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liv HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ART
would be the means of putting in its true light the contrast, so
often overlooked, between Rubens and the Dutchmen. Irrespective
of much superficial resemblance (e. g. a similar tone of colour), the
two styles have entirely different sources and aims; and while in
the school of Rubens the old notions, old practices, disappeared,
that art began to reveal itself in Holland which to this day is re-
ceived with unqualified approbation. In the study of Rubens the
mind must frequently be guided by reference to history; the Dutch,
on the other hand, we hail as bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
Rubens and his Pupils.
For centuries Cologne and Antwerp have contended for the hon-
our of having given birth to the greatest of Belgian painters. Lat-
terly, however, their claims have been surrendered in favour of the
little town of Siegen, formerly in Nassau. Our artist’s father, the
Antwerp justice Johannes Rubens, being suspected of a leaning to-
wards the Reformation, sought refuge in flight from the Spanish
Inquisition , and joined the party of William of Orange. Arrived
at the Rhine , where the emigrants assembled, he formed an inti-
macy with Anna of Saxony, the crazy, sensuous wife of William, of
such a nature as furnished the Prince with sufficient grounds for a
divorce. The guilty lover was consigned in 41574 to the fortress
of Dillenburg. His wife, Marie Pypelinckx, who had followed him
into exile, was induced by the severity of his punishment to
forgive the offender the disgrace he had brought upon her, and
to join him at Siegen, the place assigned to him in 1573 as his
abode. Here accordingly, on 28th June, 1577, the eve of SS.
Peter and Paul’s day, Peter Paul Rubens was born. In the follow-
ing year John Rubens received permission to remoye to Cologne.
{tis conceivable that his lot should have damped his ardour for ser-
vice with the Princes of Orange, and encouraged a desire to be
reconciled to the Spanish government. John Rubens, however, died
pending the negotiations which ensued, but his wife finally made
her peace with the Spanish ecclesiastical authorities, returned in
1589 to Antwerp, and as a pledge for the genuineness of her con-
version placed her son in a Jesuit school. In the character of the
man, however, there was nothing jesuitical; but in the sensuous
splendour of his religious pictures, in the accessories of his classical
representations, which however brilliant are often superficial, it is
easy to discern the effects of his training in the then flourishing
schools of the all-powerful Jesuits.
He received instruction in painting from Tobias Verhaegt, from
Adam van Noort, a thorough master of his art, and from Otto van
Veen, commonly called Otho Vaenius, an artist more distinguished
for erudition than force of imagination, who had spent five years
in Rome and afterwards became court-painter to Duke Alexander |
