (his first wife died), obedient to the Faith. The case may be made that he was the greatest Baroque-era painter, although the case can also be made that it was Caravaggio. And there’s also no question that Rubens admired Caravaggio’s work and was much influenced by it.
One difference between them was their productivity: Caravaggio produced fewer than 100 paintings that we know of; Rubens’ output (according to expert Michael Jaffé) was 1,403 works. Partly, that has to do with longevity: Rubens died at 62; Caravaggio at 38.
The Baroque period is generally dated from 1600 to 1725. According to Britannica:
Some of the qualities most frequently associated with the Baroque are grandeur, sensuous richness, drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur distinctions
