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THE NETHERLANDS. xlyii
Now what did Rubens bear away as the fruits of his eight years’
residence in Italy? It is of no great moment that several of his
savour of Italian prototypes; in his celebrated Descent
from the Cross, we see a reflection of Daniele da Volterra’s
in the Baptism of Christ (lost), of which the original drawing is pre-
ved, he produces single figures from Michael Angelo’s battle-
cartoon; the Communion of St. Francis recalls a composition of
Annibale Carracci; while a work of Titian served as model for the
battle of the Amazons. It is of greater importance that Rubens was
fortified by his Italian experiences in his resolution to rely mainly
on id engendered by the study of mythological-historical subjects
for his inspiration, and to devote his art to their illustration. By
this means he establishe bond of union between the art of Italy
and that of the North, without in any wise sacrificing his individual-
ity. Rather does a comparison with contemporary Italian painters
how far he surpassed them in virtue of his spontaneous
pathies and the abounding force of his character.
Rubens, married in 1609 to Isabella Brandt, and again, after her
ym-
death (1626), to Helena Fourment, in 1630, had settled in Antwerp,
where he led an Barney active life. he himself assures us,
while in the service of the Regent Albrecht and his consort Isabella,
he had one foot always in the stirrup, making repeated trips to
London, Paris, and Madrid, and devoting as much of his time to
politics as to art
to be discovered in the astounding number of his works.
thousand pictures, many of them of colossal dimensions, bear his
name. This amazing fertili ay be explained by the c mstance
that the numerous pupils who frequented his workshop were em-
ployed upon his pictures, and that he himself possessed wonderful
rapidity of execution.
Rubens in all cass
It is not an ez
sy matter to render justice to
partly because so many ese have been attri-
buted to him with which he had very little to do, partly, also, be-
cause his Ara of form freque ntly took directions re pugnant to
our modern notions. Perh in his manner of treating the female
form only he can be charged with flagrant want of taste. The ca-
pacity of depicting the unsullied purity of maiden beauty is one of
the attributes in an artist we most prize, while, on the other hand,
we naturally recoil from the spectacle of naked females disfigured
by the labours of maternity. Nevertheless, we must not forget that
in these coarse unwieldy shapes, in the ponderous limbs and violent
action of these female forms so constantly recurring in Rubens’ pic-
tur we behold the direct manifestation of such impassioned
energies and irrepressible vitality as the master seeks to embody.
Rubens’ earlier pictures have this marked superiority over his
later works, that with all their depth and warmth of colouring, they
preserye a certain unity, and exhibit a broad but careful finish. The
most important of the works executed soon after his return from |