_Van Dyck_ (Flemish: 1599-1641). _See 49._
Painted by Van Dyck from the large picture by Rubens at Mechlin, for
an engraver to work from. "One of the too numerous brown sketches in
the manner of the Flemish School, which seem to me rather done for
the sake of wiping the brush clean than of painting anything. There
is no colour in it, and no light and shade;--but a certain quantity
of bitumen is rubbed about so as to slip more or less greasily into
the shape of figures; and one of St. John's (or St. James's) legs
is suddenly terminated by a wriggle of white across it, to signify
that he is standing in the sea" (_Art of England_, p. 44). Ruskin
notices the picture as an example of the art which was assailed by the
Pre-Raphaelites. A word-picture of the same scene in the Pre-Raphaelite
manner, with its literal and close realisation, will be found in
_Modern Painters_, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. iv. § 16.