If there is one name more honoured in Flanders than any other--more often employed as the name of hotels, restaurants or cafés; more frequently on the lips of guides, caretakers and sacristans; more constantly in the mind of every tourist, be he or she American, English or Continental--it is the name of the greatest of Flemish painters, Peter Paul Rubens. No book on Flanders, and most assuredly no work touching on Antwerp, would be complete without some reference to the life and work of this prince among painters, yet no task can be more superfluous, since nothing can be said that will add in the slightest degree to his fame. He ranks in the history of art with the greatest masters in the world--with Michael Angelo, Leonardo, Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian and Velasquez--and it is probable that more books have been written about him than about Antwerp itself. Occasional references have been made in previous chapters to notable paintings by Rubens to be seen in various churches throughout Flanders--particularly to "The Miraculous Draught of Fishes" at Malines, which is said to have been saved from the destruction of that city, having been carried away before the first of its many bombardments. It is at Antwerp, however, that the tourist who desires to study the work of Rubens will find him at his best and in greatest profusion. And the most famous spot enriched by his unrivalled art is the cathedral. Here hang his two greatest devotional works, "The Elevation of the Cross" and "The Descent from the Cross." The former was painted in 1610 and gave the young artist--he was then only thirty-three--instant and enduring fame. The companion work was completed the following year. Neither was originally painted for the cathedral. "The Elevation of the Cross," the earlier and inferior of the two, was intended to be the altarpiece for the church of Ste. Walburge, while the other was painted for the Society of Arquebusiers, to adjust a difficulty that had arisen over apportioning the cost of a wall separating Rubens' house from that of the guild. Both, however, are in an ideal location where they now are, and form an admirable starting point from which to see, first the cathedral, and then the work of Rubens as a whole. [Illustration: "THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS."--RUBENS.]