Left: A Nude Youth Turning To The Left, Peter Paul Rubens after Michelangelo © British Museum, London

Rubens: Drawing On Italy, at the Djanogly Art Gallery in Nottingham until December 8, is a rare chance to see over 70 works by the Baroque genius and the Italian artists he used as inspiration.

After his early training in Antwerp, Rubens spent from 1600 to 1608 painting in Italy and it is this period of his life that is the subject of the exhibition. The show explores how the master copied, studied and re-interpreted the work of the great Italian painters.

Right: Diana And Callisto, Peter Paul Rubens after Titian. Private Collection

Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640) was renowned in his lifetime and is now seen by experts as one of the foremost painters in history. He travelled extensively and was at ease with the crowned heads of most European countries.

Rubens was immensely productive and versatile as well as being well regarded by his peers - he worked in portraiture as well as religious painting, landscapes as well as allegorical scenes.

Left: copy of the figure of Prudence after Raphael, Peter Paul Rubens.

Technically a superlative painter, Rubens was also a master diplomat and scholar: his work is characterised by an intelligent symbolism, used to great effect in his religious works.

The Italian collection seen here neatly illustrates the scale and scope of Rubens' exploration of the works of the great Italian masters.

Right: Castration Of Uranus, Peter Paul Rubens.

Even within his own lifetime, the reworking and adaptation of the paintings of others drew comment from scholars and collectors of his work.

The crucial point to note, however, is these research exercises were never sold by Rubens, but were part of the intriguing, unseen inspiration of one of the worlds greatest painters