Instead of finding a note in his diary, we witness the following scene:

"Master, a visitor wants to meet you, he's waiting in the parlour;
it's a Herr Petel from Bavaria."

"O.K. Mathew, I'll finish the figure I'm busy painting.
Tell Mr Petel I'll be there soon."

Rubens' butler Mathew returns to the parlour. Rubens meets his visitor after a while, both cross the courtyard with the splendid baroque portico and enter the art-gallery. J�rg Petel carries a parcel, a nowadays shoe-box large.

"J�rg, dear friend, again a couple of years have gone by since our last meeting! Remember you were here soon after I remarried? My wife and I would like to thank you once more for the wonderful present you gave us at that occasion. H�l�ne was really enchanted; she still often admires that unique salt-cellar, supported by an ivory statuette, representing the Triumph of Venus!"

"But it was you, Peter Paul, who made the compositional sketch for this work; and as you've been so friendly to procure me several other projects for statuettes I wanted to create, I brought you another present today."

Petel hands over the well-packed parcel to his friend. Rubens is very surprised and opens the parcel carefully.

"What a beauty, J�rg! An Adam and Eve in ivory! I painted them a couple of times myself, you know. The last time I did, my good friend Jan Breughel added in a superb way all kinds of animals, also created by God in Paradise ... but I never saw an Adam and Eve under the appletree so marvellously sculptured in ivory as you did here! This charming little statue will get a place of honour in this art-gallery, that's for sure!"

"I give it to you with great pleasure, Peter Paul. I made it some years ago just for myself, now it's yours, as I said to thank you for your very appreciated collaboration."

"Fine, thank you! By the way, J�rg, now that you're here in my art-gallery, let me show you a few paintings I acquired recently. I'm very proud to have them in my rich collection.
...
This one is a work made by Jacob Jordaens; he is an Antwerp painter whose father-in-law was one of my teachers, long time ago. Adam Van Noort was his name, he was a late-renaissance artist, perhaps you heard about him?
But Jacob now starts, just like I did many years ago, making 'cartoons' for weavers. Aristocratic people and rich merchants, also in England and France, are very fond of wall-tapestry, woven here in Brabant, in cities like Brussels or Antwerp, especially because of the nice baroque compositions that we create over here!
To come back to this small painting by Jordaens, it's an Annunciation as you can see. It is Jacob's wife Catherine who stood model for Mary.
...
Now look at this work here, by Frans Francken, who is called 'the younger', as also his father's name is 'Frans'. There is a good deal of talent in this painting family ... Frans specialises in representing art-galleries such as mine, on paintings. In our town lives a good number of millionairs, mainly merchants, that all possess such a rich gallery; they're so proud of it that they like it to be admired on a picture!
But on this canvas only one corner of an interior is painted; the lady of the house is playing on a clavicord ... look, one can notice many details of the instrument; also the emblem of the builders, the Ruckers, never heard of them? And listen, it's them whom I invited for tonight, to have dinner with H�l�ne and me ... and you are invited too!

And J�rg, I have another surprise for you. I have kept a couple of small mythological works for myself, here in this corner; they had been ordered, some months ago, but because of a decease they have never been delivered ... Up to you to choose one of them, to take to your home in Bavaria! Both paintings represent themes from the 'Metamorphoses' by Ovidius; this one is called 'Apollo an Daphne', and that one 'The Birth of Venus'".

"Thank you, Peter Paul, that's a very fine gesture which a appreciate very much. I think I'll choose this one, the ' Apollo and Daphne', I like it the best. Can your butler Mathew pack it up well? Thanks."

Notes:

In the art-gallery of Rubens' House visitors can get a good impression of how art-collections were exposed in small private 17th-century 'museums'. The actual collection isn't of course identical to the one Rubens owned at the time. Though it is composed, as it was, by all baroque paintings and small sculptures. Also books, coins, scientific intruments were objects shown in such rooms.
Very interesting is a large painting which can be admired now and which shows the very rich art-gallery of a wealthy Antwerp merchant called Mr Van der Geest. It represents the regents of the Netherlands visiting that room of the merchants' house; at that occasion several Antwerp artists, also Rubens and Van Dijck, were invited.

(back to the diary)

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