_Rubens_
(Hermitage, St. Petersburg)]

It was in connection with the building of this house that the best
known and perhaps the greatest work of Rubens was painted: "_The
Descent from the Cross_," now in Antwerp Cathedral. It is said that in
excavating for the foundation to some of the new parts of Rubens'
house, the workmen unintentionally trespassed on some adjoining
ground belonging to the gunsmiths' guild. In settlement for this
Rubens was requested to paint a picture of St. Christopher, the
Christ-Bearer, as they called him. Rubens complied with the request
and painted what to us to-day would seem a very strange picture--a
"triptych," that is a middle panel over which two narrow side panels,
hinged to the middle one, could be closed. He interpreted the request
of the guild rather strangely too--he thought it would please them to
represent in the several spaces of the triptych all who had ever
carried Christ in their arms. In the middle panel we have the men
removing the dead Christ from the cross, with the three Marys below,
one of whom, the Magdalen, is, perhaps, the most beautiful woman
Rubens ever painted. The light is wonderful, coming, as it does, from
the great white cloth in which they would wrap our Lord. The form of
the dead Christ in its difficult position is a piece of masterly
drawing. This panel is, of course, the principal part of the
altar-piece. On one side of this was painted the Virgin visiting St.
Anne, and on the other we have the aged St. Simeon presenting the
Christ-Child in the temple. If we close these side panels over the
middle one we find a space as large as the center panel. On this
Rubens painted St. Christopher with the child and accompanied by a
hermit carrying his lantern. Surely it was a good-natured artist and
a glowing and generous soul who painted so much in response to a
request for a St. Christopher!

There were, however, trials for this fortunate man. There were those
who were jealous of his fame and who said unkind things of him. In
answer to their jealousies he only said, "Do well and you will make
others envious; do better and you will master them."

He was called away from the home he loved so well. In 1619, when the
truce, under which Antwerp had regained somewhat of her former
greatness, was about to expire, Rubens was sent to Spain to renew it.
He had hardly returned to Antwerp before Marie de Medicis, the wife of
Henry IV. of France--the Henry of N