Rubens returned to Antwerp in 1608 from Italy, and he brought with him an interest in the heritage of Antique art and literature that developed into a cornerstone of his thinking and artistic production. After setting up home in Antwerp, he devoted himself with unfailing interest to Greek and Roman mythology, which he used for the subject of many works, mostly as private commissions.

The lyricism, eloquence and sensuality that characterise his entire oeuvre are already apparent in Rubens's mythological compositions of 1600-1620. These are often vigorous, earthy works: Venus Frigida, The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, Drunken Bacchus and Satyrs and The Three Graces. The taste for opulent forms and buxom nudes prevailing in these works, and the vitality and pantheism they radiate, took on a more intimate and even, elegiac note in the latter stages of Rubens's life.

Preview	Picture Data	Info
	Leda and the Swan 1598-1602 Oil on wood, 65 x 81 cm Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge
	The Battle of the Amazons c. 1600 Oil on canvas Schloss Sanssouci, Potsdam
	Democritus 1603 Oil on canvas, 179 x 66 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid
	Hero and Leander c. 1605 Oil on canvas, 128 x 217 cm Gemaldegalerie, Dresden
	Hero and Leander (detail) c. 1605 Oil on canvas Gemaldegalerie, Dresden
	Hero and Leander c. 1605 Oil on canvas, 96 x 127 cm Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
	The Judgment of Paris 1606 Oil on copper, 34 x 45 cm Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna
	Venus at her Toilet c. 1608 Oil on canvas, 137 x 11 cm Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
	Prometheus Bound 1610-11 Oil on canvas, 243 x 210 cm Museum of Art, Philadelphia
	Juno and Argus c. 1611 Oil on canvas, 249 x 296 cm Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne
	The Drunken Hercules c. 1611 Oil on oak panel, 220 x 220 cm Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
	The Abduction of Ganymede 1611-12 Oil on canvas, 203 x 203 cm Schwarzenberg Palace, Vienna
	Venus, Cupid, Baccchus and Ceres 1612-13 Oil on canvas, 141 x 200 cm Staatliche Museen, Kassel
	The Statue of Ceres c. 1615 Oil on wood, 91 x 66 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
	Jupiter and Callisto 1613 Oil on canvas, 202 x 305 cm Staatliche Museen, Kassel
	Cupid Making His Bow 1614 Oil on canvas, 142 x 108 cm Alte Pinakothek, Munich
	Venus Frigida 1614 Oil on wood, 142 x 184 cm Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp
	Venus and Adonis c. 1614 Oil on panel, 83 x 91 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg