Anna Van Ophem of Saventhem had been married three years before to a
worthy wine merchant of Brussels, and was now the proud mother of two
handsome boys.

Great was the welcome that Van Dyck received at Antwerp; and in it all
the gracious Rubens joined. But there was one face the returned traveler
missed: Isabella had died the year before.

The mere fact that a man has been away for several years studying his
profession gives him a decided prestige when he returns. Van Dyck, fresh
from Italy, exuberant with life and energy, became at once the vogue.

He opened a studio, following the same lines that Rubens had, and several
churches gave him orders for extensive altarpieces.

Antwerp prided herself on being an artistic center. Buyers from England
now and then appeared, and several of Rubens' pictures had been taken to
London to decorate the houses and halls of royalty.

Portrait-painting is the first form of art that appeals to a rude and
uncultivated people. To reproduce the image of a living man in stone, or
to show a likeness of his face in paint, is calculated to give a thrill
even to a savage. There is something mysterious in the art, and the
desire to catch the shadow ere the substance fades is strong in the human
heart. One reason that sacred art was so well encouraged in the Middle
Ages was because the faces portrayed were reproductions of living men and
women. This lent an intense personal interest in the work, and insured
its fostering care. Callous indeed was the noble who would not pay good
coin to have himself shown as Saint Paul, or his enemy as Judas. In fact,
"Judas Receiving the Thirty Pieces of Silver" was a very common subject,