_Cornelis Janssens_ (Dutch: 1594-1664). _See 1320._
Sir Joshua Reynolds has some interesting remarks on the technique of
Janssens. "There is a kind of finishing," he says, "which may safely be
condemned, as it seems to counteract its own purpose; that is, when the
artist, to avoid that hardness which proceeds from the outline cutting
against the ground, softens and blends the colours to excess: this is
what the ignorant call high finishing, but which tends to destroy the
brilliancy of colour, and the true effect of representation; which
consists very much in preserving the same proportion of sharpness and
bluntness that is found in natural objects. This extreme softening,
instead of producing the effect of softness, gives the appearance of
ivory, or some other hard substance, highly polished. The portraits of
Cornelius Janssen appear to have this defect, and consequently want
that suppleness which is the characteristic of flesh; whereas, in the
works of Vandyck, we find that true mixture of softness and hardness
perfectly observed" (_Eleventh Discourse_).