Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 8.djvu/69

RUBENS 239 means of instruction, to allow his pupils to observe his method of using his paints. He therefore had them with him while he worked on his large pictures. Teniers, Snyders, Jordaens, and Vandyke were among his pupils — all names well known. When Rubens had executed the commission given him by Mary de Medici, wife of Henry IV., he repaired to Paris to arrange his pictures at the Luxem- bourg palace, and there painted two more, and likewise the galleries, representing passages of her life. Here he became acquainted with the Duke of Buckingham, as that nobleman was on his way to Madrid with Prince Charles. On his return to Antwerp, he was summoned to the presence of the Infanta Isabella, who had, through Buck- ingham, become interested in his character. She thought him worthy of a polit- ical mission to the court of Madrid, where he was most graciously received by Philip. While at Madrid he painted four pictures for the convent of the Car- melites, and a fine portrait of the king on horseback, with many other pictures; for these extraordinary productions he was richly rewarded, received the honor of knighthood, and was presented with the golden key. While in Spain, Don John, Duke of Braganza, who was afterward king of Portugal, sent and invited him to visit him at Villa Vitiosa, the place of his resi- dence. Rubens, perhaps, might at this time have been a little dazzled with his uncommon elevation. He was now Sir Paul and celebrated all over Europe. It was proper he should make the visit as one person of high rank visits another. His preparations were great to appear in a becoming style, and not to shame his noble host. At length the morning arrived, and, attended by a numerous train of courteous friends and hired attendants, the long cavalcade began the journey. When not far distant from Villa Vitiosa, Rubens learned that Don John had rent an embassy to meet him. Such an honor' had seldom been accorded to a private gentleman, and Rubens schooled himself to receive it with suitable humil- ity and becoming dignity. He put up at a little distance from Villa Vitiosa, awaiting the arrival of the embassy ; finally it came, in the form of a single gentleman, who civilly told him that the duke, his master, had been obliged to leave home on business that could not be dispensed with, and therefore must deny himself the pleasure of the visit ; but as he had probably been at some extra expense in coming so far, he begged him to accept of fifty pistoles as a remuneration. Rubens refused the pistoles, and could not forbear adding that he had '"brought two thousand along with him, which he had meant to spend at his court during the fifteen days he was to spend there." The truth was, that when Don John was informed that Rubens was coming in the style of a prince to see him, it was wholly foreign to his plan ; he was a great lover of painting, and had wished to see him as an artist. He therefore determined to prevent the visit. The second marriage of Rubens, with Helena Forman, was, no less than the first, one of affection ; she had great beauty, and became a model for his pencil His favor with the great continued. Mary de Medici visited him at his own