RUBENS. 



rich mufeum of works of art, for which he is faid to have 

 given io,ooo/. fterling. 



On the return of Rubens to Antwerp, he was honoured 

 with feveral conferences with the Infanta Ifabella, and was by 

 her difpatched on a political million to the court of Madrid, 

 where he arrived in 1628, and was moft gracioufly received 

 by Philip IV. He acquitted himfelf in his novel capacity 

 to the fatisfaftion of that monarch, and his minifter, the 

 duke de Olivares, by both of whom he was highly eiteemed ; 

 and while his talents as a diplomatift met with the fuccefs 

 they merited, thofe of the painter were not neglefted. 



The duke de Olivares had juft completed the foundation 

 of a convent of Carmelites at the fmall town of Loeches, 

 near Madrid, and the king, as a mark of his favour to the 

 minifter, commiffioned Rubens to paint four piftures for 

 their church, which he executed in his grandelt ftyle, and 

 the richeft glow of his colouring. The firft is an alle- 

 gorical defign of the triumph of the new Law, which he 

 has perfonified by a figure of Religion, feated on a fuperb 

 triumphal car, drawn by four angels, with others bear- 

 ing the crofs, with charafteriftic fymbols ; four figures, 

 expreffive of Infidelity or Ignorance, over which Religion 

 is fuppofed to triumph, follow the car like flaves or cap- 

 tives bound in chains. The group is crowned with beau- 

 tiful cherubims, that hover in the air with chaplets in their 

 hands, difpofed with lingular art and the molt charmingeffeft. 

 The companion picture reprefents the interview of Abra- 

 ham and Melchifedech, who offers him bread and the tenth 

 of his fpoils. The other two piftures, of equal excellence 

 with the above, reprefent the four doftors of the church, 

 and the four evangelifts, with their diltinftive emblems : 

 they are all of very large dimenfions, and in compofition 

 and exprefiion are not excelled by any of his works. He 

 alfo painted eight grand piftures for the great faloon of 

 the palace at Madrid, which are regarded among the mod 

 brilliant of his produftions. Their fubjefts were the Rape 

 of the Sabines ; the battle between the Romans and Sabines ; 

 the Bath of Diana, Perfeus, and Andromeda ; the Rape 

 of Helen ; the Judgment of Paris, Juno, Minerva, and 

 Venus ; and the Triumph of Bacchus. He alfo painted a 

 large portrait of the king on horfeback, with other figures ; 

 and a pifture of the martyrdom of the apoftle St. Andrew, 

 which was in the church dedicated to that faint. For thefe 

 extraordinary produftions he was richly rewarded, received 

 the honour of knighthood, and was prefented with the 

 golden key as gentleman of the chamber to the king. In 

 1629 he returned to Flanders, and thus, in the (hort fpace 

 of little more than nine months, he defigned and executed 

 ■fo extenfive a feries of piftures ; a labour which, to any 

 other artift not poffeffed of his extraordinary powers, mult 

 have required the exertion of many years. When he had 

 rendered the account of his million to the Infanta, Ihe dif- 

 patched him to England, to found the difpofition of the 

 government on the fubjeft of a peace. There for a time 

 he concealed the powers granted to him to negociate upon 

 the fubjeft. Charles, in the interim, honoured this great 

 painter with his notice, and commiffioned him to paint the 

 ■ceiling of the banqueting-houfe at Whitehall, where he has 

 represented the apotheofis of king James I. 



During one of the frequent vifits with which Charles 

 honoured Rubens, w'nilft he was engaged in this great work, 

 the latter, with infinite addrefs, took a favourable oppor- 

 tunity of touching on the fubjeft of peace with Spain ; 

 tnd finding that the monarch was no ways averfe to it, at 

 length produced the credentials with which he was fur- 

 nifhed. The king appointed fome members of the council 

 to negociate with him ; and the bufinef6 was fpeedily 



brought to a conclufion. Charles, delighted both with 

 the man and the artift, munificently rewarded Rubens, and 

 on the 21ft of February 1630, conferred upon him the 

 honour of knighthood. Soon afterwards, the important 

 objeft of his million being happily effefted, he returned to 

 the Netherlands, where he was received with all the honours 

 and diftinftions due to exalted merit. 



Rubens continued to enjoy his well-earned fame and 

 honours, with uninterrupted iuccefs, till he arrived at his 

 58th year, when he was attacked with ftrong fits of gout, 

 which debilitated his frame, and unfitted him for great ex- 

 ertions : he abandoned, therefore, all larger works, and 

 confined himfelf t9 eafel painting. Yet he continued to 

 exercife his art until the year 1640, when he died, at the 

 age of 63. He was buried, with extraordinary pomp, in 

 the church of St. James at Antwerp, under the altar of 

 his private chapel, which he had previoufly decorated with 

 a very fine pifture. A monument was erefted to him by 

 his wife and children, with an epitaph in Latin, eulogizing 

 his talents and virtues, and difplaying their fuccefs. 



The viftorious yet barbarous irruption of the French re- 

 publicans into the Netherlands, robbed Flanders generally, 

 and no place more than Antwerp, of the fine hiftorical 

 works of Rubens, of which at this period the gallery of 

 the L°uvre exhibits a moft altonilhing difplay ; no lefs 

 than fifty-two of his piftures, and among them feveral of 

 the higheft quality, being now expofed to view there. It 

 is difficult to fay which branch of the art molt fuccefsfully 

 employed his talents, in hiftory, portraiture, animals, land- 

 scape, or ftill life : 111 all, his brilliancy of imagination, and 

 wonderful (kill in execution, are equally apparent. From 

 his birth lie had evinced a lively and uncommon portion 

 of genius, which met the advantages furniihed to him in his 

 progrefs through life, with an ardour and fuccefs of which 

 hiltory fcarcely affords a parallel. Both the number and 

 merit of the works of Rubens are calculated to excite ex- 

 traordinary attention. His fame is extended over a large 

 part of the continent, and it may be truly laid, that he has 

 enriched his country, not onlv bv the magnificent examples 

 of art which he left, but alfo by what fome may deem 

 a more folid advantage, the wealth which continued till 

 lately to be drawn into it, by the concourfe of itrangers 

 from all parts of the world to view them. 



Rubens is not one of thofe regular and timid compofers, 

 who efcape cenfure and deferve no praife. He produced 

 no faultlefs monfters ; his works abound with defefts as 

 well as beauties, and are liable, by their daring excentrici- 

 ties, to provoke much criticifm. But they have, neverthe- 

 lefs, that peculiar property, always the companion of true 

 genius, that which feizes on the fpeftator, commands atten- 

 tion, and enforces admiration, in fpite of all their faults. His 

 produftions feem to have flowed from his pencil with more 

 than freedom — with prodigality : his mind appears to have 

 been inexhaudible ; his hand never wearied : the exuberant 

 fertility of his imagination was, therefore, always accom- 

 panied by a correfpondent fpirit in the execution of his 

 work. 



" Led by fome rule, which guides but not eonftrains, 

 He finifhed more through happinefs than pains." 



No man ever more completely laid the reins on the neck 

 of his inclinations, no man ever more fearlefsly abandoned 

 himfelf to his own fenfations, and depending on them, dared 

 to attempt extraordinary things, than Rubens. To this, 

 in a great meafure, mull be attributed that perftft ori- 

 ginality of manner, by which the limits of the art may be 

 faid to have been extended. Endowed with a full com. 



preh«nfion 



