Never before translated: the first biographies of Rubens, by an Italian, a German and a Frenchman, conveying to the full his extraordinary public career. The unparalleled brilliance of Rubens' career changed perceptions forever not only about painting but also about painters. Here was a man whose astonishing gifts were allied to a personality so cosmopolitan, engaging and virtuous in the widest sense that he could mingle as easily with kings and alchemists as with scholars or his fellow painters; who was frequently engaged in high diplomacy, but for whom family life was a lynchpin; who was famous as a collector and scholar but who remains one of the most excitingly painterly of all artists. Almost from the beginning Rubens' character and achievements fascinated his contemporaries. These three biographies, never before published in English, show the impact of Rubens' life and art on three very different observers. Baglione, an Italian painter and art historian, saw at first hand the astonishing success of his first visits to Rome. Sandrart, a German painter who knew Rubens, gives a full account of the later years of his career. De Piles, one of the greatest early art critics, sought to turn French painting in the directions shown by Rubens; his biography of Rubens was based on family papers and his evaluation of Rubens' style is one of the most influential ever written. This edition is the first publication in English of these Lives of Rubens. They are translated by scholars of the period, and introduced by a leading expert on the painter, Jeremy Wood, who elucidates the historical and artistic context of the biographies and the men who wrote them. 41 colour illustrations
