Van Rijn

Over 200 years before Agatha's time, the "greatest Spark of the time"[20050928], a man named Van Rijn, created a masterwork for King Andronicus Valois: Nine incredibly advanced clanks representing the Muses, with abilities to perform before an audience and create feedback to enhance or alter their collective mood.

"Van Rijn's work is so delicate that even a master was more likely to destroy it than learn anything," [20050928] and unfortunately they were destroyed - that is, several of the Muses. Only two escaped for certain.

Other Van Rijn works have not yet been revealed, but with the acclaim Agatha gives him (having learned from the then-current Van Rijn expert, Dr. Tarsus Beetle), certainly any of his other creations would be as nearly magical.

"Van Rijn" is, in our world, the surname of the painter best known as simply "Rembrandt". With the addition of a full-on Spark, he appears to have become not just an artist, but an inventor surpassing even DaVinci.