The secret of his changing moods is of course beyond us, but perhaps one may hazard an explanation for the difference in the quality of the work done. As far as we can see from a study of the painter's work and life, he approached mythology and Christianity from a purely pictorial standpoint, and did not believe in one or the other. "The Procession to Calvary," "The Crucifixion," "The Descent from the Cross," "The Flight into Egypt," "The Adoration of the Magi," "The Draught of Fishes," "The Raising of the Cross," "The Assumption of the Virgin," "The Last Supper," "The Circumcision," "The Flagellation," and the rest, were no more and no less to him as subjects than "The Drunken Hercules" or "The Battle of the Amazons," "The Garden of Venus" or "The Judgment of Paris." They were popular subjects for effective treatment, pictures that would make a sure appeal to those who loved either the sacred or the profane in art, pictures to be executed with all possible skill at the greatest possible speed, and with a measure of assistance regulated by the price that was to be paid for them. But the portraits of his friends, of the brother he loved, and of the wives to whom he was a devoted husband, stood on quite a different plane. He felt the human interest attaching to them, and this human interest brought to his canvas certain qualities that belong to the heart rather than the head, and have given them a claim that is not disputed even by the painter's most severe critics.
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End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rubens, by Samuel Levy Bensusan