107. C. De Vos: *Portraits of the Snoek family, in devotion to St. Norbert. This picture requires a little explanation. St. Norbert was the Catholic antagonist of the heretic Tankelin at Antwerp in the 12th century. In this frankly anachronistic picture the Snoek family of the 17th century, portly, well-fed burghers, are represented restoring to the mediæval saint the monstrance and other church vessels removed from his church during the Calvinist troubles. The Snoeks are living personages; the Saint is envisaged as a heavenly character. It is, in short, a highly allegorical picture of the family showing their devotion to true Catholicism, and their detestation of current heresy. In the background stands the town of Antwerp, with the Cathedral and St. Michael. (From the burial chapel of the Snoek family at St. Michael.) There is a Brueghel in Brussels Museum, representing St. Norbert preaching against Tankelin.
307. Beyond the door, Rubens: **Triptych, to adorn a tomb, for the funerary chapel of his friend Rockox. Compare, for size and purpose, the Moretus tomb in the Cathedral. It shows the painter’s early careful manner, and represents in its central piece the Incredulity of St. Thomas. On the wings, the Burgomaster Nicolas Rockox, and his wife, for whose tomb it was painted. The wings are finer than the central portion. This early work, still recalling Van Veen’s academic tone, should be compared with the Van Veens and also with Rubens’s fine portrait of himself and his brother, with Lipsius and Grotius, in the Pitti at Florence. It marks the earliest age, when he was still content with comparatively small sizes, and gave greater elaboration to his work, but without his later dash and vigour. M. Rooses thinks ill of it.
781. *Fine farmyard scene by Rubens, with the story of the Prodigal Son in the foreground. One of the many signs of his extraordinary versatility.
Beyond, on either side of the great Rubens, to be noticed presently, are two pictures by his master, Otto van Veen: 480, The Calling of Matthew, and 479, Zacchæus in the Fig-Tree. These two careful works recall the later Italian Schools, more particularly Titian, and are good examples of that careful academic transitional Flemish art which Rubens was to transform and revivify by the strength of his own exuberant and powerful personality. They are admirably placed here for comparison with
297. Rubens’s famous altar-piece of the Crucifixion, for the Church of the Franciscans, commonly known as the **Coup de Lance. In this splendid work Rubens is seen in one of his finest embodiments. The figure of Christ has fine virility. St. Longinus, to the L., on a white horse, is in the very act of piercing his side. The Magdalen, embracing the foot of the Cross, as ever, throws up her arms with supplicating gesture. To the R. is the Madonna. Behind, a soldier is engaged in breaking the limbs of the Impenitent Thief (always on Christ’s L.) who writhes in his torture. The whole work is full of Rubens’s life and bustle, well contrasted with the academic calm of the Van Veens beside it. Even those who do not love Rubens (and I confess I am of them) must see in such a work as this how his great powers succeeded in effects at which his contemporaries aimed ineffectually. Boldly dramatic, but not sacred.
300. **Triptych by Rubens, commonly known as the Christ à la Paille, painted for a tomb in the Cathedral (compare the Moretus one). In the centre is a Pietà: Joseph of Arimathea supporting the dead body of the Christ on the edge of a stone covered with straw. Behind, Our Lady and another Mary, with the face of St. John just appearing in the background. This “too famous” work is rather a study of the dead nude than a really sacred picture. Some of its details overstep the justifiable limits of horror. The wings are occupied by, L., a so-called Madonna and Child, really a portrait of a lady and boy—(his wife and son?): R., St. John the Evangelist (patron of the person for whose tomb it was painted), accompanied by his eagle.
706. Admirable *portrait by Rubens of Gaspard Groaerts, town secretary. The bust is Marcus Aurelius.
171. J. Fyt: Excellent screaming eagles, with a dead duck. One of the earliest and best presentations of wild life at home.
315. Rubens: Small copy (with variations) of the Descent from the Cross in the Cathedral (by a pupil).
708. One of the best *portraits by Rubens in the Gallery, subject unknown: lacks personal dignity, but Rubens has made the most of him.