Dieric Bouts (1391 ?-1475), though a Dutchman by birth, belongs to the school of the Van Eycks. He worked chiefly at Louvain, which still preserves in its town hall his master-piece, the Triumph of QUENTIN MATSYS. Justice. Rogier van der Weyden, the younger (ab. 1450-1529), was the pupil of his father. Gheerhardt David (died 1523), a native of Oudewater, spent the best years of his life at Bruges. A Canon of S. Donatian with his patron Saints, by him, in the National Gallery, is a fine work. In the same collection are a few works ascribed to the masters mentioned above, and to painters of the same school. THE EARLY DUTCH SCHOOL. Adoration of the Magi by him is at Buckingham THE ANTWERP SCHOOL. Toward the close of the fifteenth century, Antwerp became the commercial capital of Belgium, and at the same time the headquarters of the school of Painting. Here arose Quentin Matsys (ab. 14661531), the greatest Flemish painter of his day, whose works are remarkable for beauty of form, delicacy of finish, solemnity of feeling, and softness and transparency of coloring. His draperies have an easy grace, rare in the pictures of his school, and his sacred figures are grand and dignified. On the other hand, the minor personages in his groups are often not only coarse, but vulgar. In the fifteenth century, the Dutch School was little more than an offshoot of that of Bruges. Its chief representatives were Albert van Ouwater, of Haarlem, who may be considered its founder, the cotemporary of Rogier van der Weyden, and one of the earliest painters of Holland to represent landscape; Geertgen van Sint Jans (or Gerard, of Haarlem), a pupil of Van Ouwater; Hieronymus van Aeken, commonly called Jerom Bosch; Cornelis Engelbrechtsen (1468-1533), probably the first artist in Leyden who painted in oil, and by whom there is a Mother and Child in the National Gallery -all preceded the more famous Lucas Jacobsz van Leyden (1494-1533), who adopted and exaggerated the realistic style, and excelled rather as an engraver than a painter; one of his most important works is a Last Judgment, in the town Hall at Leyden; an His greatest works is an altar-piece in the Antwerp Museum, consisting of a center-piece and two wings, on which is represented the Deposition from the Cross, with Herodias's Daughter presenting the Head of John the Baptist to Herod on one side, and the Martyrdom of S. John the Evangelist on the other. It is a noble composition, full of character and energy. A very celebrated picture by Matsys of Two known. The Misers, in the National Gallery, formerly ascribed to him, is now given to Marinus de Seeuw (fl. ab. 1521-1541); but that collection possesses, in a diptych of the heads of Christ and the Virgin, a genuine work of Matsys. As masters of the Early Flemish School we must also name Joachim de Patimir (fl. ab. 1520), of Dinant, a painter both of historic subjects and landscape, four of whose works are in the National Gallery, which also possesses a Crucifixion and Mary Magdalen by his disciple, Herri Bles (1480aft. 1521). All these men were more or less intimately connected with the school of the Van Eycks, while certain peculiarities in their treatIment of the nude and of life in action give them a resemblance to the mas of Matsys; but unfortunately for the truth of his art, he went to Italy, and there lost his best qualities in attempting to emulate the works of the great Italian masters. He is well represented in England; for there are two of his masterpieces, an Adoration of the Magi, at Castle Howard; and the Children of Christian II., at Hampton Court. He was followed by Barend van Orley (1488-90-1542), a Magdalen by whom is in the National Gallery. Jan van Schoreel (1495-1562), who first intro JAN BREUGHEL, CALLED "VELVET" BREUGEL. PETER BREUGHEL, CALLED "PEASANT" BREUGEL. ters of the sixteenth century, whom we have now to consider. We may, in fact, look upon the latter part of the fifteenth and the whole of the sixteenth century as a transition time-Flemish and Dutch art not having reached their highest development until the seventeenth century. THE ITALIANIZED FLEMINGS. The sixteenth century was marked by an unfortunate attempt to combine the peculiar excellences of the school of the Van Eycks with those of the Italian Cinque-cento masters. Among those painters who won distinction in this school were: Jan Gossart (ab. 1471-1532), commonly called Mabuse, a native of Maubeuge, went to Antwerp, entered the Guild, and bid fair to rival the works duced the Italian style into Hol land, and is re presented tional Gal- the influ- Michiel cien (1499 1592), who, as we have seen, superintended at Arras the manufacture of the tapestries from Raphael's designs. Lambert Lombard (1506-1566), a native of Liége, who introduced this Italian-Flemish style into his native city, and thus materially aided in the decline of art in the Low Countries. Frans Floris (died 1570), a pupil of Lombard, who from a sculptor became a painter, and is famous for having formed in Antwerp a school which was numerously attended. Pieter Breughel (ab. 1520-1569), commonly called, from the subjects of his paintings, "Peasant Breughel," and his son Pieter, or "Hell," Breughel (1564-1637), were among the best painters of their time in Antwerp. The Alchemist is characteristic of the peculiar style of the latter. At this period, a foremost place amongst portrait painters was held by Sir Antonis Mor (1512-157678), a Dutchman by birth, but a Fleming in art. He visited Italy, but on his return was influenced by the works of Holbein. He was court painter to Queen Mary of England, and was also patronized by Philip II. of Spain; and many good works by him are still preserved in the Museum at Madrid. Of the portrait painters who imitated Matsys's peculiarly pronounced realistic manner, we must name Marc Gerrard (1561-1635), a native of Antwerp, who was one of the principal portrait painters at the court of Queen Elizabeth; Paul van Somer (1576-1621), whose best years were spent in England, and his finest works are in that country, e.g., a portrait of Lord Verulam at Panshanger, and those of the Earl and Countess of Arundel at Arundel Castle. Cornelis de Vos (1585?-1651), the elder, shows, in his portraits, the influence of Rubens. His portrait of Abraham Grapheus, a servant of the Guild of S. Luke in Antwerp, with the Guild plate, is in the Antwerp Gallery. whose master-piece is Bathsheba bathing, in the Berlin Museum, distinguished by careful drawing and fullness of coloring. A great impulse was given to the art of landscape painting, at the close of the sixteenth century, by the brothers Bril of Antwerp, Matthys Bril (1550ab. 1580), and the more celebrated Pauwel Bril (1556-1626). The latter was one of the first to obtain harmony of light in landscape, and he greatly influenced for good the future masters, Rubens and Claude Lorrain. His Tower of Babel, in the Berlin Museum, is considered one of his best works. early landscape painters, we must also name Jan Breughel (ab. 1589-ab. 1542), who painted landscape back grounds in paintings by Rubens and other celebrated masters. He was son of the elder and brother of the younger Breughel already mentioned. THE DUTCH SCHOOL OF THE LATE SIXTEENTH As Abraham Bloemart (ab. 1564-ab. 1658), whose best work, Joseph's second Dream, is in the Berlin Museum, was influenced by Floris, and who is chiefly famed for the harmony of tone, good taste, and right balance of his paintings; and Adriaan van der Venne (1589-1662), of Delft, who excelled in portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings, and combined the realistic manner of his countrymen with something of classic feeling. One of his most remarkable compositions is that repre Toward the close of the sixteenth century, numerous Dutch historical painters arose, who paved the way for a higher and more independent style of art. Of these we must name: Otto van Veen (1558-1629), whose numerous works-of which the principal are in the Antwerp Museum-display great truth to nature and force of character. Cornelis Cornelisz, van Haarlem (1562-1638), PAUL BRIL. senting the Festival in honor of the Truce between the Archduke Albert and the Dutch Provinces in 1609, now in the Louvre; it is dated 1616. Of Dutch portrait painters of this time we may note: Michiel Jansz Mierevelt (1567-1641), who especially excelled in transparency of coloring, and whose Portrait of Hugo Grotius in the town hall at Delft is considered his best work; Jan van Ravestyn (born about 1572), who executed several Corporation pieces; and Cornelis Janssens, van Keulen (died 1665), said to have been born in England, whose best works, which display great feeling for truth and refinement of taste, are dispersed in various private English collections. Among the first Dutch marine painters were: Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom (1566-1640), who executed a sketch of the Defeat of the Spanish Armada for the Lord High Admiral of England; Adam Willaarts (1577-aft. 1666); and Jan Peeters (16241677), whose picture of a Storm in the Pinakothek, Munich, is valuable, as an early specimen of the art in which the Dutch subsequently attained to such exceptional excellence. THE GERMAN SCHOOL. In a previous chapter we have spoken of the early masters of the School of Cologne, who were, if we may so express it, strictly orthodox painters, expressing in their works unwavering devotion to the Church of Rome, and unfaltering allegiance to the traditional mode of treating sacred subjects. We have now to examine the productions of men imbued with the spirit of the Reformation. These men, while stretching forward to that freedom of conscience in art which, as in religion, was finally attained at so terrible a cost, clung with truly Teutonic steadfastness to the weird symbolism inherited from the old Norse sea-kings; they pressed it, so to speak, that of Italy, with its beautiful idealization even of the powers of evil, and that of Flanders, with its stern repudiation of all not actually manifest to the senses. THE SWABIAN SCHOOL. The first great German master in whom we see the working of this double spirit-alike conservative and reformative-was Martin Schongauer (ab. 14501488), of Colmar, commonly called Martin Schön, who began life as an engraver, and did not devote himself to Painting until after a visit to Flanders, where he is supposed to have studied under Rogier van der Weyden. He adopted something of his master's realistic manner, while retaining the feeling for spiritual beauty characteristic of his German predecessors, Meister Wilhelm, Meister Stephan, and the Master of the Lyversberg Passion-combined however, with a weird delight in physical distortion which is always painful and sometimes positively revolting. As an instance of this, we may cite his print of S. Anthony tormented by Demons, in the British Museum. Anything more grotesque and fantastic than the horrible forms wreaking their spite upon the unhappy saint it would be difficult to conceive; yet the whole is redeemed from caricature by the nobility of the martyr's head, which admirably expresses calm superiority to bodily torture, and almost absolute mastery of mind over matter. The British Museum contains many other fine engravings from the same hand, of which we must name Christ bearing His Cross, and the Foolish Virgins. Schongauer's paintings are extremely rare; an altar-piece of a Madonna and the Infant Saviour, in the church of S. Martin at Colmar, is the chief, PORTRAIT OF HOLBEIN. into the service of the new doctrine, and hinted in their sacred pictures at a real and personal conflict between spiritual and material agencies, by the constant introduction of some weird fantastic monster, treated with a force and life which speak volumes for that deeply rooted faith in the supernatural so startling in men of the strength of character of Dürer, Luther, and the great reformers of the day. This faith, more than any other peculiarity, separates the art of Germany from both BY HIMSELF. and is remarkable for purity of coloring and delicacy of finish. A small work, the Death of the Virgin, in the National Gallery, is attributed to him, but doubts have been lately thrown upon its authenticity. Bartholomäus Zeitblom (fl. ab. 1484-1516), of Ulm, was, like Schongauer, a Swabian master of the early Reformation period, and appears to have excelled him in sublimity of design and delicacy of coloring, but to have been inferior in power of drawing. His works are essentially German, and are among the most important examples of Teutonic Painting in the fifteenth century. His Veronica, in the British Museum, and the wings of an altar. piece, with figures of the Virgin, Mary Magdalen, and other saints, in the Stuttgart Gallery, are among the principal. Martin Schaffner (fl. ab. 1499-1535) was also one of the painters of Ulm of this period. for English art in the reign of Henry VIII. In the works of the founder of the great Augsburg School the influence of the Van Eycks and of Rogier van der Weyden is far more noticeable than in those of the masters of Ulm. The elder Holbein's S. Sebastian with the Annunciation, and SS. Elizabeth and THE MADONNA OF THE MEVER FAMILY. BY HOLBEIN. THE AUGSBURG SCHOOL. We have now to turn to Augsburg, where we find a school arising, characterized by a more decidedly realistic tendency than that of Ulm. At the head of this school stands Hans Holbein the elder (ab. 1460-1524), father of the Holbein who did so much Barbara, on the wings in the Pinakothek, Munich, are considered his principal work. Hans Holbein the younger (14971543), son of the painter named above, was not only the greatest German exponent of the realistic school, but one of the first portrait painters of any age; and, moreover, one to whom the British School of Painting owes more than to any other master. Inferior in grandeur of style and fertility of imagination to his great contemporary Dürer, he excelled him in truth to nature, in feeling for physical beauty, and in command over all the technical processes of his art. Born of an artist family, and sur rounded from babyhood by artistic associations, Hans Holbein early acquired a mastery over all the elements of design, as is proved by the remains of a series of frescoes executed for the Town Hall of Basle at the age of sixteen, and by eight scenes from the Passion preserved in the |