_Rubens_ (Flemish: 1577-1640). _See 38._
"Mars, leaving the temple of Janus[132] open, is held back by Venus,
while Europe bewails the inevitable miseries of war; but he is drawn on
by the Fury Alecto, who is preceded by Plague and Famine; the figure
on the ground with the broken lute represents Concord overthrown. Mars
and the two female figures behind him are said to be the portraits of
Rubens and his two wives" (Official Catalogue).
This is a sketch of the large picture painted by Rubens in 1637 for
his friend Sustermans, and now in the Pitti palace at Genoa. This
sketch, with the preceding one, was in the collection of Mr. Rogers,
where Ruskin saw it, as recorded in the following extract from his
autobiography, in which he describes "a lesson given to me by George
Richmond at one of Mr. Rogers's breakfasts (the old man used to ask
me, finding me always reverent to him, joyful in his pictures, and
sometimes amusing, as an object of curiosity to his guests), date
uncertain, but probably in 1842":--
Until that year, Rubens had remained the type of colour power
to me, and Titian's flesh tints of little worth! But that
morning, as I was getting talkative over the wild Rubens's
sketch (War or Discord, or Victory or the Furies, I forget
what), Richmond said, pointing to the Veronese beneath it,
"Why are you not looking at this--so much greater in manner?"
"Greater--how?" I asked, in surprise; "it seems to me quite
tame beside the Rubens." "That may be," said Richmond, "but the
Veronese is true, the other wildly conventional." "In what way
true?" I asked, still not understanding. "Well," said Richmond,
"compare the pure shadows on the flesh in Veronese, and its
clear edge, with Rubens's ochre and vermilion, and outline of
asphalt" (_Praeterita_, ii. 181).