According to a report made in 1879, by the _Commission Anversoise chargée de réunir l'ouevre de Rubens, en gravures ou en photographies_, there are altogether no less than two thousand, two hundred and thirty-five pictures and sketches by this amazingly prolific artist, and four hundred and eighty-four designs--a total of two thousand, seven hundred and nineteen known works. At Antwerp alone there are upwards of one hundred pictures, of which more than a score are masterpieces of world-wide renown and incalculable value. Besides the great trio at the cathedral, and the family portraits in the Plantin Museum, the museum catalogues more than thirty subjects of which the "Spear Thrust" (_Coup de Lance_), "Adoration of the Magi or Wise Men," the "Last Communion of Saint Francis," the "Christ on the Straw" (_à la Paille_), "The Prodigal Son," and "Virgin Instructed by Saint Anne" are among the more notable. Both here and at the Plantin Museum the student of Rubens can find many interesting prints, sketches and minor examples of the great master's work. At the museum also is the interesting Holy Family known as "_La Vierge au Perroquet_" (Virgin with the Parrot) which was presented by Rubens to the Guild of St. Luke when he was elected President of that famous organisation in 1631. Near the Place de Meir is the house of Rubens, largely a replica of the original built in the eighteenth century--few vestiges of the building in which the great painter held his almost royal court remaining. It is worth a visit, but is far inferior to the Plantin Museum as a memorial and in the interest and importance of its contents. [Illustration: "_LA VIERGE AU PERROQUET._"--RUBENS.] On his death in 1640--"twenty years too early"--the artist was buried in the church of St. Jacques, an edifice rivalling the cathedral in size and interest. It was the burial-place of many of the wealthiest families in Antwerp. The Rubens chapel is in the ambulatory, behind the high altar, and contains a picture of the "Holy Family" which, according to the critics, is one of the worst of the artist's pictures. Several of the faces are those of his own family, which probably was the reason why his widow placed it here.