s of two separate tendencies. The
date of the _Descent from the Cross_ is 1612; that of the _Elevation to
the Cross_ is 1610. I insist upon the date, for it is important. Rubens
was returning to Antwerp, and it was on his disembarkation, so to speak,
that he painted them. His education was finished. At that moment he had
even an excess of studies that were somewhat heavy for him and of which
he was going to make free use once for all and then get rid of almost
immediately. Of all the Italian masters he had consulted, each one, be
it understood, gave him advice of a sufficiently exclusive nature. The
hot-headed masters authorized him to dare greatly; the severe masters
recommended him to keep himself under strong restraint.

His nature, character, and native faculties all tended to a division.
The task itself exacted that he should make two parts of his beautiful
gifts. He felt the expediency of this, took advantage of it, treated of
the subjects in accordance with their spirit, and gave two contrary and
two just ideas of himself: on the one hand the most magnificent example
we possess of his wisdom, and on the other one of the most astonishing
visions of his fire and ardour. To the personal inspiration of the
painter add a very marked Italian influence and you will still better be
able to explain to yourself the extraordinary value that posterity
attaches to pages which may be regarded as his diploma works and which
were the first public acts of his life as the head of a school.

I will tell you how this influence manifests itself and by what
characteristics it may be recognized. But first it is enough for me to
remark that it exists, in order that the physiognomy of the talent of
Rubens may not lose any of its features at the moment when we examine
it. This is not that he should be positively cramped in canonical
formulae in which others would find themselves imprisoned.

On the other hand, with what ease he moves among these formulae, with
what freedom he makes use of them, with what tact he disguises or
confesses them, according as he takes pleasure in revealing the
well-informed man or the novice. However, whatever he may do, we feel
the _Romanist_ who has just spent some years on classic ground, who has
just arrived and has not yet changed his atmosphere. There is some
unknown quality remaining with him that reveals travel, such as a
foreign odour about his clothes. It is certainly to this fine Italian
scent that