405. Van Dyck: Magnificent portrait of Cesare Alessandro Scaglia, in black ecclesiastical robes, with lace cuffs and collar, and the almost womanish delicate hands of a diplomatic, astute, courtier-like ecclesiastic. The thoughtful eyes and resolute face might belong to a Richelieu. 306. Rubens: =**The Education of the Virgin=, painted for a chapel of St. Anne. A charming domestic picture of a wealthy young lady of Flanders, pretending to be Our Lady, in a beautifully painted white silk gown. Beside her, her mother, a well-preserved St. Anne, of aristocratic matronly dignity. Behind is St. Joachim, and above, two light little baby angels. The feeling of the whole is graceful courtly-domestic. 481, 482. Two scenes from the life of St. Nicholas, by Van Veen, the master of Rubens. R., he throws through a window three purses of gold as dowries for the three starving daughters of a poor nobleman. (This ornate treatment contrasts wonderfully with the simpler early Italian pictures of the same subject.) L., he brings corn for the starving poor of Myra. Both pictures represent the _bourgeois_ saint in his favourite character of the benefactor of the poor. They are here well placed for contrast with 298. Rubens: =**Adoration of the Magi=, considered to be his finest embodiment of this favourite subject, and one of his masterpieces. R., Our Lady and Child, with the ox in the foreground, and St. Joseph behind her. L., two kings make their offerings. Behind them, the third, a Moor, in an Algerian costume, leering horribly. Above, the ruined temple, the shed, and the camels. M. Max Rooses calls this work “the _chef d’œuvre_ by which Rubens inaugurated his third manner,” and other critics praise loudly its gorgeous colouring, its audacious composition, its marvellous certainty. To me, the great canvas, with its hideous ogling Moor, is simply unendurable; but I give the gist of authoritative opinion. 312. Rubens: *The Holy Family, known as =La Vierge au Perroquet=. It is chiefly remarkable as a rich and gorgeous piece of colouring, with a charming nude boy of delicious innocence. 313. Rubens: *Crucifixion. One of his best embodiments of this subject. Opposite wall. 709. Rubens, partly made-up: Jupiter and Antiope. A mythological subject, treated in a somewhat Italian style, with a quaint little huddling Cupid in the foreground. Beyond this, three designs by Rubens for Triumphal Cars and Arches, on the occasion of the entry of Ferdinand of Austria in 1635. The whole of this room contains several other excellent altar-pieces, many of which are Franciscan. ROOM J. R. and L. of the door, 105, C. De Vos: Portraits of a husband and wife, with their sons and daughters. 370. Van Cortbemde: The Good Samaritan, pouring in oil and wine in a most literal sense. In the background, the priest and the Levite.