Taine says, in his "Philosophy of Art in the Netherlands": "Rubens is to
Titian what Titian was to Raphael, and Raphael was to Phidias. Never did
artistic sympathy clasp nature in such an open and universal embrace.
Ancient boundaries, already often extended, seem removed purposely to
expose an infinite career. He shows no respect for historic proprieties:
he groups together allegoric with real figures, and cardinals with a
naked Mercury.
[Illustration: RUBENS.]
"There is no deference to the moral order; he fills the ideal heaven of
mythology and of the Gospel with coarse or mischievous characters; a
Magdalen resembling a nurse, and a Ceres whispering some pleasant gossip
in her neighbor's ear. There is no dread of exciting physical
sensibility; he pushes the horrible to extremes, ... all the animal
instincts of human nature appear; those which had been excluded as gross
he reproduces as true, and in him, as in nature, they encounter the
others. Nothing is wanting but the pure and the noble; the whole of
human nature is in his grasp, save the loftiest heights. Hence it is
that this creativeness is the vastest we have seen, comprehending as it
does all types, Italian cardinals, Roman emperors, contemporary
citizens, peasants and cowherds, along with the innumerable diversities
stamped on humanity by the play of natural forces, and which more than
fifteen hundred pictures did not suffice to exhaust.
"For the same reason, in the representation of the body, he comprehended
more profoundly than any one the essential characteristic of organic
life; he surpasses in this the Venetians as they surpass the
Florentines; he feels still better than they that flesh is a changeable
substance in a constant state of renewal; and such, more than any other,
is the Flemish body, lymphatic, sanguine, and voracious; more fluid,
more rapidly tending to accretion and waste than those whose dry fibre
and radical temperance preserve permanent tissues.
"Hence it is that nobody has depicted its contrasts in stronger relief,
nor as visibly shown the decay and bloom of life; at one time the dull,
flabby corpse, a genuine clinical mass, empty of blood and substance;
livid, blue, and mottled through suffering, a clot of blood on the
mouth, the eye glassy, and the feet and hands clayish, swollen, and
deformed because death seized them first; at another, the freshness of
living carnations, the handsome, blooming, and smiling athlete, the
mellow suppleness of a yielding torso in the form of a well-fed youth,
the soft rosy cheeks and placid candor of a girl whose blood was never
quickened or eyes bedimmed by thought, flocks of dimpled cherubs and
merry cupids, the delicacy, the folds, the exquisite melting rosiness of
infantile skin, seemingly the petal of a flower moistened with dew and
impregnated with morning light.
"His personages speak; their repose itself is suspended on the verge of
action; we feel what they have just accomplished, and what they are
about to do. The present with them is impregnated with the past and big
with the future; not only the whole face, but the entire attitude
conspires to manifest the flowing stream of their thought, feeling, and
complete being; we hear the inward utterance of their emotion; we might
repeat the words to which they give expression. The most fleeting and
most subtle shades of sentiment belong to Rubens; in this respect he is
a treasure for novelist and psychologist; he took note of the passing
refinements of moral expression as well as of the soft volume of
sanguine flesh; no one has gone beyond him in knowledge of the living
organism and of the animal man....
"There is only one Rubens in Flanders, as there is only one Shakespeare
in England. Great as the others are, they are deficient in some one
element of his genius."
This great painter, Peter Paul Rubens, whom Sir Joshua Reynolds called
"the best workman with his tools that ever managed a pencil," was born
at Siegen, June 29, 1577, on the day commemorating the martyrdom of
these saints at Rome, hence the names given to the child. Antwerp and
Cologne have claimed his birth, but subsequent historical investigation
has shown Siegen as his birthplace. Jans Rubens, the father of Peter,
was a distinguished councilman and alderman of Antwerp, having taken his
degree of Doctor of Laws at Rome when he was thirty-one. When he was
about that age he married Marie Pypelincx, a woman of good family,
unusual force of character, and the idol of her son Peter as long as she
lived.
Antwerp was now the scene of a desolating war. Charles V., Emperor of
Germany and King of Spain, had abdicated, leaving the Netherlands to his
son Philip II. Religious dissensions, the presence of Spanish soldiers,
and other matters, led to revolts, which the Duke of Alva, with twenty
thousand soldiers, was sent to suppress in 1576. Seven thousand of the
people of Antwerp were slain, and five hundred houses burned.
Jans Rubens had been accused of Calvinistic tendencies, and thought it
prudent to retire to Cologne before the arrival at Antwerp of the Roman
Catholic Duke of Alva, placing himself on the side of Prince William of
Orange, the Silent, who had married Annie of Saxony. She had quarrelled
with her husband, had come to Cologne, and had employed Jans Rubens as
one of her counsellors in obtaining her property, which Philip II. had
confiscated. Forgetting his high position and his family, Jans Rubens
sacrificed his good name and character by his immorality, was arrested
and thrown into prison by Count John of Nassau, the brother of Prince
William, and Annie was divorced by her husband. By German law Rubens was
under the penalty of death. He wrote to his wife, confessing his guilt
and imploring her pardon. She determined at once to save his life, if
possible. The noble-hearted woman wrote him tenderly--only great souls
know how to forgive,--
"How could I push severity to the point of paining you when you are in
such affliction that I would give my life to relieve you from it? Even
had this misfortune not been preceded by a long affection, ought I to
show so much hatred as not to be able to pardon a fault against me?...
Be, then, assured that I have entirely forgiven you, and would to Heaven
that your deliverance depended on this, for then we should soon be happy
again.
"Alas! it is not what your letter announces that affects me. I could
scarcely read it. I thought my heart would break. I am so distressed, I
hardly know what I write. This sad news so overwhelms me it is with
difficulty I can bear it. If there is no more pity in this world, to
whom shall I apply? I will implore Heaven with tears and groans, and
hope that God will grant my prayer by touching the hearts of these
gentlemen, so that they may spare us, may have compassion on us;
otherwise, they will kill me as well as you, my soul is so linked to
yours that you cannot suffer a pain without my suffering as much as
you. I believe that if these good lords saw my tears they would have
pity on me, even if they were of stone; and, when all other means fail,
I will go to them, although you write me not to do so."
Marie could not reach William the Silent, for he was away in the
country, consolidating the Dutch Republic; but she visited in person his
mother, and his brother, Count John. All her entreaties availed nothing.
It was publicly stated that Jans Rubens had been imprisoned for
political treason to Prince William, and must suffer death. Marie was
forbidden access to any of William's family, and for two years was not
allowed to enter the dungeon where her husband was confined.
At length she declared that the whole truth should be told, and Annie of
Saxony be forever disgraced. This threat moved the proud Orange family,
and procured the release of Jans Rubens, under bonds of six thousand
thalers, that he would never go outside the little town of Siegen. Here
he lived for some years, broken in health by his prison life, and under
the strict surveillance of Count John. Finally, Marie obtained
permission for them to reside in Cologne, where he died in 1587, when
his boy Peter was ten years of age.
The next year Marie Rubens returned to their old home at Antwerp, and by
her good sense and persistence recovered the estates of her husband,
which had been confiscated during the wars, thus placing her family in
very comfortable circumstances. Peter entered a Jesuits' college, where
he showed great aptitude for languages. In childhood he had been taught
Latin by his father, and French by a tutor. Later, he learned Italian,
Spanish, German, and English, besides, of course, speaking his native
Flemish. His mother had destined him for the law, but it was distasteful
to him.
At the age of thirteen, as was often the custom, the frank and handsome
boy was made a page in the household of his godmother, the Countess
Lalaing, but he took no pleasure in mere fashionable surroundings, and
begged his mother that he might become an artist.
This choice did not attract the mother, whose ambitions and hopes
centred largely in her enthusiastic Peter, but she had the wisdom to
lead rather than to dictate. Parents who break the wills of their
children usually have spoiled children as the result.
She placed her boy with Tobias Verhaeght, a landscape painter, from whom
the lad learned that close study of nature which made him thereafter a
reader of her secrets. Conrad Busken Huet says, in his "Land of Rubens":
"Man and nature as the Creator made them were quite sufficient for
Rubens's inspiration, no matter where he found them, far from home or
close to it. What attracted him most in nature was the unchangeable, the
imperishable, and the grand. He knew how to find these everywhere.
Artists less gifted and born by the seashore have before now felt the
want of sniffing the mountain breeze. Did their cradle stand among the
meadows, they longed for running streams and rivers. Rubens's pictures
prove that such contrasts had no value for him.
"Within the narrow limits of his native soil, he found every condition
necessary to the practice of his art. His imagination had no need of
anything more stirring than that presented to him by the recollection of
human vicissitudes amidst glebe and glade. The twinkling of the eye
sufficed to transform them into battlefields in his productions....
"When the sun shines, he shines everywhere. Such is Rubens's motto. He
knows but one moon, but one starry vault, but one gloaming, but one
morning dew. Every raindrop on which there falls a ray of light reminds
him of a diamond. Each stubble-field whence uprises the lark supplies
music to his ears. Each swan to which he flings bread-crumbs on his
arrival at 'Steen' (his country home) teaches him to keep the most
sublime song of his art for the end."
"It is curious to note that Rubens," says Charles W. Kett, in his "Life
of Rubens," "who began with scenes of country life, returned in his last
days to his first love, so that when he could no longer cover his huge
canvases with heroic figures, he would retire to his chateau at Steen,
and paint landscapes, even though the gout almost incapacitated him from
holding his brushes."
After about ten years spent with Verhaeght, young Rubens, thinking that
he would devote himself to historical subjects, became a pupil of Adam
van Noort, a teacher skilled in drawing, and in the use of brilliant
color, with study of light and shade. He is said to have been
intemperate and quick-tempered, but for four years Rubens found him a
useful teacher.
"It is related," says George H. Calvert, "that one day, when the master
was absent, the pupil took a fresh canvas to try what he could do by
himself towards representing a weeping Madonna. He worked for hours, and
so intently that he did not hear the returning footsteps of the master,
who from behind gazed in admiration and wonder at his performance."
The young painter was restless, not an unnatural condition for an
ardent, ambitious boy or girl. Such a life, fruitful for good or evil,
must be filled with the best activities.
When Rubens was nineteen, he entered the studio of Otto Venius, a kind
and learned man, of courtly manners, a free-master of the Guild of St.
Luke, and court painter to Archduke Albert of Austria and the Infanta
Isabella of Spain. She was the daughter of Philip II., to whom he had
ceded the "Spanish Netherlands." They were distinguished patrons of art,
and did everything to restore the war-worn country to peace and
prosperity. Venius became deeply attached to his pupil, made him
acquainted with the Regents Albert and Isabella, and inspired him to go
to Italy to study art, the country in which he had studied for seven
years.
Rubens had already painted some admirable works: the "Adoration of the
Three Kings," a "Holy Trinity," a "Dead Christ in the Arms of the
Father," and a portrait of Marie Pypelincx, "the true-hearted wife,"
says Mr. Kett, "of the faithless Jans, the mother of the artist, the
upholder of the family after the death of the father, the educator of
his children, and the restorer of the fallen greatness of the name of
Rubens. Calmly and beautifully does the pale face still look forth from
the canvas as of old. She must have smiled with satisfaction on the
rising fame of her youngest surviving son, now going forth into the
world to have those talents acknowledged which her maternal heart was
assured were in his keeping. Carefully attired, like a matron of good
family, in velvet dress, mourning coif, and muslin cuffs, denoting her
widowed state, she carries in her face the traits of a shrewd woman of
the world, who has battled bravely with the times, and now sees victory
crowning her endeavors.
"Her very chair, somewhat similar to the one still preserved in the
Academy at Antwerp as the gift of her son, speaks of a home of comfort;
her book, held in her still handsome hand, a forefinger marking the page
she has not finished reading, tells of a certain amount of learned
leisure; and her whole surroundings recall a home whence an artist, a
man of culture, and a courteous gentleman might derive those early
impressions and first inspirations which would develop, when he came in
contact with a larger world, into masterpieces of art."
On May 8, 1600, Rubens, at twenty-three years of age, having said
good-by to his fond mother, started for Italy. His first visit was to
Venice, where he studied the wonderful colorists, Titian, Paul Veronese,
and Tintoretto. He is said to have copied twenty portraits by Titian, so
earnest was he in obtaining the secret of these marvellous tints.
While here he became the friend of a Mantuan, an officer at the court of
Vincenzo de Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. This duke was thirty-seven years
old, rich, handsome, somewhat of a poet, the patron of artists and
authors, a brilliant and extravagant ruler. Through this friend, and
also by letters of introduction from Archduke Albert, Rubens met
Gonzaga, who was surprised at the learning of the attractive and
distinguished-appearing young artist. Hearing him repeat a passage from
Virgil, Gonzaga addressed him in Latin, and was answered in the same
language, fluently and correctly. The duke had made a fine collection of
paintings and antiques, and these Rubens was glad to study. A most
fortunate thing resulted from this acquaintance; Rubens was appointed
painter to the court and a member of the ducal household.
This was not the result merely of fortuitous circumstances. Rubens had
been a student. He was called later by scholars, "the antiquary and
Apelles of our time." He was also a most industrious worker. Philip
Rubens, his nephew, says in his life of his uncle, "He never gave
himself the pastime of going to parties where there was drinking and
card-playing, having always had a dislike for such." So fond was he of
reading the best books, that in after years, when he painted, Seneca and
Plutarch were often read to him. He had studied the technique of
painting since he was thirteen years old. He was especially charming in
manner, being free from harshness or censoriousness, and, withal, a
person of much tact and consideration. He had prepared himself for a
great work, and was ready to embrace his opportunity when it came.
Besides painting several originals for the Duke of Mantua, Rubens was
sent to Rome to make copies of some of the masterpieces. He took letters
of introduction to Cardinal Alessandro Montalto, the nephew of Sixtus
V., very rich, and a great patron of art.
Besides this work for Gonzaga, Rubens painted for the chapel of St.
Helena, in the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, at Rome, at the
request of Archduke Albert, formerly its cardinal, three pictures: "St.
Helena embracing the Cross," "Christ crowned with Thorns," and a
"Crucifixion."
On his return to Mantua, he copied the "Triumph of Julius Caesar," by
Andrea Mantegna; in one of the series, in place of a sheep walking by
the side of an elephant, he painted a lion. Dr. Waagen says in his
"Life of Rubens": "His love of the fantastic and pompous led him to
choose that with the elephant carrying the candelabra, but his ardent
imagination, ever directed to the dramatic, could not be content with
this; instead of a harmless sheep, which in Mantegna is walking by the
side of the foremost elephant, Rubens has introduced a lion and lioness,
which growl angrily at the elephant. The latter, on his part, is not
idle, but, looking furiously round, is on the point of striking the lion
a blow with his trunk. The severe pattern he had before him in Mantegna
has moderated Rubens in his taste for very full forms, so that they are
here more noble and slender than is usual with him. The coloring, as in
his earliest pictures, is more subdued than in the later, and yet more
powerful. Rubens himself seems to have set a high value upon this study,
for it was among his effects at his death."
In 1603, Rubens was sent by the Duke of Mantua on a pleasant mission to
Spain, with costly presents to Philip III., the indolent son of Philip
II., and his powerful favorite, the Duke of Lerma. For the king there
was a "gorgeous coach and seven beautiful horses, twelve arquebuses, six
of whalebone and six variegated, and a vase of rock crystal filled with
perfumes." For the Duke of Lerma, "a number of pictures, a silver vase
of large dimensions inwrought with colors, and two vases of gold. For
the Countess of Lerma, a cross and two candelabra of rich crystal. For
the secretary, Pedro Franqueza, two vases of rock crystal, and a
complete set of damask hangings, the edges of gold tissue."
After a long journey, with continuous rain for twenty-five days, Rubens
and his gifts reached Valladolid. When the paintings were unpacked, they
were nearly ruined, from the colors having peeled off. At the request of
Iberti, resident at the Court of Madrid from Mantua, Rubens undertook
the work of restoration, and, better still, painted two originals for
the Duke of Lerma, a "Democritus," and a "Heraclitus," both life-size,
now in the gallery of Madrid. He also painted an equestrian likeness of
the duke himself, several ladies of the court, for the gallery of
beauties possessed by Gonzaga, and probably many other pictures on this
first visit, as more than one hundred and twenty of Rubens's paintings
are known to have existed in Spain. On his return to Italy he was loaded
with gifts from the King of Spain and grandees, so much were his works
esteemed and so greatly was the young Fleming admired. Once more in
Italy, Rubens painted an altar-piece for the Church of the Holy Trinity
at Mantua, in which the mother of the duke was buried; three pictures,
the "Baptism of our Saviour," the "Mystery of the Transfiguration," and
a central picture, the "Mystery of the Trinity," which latter contained
portraits of Duke Vincenzo, his Duchess Leonora, his parents, and his
children. When the French took Mantua in 1797, this church was used as
a storehouse for food for the horses. A French commissary cut this
picture in pieces, the better to carry it, and, when about to send it to
France, was prevented by the Academy of Mantua. Some of the pieces have
disappeared.
Rubens also painted, for the Church of Santa Maria in Valicella, Rome,
an altar-piece, representing the "Madonna and Child," with side pictures
of the pope and several saints. In co-operation with his brother Philip,
he published, in 1608, a book on Roman antiquities, with six
copper-plate illustrations. The pope was so pleased with Rubens that he
desired to keep him in Rome permanently.
For the Grand Duke Ferdinand I. of Florence, Rubens painted several
pictures, among them a "Hercules between Venus and Minerva." In Spain he
executed a series called "The Labors of Hercules," besides three
separate ones, representing the slaying of the dragon, the struggle with
Antaeus, and the combat with a lion. He also copied the celebrated
cartoon of Leonardo da Vinci, called "The Battle of the Standard," and
made a valuable portrait of himself for the Grand Ducal collection of
self-painted heads of artists. At Genoa he made drawings of her
remarkable palaces and churches, which he published later in a volume
with one hundred and thirty-nine illustrations.
After an absence of eight years in Italy, Rubens was recalled to Antwerp
by the illness of his mother. He started homeward October 28, 1608,
with a heavy heart. On his way he learned that she had died nine days
before he began his long journey.
On reaching Antwerp, he shut himself up for four months in the Abbey of
St. Michael's, where she had been buried. He had given her no ordinary
affection, and his was no ordinary loss. He met this loss in the silence
of his own thoughts in the abbey, and when he had gained the
self-control necessary for his work, he came out into the world. Most of
us learn to bear our sorrows in our own hearts, without laying our
burdens upon others, finding, sooner or later, that the world has enough
of its own.
He talked of returning to Italy, but Archduke Albert and Isabella, proud
of his genius and his attainments, invited him to court, sat for their
portraits, and made him their official painter. One of his first works
for them was a "Holy Family," which was so much admired that the Society
of St. Ildefonso of Brussels, Archduke Albert being its head, ordered an
altar-piece for the Chapel of the order of St. James. "This picture,"
says Dr. Waagen, "which is at present in the Imperial gallery at Vienna,
represents the Virgin Mary enthroned, and putting the cloak of the order
on the shoulders of St. Ildefonso. She is surrounded by four female
saints. On the interior of the wings are the portraits of Albert and
Isabella, with their patron saints. This work, one of the most
admirable ever painted by Rubens, displays in a remarkable degree the
qualities praised in the one painted for the Archduke."
The association were so pleased that they offered the artist a purse of
gold, which, having been made a member, he would not receive, saying
that his only desire was to be useful to his brother members.
Lonely from the death of his mother, a new affection came into his heart
to sustain and console him. Philip, his brother, now secretary of
Antwerp, had taken as his wife Maria de Moy, whose sister, Clara, much
older, had married a former secretary of Antwerp, Jan Brandt. Their
daughter, Isabella Brandt, was a young woman of attractive face and
sweet disposition. Peter naturally met the niece of his brother Philip's
wife, loved her, and married her October 13, 1609, in the Abbey Church
of St. Michael, when he was thirty-two.
He soon built a house, costing sixty thousand florins, in the Italian
style of architecture, with a spacious studio, and a separate building
or rotunda, like the Pantheon at Rome, lighted from the top, where he
arranged the pictures, marbles, vases, and gems which he had collected
in Italy. Adjoining this he laid out a large garden, planted with
flowers and choice trees.
"The celebrated picture of Rubens and his first wife," says Mr. Kett,
"now in the Pinakothek at Munich, must have been painted within the
first few years of their married life, and is a striking example of the
painter's manner at this period. His calm serenity and thoughtful
expression, combined with beauty and force of character, are well
balanced by the placid contentment and happy dignity of his wife, as the
pair sit under their own vine and fig-tree, prepared to receive their
visitors. There is no affected demonstration of feeling, no bashful
restraint. A couple well-to-do and able to enjoy themselves are happy to
share their pleasure with others."
In 1611, Rubens met with a severe loss in the death of his greatly
beloved brother, Philip. All the seven children of Jans Rubens and Maria
Pypelincx were now dead save Peter Paul.
In 1614, Rubens's heart was made glad by the birth of a son, to whom
Archduke Albert became godfather, and gave him his own name. Four years
later his only other child by Isabella Brandt was born, both of whom
survived their father. A beautiful painting of these two children is now
in the Liechtenstein Gallery, in Vienna.
The rich and famous painter was now happy, surrounded by his loved ones,
busy constantly with his work, which poured in upon him. In summer he
rose at four o'clock, heard mass, and went to work early. Says Dr.
Waagen, "This was the time when he generally received his visitors, with
whom he entered willingly into conversation on a variety of topics, in
the most animated and agreeable manner. An hour before dinner he always
devoted to recreation, which consisted either in allowing his thoughts
to dwell as they listed on subjects connected with science or politics,
which latter interested him deeply, or in contemplating his treasures of
art. From anxiety not to impair the brilliant play of his fancy, he
indulged but sparingly in the pleasures of the table, and drank but
little wine. After working again till the evening, he usually, if not
prevented by business, mounted a spirited Andalusian horse, and rode for
an hour or two.
"This was his favorite exercise; he was extremely fond of horses, and
his stables generally contained some of remarkable beauty. On his return
home, it was his custom to receive a few friends, principally men of
learning or artists, with whom he shared his frugal meal, and afterwards
passed the evening in instructive and cheerful conversation. This active
and regular mode of life could alone have enabled Rubens to satisfy all
the demands that were made upon him as an artist, and the astonishing
number of works that he completed, the genuineness of which is beyond
all doubt, can only be accounted for by this union of extraordinary
diligence with his unusually fertile powers of production."
In building his home, Rubens encroached a little on land owned by the
Company of Arquebusiers of Antwerp. A lawsuit was threatened, but
finally a compromise was effected whereby Rubens agreed to paint a
triptych, that is, a picture in three parts, of their patron St.
Christopher, to be hung in the cathedral. In fulfilment of this
contract, he painted the renowned "Descent from the Cross," now in the
south end of the transept of the cathedral, with St. Simon on one wing
of the triptych, and "The Visitation" on the other, with St. Christopher
in person.
Says Huet: "Playing upon the name of a patron saint, he has represented
a threefold 'bearing of Christ'; Christ borne from the Cross in the
centre; Christ borne by old Simon on the right; Christ borne ''neath his
mother's heart' on the left wing.... There is no need to insist as to
how Rubens acquitted himself of his task in the centre piece. Da Vinci's
'Last Supper' and Rubens's 'Descent from the Cross' are the two most
popular altarpieces of Christianity, admired alike by Protestant and
Catholic. For the history of Flemish art this 'Descent' possesses as
much value as does Goethe's 'Faust' for the history of German
literature. No one has succeeded in painting subsequent to Rubens a
'Descent from the Cross' without paying toll to the master.... It is the
triumph of human sympathy expressed in accordance with the theory of
line and color. The painter had no other aim than to limn a perfect
group of loving people, occupied in taking down the body of Christ. He
does not portray your sorrow, but theirs. What he tenders us is
sentiment, not sentimentality; emotion, not intellect. The allusion to
St. Christopher must be disinterred from encyclopaedias; the
recollection of John in his red cloak, carrying his burden, of the
fair-haired Mary Magdalen, of the disciple with the winding-sheet
betwixt his teeth, has become immortal.
"The lovely mother-virgin of the left-hand side leaf deserves particular
attention.... I know of no more fascinating female figure from Rubens's
brush; none which in its Flemish guise is so original, so wholly his.
The 'Descent from the Cross' itself one might still believe to be the
work of one of the great Italians. No such mistake is possible with the
side leaf. What excites our wonder in Goethe is his succeeding in
raising a Leipzig girl of the lower classes to the rank of a tragic
heroine, the very mention of whose name suffices to remind us of an
imperishable type. Rubens's pregnant Mary is an honorable Gretchen. He
created her out of the most hidden depths of human nature, where blood
and soul, mind and matter, melt into one. When Jordaens wishes to paint
fertility, he resorts to the allegory of the schools. To Rubens life
itself is the best of all allegories. Mary's clinging for support to the
railing of the staircase, as she ascends it, is a hymn in honor of
maternity. In the course of ages pictorial art has produced many
beautiful works, none more beautiful than that scene."
About this time Rubens painted some of his greatest works. "Our Saviour
giving the Keys to St. Peter" was originally placed in the Cathedral of
St. Gudule; it was sold in 1824 to the Prince of Orange, for one
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. An "Elevation of the Cross,"
an immense picture, executed for the Church of St. Walburg, at Antwerp,
is now in the north transept of the cathedral. He painted an "Adoration
of the Magi" for the choir of the Abbey Church of St. Michael, dear to
him from the burial of his mother and his own marriage, and a similar
picture for the Church of St. John at Malines.
Of an "Adoration of the Magi" in the Museum at Antwerp, Eugene Fromentin
says: "It is truly a _tour de force_, especially if one recalls the
rapidity of this work of improvisation. Not a gap, not a strain; a vast,
clear half-tint and lights without excess envelop all the figures,
supporting one the other; all the colors are visible and multiply values
the most rare, the least sought and yet the most fit, the most subtle
and yet the most distinct. By the side of types that are very ugly swarm
superior types. With his square face, his thick lips, his reddish skin,
big eyes strongly lighted up, and his stout body girt in green pelisse
with sleeves of peacock blue, this African among the Magi is a figure
entirely new, before which, assuredly, Tintoretto, Titian, Veronese
would have clapped their hands.
"On the left stand in dignified solemnity two colossal cavaliers of a
singular Anglo-Flemish style, the most extraordinary piece of color in
the picture, with its dull harmony of black, greenish blue, of brown and
white. Add the profile of the Nubian camel-drivers, the
supernumeraries, men in helmets, negroes, the whole in the most ample,
the most transparent, the most natural of atmospheres. Spider-webs float
in the framework, and quite low down the head of the ox,--a sketch
achieved by a few strokes of the brush in bitumen,--without more
importance and not otherwise executed than would be a hasty signature.
The Child is delicious; to be cited as one of the most beautiful among
the purely picturesque compositions of Rubens, the last word of his
knowledge as to color, of his skill as to technique, when his sight was
clear and instantaneous, his hand rapid and careful, and when he was not
too exacting, the triumph of rapture and science--in a word, of
self-confidence."
Rubens had courage. He used to say: "Every one according to his gift; my
talent is such that never yet has an undertaking, however extraordinary
in size or diversity of subjects, daunted my courage."
The "Assumption of the Virgin" in the Antwerp Cathedral, Dr. Waagen
says, "may be said to produce the same effect as a symphony, in which
the united sounds of all the instruments blend together joyously,
divinely, mightily. No other painter has ever known how to produce such
a full and satisfactory tone of light, such a deep chiaro-oscuro united
with such general brilliancy."
"St. Theresa pleading for the Souls in Purgatory," "St. Anne instructing
the Virgin," and the "Dead Saviour laid on a Stone," are now at
Antwerp. Five of the above pictures and three others, "Christ on the
Cross," "The Resurrection of our Saviour," and "The Adoration of the
Shepherds," were painted in eighteen days, Rubens receiving as
compensation fifty dollars per day, his usual price.
For a magnificent church built by the Jesuits, Rubens painted two works
for the high altar, pictures for two other altars, and thirty-nine
ceilings with Bible scenes, including the "Assumption" and "Coronation
of the Virgin," the "Translation of Elijah," and the "Archangel Michael
triumphing over the Serpent." These works with the church were all
destroyed by fire, caused by lightning, in 1718.
With all this prosperity it was not strange that envy and jealousy
should now and then confront Rubens. One of his rivals invited him to
paint a picture on some chosen subject, and allow umpires to decide
which was the better work. Rubens replied to the challenge: "My attempts
have been subjected to the scrutiny of _connoisseurs_ in Italy and
Spain. They are to be found in public collections and private galleries
in those countries; gentlemen are at liberty to place their works beside
them, in order that the comparison be made."
The great artist used to say, "Do well, and people will be jealous of
you; do better, and you confound them."
He employed several pupils to help him constantly. He would make
sketches and superintend the work, adding the finishing touches. Having
been asked to paint for the Cathedral of Malines a "Last Supper," Rubens
made the drawing and sent it to one of his pupils, Juste van Egmont, to
lay on the ground color. The canon of the cathedral said to Van Egmont,
"Why did your master not come himself?" "Don't be uneasy," was the
reply. "He will, as is his custom, finish the picture."
Egmont went on with the work, when finally the canon, in a rage, ordered
him to stop, while he wrote to Rubens: "'Twas a picture by your own hand
I ordered, not an attempt by an apprentice. Come, then, and handle the
brush yourself: or recall your Juste van Egmont, and tell him to take
with him his sketch; my intention being not to accept it, you can keep
it for yourself."
Rubens wrote back: "I proceed always in this way; after having made the
drawing, I let my pupils begin the picture, finish even, according to my
principles; then I retouch it, and give it my stamp. I shall go to
Malines in a few days; your dissatisfaction will cease." Rubens came,
and the canon was satisfied.
Mr. Kett says: "Rubens's method of painting was his own. Some of his
fellow-countrymen, who were jealous of him, said he did not use paints,
but colored varnishes, and that his pictures would not last; of the
latter point we are the better judges. He used light grounds, almost, if
not quite white; his outlines were drawn with a brush in color (often
red for the flesh), and very transparent glazes were laid over all the
shadows, the lights being sometimes, not always, painted thicker. He
exposed his pictures to the sun for short spaces of time, between the
paintings, to dry out the oil. They received several coats of color, and
then, finally, he put in the stronger touches himself, the light ones
now thick. All his works, however, do not seem to have been done in this
way, but many have solid painting from the first."
Rubens had become both rich and famous. When an alchemist visited him,
urging that he furnish a laboratory and apparatus for the process of
transmutation of metals, and share the profits, the painter replied:
"You have come twenty years too late; I found out the secret long ago;"
and then, pointing to his palette and brushes, he added, "Everything I
touch with these turns to gold."
A new honor was now conferred upon Rubens. Marie de' Medici, the sister
of the Duchess Leonora of Mantua, wished to adorn her palace of the
Luxembourg, in Paris, with great magnificence. Henry, Baron Vicq, the
ambassador of the Archduke Albert and Isabella, spoke to Queen Marie of
Rubens. She must have known of his work, also, when he was the court
painter of Mantua. He was summoned to Paris, and took the order for
twenty-two immense pictures, illustrative of her life. These are now in
the Louvre, full of vigor, brilliant in imagery, and rich in color.
In the first picture the three Fates spin the fortunes of Marie de'
Medici; the second represents her birth at Florence, in 1575, Lucina,
the goddess of births, being present with her torch, while Florentia,
the goddess of the city, holds the new-born infant; the third, her
education, conducted by Minerva, Apollo, and Mercury; fourth, Love shows
the princess the portrait of Henry IV., whom she married in 1600, after
he had been divorced from Margaret of Valois, in the preceding year;
above are Jupiter and Juno; beside the king appears Gallia; fifth shows
the nuptials; the Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany acts as proxy for his
niece's husband; sixth, the queen lands at Marseilles; seventh, the
wedding festival, at Lyons, with Henry IV. as Jupiter, and Marie as
Juno; eighth, the birth of Louis XIII., in 1601, with Fortuna behind the
queen; ninth, Henry IV. starting on his campaign against Germany, in
1610, when he makes the queen regent; tenth, coronation of the queen at
St. Denis; eleventh, apotheosis of Henry IV., who was stabbed by
Ravaillac, it is said, not against the queen's wishes, who,
nevertheless, in the picture is enthroned in mourning robes between
Minerva and Wisdom; twelfth, regency of the queen under the protection
of Olympus; Mars, Apollo, and Minerva drive away the hostile powers,
while Juno and Jupiter cause the chariot of France to be drawn by gentle
doves; thirteenth, the queen in the field during the civil war in
France; fourteenth, treaty between France and Spain; fifteenth,
prosperity during the regency, the queen bearing the scales of justice
with Minerva, Fortuna, and Abundantia on the right, Gallia and Time on
the left, while below are Envy, Hatred, and Stupidity; sixteenth, the
queen commits the rudder of the Ship of State, rowed by the Virtues, to
Louis XIII., who certainly must have deserted these virtues early in his
career; seventeenth, flight of the queen, in 1619, to Blois, where the
wily Cardinal Richelieu joined her as a pretended friend; eighteenth,
Mercury presents himself to the queen as a messenger of peace;
nineteenth, the queen is conducted into the temple of peace; twentieth,
Marie and Louis XIII. on Olympus, with the dragon of rebellion below
them; twenty-first, the king giving his mother a chaplet of peace;
twenty-second, portrait of Marie; followed by portraits of her parents,
Grand Duke Francis and Johanna, Grand Duchess of Tuscany.
Fortunately, Rubens could not paint the sad future of Marie de' Medici.
She died in a poor apartment at Cologne, deserted by her family. The
queen was delighted with Rubens's pictures, taking lessons of him in
drawing, and often conversing with him while he made the sketches, the
painting being done by himself and his pupils in his studio at Antwerp,
in about two years and a half.
The queen had intended to adorn another gallery at the Luxembourg with
the life of Henry IV., but the project was abandoned in consequence of
the quarrel between Marie and Cardinal Richelieu.
Rubens painted other pictures while at work on the Medici allegory:
"Susannah and the Elders," "Lot's Daughters," a beautiful "Virgin and
Child" for Baron de Vicq, who had recommended him to Marie de' Medici,
and several other works.
In his "Kermess" now in the Louvre, a peasant festival in Flanders, "in
front of a village inn about fourscore persons of both sexes are
depicted, intermingled in varieties of groups, in the full swing of
boisterous enjoyment after a better meal than peasants are used to,
singing, dancing, talking, shouting, gambolling, love-making. A large,
serious dog tries to get his share by prying into a pail half filled
with empty platters. An abounding scene of rustic revelry, in the groups
and individuals a character and expression which only warm genius
animating rich intellectual resources could give."
Rubens delighted in painting animals. "It is related," says Calvert,
"that he caused to be brought to his house a very fine and powerful lion
that he might study him in his various attitudes. But what he had still
greater delight in painting than animals was children. Here, too, as
with animals, and in a higher form, he had what a healthy, juicy mind
like his revelled in, nature unsophisticated. It may have been in front
of one of his canvases glowing with the luminous rosiness of half a
dozen of these happy soul-buds that Guido exclaimed, 'Does Rubens mix
blood with his paint?' The mobility of children, their naturalness,
their unveiled life and innocence, humanity in its heavenly promise,
laughing incarnations of hope, all appealed to his liveliest
sympathies, as to his artistic preferences."
He was skilled, also, in portraits. Mr. Kett says the picture of his
mother, in the Dulwich Gallery, the "Spanish Hat," in the National
Gallery, and the portrait called "General Velasquez" "are three that
could scarcely be excelled by any master of any time."
Dr. Waagen says of "_Le Chapeau de Poil_" ("The Spanish Hat"), "No
picture justifies more than this the appellation which Rubens has
obtained of 'The Painter of Light.' No one who has not beheld this
masterpiece of painting can form any conception of the transparency and
brilliancy with which the local coloring in the features and complexion,
though under the shadow of a broad-brimmed Spanish beaver hat, are
brought out and made to tell, while the different parts are rounded and
relieved with the finest knowledge and use of reflected lights. The
expression of those youthful features, beaming with cheerfulness, is so
full of life, and has such a perfect charm, that one is inclined to
believe the tradition that Rubens fell in love with the original (a
young girl of the Lunden family, at Antwerp) whilst she was sitting to
him."
Mrs. Jameson says, "The picture as a picture is miraculous, all but life
itself.... Rubens, during his life, would never part with this
picture.... After the death of his widow, it passed into the possession
of the Lunden family, whose heir, M. Van Havre, sold it in 1817, for
sixty thousand francs, to another descendant of the family, M. Stier
d'Artselaer. At his death, in 1822, it was sold by auction and purchased
by M. Niewenhuys for seventy-five thousand francs, and brought to
England, where, after being offered in vain to George IV., it was bought
by Sir Robert Peel for three thousand five hundred guineas....
"To venture to judge Rubens, we ought to have seen many of his pictures.
His defects may be acknowledged once for all. They are in all senses
gross, open, palpable; his florid color, dazzling and garish in its
indiscriminate excess; his exaggerated, redundant forms; his coarse
allegories; his historical improprieties; his vulgar and prosaic
versions of the loftiest and most delicate creations of poetry; let all
these be granted, but this man painted that sublime history (a series of
six pictures), almost faultless in conception and in costume, the
'Decius' in the Liechtenstein Gallery. This man, who has been called
unpoetical, and who was a born poet, if ever there was one, conceived
that magnificent epic, the 'Battle of the Amazons;' that divine lyric,
the 'Virgin Mary' trampling sin and the dragon, in the Munich Gallery,
which might be styled a Pindaric Ode in honor of the Virgin, only
painted instead of sung; and those tenderest moral poems, the 'St.
Theresa' pleading for the souls in Purgatory, and the little sketch of
'War,' where a woman sits desolate on the black, wide heath, with dead
bodies and implements of war heaped in shadowy masses around her,
while, just seen against the lurid streak of light left by the setting
sun, the battle rages in the far distance....
"Though thus dramatic in the strongest sense, yet he is so without
approaching the verge of what we call theatrical. With all his flaunting
luxuriance of color, and occasional exaggeration in form, we cannot
apply that word to him. Le Bran is theatrical; Rubens, never. His sins
are those of excess of daring and power; but he is ever the reverse of
the flimsy, the artificial, or the superficial. His gay magnificence and
sumptuous fancy are always accompanied by a certain impress and
assurance of power and grandeur, which often reaches the sublime, even
when it stops short of the ideal."
A few months after the paintings were finished for Marie de' Medici, a
great sorrow came to the Rubens mansion. Isabella Brandt, his wife, died
in the middle of the year 1626, leaving two sons, Albert and Nicholas,
twelve and eight years of age. She was buried with much display in the
Abbey Church of St. Michael, where she had been married,--in the same
tomb with his mother and his brother Philip, and her husband dedicated a
beautiful "Virgin and Child" to her memory. He wrote to a friend, sadly,
in regard to her whom he had lost, as one "not having any of the vices
of her sex. She was without bad temper or feminine frivolity, but was in
every way good and honorable--in life loved on account of her virtues,
and since her death universally bewailed by all. Such a loss seems to me
worthy of sympathy, and because the true remedy for all evils is
forgetfulness, the daughter of time, one must without doubt hope for
relief; but I find the separation of grief for the departed from the
memory of a person whom I ought to revere and honor whilst I live, to be
very difficult."
Partly to distract his mind from his grief, and partly to assist his own
country, to which he was devotedly attached, to keep peace with the
powers at war, which made Belgium their battle-ground, at the request of
the Infanta Isabella he visited Holland on a diplomatic mission, and, a
little later, Spain and England. The King of Spain had already ennobled
Rubens. "Regard being had to the great renown which he has merited and
acquired by excellence in the art of painting, and rare experience in
the same, as also by the knowledge which he has of histories and
languages, and other fine qualities and parts which he possesses, and
which render him worthy of our royal favor, we have granted and do grant
to the said Peter Paul Rubens and his children and posterity, male and
female, the said title and degree of nobility." In consequence of this,
Isabella had made him "gentleman of her household."
In this his second visit to Spain, he is said to have painted forty
pictures in nine months. Rubens and Velasquez became intimate friends,
although the former was fifty-one, and the latter twenty-eight.
A little later he was sent by Philip IV. of Spain, who had appointed
Rubens secretary to his privy council, on a mission to England. Here he
was discovered by a courtier, one morning, busy at his painting. "Ho!"
said the courtier, "does his Most Catholic Majesty's representative
amuse himself with painting?"
"No," answered Rubens, "the artist sometimes amuses himself with
diplomacy."
Rubens painted for King Charles I., "Diana and her Nymphs surprised by
Satyrs," and "Peace and Plenty," which latter, after remaining in Italy
for a century, was finally bought by the Marquis of Stafford, for
fifteen thousand dollars, and by him presented to the National Gallery.
Rubens also made nine sketches for pictures ordered by the king to
decorate the ceiling of the throne-room of Whitehall, illustrating the
deeds of James I. These cost fifteen thousand dollars.
King Charles knighted the famous painter, and after the ceremony
presented him with the sword, a handsome service of plate, a diamond
ring, and a rich chain to which was attached a miniature of the king;
this he ever afterwards wore round his neck.
At Cambridge University he was received by Lord Holland, the Chancellor,
and admitted to the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
As a diplomatist, M. Villoamil says, "Rubens had great tact, was
prudent, active, forbearing, and patient to the last degree, and, above
all, throwing aside all personality, how exclusively careful he was
neither to exceed nor fall short of the line laid down to him from
Spain, softening, when it seemed harsh, what the Count Duke (Olivarezs)
had charged him to communicate, and even taking on himself faults and
errors which he had not committed, when by such assumption he could
advance his objects and gain the ends he had in view in the service of
Spain."
How few in this world learn the beauty and the power of being "patient
to the last degree!" How few learn early in life to avoid gossip, to
speak well of others, and to make peace!
In 1630, four years after the death of Isabella Brandt, Rubens married
her sister's daughter, Helena Fourment, a wealthy girl of sixteen, while
the painter was fifty-three. He seems to have thought her beautiful, as
she appears in nearly all his subsequent paintings. At Blenheim are two
portraits of the fair Helena: one, representing himself and his wife in
a flower garden with their little child, Dr. Waagen regards as one of
the most perfect family pictures in the world.
In the Belvidere, Vienna, is a magnificent portrait of Helena Fourment.
She bore to Rubens five children in the ten remaining years of his life.
He soon bought a lovely country home, the Chateau de Steen at Elewyt,
which was sold at his death for forty thousand dollars. "It was," says
Huet, "a feudal castle, surrounded on all sides with water. Rubens,
though nothing need have prevented him from demolishing the castle and
erecting an Italian villa on its site, respected its mediaeval
architecture. One may take it that the mediaeval turrets and the mediaeval
moat made up, according to him, an agreeable whole with the sylvan
surroundings. An imagination like his felt at home everywhere. The
principal charm of 'Steen' lay in its being but a day's journey from
Antwerp,--that there wife and children could breathe the beneficent
country air in unstinted draughts, and the artist himself could indulge
his leisure and find new subjects. It is all but certain that the idyl
of 'The Rainbow' and the bacchanalia of 'The Village Fair' were painted
nowhere else but at Steen....
"Though the two centuries and a half that have elapsed since then have
altered the means of locomotion and communication so thoroughly as to
make them difficult of recognition, it needs no great effort of the
imagination to follow the Rubens family from stage to stage on its
flitting to the summer quarters. We can fancy him sitting one of those
splendid horses he so magnificently bestrode. A team of four or six less
costly, but well-fed, well-groomed, and well-equipped cattle drags
through the loose sand or heavy clay the still heavier coach, where,
between children and nursemaids, thrones the mistress of the house, not
very securely; for she, like the rest, is considerably jolted. She
wears the large hat with feathers, beneath which the charming face meets
the spectators, as in the picture in the Louvre. A solid train with
provisions for the long journey brings up the rear of the procession.
Proud of his young wife, anxious as to her every want, the great artist,
whose hair and beard are plentifully besprinkled with gray, does not
leave the carriage door by her side."
During the last years of his life Rubens suffered much from gout, but,
with the help of his pupils, he accomplished a great amount of work.
Many of his scholars became famous: Van Dyck, Jordaens, Snyders,
Teniers, and others.
Van Dyck was twenty-two years younger than Rubens, and entered his
studio when he was seventeen. In four years his works began to be almost
as much esteemed as those of his master. It is said that one day, during
the absence of Rubens from his studio, the pupils, crowding around a
freshly painted picture, pushed against it, thus effacing the arm and
chin of a Virgin. They were greatly distressed over the matter, when Van
Hoeck cried out: "Van Dyck is the handiest; he must repair the
mischief." The restoration was so deftly made that Rubens did not
observe the accident.
Later, when Van Dyck came back from Italy, after five years of study
there, he found little sale for his pictures, and was depressed. Rubens
went to his studio, comforted him, and bought all his paintings which
were finished. He did the same thing with a rival who had maligned him
because he was not as successful as the great painter. When Rubens died,
he owned in his gallery over three hundred pictures, many by Titian,
Paul Veronese, Tintoretto, and Van Dyck, and ninety by his own hand.
In 1635, when Philip IV. of Spain had appointed as governor of the
Netherlands his own brother, the Cardinal Infanta Ferdinand, Sir Peter
Paul Rubens was deputed to design the triumphal arches and ornamental
temples for his solemn entry into Antwerp. These beautiful designs were
afterwards engraved and published, with a learned Latin description by
his friend Gevaerts, though they were not ready for the press till the
year after Rubens's death. On the day when Ferdinand entered Antwerp,
Rubens was ill at his house, but the new governor showed his
appreciation of his talent and learning by calling upon him in his own
home, as Queen Marie de' Medici, the Infanta Isabella, and other famous
persons had done.
His last piece of work was the "Crucifixion of St. Peter," for St.
Peter's Church at Cologne. He asked for a year and a half to complete
the picture, but death came before it was finished. It represents the
apostle nailed to the cross with his head downwards, surrounded by six
executioners. "He has proved," says Gustave Planche, "over and over
again that he knew all the secrets of the human form, but never has he
proved it so clearly as in the Crucifixion of Peter."
May 30, 1640, Antwerp was in mourning for her world-renowned painter. He
was buried at night, as was the custom, a great concourse of citizens,
all the artistic and literary societies, and sixty orphan children with
torches, following his body to the grave. It was temporarily placed in
the vault of the Fourment family, and March 4, 1642, was removed to a
special chapel built by his wife in the Church of St. James in Antwerp.
At his own request, made three days before his death, a "Holy Family,"
one of his best works, was hung above his resting-place. In the picture,
St. George is a portrait of himself, St. Jerome of his father, an angel
of his youngest son, and Martha and Mary of Isabella and Helena, his two
wives. "A group of tiny angels, floating in the air, crown the Holy
Child with a wreath of flowers."
The learned nephew of Rubens, Gevaerts, wrote the following epitaph, in
Latin, now inscribed on his monument:--
"Here lies Peter Paul Rubens, knight, and Lord of Steen, son of John
Rubens, a senator of this city. Gifted with marvellous talents, versed
in ancient history, a master of all the liberal arts and of the
elegancies of life, he deserved to be called the Apelles of his age and
of all ages. He won for himself the good will of monarchs and of
princely men. Philip IV., King of Spain and the Indies, appointed him
secretary of his Privy Council, and sent him on an embassy to the King
of England in 1629, when he happily laid the foundation of the peace
that was soon concluded between those two sovereigns. He died in the
year of salvation 1640, on the 30th of May, aged sixty-three years."
The wife of Rubens afterwards married John Baptist Broechoven, Baron van
Bergeyck, an ambassador in England in the reign of Charles II.
Rubens left his large collection of sketches to whichever of his sons
might become an artist, or whichever of his daughters might marry an
artist, but not one fulfilled the conditions.
Two hundred years after Rubens's death, in 1870, a monument was erected
to his memory in one of the public squares of Antwerp, and in 1877 a
memorial festival was held in his honor in the same city.