DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22422#0175
Letter XVI.
PICTURES BY RUBENS.
163
means of salvation in the person of Christ, thus strengthening my
conviction that this master is, more than Jan van Eyck, to be
regarded as the strictest and most earnest ecclesiastical painter of
his time in the Netherlands.
I now proceed to four colossal works by Rubens :—1. The
Gathering of the Manna; a composition of seven figures, with
Moses returning thanks. On canvas, 16 ft. high, 13 ft. 7 in. wide.
2. A procession of the four Latin fathers of the Church, St.
Gregory, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome ; and of St.
Thomas, St. Norbert, and St. Clara, who carries the Host. The
latter is the portrait of Donna Clara Eugenia Isabella, daughter
of Philip II., Governess of the Netherlands, whose patroness St.
Clara was. On canvas, 14 ft. high, 14 ft. 6 in. wide.
3. The four Evangelists, also in a' procession. On canvas, 14 ft.
high, 14 ft. 6 in. wide.
4. Abraham receiving bread and wine from Melchizedeck.
A very dramatic composition of nineteen figures. On canvas,
14 ft. high, 19 ft. wide. These pictures belong to a series of
nine, which, till the year 1808, were in the Carmelite convent
at Loeches, about eighteen miles from Madrid, founded by the
Duke d'Olivarez, to whom they were presented by his sove-
reign, King Philip IV. In the year 1808 these four were sold
by the French to M. de Bourke, at that time Danish Minister
at the Court of Madrid, who brought them to England, and
sold them to the late Marquis for 10,000/. sterling. Two
others, the Triumph of the Christian Religion, and Elijah in the
Wilderness fed by the Angel, are in the gallery of the Louvre.
Another, the Triumph of Charity, was in 1830 in the possession of
Mr. Joshua Taylor. The other two, the Triumph of the Catholic
Church, and the Victory of Christianity over Paganism, seem to
have remained at Loeches. The nine original sketches by Rubens
himself, formerly in the new palace at Madrid, are now, for the
most part, dispersed in England. All these pictures are treated
as tapestries; for at the upper ends are angels engaged in
hanging them up to a cornice between pillars. In these composi-
tions Rubens had ample field for his taste for allegorical composi-
tion, and for the representation of pompous and solemn processions.
In my opinion, however, it is doubtful whether he himself ever
touched these great pictures. Though in his colossal figures he is
m 2
PICTURES BY RUBENS.
163
means of salvation in the person of Christ, thus strengthening my
conviction that this master is, more than Jan van Eyck, to be
regarded as the strictest and most earnest ecclesiastical painter of
his time in the Netherlands.
I now proceed to four colossal works by Rubens :—1. The
Gathering of the Manna; a composition of seven figures, with
Moses returning thanks. On canvas, 16 ft. high, 13 ft. 7 in. wide.
2. A procession of the four Latin fathers of the Church, St.
Gregory, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome ; and of St.
Thomas, St. Norbert, and St. Clara, who carries the Host. The
latter is the portrait of Donna Clara Eugenia Isabella, daughter
of Philip II., Governess of the Netherlands, whose patroness St.
Clara was. On canvas, 14 ft. high, 14 ft. 6 in. wide.
3. The four Evangelists, also in a' procession. On canvas, 14 ft.
high, 14 ft. 6 in. wide.
4. Abraham receiving bread and wine from Melchizedeck.
A very dramatic composition of nineteen figures. On canvas,
14 ft. high, 19 ft. wide. These pictures belong to a series of
nine, which, till the year 1808, were in the Carmelite convent
at Loeches, about eighteen miles from Madrid, founded by the
Duke d'Olivarez, to whom they were presented by his sove-
reign, King Philip IV. In the year 1808 these four were sold
by the French to M. de Bourke, at that time Danish Minister
at the Court of Madrid, who brought them to England, and
sold them to the late Marquis for 10,000/. sterling. Two
others, the Triumph of the Christian Religion, and Elijah in the
Wilderness fed by the Angel, are in the gallery of the Louvre.
Another, the Triumph of Charity, was in 1830 in the possession of
Mr. Joshua Taylor. The other two, the Triumph of the Catholic
Church, and the Victory of Christianity over Paganism, seem to
have remained at Loeches. The nine original sketches by Rubens
himself, formerly in the new palace at Madrid, are now, for the
most part, dispersed in England. All these pictures are treated
as tapestries; for at the upper ends are angels engaged in
hanging them up to a cornice between pillars. In these composi-
tions Rubens had ample field for his taste for allegorical composi-
tion, and for the representation of pompous and solemn processions.
In my opinion, however, it is doubtful whether he himself ever
touched these great pictures. Though in his colossal figures he is
m 2