to prove the master’s satisfaction with his own handiwork. It is a design of carefully studied rhythm, dramatic expressiveness, and subtly harmonised colour, carried out with the swift sureness of his later work. In 1627, a year before his mission to Spain on behalf of the Infanta Isabella, widow of the Archduke Albrecht, Rubens designed for his patroness an important series of tapestries, which were, as was his wont at that period, sketched out by him, executed by his assistants, and touched up by his own hand. The tapestries were subsequently presented by the Infanta to a convent at Madrid; some of the paintings for them perished by fire, others were preserved at the Convent of Loeches, near Madrid. Two of these, _The Prophet Elijah in the Desert_ (No. 2076) and _The Triumph of Religion_ (No. 2083), were part of General Sebastiani’s loot from Spain, and were bought by the Louvre for £2400; whilst four others, now at Grosvenor House, were bought by the Marquis of Westminster for £10,500. Of about the same date is the brilliant _Adoration of the Magi_ (No. 2077), with its Titianesque scheme of strong red, blue, and golden yellow, of which a replica is in an Irish private collection. [Illustration: PLATE XXI.—SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS (1577-1640) FLEMISH SCHOOL No. 2093.—HENRI IV. LEAVES FOR THE WAR WITH GERMANY, AND ENTRUSTS THE GOVERNMENT TO THE QUEEN (Henri IV. part pour la guerre d’Allemagne et confie à la reine le gouvernement du royaume, 1610) The King, attended by warriors and holding the banner of France, prepares to leave the country to make war against Germany; he hands the Globe, the emblem of State, to Marie de Médicis; the Queen gives her hand to the little Dauphin, who later became King under the title of Louis XIII. Painted in oil on canvas. 12 ft. 11 in. × 11 ft. 4 in. (3·94 × 2·95.)] LATE WORKS BY RUBENS