DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52800#0191
FLEMISH SCHOOL.—rubens.
171
Having stored his thoughts with the excel-
lencies of Titian, of Tintorett, and of Paul Vero-
nese, whose broad manner of effect he particularly-
admired, he proceeded to Mantua, where he was
graciously received by the duke, who soon after-
wards appointed him one of the gentlemen of his
bedchamber, which afforded him every facility of
studying the capital works of Julio Romano, and
Andrea Mantegna, which were in the ducal pa-
lace ; and which established that classical taste he
already in a great degree possessed.
The colouring of the Venetian masters however
still floated before him, and he could not rest sa-
tisfied until he had obtained permission of the
duke to revisit that school of splendid colour;
when, after a residence for some time at Venice,
he established his own style, which was founded
upon the principles of the Venetian, but retaining
the execution of the Flemish school.
Rubens by this time had acquired great and
just celebrity; he returned to Mantua, and after-
wards visited Genoa, at both of which places he
painted many most admirable works, as the pa-
laces and churches bear witness. It is difficult to
say whether all the fine pictures which the Ge-
noese palaces contained were painted by him
while in that city; the probability is that they
were not, as, on his return to Antwerp, he carried
171
Having stored his thoughts with the excel-
lencies of Titian, of Tintorett, and of Paul Vero-
nese, whose broad manner of effect he particularly-
admired, he proceeded to Mantua, where he was
graciously received by the duke, who soon after-
wards appointed him one of the gentlemen of his
bedchamber, which afforded him every facility of
studying the capital works of Julio Romano, and
Andrea Mantegna, which were in the ducal pa-
lace ; and which established that classical taste he
already in a great degree possessed.
The colouring of the Venetian masters however
still floated before him, and he could not rest sa-
tisfied until he had obtained permission of the
duke to revisit that school of splendid colour;
when, after a residence for some time at Venice,
he established his own style, which was founded
upon the principles of the Venetian, but retaining
the execution of the Flemish school.
Rubens by this time had acquired great and
just celebrity; he returned to Mantua, and after-
wards visited Genoa, at both of which places he
painted many most admirable works, as the pa-
laces and churches bear witness. It is difficult to
say whether all the fine pictures which the Ge-
noese palaces contained were painted by him
while in that city; the probability is that they
were not, as, on his return to Antwerp, he carried