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26 ANNUAL REGISTER
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| one had touched upon his performance: calling his disciples, he asked them why any one had dared to meddle with his painting? They were some time doubtful whether they should confess or deny the fact. Threats at length prevailed: they owned that Vandyck had thrown his hat upon it. Upon this, closeting Vandyck, instead of chiding him, he told him, that "it was proper and even necessary for him to travel into Italy, the only school that produced excellent painters; and that, if he would take his advice, he would arrive at the highest perfection." Vandyck replied, that "he was very desirous of it, but that his purse was not equal to such a journey, and that he feared he should be obliged to sell his hat on the road." Rubens assured him, that that should be his concern; and, accordingly, a few days after, he made him a present of a purse full of pistoles, and added to that gift a dapple grey horse, of great beauty, to carry him thither. In return for this, Vandyck painted for his master a chimney-piece, and afterwards set out for Italy, about the year 1621, being then about one or two-and-twenty years of age.
  It is said, that Vandyck's mother was passionately fond of embroidery, that she excelled in it, and embroidered several historical subjects with such surprising skill, that they have been esteemed masterpieces by proficients in that art. Being desirous to have her son instructed in the first rudiments of grammar, she began by sending him to school to learn reading and writing. As he had ink, paper, and pens at command, he amused himself more with drawing figures,

| | and other slight sketches, than with making letters, One day his master having threatened to whip one of his school-fellows, Vandyck positively assured him, that he need not fear his master's threats, as he would take care to prevent his receiving the threatened correction. _"How so?" replied his schoolfellow. "I'll paint," replied Vandyck, "a face on your posteriors;" which he did with such skill, that, when the master drew up the curtain, he laughed so immoderately, that he forgave the culprit.
  It is pretended, that Rubens painted the descent from the cross at the altar of the Fufileers at Antwerp, in return for a small part of their garden, which they had given him for the embellishment and enlargement of the house which he was then building. This house is still in being, and, together with the street, bears the name of Rubens.
  While the painter was finishing this picture, he received a visit from the superiors; and, as the folding-doors, which were to inclose it, were open, they were surprised at not seeing their patron-saint, St. Christopher. Rubens well knew their embarrassment, and said, "I will let you into the design of the subject I am now painting: Christophorus signifies Christum serre, or to carry Christ; the figures in this picture lend their hand to take down Christ from the cross, and to carry him. St Simeon, who has Christ in his arms, carries him, consequently he is Christophorus. The blessed Virgin, when pregnant, carried Christ." _He was going on, when he perceived, by the solemn silence of those gentlemen, that they desired something more 
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For the YEAR 1772.
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| than metaphors; in proportion, therefore, as he closed the doors of his picture, and as they saw, by degrees, their good patron appear, their sadness was converted into the greatest joy; especially, when they saw him in his full dimensions, and of a wonderful size, they stood as if they were thunder-struck: in a word, thoroughly satisfied with that gigantic figure, without giving Rubens time to enter into a discussion of his work, they withdrew, and left him astonished at their stupid ignorance. At the same instant, therefore, he added in the same picture two other figures, viz. an owl in the sky, and a turbot in the water: these were the symbols which he thought suitable to connoisseurs of that stamp. They are still in being, and may be seen in the picture, which is a master-piece both in colouring and design.
While Rubens was drawing the picture of the Rector of St. Wurburge in Antwerp, the daughter of one of the superiors of the church came to make him a visit; and, as she staid with him till his sketch was finished, Rubens, who was a gallant man, begged her to do him the honour to be present again at his work the next day; to which she agreed. Rubens, on whom the beauty of the young lady had made an impression, desired the rector to allow him to draw her picture at the same time that he was drawing his, which was readily granted; for this purpose, he placed a cloth ready primed behind the rector's picture, and the next day, when the priest and the lady were assembled at his house, he drew the picture of the fair-one, without her perceiving it; she was, therefore, astonished, when she saw a striking

| | likeness of herself, together with that of the rector, She recovered, however, from her surprize; and, in the most graceful manner, seeing herself so finely painted, she returned her acknowledgements to Rubens.
  Some days after, the rector shewed the lady's father the two pictures, and asked him if he knew them? He, in the utmost astonishment, agreed that it was his daughter's picture; at length, the unravelling of this scene of gallantry, was the procuring leave for Rubens to visit the fair-one, and the settling with the rector and the father of the lady, the price of that famous piece of the elevation of the cross, which, being placed in that church, was criticised, and the painter treated as a dauber. The lady for some time discontinued her visits, on account of some slight disagreement between her and Rubens. At length, indifference yielding to merit, he became, with the consent of her father, the husband of that fair-one, whose character he retrieved, which she seemed, in some measure, to have sullied by the visits too often repeated, which she made him at the beginning of their acquaintance.
  Roofe, who had been a disciple of Rubens, being in bad circumstances, Rubens, having found him in a garret where he lodged, strongly urged him to go to Antwerp, with an offer of an handsome house, and employment for his life: but Roofe politely declined it. However, after this visit, availing himself of some instructions that Rubens had given him, he made better use of his talents, and lived comfortably. It is said, that, when the inhabitants of Ghent desired Rubens to 
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Transcription Notes:
many words seem to have an 'f' in place of an 's'. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-12 15:12:12 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-13 06:55:09