Fig. 41. THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. In the Pinakothek at Munich. After a photograph from the original by Franz Hanfstängl, Munich. (To page 56.) His powerful influence acted, not only on young art-students desirous of learning from him, but also on contemporary workers: and even on his former teachers. He often worked on the same canvas with other painters, with whom he was linked by terms of friendship. Besides painting in company with the above-mentioned Johann Breughel, he frequently collaborated with Franz Snyders, unsurpassed as a painter of animals, who, born at Antwerp Fig. 42. in 1579, was about his own age. In the Galleries of Dresden and Munich for example, are vigourous scenes from boar-hunts, the joint work of Rubens and Snyders (Fig. 38). It was, however, only for expedition, and because he was so overburdened with work, not of necessity, that he thus sought the help of his friend in painting animals. He was himself a first rate animal ** Fig. 43. THE LAST JUDGEMENT. In the Pinakothek at Munich. After a photograph from the original by Franz Hanfstängl, Munich. (To page 56.) painter. And no one has better represented the excited movements of a restive horse. He positively revelled in portraying the beauty of the fine Andalusian steeds, so much prized at that period for riding and hunting. He occasionally even did not disdain to make studies from clumsy Flemish mares (Fig. 39). With the same masterly hand he also painted dogs, among which the fine spotted greyhounds, employed by noblemen for the chase were his special admiration. He was devoted to the painting of wild beasts, many varieties of which he could find at the Zoological Gardens at Antwerp and in private menageries. He often introduces the Bengal tiger with his splendid colouring into his paintings, and lions are not infrequently made principals figures in his compositions. Of which latter animals he has left numerous sketches. We are told that he once invited into his studio a strolling trainer with a magnificent lion, promising the man a handsome sum of money if he would make the beast yawn by tickling its jaw-bones, so that he might study its open mouth. The lion, however, did not approve of this game and, threatening to become dangerous, had to be summarily removed. It is added that, soon after, movement Fig. 44. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. In the Pinakothek at Munich. (To page 56.) In 1616 Rubens received from the Prince Palatine of Neuburg a commission to paint The Last Judgment for the church at Neuburg. This grand subject had been treated by him already in two separate representations, both of which are now in the Pinakothek at Munich. The stern words of judgment, which divide the Just from the Unjust have already been spoken. In the one picture we may see the Redeemed ascending to heaven like Fig. 45. PIETÀ. (Sketch for the altar-piece in the Museum at Antwerp.) In the Albertina at Vienna. After a photograph from the original by Braun, Clément & Co., Dornach, Paris and New-York. (To page 61.) a dense cloud of smoke toward the Judge, enthroned on a distant height: in the other the Condemned in an tumultuous body are precipitated into an abyss of glowing flame and darkness. The remarkable features of this work lie perhaps less in the profusion of rising and falling bodies, than in the general effect of the whole, which, on so grand a scale, has never since been attempted. The number of souls is endless; thousands and thousands seem massed together: and in both pictures the impression is conveyed |