Art historian Matthew Wilson explores how the seventeenth-century artist Peter Paul Rubens used his reputation to act as a diplomat and informal spy across European royal courts.
Matthew Wilson brings Tinker, Tailor, Artist, Spy to The Abbey Theatre on Wednesday 12 May, a lecture that looks at Sir Peter Paul Rubens as something other than the painter we all know. Most of us recognise Rubens as one of the most influential artists of his time, but Wilson spends the hour on the other side of his life: his work as a high-ranking diplomat and an informal spy in seventeenth-century Europe.
It's a bit of a double life. Rubens was intelligent, good-looking, and a polyglot, and he used his art career as cover for international travel and private meetings. He worked on behalf of the Governors of the Spanish Netherlands, holding covert summits with some of the biggest names of the era: Marie de' Medici of France, King Philip IV of Spain, and King Charles I of England. The lecture takes you beyond Rubens the painter to explore his role as a political agent moving between the royal courts of Europe, where his reputation as an artist gave him access to diplomatic conversations and political networks that would have been closed to almost anyone else.
Wilson knows his way around this world. He studied History of Art at the Courtauld Institute and writes for BBC Culture, The Spectator, The Economist, and Aesthetica Magazine, with books on symbolism and art published by Thames & Hudson. He's used to talking about art in a way that reaches beyond the gallery, which fits a talk that's as much about political intrigue as it is about painting.
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The lecture is at The Abbey Theatre in Westminster Lodge, Holywell Hill, St Albans, AL1 2DL. It starts at 10:30am, with doors open from 10:00am, and tickets are £7.50.
