RUBENS
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RUBENS
werp, 30 May, 1640. His father, Jan Rubens, a
lawyer and alderman of Antwerp, was a Protestant
who had fled from his native city to Cologne at the
time that the Spanish governor was making strong
efforts to extirpate heresy in Flanders. After
various troublous experiences in connexion with the
Dutch army, with the wife of Prince William of
Orange, and following upon more than one im-
prisonment, the father, who had temporarily to leave
Cologne, returned to that city, where Peter Paul
commenced his studies. His mother, Maria Pype-
Unx, had continued a Cathohc, although she tem-
porarily concealed the fact during her aggressive
husband's life, but she insisted upon the boy's educa-
tion at a Jesuit school. She herself was formally
received back into the Catholic Church, immediately
upon the death of the elder Rubens, when, though
in reduced circumstances, she
was able to return to Ant-
werp. From her and from
his schoolmaster Rombout
Verdonck, Rubens acquired
the strong religious character
which marked the whole of his
career. His earliest days were
passed as a page in the house-
hold of a princess, the. widow
of Count van Lalaing, former
Governor of Antwerp. When
nearly thirteen the young Ru-
bens was sent to the studio of
Tobias Vcrhaecht, and thence
quickly removed to study under
Adam van Noort where he
made the acquaintance of Jor-
daens, a fellow-pupil in the
same studio and a lifelong
friend of the great artist. He
soon went to a third studio,
that of Otto van Veen, and
remained with this last master
until 1598, when he was ad-
mitted to the Painters' (luild
of Antwerp, and started on his
fir.st journey to Italy (ItiOOi.
He carried introductions to the Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Peter Pa
Gonzaga, received his patron- .self-portra.t.
age, and was sent by him to Florence, Genoa, and Rome to carry out important commissions. He then returned to Mantua and was sent to Spain in charge of certain portraits intended as diplomatic presents. On his return to Italy he entered into the Duke's per- manent service, but was permitted to spend con- siderable time in Rome where he continued his studies. In 1608 he left Italy and returned to his own city of Antwerp, where he married Isabella Brant and settled down as an artist of great renown. He joined more than one religious guild connected with the local churches, and especially became attached to that of St. Peter and St. Paul, in honour of whose great fes- tival on the day of his birth, Rubens had received his two Christian names. At this tirne he com- menced his great house, splendidly built, lavishly decorated, and installed with many fine treasures which he had ac-quired in Italy. He Uved there in great luxury, full of commissions, and surrounded by a host of pupils, among whom was Anthony van Dyck who rivalled and even surpassed him in por- traiture, and the eminent painters Jordaens, Snyders, de Vos, and Justus von Egmont.
Here his two sons, Albert and Nicholas, were born. In 1622 he was commissioned to paint the great pictures representing Marie de' Medici, now in a gallery in the Louvre; this occupied him for two years. His wife died in 1626, and four years after, he married Helena Fourment, the daughter of Isabella
Brant's sister. Meantime, he had become painter-
in-ordinary to the new Governor of the Spanish
Netherlands, the Infanta Isabella, who kept him very
busy, both as artist and diplomatist, for which his
courtliness and sweetness of manner particularly
fitted him. In 1629 he was sent to London by the
Count Olivares by way of Brussels and Paris, and was
knighted by Charles I on 21 February, 1629-30.
After his second marriage he purchased a great house
near Mechlin and there prepared his designs for the
pageant intended to commemorate the triumphal
entry into Antwerp of the new governor. Archduke
Ferdinand. This governor made him Court painter
and showered various commissions upon him, among
them the decorations of a shooting box which the
King of Spain was at that time erecting near Madrid.
By this time Rubens' wonderful energy and health
were so broken, that many of
his later pictures were executed
by his pupils under his super-
vision and are to a very slight
extent his own work.
He had become a man of considerable means through countless commissions not only in painting and designing pic- tures, but in etching, silver point work, preparing designs for tapestry, engraving on sil- ver, and scheming the entire decoration for the wonderful pageants that were a feature of his jieriod and country. A man of j)n)(ligi<)us energy and ()verpow(M-ing enthusiasm, he was the author of perhaps a larger luimber of huge pictures than can be attributed to any other painter, and though very many of his works were en- tirely executed by his own hand, he trained his pupils to so skilfully copy his methods and carry out his ideas that in many cases all the rough and bolder work of the picture was executed by them, he himself applying the final details and glazes, which enabled the picture to be declared a mas- terpiece and gave to it that quality which his hand alone could supply. The best of his religious work is at .\ntwerp, but the twenty-two pictures representing the history of Marie de' Medici, on all of which he is supposed to have worked to a certain extent, stand supreme in decorative work. Several of his. finest por- traits are in Madrid, others in Munich, and one or two of his masterpieces in the National Gallery in London, but almost all the great galleries of Europe contain representative examples of his work. Dres- den, Brussels, Frankfort, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Ber- lin, Florence, and Windsor must all be visited if any adequate idea of the output of this extraordinary and remarkable painter is to be obtained.
He has been the subject of many biographies and of constant research. He is always somewhat of a mystery, for at first one is depressed by his very exuberance, his unbridled artistic frenzy, and the vast show of flesh and power which characterize his pictures, while to many who love tenderness, mysti- cism, a sensitive quahty, and stately dignity, his impropriety and exaggerated enthusiasm is repugnant. Some of the greatest artists, such as Rossetti, were in their early days unable to understand the anomalies in the art of Rubens or to appreciate his greatest pictures even in their most lenient moods. There is such an abundant glory, such powerful organic life in the work of this majestic colourist, that his pictures
UL RCBKNS
UfBzi, Florence
