Half-length portrait of the philosopher Seneca

At the beginning of this "Golden Age" painting, the Dutch painters discovered everyday life as a subject for painting and achieved incomparable heights of portraiture with their keen realism. Singular among the Flemish artists was Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), four of whose works belong to the Kunsthalle collection. One of them is the half-length portrait of the philosopher Seneca which was painted probably around 1614/15.