death, in 1640, aged 63 years. He was buried with extraordinary pomp and solemnity in the church of St. James, under the altar of the private chapel, which he had decorated with one of his finest pictures. A superb monument was erected to his memory.
RUBENS' NUMEROUS WORKS.
The number of works executed by Rubens is
truly astonishing; Smith, in his Catalogue raisonné,
vols. ii. and ix., describes about eighteen hundred
considered genuine by him, in the different public
and private collections of Europe. There can be no
doubt that a great number of these were executed
by his numerous scholars and assistants, under his
direction, from his designs, and then finished by
himself. It is well known that he employed his pupils
in forwarding many of his pictures, and that
Wildens, van Uden, and Mompers, in particular,
assisted him in his landscapes, and Snyders in his
animals. His principal scholars were Anthony Van-*dyck,
Justus van Egmont, Theodore van Thulden,
Abraham Diepenbeck, Jacob Jordaens, Peter van
Mol, Cornelius Schut, John van Hoeck, Simon de
Vos, Peter Soutman, Deodato Delmont, Erasmus
Quellinus, Francis Wouters, Francis Snyders, John
Wildens, Lucas van Uden, and Jodocus Mompers.
Several other distinguished Flemish painters of the
period, who were not his pupils, imitated his style;
the most eminent of whom were Gerard Seghers,