Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/364

RUBEFACIENTS. 332 KUBENS. a blistering agent, but may be used as a rubefa- cient if modified by the free admixture of soap or resin plaster. Plasters of Burgundy pitch and resin cerate are also slightlj' rubefacient. Rube- facients are used to reduce intlaiiimations or con- gestions, as in i)leurisy and pneumonia : to cause the absorption or removal of inllamniatory prod- ucts as found in clironically enlarged joints: to relieve pain and spasm, as in neuralgia and in- testinal cramp. See Countkr-Ikritants. E.UBELLITE (from Lat. riihellus, reddish, diminutive of ruber, red). The pale rose-red or pink variety of tourmaline, of which the gem varieties in the United States come chieHy from the famous locality of Mt. Mica, near Paris, Me. Excellent gem varieties of rubellite are also found in Ekaterinburg, in Siberia, and on the inland of Elba. RU'BENS, Peter Paul (1577-1G40). The chief master of the Flemish school of painting, one of the most prolific and versatile artists of all times. He was born at Siegen, Westphalia, June 29, 1577, son of .Jan Rubens, a lawyer of Ant- werp. His father had come to Cologne in 1568, but, owing to his illicit relations with Anna of Saxony, wife of William of Orange, was kept in temporary captivity at Siegen. After his death at Cologne in 1587, the widow returned to Antwerp, where Peter Paul frequented school for three years, then was a page in the service of Countess Lalaing. He began his artistic train- ing under Tobias Verhaegt, a mediocre landscape painter, tlien studied four years (1592-96) un- der Adam van Xoort and. until 1600, under Otto van Veen, being in the meanwhile received as 7naster into the guild in 1598. The works of the great Italian colorists attracted him to Venice in May, 1600, and in the same year Duke Vincenzo Cionzaga made him his Court painter at Mantua. Sent to Rome in 1601 to make copies of old mas- ters, Rubens also executed there, for Archduke Albert, Governor of the Netherlands, three altar- pieces in the Church of Santa Croce in Geru- salemme, which are now at Grasse. in Southern France. In 1603 Gonzaga made him the bearer of presents to King Philip III. of Spain, whence he returned to Mantua in 1604. then was in Rome again from the end of 1605 till June, 1007, when the Duke sunmioned Rubens to accompany him to CJenoa. The special interest he took here in the works of architecture resulted in the publication, in two parts, of 136 engravings, under the title, Palazzi antichi di Genova (Antwerp, 1613 and 1622). For the Church of Sant' Ambrogio at Genoa he painted (at what period it is not known) the "Miracle of St. Ignatius," a work of great splendor. Stopping at Milan, on his re- turn, he made drawings of Leonardo da Vinci's "Battle of Anghiari" and "Last Supper," which are both in the Louvre. In 1608 w-e find him once more in Rome, studying the great masters, and occupied w'ith several compositions of his own, when news of his mother's illness called him back to Antwerp. Intending, after her death, to return to Mantua, he was induced to remain, by Archduke Albert, who appointed him his Court painter. In 1609 he married Isabella Brant, with whom he appears depicted in tlie splendid portrait of 1610, in the Pinakothek at Munich. A highly finished work of his Roman period is the "Saiiit Jerome," in the Dresden Gallery. His first great commission came from the city of Antwerp, to paint for the city hall an "Adora- tion of the -Magi" (1610), of large size and glow- ing color, now in the Madrid iluseum. In the same year he completed the famous "San Ilde- fonso Altar," now in the Vienna Museum, a work of unsurpassed mastery in tlie combination of chiaroscuro effect with luminous color, and the "Elevation of the Cross," which, with its far- famed companion piece, "Descent from the Cross" (1612), adorns the Antwerp Cathedral. A modi- fied treatment of the latter subject is in the Her- mitage, Saint Petersburg, which contains also one of his most sticcessful mythological .subjects, dat- ing from between 1612 and 1615, the "Perseus and Andromeda," an equally fine version of which is in the Berlin Museum. To this period belong also the exquisite "Madonna Surrounded by Chil- dren." in the Louvre, and the genial group of "Children with a Fruit Garland" (c.l615), in the Pinakothek, Munich. Dated 1014 are a small but precious "Flight into Egypt," in Cassel. and a highly finished "Pieta" in the Vienna Museum, of which there is a larger replica, with landscape by Jan Breughel, in the Antwerp Museum. Breug- hel also painted the fine garland around the "Ma- donna with Angels," in the Pinakothek, Munich, which bears the features of Isabella Brant. From the first, after his settling at Antwerp, pupils had flocked to his studio in such numbers that, as early as 1611, he was obliged to refer applicants to other masters for years in advance. With the constant increase of orders, he availed himself of the assistance of his pupils in the exe- cution of the larger paintings and of replicas fre- quently in demand. Such works were more or less retouched by him to give them the impress of his genius. But he also often worked in conjunc- tion with his fellow-artists, notably, beside Bretig- hel, with Frans Snyders, wdio was his collabo- rator in the spirited "Boar Htmts," in the Dresden and Mimich Cialleries, and in the "Chase of Di- ana," in the Berlin Jluseum. Rubens himself was an animal painter of the first rank, witness the "Lion Hunt" (1016), in the Pinakothek at Munich. That gallery also contains several of his most important religious and mythological pictures of this period, to wit : the "Last Judg- ment"(2 treatments. 1616 and 1618) ."Christ and the Four Sinners" (c.l619), "Nativity" (1620), "Descending of the Holy Ghost" (1620), "The Chaste Susanna." the "Assumption," "Castor and Pollux Abducting the Datighters of Leucippus," "Meleagerand Atalanta"(same subject in Cassel), "Drunken Silenus" (1617), and above all "The Battle of the Amazons" (1619), his most famous example of depicting the tumult of battle. Other masterpieces of this period are: "The Conver- sion of Saul" (c.1617, Berlin Museum) ; "Scourging of Christ" (1617, St. Paul's, Ant- werp) ; "Expulsion of Hagar" (1618. Hermitage, Saint Petersburg) : "The Jliraculous Draught of Fishes" (1616-18, Church of Our Lady, Mechlin), a striking piece of realistic con- ception : "St. Ignatius Casting Out Devils" (Vienna Museum) ; "Incredtditv of Thomas" (1615). "Christ a la Pailie" (c.l617). "Last Communion of Saint Francis" (1619), "Christ on the Cross" (known as "Le Coup de Lance," 1620, a work of remarkable dramatic effect), all in the Antwerp Museum. Among the numerous !Madon- nas, one of the most sympathetic is "Mary, the Refuge of Sinners" (c.l619, Cassel Gallery), which