The Rubens House > Collection > Art and everyday implements > Bust of ‘Seneca’
Bust of ‘Seneca’
When Rubens returned to Antwerp from Italy in 1608, he brought along an antique marble bust of the Roman philosopher Seneca (c. 2 BC-AD 65), or so he thought.
According to the Stoical ideal preached by Seneca, wisdom, perseverance, self-control and equanimity were the moral qualities needed to endure the cruelties of fate. Seneca, who was especially popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had a major influence on Rubens and his humanist friends. Rubens incorporated the bust into various works. It was not until 1813 that the real portrait of Seneca was discovered.
Bust of ‘Seneca’
Roman, first century AD
marble