d the term and the art into England. Verhaecht was among the very
first of landscape-painters. He was a specialist: he could draw trees and
clouds, and a winding river, but could not portray faces. And so he used
to call in a worthy portrait-painter, by the name of Franck, to assist
him whenever he had a canvas on the easel that demanded the human form.
Then when Franck wanted background and perspective, Verhaecht would go
over with a brush and a few pots of paint and help him out.

At fifteen, the keen, intuitive mind of Rubens had fathomed the talents
of those two worthies, Verhaecht and Franck. His mind was essentially
feminine: he absorbed ideas in the mass. Soon he prided himself on being
able to paint alone as good a picture as the two collaborators could
together. Yet he was too wise to affront them by the boast. The bent of
his talent he thought was toward historical painting; and more than this,
he knew that only epic art would open the churches for a painter. And so
he next became a pupil under Adam van Noort. This man was a rugged old
character, who worked out things in his own way and pushed the standard
of painting full ten points to the front. His work shows a marked advance
over that of his contemporaries and over the race of painters that
preceded him. Every great artist is the lingering representative of an
age that is dead, or else he is the prophet and forerunner of a golden
age to come.

When I visited the Church of Saint Jaques in Antwerp, where Rubens lies
buried, the good old priest who acted as guide called my attention to a
picture by Van Noort, showing Peter finding the money in the mouth of the
fish. "A close study of that picture will reveal to you the germ of the
Rubens touch," said the priest, and he was surely right: its boldness of
drawing, the strong, bright colors and the dexterity in handling all say,
"Rubens." Rubens builded on the work of Van Noort.

Twenty years after Rubens had left the studio of Van Noort he paid
tribute to his old master by saying, "Had Van Noort visited Italy and
caught the spirit of the classicists, his name would stand first among
Flemish artists."

Rubens worked four years with Van Noort and then entered the studio of
Otto van Veen. This man was not a better painter than Van Noort, but he
occupied a much higher social position, and Peter Paul was intent on
advancing his skirmish-line. He never lost ground. Van Veen was Court
Painter, and on friendly terms