布克哈特（Jacob Burckhardt, 1818-1897）在《義大利文藝復興時代的文化——一本嘗試之作》（Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. Ein Versuch）以「個人主義興起」與「走向現世性」兩個主軸來刻劃歐洲近現代文化的特徵。對布氏而言，此二新興歷史潮流對西方文明後續發展的影響，可謂利弊得失參半，不是史學研究者能片面加以肯定或否定。然而，布氏在晚年卻親眼目睹，不少人對這兩個歷史潮流的理解，受到當時流行的尼采（Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, 1844-1900）「超人」哲學影響，在片面解讀下，轉而對他原本從多元角度論述這兩個現象所闡發出來的豐富歷史內涵開始產生誤解。

In Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien Jacob Burckhardt characterized early modern Europe as having two major features: the rise of individualism and the trend toward secularism. Late in life, Burckhardt witnessed the rising misunder- standing of his discussions about the Renaissance individualism and secularism in the shaping of German national identity and Nietzsche’s philosophy of “Übermensch.” In order to clarify his own historical thinking, Burckhardt strove to specify his personal values in his last book, Erinnerungen aus Rubens. The present study aims to investigate how Burckhardt found the proper ways to make his thoughts clear by portraying Rubens as role model in presenting himself as a highly creative artist and a healthy-minded individual who led a happy family life as well as renowned public life during an age full of political and religious conflicts. The two main arguments of this paper are as follows: (1) How did Burckhardt rebut the notion of genius worship in his time with the ideal of l’uomo universale, to which Rubens served as an appropriate embodiment? (2) How did Burckhardt elaborate on the meaningful perception of [reality] in the secular world by distinguishing between the positivist notion of [reality] in the nineteenth- century art and Rubens’ humanistic approach to depicting the [reality] of the Thirty Years’ War? And, how did he argue for the value of Rubens’ perception of the [reality] in his time with regard to the pursuit of true happiness in the [secularized] modern world.