Peter Paul Rubens

"I have not yet made up my mind whether to remain in my own country Flanders or to return forever to Rome.. ..[I have received] an invitation on the most favorable terms.. ..Here they also do not fail to make every effort to keep me by every sort of compliment. The Archduke and the Most Serene Infanta have had letters written urging me to remain in their service. The offers are very generous but I have little desire to become a courtier again."

"We are exhausted [in Antwerp] and have endured so much that this war seems without purpose.. ..[and that it seemed] strange that Spain, which provides so little for the needs of this country .. ..has an abundance of means to wage an offensive war elsewhere."

"I have heard that you have found the secret of engraving on copper on white ground, as Elsheimer did. To bite the plate with acid, he covered the copper with a white paste. He then drew with the point down to the metal, which is of reddish color, and it looked as if he were drawing with red crayon on white paper. I cannot remember the composition of this write paste, although he communicated it to me."

"I have neither time to live nor to write. I am therefore cheating my art by stealing a few evening hours to write this most inadequate and negligent reply to the courteous and elegant letters of yours."

"[on the high seas] the English are increasing their insolence and barbarity. [T]hey cut to pieces the captain of a ship coming from Spain and threw all the crew into the sea for having defended themselves valiantly."

"A different painting which is the most beautiful and precious I have made from life. Also Signor Rubens had made a painting of the best kind in the center [of the painting, made by both artists] showing his merit, a lovely Madonna. The birds and animals are made from life from some of those of the most serene Infanta."

"I am by nature and inclination a peaceful man, the sworn enemy to disputes, lawsuits and quarrels both public and private."

"I was not yet inclined to live the life of a celibate.. ..I have taken a young wife of honest but middle-class family although everyone tried to persuade me to make a court marriage. But I feared pride, that inherent vice of the nobility, particularly in that sex, and that is why I chose one who would not blush to see me take my brushes in hand. And to tell the truth it would have been hard for me to exchange the priceless treasure of liberty for the embraces of an old woman."

"Nearby.. ..are monsters personifying Pestilence and Famine, those inseparable partners of War. On the ground, turning her back, lies a woman with a broken lute representing Harmony.. .[T]here is also a mother with a child in her arms indicating that fecundity, procreation and charity are thwarted by War, which corrupts and destroys everything. [Rubens is describing his painting The Horrors of War 1637]"

"My desire to enjoy your wonderful conversation is not a passing thing. I dont know what demons have robbed me of your company."

"Our good friend M. Rubens, as you will have heard, has accomplished nothing, having been sent back by the Prince of Orange almost as soon as he arrived. (in a letter of Hugo Grotius to Rubenss correspondent Pierre Dupuy, Jan. 1632"

"[those paintings that are] done entirely by my hand.. ..[those,]done by the hand of a master skillfull in that department.. ..but this one not being finished, would be entirely retouched by my own hand, and by this means would pass as original; done by one of my pupils, but the whole retouched by my hand."