Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/57

Rh K U B E N S 45 period, of the existence of such a portrait." While in England, Rubens very narrowly escaped drowning while going to Greenwich in a boat. The fact is reported by Lord Dorchester in a letter to Sir Isaac Wake (Sainsbury, cxvi.). At the beginning of March the painter's mission came to a close. Rubens was now fifty-three years of age ; he had been four years a widower, and before the end of the year (December 1630) he entered into a second marriage with the beautiful girl of sixteen, named Helena Fourment, with whom his pictures have made the world so well ac- quainted. More than twenty portraits of her are described by Smith, and she also figures in perhaps twice as many of the master's creations. Whether Rubens was more powerfully led in the choice of his second wife by her per- sonal beauty or by the strength of a certain resemblance to his feminine ideal is questionable. Anyhow, she was an admirable model, and none of her husband's works may be more justly termed masterpieces than those in which she is represented (Munich, St Petersburg, Blenheim, Liechtenstein, the Louvre, &c.). Although the long months of absence could not be termed blanks in Rubens's artistic career, his return was followed by an almost incredible activity. Inspired more than ever by the glorious works of Titian, he now pro- duced some of his best creations. Brightness in colouring, breadth of touch and pictorial conception, are specially striking in those works we know to have been painted in the latter part of his lifetime. Could anything give a higher degree of Rubens's genius than, for example, the Feast of Venus, the portrait of Helena Fourment ready to enter the bath, or the St Ildefonso. This last picture now, as well as the two others just alluded to, in the Vienna Gallery was painted for the church of the convent of St Jacques, in Brussels. On the wings are represented the archdukes in royal attire, under the protection of their patron saints. The presence of these figures has led to some mistake regarding the date of the production, but it has been proved beyond doubt, through a document pub- lished by Mr Castan (1884), that the St Ildefonso belongs to the series of works executed after the journeys to Spain and England. Archduke Albert had been dead ten years. The picture was engraved by Witdoeck in 1638. Isabella died in 1633, and we know that to the end Rubens remained in high favour with her, alike as an artist and as a political agent. The painter was even one of the gentlemen she deputed to meet Mary de' Medici at the frontier in 1631, after her escape from France. Spain and the Netherlands went to war again, the king never ceasing to look upon the Dutch as rebels. The sub- ject need not be dwelt upon ; suffice it to say that much useless trouble and suspicion came upon the great artist. As to the real nature of his communings with Frederick Henry of Orange, whom he is known to have interviewed, nothing as yet has been discovered. Ferdinand of Austria, the cardinal-infant of Spain, was called to the government of the Netherlands on the death of his aunt. He was the king's younger brother, and arrived at Antwerp in May 1635. The streets had been decorated with triumphal arches and " spectacula," arranged by Rubens, and certainly never equalled by any other works of the kind. 1 Several of the paintings detached from the arches were offered as presents to the new governor-general, a scarcely known fact, which accounts for the presence of many of these works in public galleries 1 Many sketches of the arches are still preserved in the museums in Antwerp, St Petersburg, Cambridge, Windsor, &c. All the compositions were etched under the direction of Rubens by his pupil J. Van Thulden and published under the title of Pompa introitus honori serenissimi Principis Ferdinandi A ustriaci S. R. E. card, a S. P. Q. Antwerp, deoreta et ordinata. (Vienna, Dresden, Brussels, &c.). Rubens was at the time laid up with gout, but Prince Ferdinand was desirous of expressing his satisfaction, and called upon the painter, remaining a long time at his house. Rubens and Ferdinand had met at Madrid, and only a short time elapsed before the painter was confirmed in his official standing, a matter of small importance, if we consider that the last years of his life were almost exclusively employed in working much more for the king than for his brother. About a hundred and twenty paintings of considerable size left Antwerp for Madrid in 1637, 1638, and 1639; they were intended to decorate the pavilion erected at the Pardo, and known under the name of Torre de la Parada. Another series had been begun, when Ferdinand wrote to Madrid that the painter was no more, and Jordaens would finish the work. Rubens breathed his last on the 30th of May 1640. More fortunate than many artists, Rubens left the world in the midst of his glory. Not the remotest trace of approaching old age, not the slighest failing of mind or skill, can be detected even in his latest works, such as the Martyrdom of St Peter at Cologne, the Martyrdom of St Thomas at Prague, or the Judgment of Paris at Madrid, where his young wife appears for the last time. "She is the handsomest person in Antwerp," writes Ferdinand to his brother, in announcing the completion of what he terms " the best painting Rubens has done. " If Rubens was something of a diplomatist, it cannot be denied that alike in body as in mind he is portrayed in his own works with the utmost straightforwardness. His productions are what they are, as if they could not have been otherwise, and the fact is that, in reply to any observations he may happen to receive, we con- stantly find him asserting the necessities of his subjects, thus confirming a remark made by Sir Joshua Reynolds that his subjects always seem to suit his style. Rubens is so well known that it hardly seems necessary to dwell upon his outward appearance. From his own letters and those in which he is referred to we become acquainted with a man of vast erudition, great good sense, dignity, and kindness,*none more worthy of being called a gentleman ; and Sir Dudley Carleton, we know, termed him not only the prince of painters but of gentle- men. Those with whom he dealt in questions of learning proclaim his artistic excellence to be second only to his other qualifications, and even such critics as Winckelmann, who are least likely to sympathize with his style, do homage to his superior genius. " Rubens," he writes to Count Cobeiizl, "is the glory of art, of his school, of his country, and of all coming centuries ; the fertility of his imagination cannot be overrated ; he is correct in his design, magnificent in his drapery ; and he must be looked upon as the great model for chiaroscuro, although in this branch he may be termed fanciful, but he has not sacrificed to the goddesses of beauty (Horse) and the Graces." Rubens, indeed, although his type of feminine beauty is generally most pleasing, has little of the Italian grace and refinement, but then he was a Fleming throughout, notwithstanding his frequent recollections of those Italian masters whom he most admired, and who themselves have little, if anything, in common with Raphael. But it must be borne in mind how completely his predecessors were frozen into stiffness through Italianization, and how necessary it was to bring back the Flemish school to life and nature. Critics have spoken of Rubens's historical improprieties. Of course nobody could suppose that his classical learning did not go far enough to know that the heroines of the Old Testament or of Roman history were not dressed out as ladies of his time ; but in this respect he only follows the example of Titian, Paul Veronese, and many others. In no other school do we find these animated hunts of lions, tigers, and even the hippopotamus and the crocodile, which may be reckoned among the finest specimens of art, and here again are life and nature displayed with the utmost power. "His horses are perfect in their kind," says Reynolds ; his dogs are of the strong Flemish breed, and his landscapes the most charming pictures of Braban- tine scenery, in the midst of which lay his seat of Steen. As a portrait painter, although less refined than Van Dyck, he shows that eminent master the way, and his pure fancy subjects, as the Garden of Love (Madrid and Dresden) and the Village Feast (Louvre), have never been equalled. As Mrs Jameson so justly remarks, " Rubens is the most popular because the most intelligible of painters." For nearly one hundred years the Flemish school may be said to have been but a reflexion of the Rubenesque principles. Although Jordaens and Erasmus Quellin lived till 1678, the school might be termed a body without soul. Some etchings have been ascribed to Rubens, but except a head