Through an in-depth analysis of early modern theories of the image, this book shows that early modern thinking, and consequently the understanding of the image, was fundamentally different from ours, and that Rubens played a fundamental role in what would ultimately become the triumph of painting. To do so, this book first argues that reasoning was based on the concept of the quaestio, meaning that the question was considered as important as the answer. Second, because these painters developed a visual question syntax to seduce the viewer, the book explores an unprecedented wealth of contemporary texts in order to empirically define the contemporary eye—not as a single position, but as a variety of constantly shifting opinions.  Third, it demonstrates that Rubens eventually realized that painting had the power to be religious in its own right—rather than a means of inducing religion.