Rubens was the most important and creative Flemish artist of the seventeenth century, an era noted for the internationalism of its art. As political and cultural barriers fell, Rubens and his contemporaries, including Van Dyck and Brueghel, travelled throughout Europe, working for a wide variety of patrons that included the different European courts, the Church and the most prominent private collectors of the age. Catherine the Great of Russia sent advisers throughout Europe in search of the most prestigious art collections, with the result that the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is filled with examples of paintings, drawings and the decorative arts from Antwerp, where Rubens and his circle formed a close-knit artistic community, the hub of a network of influence that spanned the Continent. Rubens and his Age presents the jewels of the Hermitage's collection, many of them never before published, including Rubens's monumental allegory The Union of Earth and Water, as well as a remarkable selection of objets d'art, some of which were either owned, designed or commissioned by Rubens himself. This book represents an unprecedented opportunity to explore one of the world's finest collections of European art.