In a Europe in the grip of the 30/Year/War, the young Fleming Peter Paul Rubens is determined to revolutionize painting. In 1600 he travels from Antwerp to Italy to study the old masters. With his unorthodox paintings, populated by people of flesh and blood, he celebrates his first successes. But his rise is interrupted by the sudden death of his mother, causing him to return to the Spanish Netherlands and build a new life together with his wife, Isabella. His pictures, shocking and touching his audience, soon make him rich and famous all over Europe. His prestige grows so far that powerful people such as Maria de Medici want to be painted by him and the governor of the Spanish Netherlands eventually sends him to Spain and England as an ambassador. There, he is confronted with a seemingly unsolvable task: He must restore peace to a Europe torn apart by war. Witty and forcefully, this novel tells the story of one of the 17th century’s most remarkable geniuses.