* * * * *

In all, Rubens spent eight years in the service of the Duke of Mantua. He
had visited the chief cities of Italy, and was familiar with all the art
of the golden ages that had gone before. When he left Italy he had to
take advantage of the fact that the Duke was in France, for every time
before, when he had suggested going, he was questioned thus: "Why, have
you not all you wish? What more can be done for you? Name your desire and
you shall have it."

But Rubens wanted home: Antwerp, his mother, brothers, sister, the broad
River Scheldt, and the good old Flemish tongue.

Soon after arriving in Antwerp he was named as Court Painter by Albert
and Isabella. Thus he was the successor of his old master, Van Veen.

He was now aged thirty-two, in possession of an income from the State,
and a fame and name to be envied. He was rich in money, jewels and art
treasures brought from Italy, for he had the thrifty instincts of a true
Dutchman.

And it was a gala day for all Antwerp when the bells rang and the great
organ in the Cathedral played the wedding-march when Peter Paul Rubens
and Isabella Brandt were married, on the Thirteenth of October, Sixteen
Hundred Nine. Never was there a happier mating.

That fine picture at Munich of Rubens and his wife tells of the sweet
comradeship that was to be theirs for many years. He opened a school, and
pupils flocked to him from all Europe; commissions for work came and
orders for altar-pieces from various churches.

An order was issued by the Archduke that he should not leave Holland, and
a copy of the order was sent to the Duke of Mantua, to shut off his
importunities.

Among the pupils of Rubens we find the name of Jordaens (whom he had
first known in Italy), De Crayer, Anthony Van Dyck, Franz Snyder and many
others who achieved distinction. Rubens was a positive leader; so
animated was his manner that his ambition was infectious. All his young
men painted just as he did. His will was theirs. From now on, out of the
thousands of pictures signed "P. P. Rubens," we can not pick out a single
picture and say, "Rubens did this." He drew outlines and added the
finishing touches; and surely would not have signed a canvas of which he
did not approve. In his great studio at Antwerp, at various times, fully
a hundred men worked to produce the pictures we call "Rubens."

Those glowing canvases in the "Rubens Gallery" of the Louvre, showing the
hist