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