Like other great painters, Rubens was an architect, too; and, besides
his own house, the church and the college of the Jesuits, in Antwerp,
were built from his designs.
We are enabled to form some estimate of the astonishingly productive
powers of Rubens, when we consider that about 1000 of his works have
been engraved; and, including copies, the number of engravings from his
works amount to more than 1500. The extraordinary number of his
paintings adorn not merely the most celebrated public and private
galleries, and various churches in Europe, but they have even found
their way to America. In Lima, especially, there are several, and some
of them of considerable value and excellence. Yet, of the countless
pictures everywhere attributed to Rubens, but a small proportion were
entirely painted by his own hands; the others contain more or less of
the workmanship of his pupils. The greatest number of works, begun and
finished by his own hands, are to be found in the galleries of Madrid,
Antwerp, and Blenheim.--_Mrs. Jameson’s Translation of Dr. Waagen’s
Essay on Rubens._