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Cathedral. ANTWERP. 13. Route. 173
The W. facade, the elaborate portal of which is adored with a
modern Gothic relief (Last Judgment) by J. B. van Wint, was
restored in 1904-3.
The *INTERIOR a see p. 168) is grand and impressive, and
the rich perspective of its six tee is very effective. Its length is
384 ft.; width off nave 174 ft., of transept, 243 ft.; height 131 ft.
Its area amounts to 70,000 sq. ft. (that of Cologne Cathedral is
St. Paul’s in London 84,000, St. Peter’s at Rome 162,000
The vaulting is supported by 120 pillars. The level of the
eral times rais
sq. 1
P uvyement has been se ;
The See er 1 from the Place Verte, contains Rubens’s
far-fame asterp e Yescent from the Cross (pp. ly, lvi), a
inged picture, paint ned { in 1644-14 (in Paris from 1794 to 1816;
estored in 185 On the inside of the wings are the Salutation,
and the Presentation in the Temple, on the outside St. Christopher
carrying the Infant Saviour, and a hermit. The Mary in a blue
robe and the figure with a basket in the wings are portraits of the
master’s first wife and his daughter respectively. For this picture
the painter received 2400 fl. and a small piece of ground to round
off his estate. In the N. transept is Rubens’s *Elevation of the
Cross, painted in 1610, soon after his return from a residence of
eight years in Italy and while the master was still under the in-
fluence of Michael Angelo (also in Paris from 1794 to 1816). On
the right wing is a group of Roman soldiers, with their centurion, on
the left are tl in, St. pone ene a exoue) of THO MATTE women.
The
ebrated f
ou Ww hich the body of the Bae ies! is
ally said to be
The principal
5 and the attitude
a dead body. Two of the
lf i eived and careful
extremely expreé 3 utter inertness of
three Maries are more attractive than is usual with Rubens’s female figures,
but the flabby countenance of Joseph of Arimathza exhibits neither sen-
timent nor emotion. The arrangement of the whole is most masterly and
judicious, the 2s not too ponderous, and the colouring rich and har-
monious, i ntiment is not wanting, so that this work is
well calc s’s wonderful genius in the most favourable
light. According to a well-kno anecdote, th picture, when in an un-
finished state, fell from the in Rubens’s “abs Van Dyck, as the most
skilful of his’ pupils, was chosen to repair the damage, which he did sO suc-
cessfully, that Rubens on his return declared that his pupil’s work sur-
passed his own. The parts thu id to have been retouched are the face
of the Virgin and the arm of the Magdalen.
The popular story with regard to the origin of this famous picture is
another of those picture 1e fictions which modern investigation has so
rudely dispelled. Rubens is said to have been employed by the Guild of
Arquebusiers to paint an altar-piece representing their patron saint ‘St.Chris-
tophorus’ ( ‘the bearer of Christ’), as the price of which he was to re-
ceive a piece of ground from them as a site for his house. Instead of ful-
filling the contract literally by painting a single picture of St. Christopher,
Rubens generously determined to produce a far more noble work by repre-
senting the ‘bearing of Christ’ allegorically, viz. in the principal picture
Christ borne by his friends, in one wing by his Virgin mother before the
Nativity, and in the other by the aged Simeon in the Temple. The picture
3AEDEKER’S Belgium and Holland. 15th Edit. 41
figure it |
