ANTON VANDYCK. BY CLARA ERSKINE CLEMENT. THE greatest painter among the pupils of Rubens was Anton or Anthony Vandyck (or Van Dyck, as it is also spelled). He was born at Antwerp in 1599. His father was a silk-merchant, and his mother was a lady of artistic tastes; though she had twelve children, she yet found time to do much embroidery and tapestry work. She had a daughter named Susannah, and it may have been on account of this child that her finest work was a large piece on which the story of Susannah was represented. She was occupied with this before the birth of Anthony, who was her seventh child, and during his early years she skillfully plied her needle, and wrought her many-colored silks into landscapes and skies, trees and houses, men and animals, with untiring patience and uncommon excellence. It is easy to understand that this mother must have rejoiced to find that Anthony had artistic talent, and it is probable that it was through her influence that he became a pupil under the artist Heinrich von Balen when he was but ten years old. He was still a boy, not more than seventeen, when he entered the studio of Rubens, just at the time when the great master was devoting himself to his art with his whole soul, and had a large number of young students under his direction. Vandyck soon became the favorite pupil of Rubens, and was early allowed to do such work as proved that the great artist even then appreciated the genius of the brilliant and attractive youthfor such we are told that Vandyck was. Among other things, Rubens intrusted to Vandyck the labor of making drawings from his pictures, to be used by the engravers who made prints after his works, for which there was a great demand at this time. It was necessary that these drawings should be very exact, so that the engravings should be as HEAD OF A GRANDEE. (FROM A PORTRAIT BY VANDYCK.) nearly like the original works as possible; and the fact that Vandyck, when still so young, was chosen for this important task, proves that he must have been unusually skillful and correct in his drawings. Rubens left his studio but rarely, and when he did so, his pupils were in the habit of bribing his old servant to unlock the door of his private room, that they might see what the master had done. The story goes that, on one occasion, just at evening, when the master was riding, the scholars, as they looked at his work, jostled each other and injured the picture, which was not yet dry. They were filled with alarm, and feared expulsion from the school. After a consultation, they begged Vandyck to restore the injured picture. With some hesitation he did so, and to the eyes of the pupils it was so well done that they counted on escaping discovery. The keen eye of the master, however, detected the work of another hand than his own; he summoned all the pupils and demanded an explanation, and when he knew all that had happened, he made no comment. It has even been said that he was so well pleased that he left the picture as Vandyck had restored it. Some writers say that this accident happened to the face of the Virgin and the arm of the Magdalen, in the great picture of the "Descent from the Cross," now in the Antwerp Cathedral; but we are not at all certain of the truth of this statement. In 1618, Vandyck was admitted into the Guild of Painters at Antwerp, a great honor to a youth of nineteen. In 1620, Rubens advanced him from the rank of a pupil to that of an assistant, and in 1623, when Rubens made a contract to decorate the Jesuit Church at Antwerp, a clause was inserted which provided that Vandyck should be employed in the work, showing that he then had a good reputation in his native city. It was about 1618 when an agent of the Earl of Arundel wrote to his employer: "Vandyck lives with Rubens, and his works are beginning to be almost as much esteemed as those of his master. He is a young man of one-and-twenty, with a very rich father and mother in this city, so that it will be very difficult to persuade him to leave this country, especially since he sees the fortune that Rubens is acquiring." This hint was enough for the Earl of Arundel, who was a great patron of the arts, and he immediately began to make such offers to Vandyck as would induce him to go to England. Rubens, on the other hand, urged his pupil to go to Italy; but at last, in 1620, while Rubens was absent in Paris, Vandyck went to England. Very little is known of this, his first visit there, beyond the fact that it is recorded on the books of the Exchequer that King James I. gave him one hundred pounds for some special service; and again, in 1621, the records show that Vandyck was called " His Majesty's servant," and was granted a pass to travel for eight months. It is not known, however, that he went again to England until some years later, when Charles I. was king. In 1622, Vandyck was invited to the Hague by Frederick of Nassau, Prince of Orange. While there he painted some fine portraits, but he was suddenly called home by the illness of his father, who died soon after his son reached his side. The Dominican Sisters had nursed his father with great tenderness, and before his death he obtained a promise from Anthony to paint a picture for the Sisterhood. Seven years later he fulfilled his promise, and painted a Crucifixion, with St. Dominick and St. Catherine near by. There was a rock at the foot of the cross, on which he placed this curious inscription, in Latin: "Lest the earth should be heavy upon the remains of his father, Anthony van Dyck moved this rock to the foot of the cross, and gave it to this place." In 1785, this picture was bought for the Academy of Antwerp, where it now is. Rubens advised Vandyck to devote himself especially to portrait-painting, and it has been said that he did this because he was jealous of the great talent of his pupil. But time has proved that it was the wisest and most friendly counsel that he could have given him. As a portrait-painter Vandyck ranks beside Titian, and they two excel all others in that special art in the period, too, when it reached the highest excellence it has ever known. When Vandyck was ready to go to Italy he made a farewell visit to Rubens, and presented him with three of his pictures. One of these, "The Romans Seizing Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane," Rubens hung in the principal room of his house, and was never weary of praising it. The master returned his pupil's generosity by presenting him with one of his finest horses. Vandyck made his first stop at Savelthem, a village near Brussels. Here he fell in love with a girl named Anna van Ophem, and forgot Italy and his art while gazing in her face and wandering by her side through. the fair valley in which she dwelt. But Anna regretted his idleness, and was curious to see the pictures that PORTRAIT OF CHARLES I. (BY VANDYCK.) he could paint. Finally, he yielded to her persuasions, and painted two pictures for the parish church of Savelthem. One of these was a "Holy Family," in which the Virgin was a portrait of Anna, while St. Joachim and St. Anna represented her father and mother. This picture he gave to the church. It has long since disappeared, and it is said that it was used to make grain-bags by French foragers. The second picture, for which he was paid, represented St. Martin of Tours, when he divided his cloak with two beggars. The saint was a portrait of Vandyck himself, and the horse he rode was painted from that which Rubens had given him. This picture was very dear to the people of Savelthem, and when, in 1758, they discovered that the parish priest had agreed to sell it, they armed themselves with pitchforks and other homely weapons, and, surrounding the church, insisted that the picture should not be removed. In 1806, however, they were powerless before the French soldiers, and though they loved their saint as dearly as ever, he was borne away to Paris and placed in the gallery of the Louvre, where he remained until 1815, when he was taken again to Savelthem and restored to his original place. It is also said that, in 1850, a rich American offered $20,000 to any one who would bring this picture to him, no matter how it was obtained. Some rogues tried to steal it, but the watch-dogs of Savelthem barked so furiously that the men of the village were alarmed, and rushed to the church so quickly that the robbers scarcely escaped. Since then a guard sleeps in the church, and St. Martin is undisturbed, and may always be seen there dividing his cloak and teaching the lesson of that Christian charity for which his own life was remarkable. When Rubens heard of this long stay in Savelthem he was much displeased, and wrote to Vandyck such letters as induced him to go to Venice, where he studied the portraits of Giorgione and Titian with great profit. His industry was untiring, and he made many copies, besides painting some original pictures. From Venice Vandyck went to Genoa, where Rubens had formerly been so much admired that his pupil was sure to be well received. Being welcomed for his master's sake, he soon made himself beloved for his own: for Vandyck was elegant and refined in his manners, and these qualities, in addition to his artistic powers, gained for him all the patronage that he desired. Many of the portraits which he then painted in Genoa are still seen in its splendid palaces. When Vandyck went to Rome, he was invited by the Cardinal Bentivaglio to make one of his family. This prelate had been a papal embassador in Flanders, and had a fondness for the country and its people. He was therefore very friendly to Vandyck, and employed him to paint a Crucifixion, and a portrait of himself. This portrait is now one of the treasures of the Pitti Gallery, in Florence. A copy made by John Smybert, a Scotch artist, who came to Boston early in the last century, hangs in one of the halls of Harvard College. Vandyck found that the Flemish artists in Rome were a rude and uncongenial company, and he avoided their society. This so affronted them that they became his enemies, and he shortened his stay in Rome on that account, and returned to Genoa two years after he had left it. There he found a charming friend in Sofonisba Anguisciola. She had been a noted painter, and though she was now blind and ninety-one years old, Vandyck was accustomed to say that he learned more of the principles of art from her than from the works of the most celebrated masters. Vandyck visited Palermo, Turin, Florence, and other cities, but spent most of his time in Genoa until 1626, when he returned to Antwerp. It was some time before the artist met with any success at home which at all compared with that he had achieved in Italy. In 1628, he received an order for a picture of "St. Augustine in Ecstasy," for the Church of the Augustines in Antwerp. He painted the saint in light vestments, and the brotherhood insisted that they should be changed to black. This so interfered with the distribution of the light that the whole effect of the picture was spoiled. Again he was employed to paint a picture for the church at Courtrai. It is said that the canons insisted upon seeing the work before it was raised to its place; and, not being able to judge of what it would be when hung, they were not pleased with it. They called Vandyck a dauber," and left him. After a time they found that they had made a mistake, and asked Vandyck to paint two other pictures for them, but he replied: "There are already daubers enough in Courtrai without summoning those of Antwerp," and took no further notice of them. This story, however interesting, does not accord with the fact that one of his finest works is the "Elevation of the Cross," still in the Church of Notre Dame at Courtrai. It has been called "one of the most admirable masterpieces that the art of painting has ever produced." During the five years that Vandyck remained in Flanders and Holland, he painted almost numberless portraits of royal and distinguished persons, and more than thirty religious pictures for churches and public places in the Low Countries. The value of many of these works is now almost fabulous. I must tell you one anecdote of this time: On one occasion Vandyck was at Haarlem, |