387a. Splendid *portrait by Rubens (according to Rooses, by Van Dyck).
This room also contains several fine pictures by Teniers (father or son) and other late Flemish painters, deserving of attention, but needing no explanation. (Portraits, etc.) Do not imagine because I pass them by that you need not look at them.
Now enter
Corridor B.
L. of the door, good works by De Crayer and others.
166. Van Dyck (the greatest pupil of Rubens, leading us on to the later Dutch school). *St. Francis in ecstasy before the Crucifix. From the Franciscan Capuchin Church in Brussels.
288. P. Meert, good portraits.
165. Companion to 166. Another Franciscan picture by Van Dyck. *St. Anthony of Padua holding the Infant Jesus. (In neither is he seen to great advantage.)
In the centre, 378, Rubens: **Assumption, high altar-piece from the Carmelite Church in Brussels. A fine picture, of Ruben’s early period, smooth of surface and relatively careful, with the apostles looking into the empty tomb, whence women are picking roses (See Legends of the Madonna). To the R., the youthful figure of St. Thomas, stretching his hands. Observe the fine contrast of colour between the lower and upper portions. This is a noble specimen of the master’s bold and dramatic treatment, but without his later ease of execution.
503. *Good portraits, by C. De Vos, of himself and his family.