174 Route 13. ANTWERP. Old Town:

was finished and shown to the Arquebusiers, who could not fail to be grati-
fled by its magnificence; but the allegorical mode of its execution was
entirely lost upon them, and they complained that there was no St. Chris-
topher. In order to satisfy them, Rubens then proceeded to paint St. Chris-
topher in person on the outside of one shutter, while on the other he
represented a hermit with a lantern, and an owl, emblematical, it was
said, of the obtuseness of the worthy Arquebusiers. The facts of the
case, however, were simply these. A dispute having arisen about the cost of
a wall which separated Rubens’s property from that of the Arquebusiers, the
burgomaster Rockox, the captain of the guild and a friend of Rubens,
persuaded him to paint this picture in order to equalize the price to be
paid by each party. The hermit and the owl are well-known features in
every picture relating to the legend of St. Christopher.

The ELzvaTION OF THE Cross, although inferior, is also a magni-
ficent work. The figures are remarkable for their easy and natural atti-
tudes, although inclined to be too heavy. The great life which pervades
the whole, and the variety of the composition, compensate to some extent
for deficiency of sentiment. In the figures of Christ and his executioners,
the master displays his thorough acquaintance with the anatomy of the
human frame. The horses are noble and lifelike, and a dog has even been
introduced to give greater diversity to the scene. The latter was added
by Rubens in 1627 (see below). The wings form part of the same subject.
On the right is a group of women and children, with horror depicted in
their countenances, behind them are the Virgin and St. John; on the left,
mounted officers, behind them the thieves, who are being nailed to their
crosses by the executioners. — This painting, for which Rubens received
2600 florins, was originally the high-altar-piece of the church of St. Wal-
purgis, and was retouched by the artist in 1627. Three easel-paintings
and a representation of God the Father which hung above the main picture
were sold by the church-authorities in 1737 and have since disappeared,
The present painting was placed in the cathedral in 1846

Cuorr. The high-altar-piece (covered) is an *Assumption by
Rubens, painted in 1626. This picture ranks with the Assumption
in the Imperial Museum at Vienna as one of the best of the ten
canvasses Rubens devoted to this subject. The high-altar dates from
1824. — The rich Gothic Stalls, designed by Fr. Durlet, are adorned
with reliefs from the life of the Virgin and with figures of the
Fathers of the Church and of the Founders of the great Monastic
Orders, by K. Geerts (1840), J. de Boeck, and J. B. van Wint (1883).

The other works of art in the cathedral are mainly modern and
all very inferior in interest to the three pictures by Rubens. We
begin to the S., in the —

AmpuLaToRY. 2nd Chapel (on the S.): Rubens, the Resur-
rection, painted in 1612 for the tomb of his friend, the printer
Moretus (see p. 183); on the inside of the shutters John the Baptist
and St. Martina, on the outside angels. Opposite is a picture of
St. Norbert, by M. Pepyn. The carved confessionals in this and the
following chapels are by P. Verbruggen. The best view of the As-
sumption is obtained from this chapel. — 3rd Chapel: Artus
Quellin the Younger, Marble monument of Bishop Ambrosius Capello
(d. 1676), the only monument of a bishop in the church that
escaped destruction in 1794. Opposite is an altar-piece of the
School of Cologne (14th cent.), representing St. Michael and the
dragon with Christ enthroned , angels, and saints. — 4th Chapel:
J. de Backer, Last Judgment, on the wings, portraits of the Plantin

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