DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62819#0018
X
LIFE OF RUBENS.
and praised for the excellent productions of his pencil,
honoured and dignified by sovereigns and potentates for
his conduct as a statesman. Peter Paul Rubens,
the worthy object of these encomiums, descended from
a respectable family, who dated their origin from Styrie,
a province in the Austrian dominions; his grandfather,
Bartholomew Rubens, joined the suite of the Emperor
Charles V. upon the occasion of his splendid coronation
at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1520; at the conclusion of
which ceremony he accompanied the emperor to the
Diet at Worms, and subsequently took up his residence
at Brussels. The Court of Charles was then the most
magnificent and brilliant in Europe; and the young
Bartholomew, having the advantage of a good edu-
cation and possessing all the fashionable accomplish-
ments of the time, attracted the admiration of such a
Court. He found no difficulty in forming an advan-
tageous union with a lady of noble family, named Barbara
Arens, surnamed Sperinck. The commerce and opu-
lence of the city of Antwerp, at that period, brought
together a confluence of merchants from all countries,
and consequently such gaiety and amusements as were
well calculated to excite a disposition in the young
couple to remove to that city; to this they were further
induced, by its being the residence of some of their
relatives. Of this union, in the month of March, 1530,
was born John Rubens, the father of the artist. Gifted
with a ready disposition to study, his acquirements in
the knowledge of the sciences and polite literature were
extensive: at the age of twenty-four he went to Italy,
where, during a residence of six years, he perfected
himself in the several universities for the profession of
LIFE OF RUBENS.
and praised for the excellent productions of his pencil,
honoured and dignified by sovereigns and potentates for
his conduct as a statesman. Peter Paul Rubens,
the worthy object of these encomiums, descended from
a respectable family, who dated their origin from Styrie,
a province in the Austrian dominions; his grandfather,
Bartholomew Rubens, joined the suite of the Emperor
Charles V. upon the occasion of his splendid coronation
at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1520; at the conclusion of
which ceremony he accompanied the emperor to the
Diet at Worms, and subsequently took up his residence
at Brussels. The Court of Charles was then the most
magnificent and brilliant in Europe; and the young
Bartholomew, having the advantage of a good edu-
cation and possessing all the fashionable accomplish-
ments of the time, attracted the admiration of such a
Court. He found no difficulty in forming an advan-
tageous union with a lady of noble family, named Barbara
Arens, surnamed Sperinck. The commerce and opu-
lence of the city of Antwerp, at that period, brought
together a confluence of merchants from all countries,
and consequently such gaiety and amusements as were
well calculated to excite a disposition in the young
couple to remove to that city; to this they were further
induced, by its being the residence of some of their
relatives. Of this union, in the month of March, 1530,
was born John Rubens, the father of the artist. Gifted
with a ready disposition to study, his acquirements in
the knowledge of the sciences and polite literature were
extensive: at the age of twenty-four he went to Italy,
where, during a residence of six years, he perfected
himself in the several universities for the profession of