Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/537

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In Antwerp. 507 conferred on him the honour of knighthood ; and for several years he enjoyed great popularity. Although his life was far shorter than that of Rubens, Van Dyck executed a very large number of paintings. Of his sacred subjects we may name the Crucifixion, in the cathedral of Mechlin, a fine example of this class ; a Pieta and a Crucifixion, both in the Pinakothek, Munich ; a small Entombment, in the Antwerp Cathedral; and the Virgin and Child enthroned with SS. Peter and Paul, and the Vision of Hermann Joseph, both in the Belvedere, Vienna ; the Betrayal of Christ, in the Madrid Gallery ; the Martyr- dom of S. Peter, in the Brussels Gallery; the Madonna with the Partridges, in the Hermitage, S. Petersburg ; and a Pieta, in the Louvre. In portraiture Van Dyck rises to the greatest height, and fears no rival but Titian, Holbein, Velazquez and Rembrandt. We have merely time to take a rapid survey of the most celebrated of his portraits, which have been dispersed over Europe. Italy — where Van Dyck remained for five years in order to complete before the works of Titian the lessons of Rubens — has retained several of his portraits. In England, the National Gallery shows with pride one of the greatest works of Van Dyck. This is the bust of an old man of a grave and noble countenance, who is said to be the learned Gevartius (Gevaerts, historiographer of Antwerp), but who is rather, according to the engraving by P. Pontius, Cornelis van der Geest, artis pictorial amator. The National Gallery also contains a Portrait of Rubens ; a Study of Horses ; His own Portrait ; and copies of two of Rubens' s pictures — The Emperor Theodosius refused admis- sion into the church by St. Ambrose (see Fig. 164), and the