Rubens: The Spectacle of Life

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) remains one of the most famous names in the History of Art. Born in the Spanish Netherlands, Rubens developed rapidly into a multitalented and much travelled artistic impresario, in the process becoming one of the most in demand artists of the Baroque era throughout Europe. He therefore produced a vast body of work and carried out commissions in most European countries including for Charles I of England at the Banqueting House in London. At the same time, he was a collector of and dealer in art himself, as well as later in life a diplomat on behalf of the Spanish Habsburgs. Miguel Ángel Trujillo’s film, introduced at Bishop Auckland by Piers Baker-Bates, Rubens: The Spectacle of Life, invites the viewer to enter Rubens fascinating and colourful world.

Dr Piers Baker-Bates received his PhD in the History of Art from the University of Cambridge and is currently is currently Visiting Research Associate at The Open University and Vice-Chair of the Iberian and Latin American Visual Culture Group known as ARTES, which he also chaired from 2019-2022. Piers has been research fellow at a number of institutions, and he has received numerous research grants. In 2022 he was inaugural Spanish Gallery Research Fellow at Durham University. His publications include: Sebastiano del Piombo and the World of Spanish Rome (2016); with co-author Miles Pattenden, The Spanish Presence in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Images of Iberia (2015), and a volume in the CEEH series on works in the Spanish Gallery collection, entitled Artistic Exchanges between Italy and Spain, 1516-1621.