i;i IU:N> 



KUBIACE^E 



fadent effect Turpentine tlnis applied is service- 

 able in all the canes mentioned in the remarks on 

 Mustard, M well u in sore throat, chronic rheiima 

 turn, neuralgia, &c. 

 K ii bens. PHTKR PAUL, the mot celebrated 



painter of the l-'lcmi-li school, was Ixirn on the 

 29th of June l'<77 at sicken, in Westphalia, where 

 his father, John Rubens, an eminent lawyer, was 

 living in disgrace, in consequence of his intrigue 

 with Anne of Saxony, second wife of William the 

 Silent In 1578 his parenU settled in Cologne : 

 and iij>iii tin- death of her hii.-lmnd ill tin- year 

 1987, liis mother ruturned to her native rit.y of 

 Antwerp, w here i lie Ixiy wan educated in the Jesuits' 

 college. !!> -cued for a short time as a page in 

 the household oi Margaret de Ligiie, widow of the 

 Count of I^anaing, and was intended for the pro- 

 fession of law ; but he was animated by a strong 

 desire to become a painter, and at the age of thir- 

 teen he began the study of art, first, for a brief 

 period, under Tobias van Haeght, a skilful land- 

 cape-painter ; then for four years muler Adam van 

 Noort, a painter of religious subjects, distinguished 

 for his excellent colouring ; until finally, in his 

 nineteenth year, he passed into the studio of Othon 

 van Veen, court-painter to the Archduke Albert, 

 governor of the Netherlands. 



In 1599 he was admitted a master of the Brother- 

 hood of St Luke in Antwerp ; and in the follow- 

 ing year he started for Italy, making his way to 

 Venice, where he studied the works of Titian and 

 Veronese. He next entered the service of Yin- 

 cenzo (ionzaga, the magnificent and luxurious 

 Duke of Mantua, as gentleman of the chamber and 

 court painter ; and in 1005 was despatched on a 

 mission i'i Philip III. of Spain, thus beginning the 

 career of a diplomatist, for which his keen intellect, 

 his polished urbanity, and his linguistic attainments 

 so admirably qualified him. While at Madrid be 

 executed portraits of many of tin- Spanish nobility, 

 as well as several historical subjects. On his 

 return from Spain he travelled in Italy, copying 

 celebrated works for the Duke of Mantua ; and to 

 this period is referable the sketch, now in the 

 National Gallery, London, from one of the sub- 

 jects of Mantegna's ' Triumph of .Itilius Cffisar.' In 

 1608, while in Cenoa, he received news of his 

 mother's illness, and returned home, but too late 

 to see her alive. Settling in Antwerp, he was 

 appointed in 1609 court-painter to the Archduke 

 Albert and his wife Isabella, and soon afterwards 

 married his first wife, Isabella Brant, whom his 

 pencil has often portrayed, and who appears, seated 

 hand in hand with himself, in the famous full 

 length group at Munich. 



The painter was now rapidly approaching his full 

 artUtic maturity, and his ' Descent from the Cross ' 

 in the cathedral of Antwerp, begun in 1611 and 

 completed in 1614, and usually regarded as his 

 masterpiece, is a work in which both his earlier 

 and later manner may be traced. It is a triptych, 

 showing on the interior of its wings The Visitation 

 and The Presentation in the Temple, and on their 

 exterior subjects of 8t Christopher and a Hermit 

 bearing a lantern. 



In 1030 Rubens was invited to France by Marie 

 de' Medici, the i|ueen- mother, who was then en- 

 gaged in decorating the palace of the Luxembourg 

 in Paris; and he undertook for her twenty -one 

 large subjects commemorating her marriage to 

 Henry IV., works, completed with the aid of 

 assuUuiU in 1625, which are now in the Louvre, 

 most of the sketches by the master's own hand 

 being at Munich. In 1628 he was despatched by 

 the Infanta Isabella upon a diplomatic mission to 

 Philip IV. of Spain. He remained for nine months 

 in Madrid, ami tin-re he made the acquaintance of 

 VeUsquex, and executed some forty works, includ- 



ing five portrait* of the Spanish monarch. In 1629 

 he was apiiointed envoy to Charles 1. of England, 

 to treat for |eace ; and, while be conducted a 

 delicate negotiation with pet feet tact and success, 

 his brush was not idle, for he painted the I 

 i and War,' now in the National Gallery. London, 

 and the jHiitrait of the kiii^' and hi* queen as St 

 m and Cleolinde, n work now at Windsor, 

 and also made sketches for the Apotheosis of J.-i 

 1 for the Banqneting-hall at Whitehall, toBpM 

 ing the pictures on his return to Antwerp. In 

 acknowledgment of his services he wax knighted 

 by Charles I. ; and he received a similar honour 

 from Philip IV. 



In 1630 Rnbens married his second wife, Helena 

 l-'oiirineiii, a beautiful girl of sixteen : in Hi.'i5 he 

 designed the decorations which celebrated tin- 

 entry of the Cardinal Infant Ferdinand into Ant 



that saint in Cologne, he died at Antwerp on the 

 30th of May 1640, and was interred with great 

 pomp in the church of St Jacques, bis IM!V ling 

 deposited, two years afterwards, in a chapel speci- 

 ally built there for its reception. 



Not only was Rubens great as a subject -painter, 

 but he was equally distinguished as a pen traitist, 

 an animal-painter, and a landscapist. The main 

 characteristics of his productions ore their power, 

 spirit, and vivacity, their sense of energy, of ex- 

 uberant life. As Reynolds has t inly said, ' Rubens 

 was perhaps the greatest master in" the mechanical 

 part of the art; the best workman with his tools 

 that ever used a pencil ; ' and he was great alike 

 in handling and as a colourisfc. It is, however, 

 mainly on technical grounds that he claims suprem- 

 acy, for his works are wanting in the iMgnity, 

 quietude, refinement, and in the profound imagina- 

 tion which distinguish the greatest Italian painters. 

 He was a most prolific artist; his works number 

 in all several thousands, of which Smith in his 

 Catalogue has descril>ed over thirteen hundred ; 

 and about twelve hundred prints have been 

 executed after his paintings and designs, frequent ly 

 under his personal supervision by such of the best 

 contemporary engravers as Pontius, Yostcrman, 

 Soutman, and the Itolswerts. Many of his finest 

 works are still at Antwerp ; but his ait may p rob- 

 ably be most adequately studied in the Pinakothek 

 at Munich, whicn contains nearly a hundred < \ 

 ample, of his brush, several of them ranking with 

 his noblest efforts. Among the most distinguished 

 of his many pupils were Van Dyck, Van Diepen- 

 beck, Jordaens, and Snyders. 



See LeUre* Infdita de P. P. Bubtnt, publi.Se par 

 Kmile Cachet (Brussels, 1840); De Wugen's Life of 

 Rubens, published in Raumer's Hutoritehet TaKhen- 

 bvck (Berlin, 1833; trans, by R. K, Noel, Loud. 1840) ; 

 Onrinal Unpubliihrd Papcri JUiutratirt of the Life 

 of .Sir P. P. Kubrni, <u an Artitt and a Dipiomatitt, by 

 W. Noel Sainsbnry (Lond. 1869); Kubtns el r I 

 cFAnvert, par A. Michiels (Paris, 1877); the volume in 

 the 'Great Artists' series by C. W. Kett (1880) ; and 

 the posthumous work of M. Charles Kuulens, of the 

 Brussels Library. 



Rnbe'ola. See MEASLES. 



Rllbezahl. See RIERENOEBIROE. 



Rllltiacea-. a natural order of dicotyledonous 

 plants, in whicn, according to many botanists, the 

 Cinclionacea- are included as a sub-order ; but 

 which, as restricted by others (Stellate of Ray, 

 (Jaliacea- of Lindley), consists entirely of her- 

 luiceous plants, with whorled leaves, angular stems, 

 and numerous very small flowers ; the calyx 

 superior, with four, five, or six lobes, or almost 

 wanting; the corolla wheel-shaped, or tubular, 

 regular, inserted into the calyx, and with the 



