Whilst the majority of his other works were commissioned, the landscapes seem to have been painted for his own pleasure and delight and stayed in the artist’s possession until his death. By investigating contemporary notions on the changing perception of nature and landscape in late 16th and early 17th-century southern Netherlandish culture, Rubens’s position within this socio-cultural matrix will be established, thus shedding new light on the artist’s own perception of nature and landscape.