He has been interested in Van Rijn and the Muses since he was a kid, and has been a dedicated student of RvR's legacy. He was able to successfully reverse engineer Tinka and create an impressive parody with Anevka. He was thrilled when he came across Van Rijn's notes, and they obviously inspired him to new levels. If Tarvek were Van Rijn, then that would explain why so little is known about his background, and why he went through such trouble to keep it that way; It might not be good if people noticed that the young Prince Stermvoraus looked exactly like the famous Spark from 200 years ago.