1577 - 1640 Flanders (Belgium) Rubens brought together the best of Italian and Dutch renaissance painting into a lush style that has become known as Baroque. His ability to bring the human form and flesh alive continues to amaze. He was also, by the way, a skilled diplomat who quietly helped maintain peace between Holland’s independent north and his own Spanish-controlled south. “This simple and most elusive of truths surrounds us. Your enemy is that stroke of red. You are that stroke of blue. Your enemy is that stroke of white. You are that stroke of black. You complete each other.”