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Updated: May 15, 2025
With a brush his feelings were fluid, and in a company grace dwelt upon his lips; but when asked to write it out he gripped the pen as though it were a crowbar instead of a crow's-quill. But Chieppo received his reports; and we know the embassy was a success a great success.
But the burly Roman forms went back to Flanders, and for many years staid citizens were slipped into classic attitudes to do duty as Disciples, Elders, Angels all with swelling biceps, knotted muscles, and necks like the Emperor Vespasian. The Mantuan Envoy at Rome had private orders from Chieppo to see that the Fleming was well treated.
To attain the latter through the Duke of Mantua, it was necessary to make a good impression on Annibale Chieppo, the Duke's Minister of State. Chieppo had the keeping of the ducal conscience as well as the key to the strong-box.
The sister of his wife, Marie de Medici, became "King of France," as Talleyrand avers, and had a mad, glad, sad, bad, jolly time of it. Wherever the Duke of Mantua went, there too went Annibale Chieppo, the Minister of State. This man had a calm eye, a quiet pulse, and could locate any man or woman in his numerous retinue at any hour of the day or night. He was a diplomat, a soldier, a financier.
Letter From Rubens at Madrid, to Chieppo, Secretary of the Duke of Mantua The father of Peter Paul Rubens was a lawyer, a man of varied attainments and marked personality. In statecraft he showed much skill, and by his ability in business management served William the Silent, Prince of Orange, in good stead. But Jan Rubens had a bad habit of thinking for himself.
The painter hinted to Chieppo that he would like to return to Antwerp, but the Secretary objected he had important work for him. Rubens was from Flanders, and Flanders was a Spanish possession: then the Fleming knew the daughter of the King of Spain. No man was so well fitted to go on a delicate diplomatic mission to Spain as the Flemish painter.
Rubens followed orders and wrote Signor Chieppo at great length, giving a minute account of every incident and detail of the journey and of his reception at Madrid. While at the Court he kept a daily record of happenings, which was also forwarded to the Secretary. These many letters have recently been given to the public. They are in Italian, with a sprinkling here and there of good honest Dutch.
You could not reach the Duke until you had got past Chieppo. And the Duke of Mantua had much commonsense for in spite of envy and calumny and threat he never lost faith in Annibale Chieppo. No success in life is possible without a capable first mate. Chieppo was king of first mates. He was subtle as Richelieu and as wise as Wolsey.
When Peter Paul Rubens, aged twenty-three, arrived at Venice, the Duke of Mantua and his train were there. Rubens presented his credentials to Chieppo, and the Minister of State read them, looked upon the handsome person of the young man, proved for himself he had decided talent as a painter, put him through a civil-service examination and took him into favor.
Then, as the painter had pictured one, he must do as much for others, so there could be no accusation of favoritism. Thus the months passed rapidly. The Duke of Lerma writes to Chieppo, "We desire your gracious permission to keep the Fleming another month, as very special portraits are required from his brush."
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