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 500 Painting Isabella, as ambassador to Philip IV. of Spain. In the following year the Infanta sent him, in the same capacity, to Charles I. of England. Rubens was kindly and graciously received by Charles I., who conferred on him the honour of knighthood, at the same time presenting him with his own sword, and throwing round his neck a costly chain, which the painter ever afterwards wore in remembrance of the monarch. He was in the same year knighted by Philip IV. of Spain. Rubens, while in England, made the designs for the great ceiling-piece for Whitehall ; the work was completed afterwards on his return to Antwerp. He is said to have received as much as £3000 for it. He returned to Antwerp in 1630, and in the following year married his second wife, Helena Fourment, when she was but sixteen years of age. By this marriage he had five children, all of whom survived him. On the 30th of May, 1640, this great painter, the pro- tector of artists, and friend of kings and nobles, died, possessed of great wealth, celebrated, and much honoured, at Antwerp, where he was buried with great pomp in the church of S. Jacques. It would be utterly impossible here even to name a tenth part of Rubens' s works, for his love of work was so constant, and his fertility so wonderful, that there are nearly fifteen hundred of his pictures which have been engraved, and this enormous number is scarcely half his productions. At the same time it must be remembered that many works attributed to him were executed from his designs by his pupils. The celebrated Descent from the Cross, which is unani- mously considered the finest of all his works, is in the