Esso Presents Rubens and the Italian Renaissance

Rubens and the Italian Renaissance explores Peter Paul Rubens’s (1577–1640) fascination with Italian painting, from the artist’s arrival in Venice in 1600 until his death in Antwerp in 1640. The rich heritage of the Renaissance and the brilliance of the Mannerist school made a profound impression on the young Rubens, who absorbed the techniques and styles of such masters as Michelangelo, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and Caravaggio.

This exhibition presents an outstanding selection of Rubens’s paintings and drawings together with a rich pageant of the sixteenth-century Italian historical, religious and mythological works that were to have such an extraordinary and lasting influence on this celebrated painter. It also highlights Rubens’s exceptional range of interests and intentions in emulating and enhancing the inventions of these Italian masters.