The religious struggle is reflected in Rubens’ life.  His father, a pro-Calvinist alderman, had fled the City-on-the Scheldt because of religious intolerance.  In 1589, two years after the death of the father Jan Rubens, his widow and children returned to Antwerp where Peter Paul became an apprentice.  On his twenty-first birthday Rubens was enrolled as a master at the Sint-Lucas Guild.  In 1600 he left for Italy where he spent eight years as court painter to the Duke of Mantua.  A year after his return he was appointed city painter of Antwerp and court painter to the Archduke and Duchess Albrecht and  Isabella.
In 1611 Rubens bought  the building on the Wapper and enlarged it to provide a  home and studio which had all the trappings  of a palazzo.  It was here that he received numerous distinguished guests and that he built his dazzling carrier.
Rubens’ house is a complex arranged around an inner courtyard.  The baroque portico between the courtyard and the Flemish-Italian renaissance garden was designed by the master himself.  The house is a very fine evocation of the seventeenth-century decor with his private collection, utensils and various objects d’art.  The museum houses ten works by Rubens including his self-portrait and the chair which he used as the dean of his guild.
Paintings from the  14th to the 16th century can be seen in the Mayer Van den Bergh museum, a famous collector who lived in the 19th century.  The most famous painting is undoubtedly Dulle Griet or  Mad Meg by Pieter Breugel the Elder.