Chapter 13

GERMAN, FLEMISH, AND DUTCH ARTISTS FROM THE FIFTEENTH TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY--VAN DER WEYDEN, A CONTEMPORARY OF THE VAN EYCKS, 1366-1442--VAN LEYDEN, 1494-1533--VAN SOMER, 1570-1624--SNYDERS, 1579-1657--G. HONTHORST, 1592-1662--JAN STEEN, 1626-1679--GERARD DOW, 1613-1680--DE HOOCH, DATES OF BIRTH AND DEATH UNKNOWN--VAN OSTADE, 1610-1685--MAAS, 1632-1693--METZU, 1615, STILL ALIVE IN 1667--TERBURG, 1608-1681--NETCHER, 1639-1684--BOL, 1611-1680--VAN DER HELST, 1613-1670--RUYSDAEL, 1625 (?)-1682--HOBBEMA, 1638-1709--BERCHEM, 1620-1683--BOTH, 1610 (?)-1650 (?)--DU JARDIN, 1625-1678--ADRIAN VAN DE VELDE, 1639-1672--VAN DER HEYDEN, 1637-1712--DE WITTE, 1607-1692--VAN DER NEER, 1619(?)-1683--WILLIAM VAN DE VELDE THE YOUNGER, 1633-1707--BACKHUYSEN, 1631-1708--VAN DE CAPELLA, ABOUT 1653--HONDECOETER, 1636-1695--JAN WEENIX, 1644-1719--PATER SEGERS, 1590-1661--VAN HUYSUM, 1682-1749--VAN DER WERFF, 1659-1722--MENGS, 1728-1774.

Roger van der Weyden was a contemporary of the Van Eycks, born at Tournai. His early pictures in Brussels are lost. He visited Italy in 1439, and was treated with distinction at Ferrara. His Flemish realistic cast of mind and artistic power remained utterly unaffected by the grand Italian pictures with which he came in contact; so did his profound earnestness, which must have been great indeed, since its effects are felt through all impediments down to the present day. His expressive realism chose subjects in which the sentiments of grief and pity could be most fitly shown. He sternly rejected any suggestion to idealise the human form, and paint heads, hands, or feet different from those in ordinary life. 'It is the simplicity with which he gives expression by large and melancholy eyes, thought by projections of the forehead, grief by contracted muscles, and suffering by attenuation of the flesh which touches us.' The deadly earnestness of the man impresses the spectator at this distant date. 'There is no smile in any of his faces, but there is many a face wrung with agony, and there is many a tear.' He objected to shadow in every form, and filled his pictures with an invariable atmosphere and light--those which belong to dawn before sunrise. Among his finer works are a triptych[51] belonging to the Duke of Westminster, a 'Last Judgment' in the Hospital at Bearne, and a large 'Descent from the Cross' in Madrid. In the triptych in the centre is Christ with black hair, which is unusual, in his left hand the globe. On his right is the Virgin Mary, on his left St John the Evangelist; on the right wing is St John the Baptist, on his left the Magdalene.

Lucas Van Leyden was born in 1494 and died in 1533. He painted both scriptural subjects and everyday scenes, being a man of varied powers. He worked admirably for his time, and added to his art that of an engraver. He followed the Van Eycks, but lowered their treatment of sacred subjects. In incidents taken from common life he showed himself full of observation, and possessed of some humour. His pictures are rare. A 'Last Judgment,' in the Town House, Leyden, is a striking but unpleasant example of Lucas Van Leyden's work.

Paul Van Somer was born at Antwerp in 1570, and died in 1624. He worked for many years in England, where his best works--portraits--remain. He was truthful, a good colourist, and finished carefully. His portraits of Lord Bacon at Panshanger and of the Earl and Countess of Arundel at Arundel Castle are well known.

Frans Snyders was born in 1579, and died, at Antwerp in 1657. After Rubens, Snyders was the greatest Flemish animal painter. He painted along with Rubens often, Snyders supplying the animals and Rubens the figures. Frans Snyders paid a visit to Italy and Rome, from which he seems to have profited, judging by his skill in arrangement. This skill he displayed also in his kitchen-pieces (magnificent shows of fruit, vegetables, game, fish, etc.), which, like his animal pictures, are numerous. In one of these kitchen-pieces in the Dresden Gallery, Rubens and his second wife are said to figure as the cooks. Princes and nobles bade for Snyders' pictures. There is a famous 'Boar Hunt' in the Louvre, in Munich 'Lionesses Pursuing a Roebuck,' in Vienna 'Boar attacked by Nine Dogs.' Snyders' animal pictures are full of energetic action and fierce passion. To these qualities is frequently added hideous realism in detail. There are many Snyders in English galleries.

Gerard Honthorst was born at Utrecht in 1592, and died in 1662. He was a follower of Caravaggio. He visited Italy and found favour in Rome, where he got from his night-pieces Correggio's name, 'Della Notte.' Honthorst was summoned to England by Charles I., for whom he painted several pictures. He entered the service of Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, and painted also for the King of Denmark. He left an extraordinary number of works, sacred, mythological, historical, and latterly many portraits. He drew well and painted powerfully, but was coarsely realistic in his treatment. At Hampton Court there are two of his best portraits, those of the unfortunate Queen of Bohemia and the Duke of Buckingham and his family. Gerard Honthorst's younger brother, William, was a portrait painter not unlike the elder brother in style.

Jan Steen was born at Leyden in 1626, and died in 1679. He was great as a _genre_ painter. He is said to have been, after Rembrandt, the most humorous of Dutch painters, full of animal spirits and fun. At his best, composition, colouring, and execution were all in excellent keeping. At his worst, he was vulgar and repulsive in his heads, and careless and faulty in his work. He was very rarely either kindly or reverent in his subjects, though, in spite of what is known to have been his riotous life, he is comparatively free from the grossness which is often the shame of Flemish and Dutch art. Jan Steen succeeded his father as a brewer and tavern-keeper at Delft. He renounced the brewery, in which he did not succeed, and joined the Painters' Guild, Haarlem; but his position as a tavern-keeper is reflected in his pictures, of which eating and drinking, card-playing, etc., are frequently the _motifs_. His family relations were not conducive to higher principles and tastes. He is said to have been so lost to common feeling as to have painted his first wife when she was in a state of intoxication.[52] His second wife may have been a worthier woman, but she was drawn from the lowest class, and had been accustomed to sell sheeps' heads and trotters in the butchers' market. Without doubt Jan Steen had extraordinary genius coexisting with his coarse, careless nature and jovial habits, and he must have worked with great facility, since, in spite of his idleness and comparatively early death, he left as many as two hundred pictures, rendered him extremely popular. Besides his favourite subjects, such as 'The Family Jollification,' 'The Feast of the Bean King,' 'Game of Skittles,' he has pictures in a slightly higher atmosphere, such as 'A Pastor Visiting a Young Girl,' 'The Parrot,' 'Schoolmaster with Unmanageable Boys,' 'The Pursuit of Alchemy.' Among the latter a good example is 'The Music Master' in the National Gallery.

Gerard Dow was born in 1613 and died in 1680. He was a _genre_ painter of great merit. He belonged to Leyden, and was a pupil of Rembrandt. He began with portraiture, often painting his own face, and went on to scenes from low and middle-class life, but rarely attempted to represent high society. Compared to Jan Steen, however, he is refined. He had a curious fondness for painting hermits. The lighting of his pictures is frequently by lantern or candle. They are mostly small, and without animated action, but are full of picturesqueness. He was a good colourist, 'with a rare truth to nature and a marvellous distinctness of eye and precision of hand.' Minute as his execution was, his touch was 'free and soft.' His best pictures are 'like nature's self seen through the camera obscura.' An instance often given of his exquisite finish is that of a broom in the corner of one of his pictures. Some contemporary had remarked how careful and elaborate was the labour bestowed on it, when the painter answered that he was still to give it several hours' work. He must have been exceedingly industrious as well as painstaking, since he left two hundred pictures as his contribution to Dutch art. Among his finer pictures are 'An Old Woman reading the Bible to her Husband,' in the Louvre; 'The Poulterer's Shop,' in the National Gallery. His _chef d'oeuvre_, 'The Woman Sick of the Dropsy,' is in the Louvre. His candlelight is the finest rendered by any master. There is a good example of it in 'The Evening School,' in the Amsterdam Gallery.

Peter de Hooch--spelt often, De Hooge--was the _genre_ painter of full, clear sunlight. The dates of his birth and death can only be guessed by those of his pictures, which extend from 1656 to 1670. His groups are generally playing cards, smoking, drinking, or engaged in domestic occupations--almost always in the open air. No other _genre_ painter can compare with him in reproducing the effects of sunlight. His prevailing colour is red, varied and repeated with great delicacy. English lovers of art brought De Hooch into favour, and many of his pictures are in England. There are fine examples--'The Court of a Dutch House' and 'A Courtyard'--in the National Gallery.

Adrian van Ostade was born at Haarlem in 1610 and died in his native town in 1685. He has been called 'the Rembrandt of _genre_ painters,' and, like Rembrandt, he was without the sense of human beauty and grace, for even his children are ugly; yet it is the purer, happier side of national life which he constantly represents, and he had great feeling for nature, with picturesqueness and harmony of design and colouring, as well as mastery of the technique of his art. He suffered many hardships in his youth, and grew up a quiet, industrious, family man. He left a very large number of pictures, nearly four hundred, many of them good, and not a few in England. 'The Alchemist'[53] is in the National Gallery.

Maas, born in 1632, died in 1693, is a much-prized _genre_ painter, whose pictures are rare. He was a pupil of Rembrandt. He is said to have treated 'very simple subjects with naïve homeliness and kindly humour.' His pictures are 'well lit, with deep warm harmony, and a vigorous touch.' 'The Idle Servant-maid,' in the National Gallery, is a masterpiece.

Metzu, like Terburg, is _par excellence_ one of the two painters of Dutch high life. Metzu was born in 1615, and is known to have been alive in 1667. He painted both on a large and a small scale, and occasionally departed from his peculiar province to represent market-scenes, etc. He is the most refined and picturesque of _genre_ painters on a small scale. Among his _chefs d'oeuvre_ are a 'Lady holding a Glass of Wine and receiving an Officer,' in the Louvre; and a 'Girl writing, a Gentleman leaning on her chair and another girl opposite playing the Lute,' in the Hague Gallery. The fine 'Duet,' and the 'Music Lesson' are both in the National Gallery.

Gerard Terburg was born at Zwol, in 1608, and died in 1681. He visited Germany and Italy in his youth. His small groups and single figures, taken from the wealthier classes, with their luxurious surroundings, are 'given with exquisite delicacy and refinement.' Included in his masterpieces are a 'Girl in white satin (a texture which he rendered marvellously) washing her hands in a basin held before her by a maid-servant,' in the Dresden Gallery; an 'Officer in confidential talk with a Young Girl, and a Trumpeter who has brought him a Letter,' in the Hague Gallery; a 'Young Lady in white satin sitting playing the Lute,' in the Chateau of Wilhelmshöe, at Cassell. There are twenty-three Terburgs in England and Scotland.

Caspar Netcher, born in 1639, died in 1684. He formed himself upon Metzu and Terburg. He is the great Dutch painter of childhood. His finest works are in the Dresden Gallery. In the National Gallery is his 'Children blowing Bubbles.'

Ferdinand Bol was born at Dordrecht in 1611, and died at Amsterdam in 1680. He was a student of Rembrandt's, and distinguished himself in sacred and historical pictures, and especially in portraits. He followed his master in his youth, fell off in his art in middle life, but became again excellent in his later years. Among his fine pictures are 'David's Charge to Solomon,' in the Dublin National Gallery; and 'Joseph presenting his father Jacob to Pharaoh,' in the Dresden Gallery. His last portraits are considered very fine. They are taken in the fullest light, and have a surprising amount of animation. Such a portrait, called 'The Astronomer,' is in the National Gallery.[54]

Jacob Ruysdael was born in 1625(?) at Haarlem. In 1668 he was in Amsterdam, and acted as witness to the marriage of Hobbema, whose lack of worldly prosperity Ruysdael shared. He himself was unmarried, and maintained his father in his old age. In the prime of life Jacob Ruysdael in turn fell into extreme poverty, and died an inmate of the Haarlem Almshouse in 1682--a sad record of Holland's greatest landscape painter, for 'beyond dispute' Ruysdael is the first of the famous Dutch landscape painters.

'In no other is there the feeling for the poetry of Northern nature united with perfect execution, admirable drawing, great knowledge of chiaroscuro, powerful colouring, and a mastery of the brush which ranged from the minutest touch to broad, free execution.' His prevailing tone of colour is a full, decided green, though age has given many of his pictures a brown tone. A considerable number of his pictures are in a greyish, clear, cool tone (good examples of the last are to be seen in the Dresden Gallery). He generally painted the flat Dutch country in tranquil repose. He dealt usually in heavy clouded skies which told of showers past and coming, and dark sheets of water overshadowed by trees, lending a melancholy sentiment to the picture. He was fond of wide expanses of land and water, fond also of introducing the spires of his native Haarlem, touching the horizon line. He has left a few sea-pieces, always with cloudy heavens and heaving or raging seas;[55] where he has given sketches of sea, and shore, the ærial perspective is rendered in tender gradations 'full of pathos.' He has other pictures representing hilly, even mountainous, landscapes. In these foaming waterfalls form a prominent feature. Ruysdael was weak in his drawing of men and animals, in which he was occasionally assisted by fellow-artists, such as Berchem and Van de Velde. Among his finest pictures are 'A View of the Country round Haarlem,' in the Museum of the Hague; 'A flat country, with a road leading to a village and fields with wheat sheaves,' in the Dresden Gallery; 'A hilly bare country through which a river runs; the horseman and beggar on a bridge, by Wouvermans,' in the Louvre. His most remarkable waterfall is in the Hague Museum. In the Dresden Gallery there is 'A Jewish Cemetery,' 'full of melancholy.' Three of Ruysdael's fine waterfalls are in the National Gallery. Of two very grand storms which he painted one is in the Louvre, the other in the collection of the Marquis of Lansdowne at Bowood. There are many of Ruysdael's pictures in England. In the great landscape painter, as in the other renowned Dutch artists of the seventeenth century, the influence of Rembrandt is marked.

Meindert Hobbema was born in 1638, married in 1638, and died in poverty at Amsterdam in 1709. His works, which were neglected in his lifetime, now fetch much more than their weight in gold. Sums as large as four thousand pounds have been paid more than once for a Hobbema, yet his name was not found in any dictionary of art or artists for more than a century after his death. The English were the first to acknowledge Hobbema's merit, and nine-tenths of his works are in England, where he is the most popular Dutch landscape painter. But he is said by judges to have less invention and less poetic sensibility than his contemporary and friend Ruysdael. Hobbema's subjects are usually villages surrounded by trees like those in Guelderland, water-mills, a slightly broken country, with groups of trees, wheatfields, meadows, and small pools, more rarely portions of towns, and still more seldom old castles and stately mansions.[56] He has all the lifelike truthfulness of the Dutch artists. In tone he is as warm and golden as Ruysdael is cool in his greens. In the National Gallery there are excellent specimens of Hobbema, such as 'The Avenue Middelharnis' and 'A Landscape in Showery Weather.'

Nicolas Berchem, often spelt Berghem, was born at Haarlem in 1620, and died at Amsterdam in 1683. He was an excellent Dutch landscape painter. He had evidently visited Italy, and displayed great fondness for Italian subjects. His pictures show 'varied composition, good drawing, fine ærial effects, freedom, playfulness, and spirit.' As a colourist he was unequal, being often warm and harmonious, but at other times heavy and cold. It is clear that he was no student of life, from the monotony of his shepherds and shepherdesses and the sameness of his animals. He was naturally industrious, and was spurred on, as a still greater artist is said to have been, by the greed of his wife. He painted upwards of four hundred pictures, besides doing figures and animals for other painters. The great northern European galleries are rich in his works. One of his best pictures, 'A Shepherdess driving her cattle through a ford in a rocky landscape,' where the cool tone of the landscape is contrasted with the golden tone of the cattle, is in the Louvre. Another fine picture, 'Crossing the Ford,' is in the National Gallery.

Jan Both, born in 1610 (?), died in 1650 (?), was another Dutch landscape painter still more spellbound by Italy,[57] which he visited, and where he fell under the influence of Claude Lorraine. Both devoted himself thenceforth to Italian landscape to a greater degree than was practised by any other Dutch painter. He was excellent in drawing and skilful in rendering the golden glories of Italian sunsets. He painted freely and with solidity. The figures of men and animals in his pictures were often introduced by his brother Andreas. Jan Both excelled both in large and small pictures, but he was most uninterestingly uniform in design. He had generally a foreground of lofty trees, and for a background a range of mountains rising step by step, with a wide plain at their feet. Sometimes he introduced a waterfall or a lake. He rarely painted particular points in a landscape. His life was not a long one, so that his pictures do not number more than a hundred and fifty. Occasionally his warm tone of colouring degenerates to a foxy red. One of Both's best pictures--a landscape in which the fresh light of morning is apparent--is in the National Gallery.

Karil du Jardin, born in 1625, died in 1678, is a third great Dutch landscape painter, whose fancy Italy laid hold of, so that he settled in the country, dying at Venice. He was, it is said, a pupil of Berchem's, from whom he may have first drawn his Italian proclivities. He has more truth and feeling for animated nature than Berchem. Indeed, in this respect Du Jardin followed Paul Potter. According to contemporary accounts, Du Jardin, who had his share of the national humour, wasted his time in the pursuit of pleasure, and did not leave more pictures behind him than Both left. Du Jardin's best works are in the Louvre, but there are also many of his pictures in England. Among his masterpieces, 'Cattle of all kinds in a meadow surrounded by rocks, and watered by a cascade; a horseman giving alms to a peasant boy;' and his celebrated 'Charlatan,' full of observation and humour, are in the Louvre. A fine picture, 'Figures of Animals under the shade of a Tree,' is in the National Gallery.

Adrian Van de Velde, born in 1639, died in 1672, the younger brother of a great marine painter, ranks almost as high as Paul Potter in cattle painting. If 'inferior in modelling and solidity' to his rival, Adrian Van de Velde is superior in variety, taste, and feeling. Like the great English animal painter, Landseer, Van de Velde was a distinguished artist when a mere boy of fourteen. Like his compatriot, Paul Potter, Van de Velde died young, at the age of thirty-two. He generally disposed of his cattle among broken ground with trees and pools of water. Sometimes he has a herdsman or a shepherdess, sometimes there is a hunting party passing. His scenery is reckoned masterly. It is mostly taken from the coast of Scheveningen. He often painted in men, horses, and dogs for other painters. He must have been very industrious, with great facility in his work, since, in spite of his premature death, he had painted nearly two hundred pictures. 'A brown cow grazing and a grey cow resting,' which is in the Berlin Museum, was done at the age of sixteen, yet it is full of observation, delicacy, and execution. 'Cattle grazing before a peasant's cottage,' which is in the Dresden Gallery, is considered very fine. A fine 'Winter Landscape,' and a 'Farm Cottage,' are in the National Gallery. Some of Adrian Van de Velde's best work, as well as his brother's, is in England.

Jan Van der Heyden, 'the Gerard Dow of architectural painters,' was born in 1637 and died in 1712. He combined an unspeakable minuteness of detail with the closest observation of nature. His subjects, which he selected with great taste, were chiefly well-known buildings, palaces, churches, and canal banks in Holland and Belgium. He painted in a warm transparent tone, with close application of the laws of perspective. The figures in his pictures, in excellent keeping, were often introduced by Adrian Van de Velde. Van der Heyden's productiveness as a painter was lessened by the circumstance that his mechanical talent led him to make an invention by which the construction of the fire-engines of his day was greatly improved. In consequence he was placed by the magistrates of Amsterdam at the head of their fire-engine establishment, which had thus many claims on his time. A beautiful 'Street in Cologne' is in the National Gallery.

Emanuel De Witte, born in 1607, died in 1692, was great in architectural interiors, especially in churches of Italian architecture. He stood to this branch of Dutch art in the same relation that Ruysdael did to landscape and William Van de Velde to seascape.

Aart Van der Neer was born in 1619(?), died in 1683. He is famous for his canal banks by moonlight, and fine disposal of broad masses of shadow. After his moonlights come his sunsets, conflagrations, and winter scenes. He rarely painted full daylight. He sometimes painted on the same Van der Neer in the National Gallery. Many of his works are in England.

William Van de Velde the younger, the elder brother of Adrian Van de Velde, the cattle painter, was born at Amsterdam in 1633, and died at Greenwich in 1707. His early life was spent in Holland. He followed his father, William Van de Velde, a painter also, to England, where, under the patronage of Charles II, and James II., William the younger painted the naval victories of the English over the Dutch, just as in Holland he had already painted the naval victories of the Dutch over the English. He was a greater and more consistent artist than he was a patriot. Without question he is the first marine painter of the Dutch School. He was untiring in his study of nature, so that his perfect knowledge of perspective and the incomparable mastery of technical qualities which he inherited from his school, enabled him to render sea and sky under every aspect. His vessels 'were drawn with a knowledge which extended to every rope.' He has been an exceedingly popular painter both with the Dutch and the English. Of upwards of three hundred pictures left by him many are in Holland and still more in England, where in his lifetime he was largely employed by the English nobility and gentry. William Van de Velde has a great picture in the Amsterdam Museum, where the English flag-ship, the _Princess Royal_, is represented as striking her colours to the Dutch fleet in 1666. In the companion picture, also by Van de Velde, 'Four English men-of-war brought in as prizes,' the painter introduces himself in the small boat from which he witnessed the fight. William Van de Velde's triumphs in calm seas are seen especially in his pictures at the Hague and in Munich. Some of Van de Velde's best works are in the National Gallery.

Backhuysen born in 1631, died at Amsterdam in 1708, was another admirable marine painter. He did not study painting till he had followed a trade up to the age of eighteen years; he then gave himself with ardour to art, making many studies of skies, coasts, and vessels. He was inferior to William Van de Velde in his colouring, which was heavy, with a cold effect. But he had in full a Dutch painter's truthfulness, while his 'stormy waves and rent clouds' are given with poetic feeling. He was an industrious and successful man, painting nearly two hundred pictures, and receiving many commissions from the King of Prussia, Grand Duke of Tuscany, etc. One of his finest works, 'A View of the River from the Landing-place called the Mosselsteiger,' is in Amsterdam Museum. In the Louvre is 'A view of the Mouth of the Texel, with ten Men-of-war Sailing before a Fresh Wind.' 'Dutch Shipping' is in the National Gallery.

Van de Capella is another capital marine painter, though little is known of him. He was a native of Amsterdam about 1653. His favourite subject is a quiet sea in sunny weather. His work bears some resemblance to that of Cuyp. His best pictures are in England. 'A Calm at Low Water' is in the National Gallery.

Melchior de Hondecoeter, born in 1636, died in 1695, chose the feathered tribe for his subjects. He has been called 'the Raphael of bird painters.' He painted especially poultry, peacocks, turkeys, and pigeons, which he usually represented alive, and treated with great truthfulness and picturesque feeling. Among his best pictures are 'The Floating Feather,' a feather given with singular lightness drifting in a pool, with different birds on the water and the shore--a pelican prominent--in Amsterdam Museum, and 'A Hen defending her Chickens against the attacks of a Pea-hen, with a Peacock, a Pigeon, a Cassowary, and a Crane,' also in Amsterdam.

Jan Weenix, born in 1644, died in 1719. He was a painter of 'still life,' and was especially famous for his dead hares, 'which in form and colour, down to the rendering of every hair, are marvels of execution.' He painted sometimes, though rarely, a living dog in his pieces. A fine Weenix sometimes painted flower pieces.[58]

Pater Segers, so called because he was a Father in a Jesuit convent, which he entered at twenty-four years of age. He was born in 1590, and died in the Jesuit convent, Antwerp, 1661. He was a famous flower painter, but did not paint flowers by themselves; he painted them in conjunction with the historical and sacred subjects of other painters. He added many a wreath to the Virgin and Child. He worked in this fashion with Rubens, but painted more frequently along with painters of a lower rank in art. Pater Segers' flowers are finely drawn and tastefully arranged. The red of his roses has remained unchanged by years, while the roses of other painters have become violet or faded altogether. He had endless royal commissions. There are six of his pictures of much merit in the Dresden Gallery.

Besides the elder and younger De Heem and Maria Von Oesterwyck mentioned at page 258, Jan Van Huysum, 1682-1749, was great in flower painting, choosing flowers rather than fruit for his brush. If De Heem has been called the Titian, Van Huysum has been defined as the Correggio, of flowers and fruit. He reversed the ordinary course of artists by beginning in a broad style, and progressing into an execution of the finest details. In masterly drawing and truthfulness he was not inferior to De Heem, though hardly reckoned his equal in other respects. Even in Van Huysum's lifetime there was an eager demand for his pictures, of which he left more than a hundred. There is an excellent fruit and flower piece by him in Dulwich Gallery, and a masterpiece, 'A Vase with Flowers,' is in the National Gallery.

Andrian Van der Werff was born in 1659, and died in 1722. He is honourably distinguished for his pursuit of the ideal, in which he stood alone among the Dutch artists of his day. He showed much sense of beauty and elegance of form with great finish, but he had more than counterbalancing faults. His grouping was artificial, his heads monotonous, his colouring 'cold and heavy,' with 'a frosty feeling' in his pictures. His flesh tints resembled ivory, yet his elegance was so highly prized that he had many royal and noble patrons, for whom he executed sculptural and mythological pieces. Many of his pictures are in the Munich Gallery.

Anton Raphael Mengs was born in Bohemia 1728, and died in Rome 1774. His father was a distinguished miniature painter, and gave his son a careful education, training him to copy the masterpieces of Michael Angelo and Raphael from his twelfth year. Unfortunately he remained a copyist and an eclectic. He drew well, learnt chiaroscuro from studying Correggio, and colouring from analysing Titian. He was acquainted with the best technical processes in oil and fresco. All that teaching could do for a man was done, and to a great extent in vain. For though he worked with great conscientiousness, fancy and feeling were either originally lacking, or they were overlaid and stifled by his excess of culture and severe education. The most successful of his works are portraits, in which masterly treatment makes up to some extent for the absence of originality and subtle sympathy. But in his day, and with some reason, Raphael Mengs was greatly prized, since he figured among a host of ignorant, careless, and conceited painters. At the age of seventeen he was appointed court painter to King Augustus of Saxony. He was summoned to Spain by Charles III., who gave him a high salary. Among his good works is an 'Assumption' on the high altar of the Catholic Church, Dresden. An allegorical subject in fresco on the ceiling of the Camera de Papini in the Vatican has 'beauty of form, delicate observation, and masterly modelling.' Mengs wrote well on art, though in his writing also his eclecticism comes out.

NOTE TO PAGE 96.

'I have been told that I have not done justice to Lionardo in this short sketch. I give in an abridged form the accurate appreciative analysis of the man and his work in Sir C, and Lady Eastlake.'--KUGLER. It is stated that the versatility of Lionardo was against him. He attempted too much for one man and one life. An additional impediment was produced by his temperament, 'dreamy, perfidious, procrastinating,' withal desirous of shining in society. His ideal of the Lord's head is the highest that art has realised. The apostles' heads are among the truest and noblest. The countenances of his Madonnas are full of ineffable sweetness and pathos. 'At the same time he analysed the monstrous and misshapen, and has left us caricatures in which he seems to have gloated over hideousness half human, half brute. He altered and retouched without ceasing, always deferring the conclusion of the task which he executed with untiring labour and ceaseless dissatisfaction.' The wonder is not that he should have left so little, but that he left enough to prove the transcendent nature of his art. 'There is nothing stranger in history than the fact that his great fame rests on one single picture--long reduced to a shadow--on half-a-dozen pictures for which his hand is alternately claimed and denied, and on unfinished fragments which he himself condemned.' Lionardo was too universal to be of any school.

INDEX.

PAGE

Albino 387 Angelico, Fra 36 Anguisciola 388 Backhuysen 415 Baroccio 385 Bartolommeo, Fra 77 Bellini, The 54 Berchem 407 Bol 402 Bordone 393 Both 418 Botticelli 369 Canaletto 358 Capella, Van de 416 Caravaggio 385 Carpaccio 375 Carracci, The 212 Cellini 69 Claude Loraine 296 Correggio 185 Crivelli 375 Cuyp 255 Domenichino 220 Dow 398 Du Jardin 410 Dürer 169 Eycks, The Van 41 Filippo, Fra 365 Fontana 389 Francia, Il 73 Gaddi 374 Garofalo 377 Ghiberti 31 Ghirlandajo 69 Gibbons, Grinling 359 Giorgione 181 Giotto 8 Gozzoli 366 Greuze 307 Guercino 386 Guido 218 Heem, De 258 Helst, Van der 403 Heyden, Van der 412 Hobbema 406 Holbein 309 Hondecoeter 416 Honthorst 395 Hooch 399 Huysum, Van 418 Kneller 359 Le Brun 303 Lely 355 Leyden, Van 393 Lionardo da Vinci 83 Lipi 376 Luini 378 Maas 401 Mabuse 48 Mantegna 64 Masaccio 34 Matsys 50 Memling 48 Mengs 420 Messina, Da 377 Metzu 259, 401 Michael Angelo 96 Murillo 280 Netcher 402 Orcagna 24 Ostade, Van 400 Palma 379 Pardenone 380 Parmigianino 384 Perugino 373 Pisano 23 Potter 257 Poussin 286 Raphael 125 Rembrandt 245 Romano 382 Rubens 225 Ruysdael 403 Salvator Rosa 222 Sarto, Del 81 Sassa errato 387 Segers 418 Signorelli 367 Snyders 394 Somer, Van 394 Spagna 381 Spagnoletto 386 Steen 396 Teniers, Father and Son 251 Terburg 259, 402 Tintoretto 194 Titian 157 Van Dyck 333 Vasari 388 Velasquez 360 Velde, Van de 411 Velde, Van de, The Younger 414 Veronese 205 Watteau 305 Wouvermans 253

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is in their unconsciousness and earnestness that a parallel is drawn between the first Italian painters and the Elizabethean poets. In other respects the comparison may be reversed, for the early Italian painters, from their restriction to religious painting, with even that treated according to tradition, were as destitute of the breadth of scope and fancy attained by their successors, as the Elizabethean poets were distinguished by the exuberant freedom which failed in the more formal scholars of Anne's reign.

[2] Kugler's Handbook of Art.

[3] While writing of goldsmiths that became painters, I may say a word of a goldsmith who, without quitting his trade, was an unrivalled artist in his line. I mean Benvenuto Cellini, 1500--1571, a man of violent passions and little principle, who led a wild troubled life, of which he has left an account as shameless as his character, in an autobiography. Cellini was the most distinguished worker in gold and silver of his day, and his richly chased dishes, goblets, and salt cellars, are still in great repute.

[4] Kugler's _Handbook of Painting_.

[5] Kugler's _Handbook of Painting_.

[6] See note, page 422.

[7] Mrs Roscoe's _Life of Vittoria Colonna_

[8] Michael Angelo's will was very simple. 'I bequeath my soul to God, my body to the earth, and my possessions to my nearest relations.'

[9] Lady Eastlake, _History of Our Lord_.

[10] Hare, _Walks in Rome_.

[11] Lanzi, in Hare's _Walks in Rome_.

[12] Rio. _Poetry of Christian Art_, in Hare's _Walks in Rome._

[13] Mrs Jameson.

[14] Dean Alford.

[15] _Imperial Biographical Dictionary_.

[16] Titian's age is variously given; some authorities make it ninety-nine years, placing the date of his death in 1570 or 7.

[17] Kugler.

[18] The term originated in the French expression, '_du genre bas_.'

[19] He had a peculiar fondness for blue and bronze hues.

[20] It is due to Tintoret to say, that there are modern critics, who look below the surface, and are at this date deeply enamoured of his pictures. Tintoret's name now stands very high in art.

[21] Mrs Jameson.

[22] Guido said of Rubens: 'Does this painter mix blood with his colours?'

[23] _Life of Rubens_.

[24] If I mistake not, this is the same Countess of Arundel who, in her widowhood, resided in Italy in order to be near her young sons then at Padua. Having provoked the suspicion of the Doge and Council of Venice, she was arrested by them on a charge of treason, and brought before the tribunal, where she successfully pled her own cause, and obtained her release, the only woman who ever braved triumphantly the terrible 'ten.'

[25] Here is the description of a very different Rembrandt which appears in this year's Exhibition of the Works by Old Masters: 'There is no portrait here which equals Rembrandt's picture, from Windsor, "A Lady Opening a Casement;" a not particularly appropriate name, because the picture represents no such action. The lady is simply looking from an open window, her left hand raised and resting at the side of the opening. We believe there is nothing left to tell who this lady was, with the grave, sad eyes, and lips that seem to quiver with a trouble hardly yet assuaged collar, almost a tippet, for it falls below her shoulders, together with lace cuffs. A triple band of large pearls goes about her neck, and she has similar ornaments round each wrist. She wears a mourning robe and black jewellery.... This picture, which resembles in most of its qualities a pair, of somewhat larger size, which were here last year, and also came from the Royal collection, is signed and dated "Rembrandt, F. 1671." It is, therefore, a late work of his. What wonderful harmony is here, of light, of colour, of tone. How nearly perfect is the keeping of the whole picture; as a whole, and also in respect of part to part. Could anything be truer than the breadth of the chiaroscuro? Notice how beautifully, and with what subtle gradations, the light reflected from her white collar strikes on her slightly faded cheek; how tenderly it seems to play among the soft tangles of the hair that time has thinned.'--_Athenæum_.

[26] He had been called the Titian of flower and fruit painters. He preferred fruit for his subject. His works are not common in England. His masterpiece, 'The Chalice of the Sacrament,' crowned with a stately wreath, and sheaves of corn and bunches of grapes among the flowers, is at Vienna.

[27] Sir W. Stirling Maxwell.

[28] Sir W. Stirling Maxwell.

[29] Hare, _Wanderings in Spain_.

[30] Hare's _Wanderings in Spain_.

[31] The spelling is an English corruption of the French Claude.

[32] Poussin had a villa near Ponte Molle, and the road by which he used to go to it is still called in Rome 'Poussin's walk.'

[33] Claude's summer villa is still pointed out near Rome.

[34] _Imperial Biographical Dictionary_.

[35] Madame Le Brun, whose maiden name was Vigée, born 1755, died 1842, was an excellent portrait painter.

[36] Wornum.

[37] Wornum.

[38] Supposed to be a niece of Sir Thomas More's.

[39] Rev. J. Lewis, 1731.

[40] Wornum.

[41] A still more famous picture by Holbein is that called 'The Two Ambassadors,' and believed to represent Sir Thomas Wyatt and his secretary.

[42] Walpole.

[43] Walpole.

[44] Dwarfs figured at Charles's court, as at the court of Philip IV. of Spain.

[45] The notion that Van Dyck sacrificed truth to grace is absolutely contradicted by certain critics, who bring forward as a proof of their contradiction what they consider the 'over-true' picture of the Queen Henrietta Maria, shown at the last exhibition of the works of Old Masters. The picture seems hardly to warrant the strong opinion of the critics.

[46] Walpole.

[47] Walpole.

[48] Lady Eastlake and Dr. Waagen's works on Italian, Flemish, and Dutch Art, modelled on Kugler.

[49] A lunette is a small picture, generally semicircular, surmounting the main picture in an altar-piece.

[50] The Dutch still more than the Italian artists belonged largely to families of artists bearing the same surnames.

[51] A picture with one door of two panels is called a diptych, with two doors of three panels a triptych, with many doors and panels a polyptych.

[52] Fairholt's 'Homes and Haunts of Foreign Artists.'

[53] Alchemists, like hermits, still existed in the seventeenth century.

[54] Bartholomew Van der Helst, 1613-1670, was another great Dutch portrait painter. His portrait pieces with many figures are famous. An 'Archery Festival,' commemorating the Peace of Westphalia, includes twenty-four figures full of individuality and finely drawn and coloured. One of his best works is 'In the Workhouse,' at Amsterdam. Two women and two men are conversing together in the foreground. There is a man with a book, and a preacher delivering a sermon in the background.

[55] It may be that Ruysdael's straggling life was reflected in his lowering skies and stormy seas.

[56] Other eminent painters, such as Van de Velde, Wouvermans, and Berchem often supplied cattle and figures to Hobbema's landscapes.

[57] Was the apparently greater success of these partly denaturalised Dutch landscape painters, as contrasted with the adversity of Ruysdael and Hobbema, due to the classic mania?

[58] Peter Gysels was another painter of 'still life.' His butterflies are said to have been rendered with 'exquisite finish.'

* * * * *

ISBISTERS' PRIZE AND GIFT BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS.

* * * * *

"_Charming prize books. If anything can make the children of the present day take kindly to useful information, it will be such books as these, full of excellent illustrations, and in easy as well as interesting language."_--GUARDIAN.

* * * * *

_ONE SHILLING VOLUMES._

* * * * *

ANIMAL STORIES FOR THE YOUNG.

In Three handsome little Volumes full of Illustrations.'

1. HEADS WITHOUT HANDS; Or, Stories of Animal Wisdom.

2. HEARTS WITHOUT HANDS; Or, Fine Feeling among Brutes;

3. SENSE WITHOUT SPEECH; Or, Animal Notions of Right and Wrong.

MOU-SETSÉ.

A Negro Hero. By L.T. MEADE. With Illustrations. Small 8vo.

* * * * *

_HALF-CROWN VOLUMES._

Profusely Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth extra.

* * * * *

AMONG THE BUTTERFLIES.

A Book for Young Collectors. By B.G. JOHNS, M.A. With Twelve Full-page Plates, etc. Crown 8vo.

"This is such a book as should be abundantly given as a prize in schools." _Glasgow Herald._

MOTHER HERRING'S CHICKEN.

An East-end Story. By L.T. MEADE. Illustrated by BARNES. Crown 8vo. "One of the most pleasing little tales which was ever written for young people; and even for old people."--_Newcastle Chronicle._

A DWELLER IN TENTS.

By L.T. MEADE. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. "It surprises us with a study of human character of no ordinary merit and intensity." _Pall Mall Gazette._

ANDREW HARVEY'S WIFE.

By L.T. MEADE. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. "The characters are well drawn, and the story well developed."--_Literary World._ "Decidedly strong and well wrought out."--_Scotsman_.

IN PRISON AND OUT.

By HESBA STRETTON. 10th Thousand. Illustrated by R. BARNES. Crown 8vo. "Told with all the pathos and captivating interest of the authoress of 'Jessica's First Prayer.'"--_Guardian_.

* * * * *

_COMPLETE CATALOGUE FREE BY POST._

* * * * *

_TWO SHILLING VOLUMES._

Profusely Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt edges.

* * * * *

THREE LITTLE HEROES.

WILLIE HARDY.--LITTLE RAINBOW.--JEAN BAPTISTE. By Mrs. CHARLES GARNETT. With Thirty Illustrations. "Touching and graceful sketches."--_Literary World_. "Drawn from life we should say.... So vivid and natural in colouring." _Church Bells_.

NOBODY'S NEIGHBOURS.

A Story of Golden Lane. By L.T. MEADE. With Thirty Illustrations. "In every respect entitled to a place among the best reward books of the season."--_Schoolmaster_.

KING FROST.

The Wonders of Snow and Ice. By Mrs. THORPE. With Seventy Illustrations. "Exceedingly able, and without an unattractive page."--_School Board Chronicle_. "Full of charming little pictures and instructive descriptions of the phenomena which attend the presence of the Ice King."--_Christian World_.

UP THE NILE.

A Boy's Voyage to Khartoum. By H. MAJOR, B. Sc. With Forty Illustrations. "Must be placed amongst the best of the books for boys and girls which have been issued this season. A very excellent book."--_Nottingham Guardian._

THE STRENGTH OF HER YOUTH.

A Story for Girls. By S. DOUDNEY. With Twenty Illustrations. "The story is simple enough, but Miss Doudney handles it well."--_Spectator_. "Sound and healthy in tone, yet not without movement and variety. Carefully illustrated and tastefully bound."--_Daily News_.

WE THREE;

A Bit of Our Lives. By the Author of "Worth a Threepenny Bit," etc. With Thirty Illustrations.

* * * * *

_TWO SHILLING VOLUMES._

Profusely Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt edges.

* * * * *

A BAND OF THREE.

By L.T. MEADE, Author of "Scamp and I," etc. Illustrated by Barnes. "An exquisite little tale. Since the days of 'Little Meg's Children' there has been no sketch approaching the pathos of child-life in 'A Band of Three.'"--_Christian Leader_. "Full of pathos and interest."--_Guardian_.

MY BACK-YARD ZOO.

A Course of Natural History. By Rev. J.G. WOOD, M.A., Author of "Homes without Hands," etc. With Seventy Illustrations. "A book that will delight young people. It is well illustrated and thoroughly reliable."--_Morning Post_.

"Really a complete course of natural history."--_Times_.

FROM THE EQUATOR TO THE POLE.

IN THE HEART OF AFRICA. By JOSEPH THOMSON. CLIMBING THE HIMALAYAS. By W.W. GRAHAM. ON THE ROAD TO THE POLE. By Captain A.H. MARKHAM. With Forty-five Illustrations. "A more delightful prize or present for boys than this it would be hard to find." _Record_.

FAITHFUL FRIENDS.

Stories of Struggle and Victory. By L.T. MEADE and others. With Twenty Illustrations by French, Barnes, etc. "A carefully illustrated little book.... With truth and pathos."--_Daily News_. "Capital reading for young folks.... All brisk and wholesome."--_Scotsman_.

HEROES AND MARTYRS OF SCIENCE.

By HENRY C. EWART. With Thirty Illustrations. "It is an admirable book of its order, full of the inspiration of great lives." _School Board Chronicle_.

* * * * *

15 & 16, TAVISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Old Masters and Their Pictures, by Sarah Tytler