X. RUBENS.

1577-1640.

AFTER the great awakening of the artistic spirit in Flanders, a number of painters followed in the footsteps of the first masters. After a time, however, artists began to borrow so much from Italian art that distinctively Flemish art ceased to exist.

At Siegen, in Westphalia, on the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul, a child was born in 1577. His parents were then in exile, for the father, John Rubens, a physician of Antwerp, was suspected of being a Protestant and had been obliged to flee from his home. The little exile received the names of the two saints honored on his birthday, and was called Peter Paul Rubens. To him belongs the glory of raising Flemish art again to a high position.

The first years of Rubens's childhood were spent at Siegen and Cologne. After his father's death, which occurred when the boy was about nine years old, his mother took him back to Antwerp and placed him in a Jesuit school. Thus he was brought up as a Catholic, and this fact influenced his career as an artist, for the Protestant and the Catholic art of the North were widely different. His mother intended to educate him as a lawyer; but his decided love for art induced her to allow him to follow his own wishes. When he began to study art, everything was in his favor. He had re

ceived an excellent education, and the varied experiences of his youth helped to make him unusually mature and intelligent.

After spending a few years in preparatory study, Rubens was admitted to the guild of painters at Antwerp, and his career as a painter began. A picture called the Trinity, in the Museum at Antwerp, is an example of his work before his Flemish education was supplemented by a journey to Italy.

With what happy anticipations the young artist must have set out for Italy in the year 1600! The treasure house of the world was to be opened to him in that land of which he had so often dreamed. What wonder that he, with his love for sumptuous splendor, should have been most charmed and influenced by the Venetians, and above all by Veronese! Indeed, he is sometimes called the "Veronese of the North."

When Rubens went to Italy, he carried with him letters of recommendation from the Archduke Albert of Flanders to the Duke of Mantua. He was well received by the duke, and he entered his service. During his stay at Mantua he studied the works of Guido Reni, one of the followers of Raphael, and he was much influenced by them. He received orders for a number of pictures, and after he had painted them, he went to Rome to copy some of the famous pictures there.

Five years after his departure for Italy, Rubens began his diplomatic career. His personal beauty, the charm of his manners, and the unusual brilliance and cultivation of his mind made him especially fitted to undertake work of this nature. To a man of his

character, such experiences were most valuable. He was not flattered by princes, or spoiled by honors; but he enlarged his knowledge of men by coming in contact with varied scenes and many phases of life.

While he was at Rome, busily engaged in copying a great picture, the Duke of Mantua recalled him, in order to send him on a diplomatic mission to Spain. After fulfilling his task with ability, he returned to Italy.

An anecdote, told in connection with his life at court, shows how he never let his art take a second place in his heart. One day a courtier, seeing him painting, said, "Does the ambassador of his Catholic Majesty sometimes amuse himself with painting?" Rubens replied, "He sometimes amuses himself with being an ambassador."

Eight years had passed since Rubens left his home. in Belgium, when he was suddenly called back on account of the serious illness of his mother. How different was this journey to Antwerp from his first journey over the same road! What weary days of painful foreboding he must have experienced! He reached Antwerp too late even to receive the last greetings of his mother, whom he dearly loved. A portrait of her, which he painted, reveals her strong, generous nature.

Sad as was the home-coming, it was somewhat like a triumphal entry for Rubens. He had achieved marked distinction in Italian cities, so that Flemish art had received honored recognition in the land where the art of painting had reached the greatest perfection. The works that he brought back were not the studies of a student, but the mature creations of a master. His

countrymen realized all this, and were proud to do him honor. The Archduke Albert appointed him court painter; and he settled in Antwerp, purchasing for his home a handsome house with a charming studio adjoining it. In 1609 he married Isabella Brant, who died in 1626, leaving two sons.

During his wife's lifetime Rubens accomplished an immense amount of work, and some of his strongest pictures belong to this period. It is pleasant to think of him during those happy, prosperous days. Fortune seemed to smile on him, and his enjoyment of family, home, and friends, and his constant joy in his work, made the years bring forth a plentiful harvest. He lived a regular, industrious life; and his working hours were often enlivened by friends who read to him poetry and history, the subjects in which he was most interested. He could enjoy many literatures, for he read and spoke seven languages.

Antwerp is sometimes called the city of Rubens, and justly so, for he adorned it with some of his best works. Many places in the city remind us of him. His statue is there, and so is his tomb, in the church of St. Jacques. Behind his tomb is a picture, called sometimes the Holy Family of St. George, and sometimes the Family of Rubens. In it are represented Rubens himself, his father, his grandfather, his first wife, his second wife, and his sister-in-law, who was made famous by the picture called the Straw Hat. Rubens appears in the picture as St. George, dressed in armor, and crushing the dragon beneath his feet, while his youngest son is represented as a charming little angel. He represented, under a sacred title and with a loving