Portrait of Ludovicus Nonnius

Ludovicus Nonnius, a doctor, antiquarian and friend of Rubens in Antwerp, had recently published a book on a subject that sounds surprisingly modern, the importance of diet. He built his case on what the ancient Romans ate. The volume in his hands is most likely that book. Rubens seats him in a stately chair, in fine black clothes and a crisp ruff, looking out as if he were about to discuss a passage with us. On a pedestal behind him stands a marble bust labelled in Greek as Hippocrates, the ancient physician regarded as the founder of medicine, a fitting forebear for a man who joined medicine to classical learning. On the shelf opposite, the ties of two books hang undone, as though he has only just consulted them.