DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62819#0039
LIFE OF RUBENS.
xxxi
sent an agent, named Blondel*, conversant with the
value of objects of art, who took an inventory of every
article, and gave his opinion of the value. An offer of
100,000 florins was made for the whole collection ; this
sum was accepted, on condition that the purchaser
should, at his own expense, leave casts of all the finest
statues, busts, and bas-reliefs, to fill the vacant places;
these terms being mutually agreed upon, the whole
were sent to England, in 1625f.
The friendly understanding between the Duke of
Buckingham and Rubens, which commenced at Paris,
was shortly after renewed by a visit from his Grace
to the house of the artist, at Antwerp, where it is
probable that the duke sat to him for his portrait (and
not at Paris, as stated by Michel); and the duke’s
frequent visits to the artist’s house afforded him oppor-
tunities of examining the extensive collection which
he afterwards purchased; for it is not reasonable to
suppose that he, the duke, would have consented to
pay so large a sum of money for what he had never
seen. Such an intercourse also enabled him to judge
of the diplomatic talents of the artist, and to acquaint
himself with the influence which it was said he pos-
sessed at court. This intimacy probably led to his
* The portrait of this gentleman is painted by Van Dyck.
■f In this capital collection were nineteen pictures by Titian,
twenty-one by Bassan, thirteen by P. Veronese, eight by Palma,
seventeen by Tintoretto, three by Lionardo da Vinci, three by
Raffaelle, and thirteen by Rubens. Previous to the sequestration
of the Buckingham estate, in 1649, a great part of this collection
was sent to Antwerp for sale, and were purchased by the Archduke
Leopold for his collection at Prague ; they are now in the Belvidere
Gallery, at Vienna.
xxxi
sent an agent, named Blondel*, conversant with the
value of objects of art, who took an inventory of every
article, and gave his opinion of the value. An offer of
100,000 florins was made for the whole collection ; this
sum was accepted, on condition that the purchaser
should, at his own expense, leave casts of all the finest
statues, busts, and bas-reliefs, to fill the vacant places;
these terms being mutually agreed upon, the whole
were sent to England, in 1625f.
The friendly understanding between the Duke of
Buckingham and Rubens, which commenced at Paris,
was shortly after renewed by a visit from his Grace
to the house of the artist, at Antwerp, where it is
probable that the duke sat to him for his portrait (and
not at Paris, as stated by Michel); and the duke’s
frequent visits to the artist’s house afforded him oppor-
tunities of examining the extensive collection which
he afterwards purchased; for it is not reasonable to
suppose that he, the duke, would have consented to
pay so large a sum of money for what he had never
seen. Such an intercourse also enabled him to judge
of the diplomatic talents of the artist, and to acquaint
himself with the influence which it was said he pos-
sessed at court. This intimacy probably led to his
* The portrait of this gentleman is painted by Van Dyck.
■f In this capital collection were nineteen pictures by Titian,
twenty-one by Bassan, thirteen by P. Veronese, eight by Palma,
seventeen by Tintoretto, three by Lionardo da Vinci, three by
Raffaelle, and thirteen by Rubens. Previous to the sequestration
of the Buckingham estate, in 1649, a great part of this collection
was sent to Antwerp for sale, and were purchased by the Archduke
Leopold for his collection at Prague ; they are now in the Belvidere
Gallery, at Vienna.