mediately after the purchase the hoax was discovered. There and then they subscribed £100 between them, which they offered to M. Rochard, the dealer, “to induce him to annul the bargain, but he declined, and there was an end of it.” 1 184. JEANNE D'ARCHEL. Sir Antonio More (Flemish: 1512-1578). The young lady, aged eighteen, is of the famous house of Egmont. Notice the handsome brocade of her gown. 719. THE READING MAGDALEN. Hendrik Bles 2 (Flemish : about 1480-1550). An early work by Henry Bles, a scholar or imitator of Patinir (see 945, p. 263), called by the Italians "Civetta" (the owl), on account of the owl which he often adopted as his monogram. (See for the subject under 654, p. 267.) 1232. PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN. Heinrich Aldegrever (Westphalian: born 1502, still living in 1555). 'Aldegrever, or Alde Grave, who was born in Paderborn in 1502, formed himself under Dürer, and settled in Soest, where he was still living in 1555. He is a son of the Renascence, but he has not altogether escaped the old Franconian stiffness and provincialism.. His real strength is in engraving. He worked also as a goldsmith, and his ornamental designs are numerous. We also know of a small number of woodcuts by him" (Woltmann, ii. 234). His pictures are very rare. The flower and ring which figure in the best known portrait by him at Vienna are again met with here, but this picture is less stiff and formal than that. 706. PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE. The Master of the Lyversberg Passion (German : died about 1490). A picture by the unknown painter of a series of Passion pictures, formerly belonging to Herr Lyversberg of Cologne, characteristic of the German School after the Flemish influence. The sky background is gilt as in the old German pictures, 1 See Report of Select Committee on the National Gallery, 1853, P. 432, where the whole story will be found very frankly told in Sir C. Eastlake's evidence. 2 Van Mander says that his nickname was Met de Bles (with the forelock), but as he signs himself Henricus Blessius, it is probable that Bles was his real name. Notice the quaint but the types of the figures are Flemish. pointed shoes, and the touch of realism in making the foot of Simeon, as he advances to receive the child from its mother, come half out of his slipper. 1089. MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ST. ELIZABETH. Unknown (Early Flemish: 15th century). 291. PORTRAIT OF A GIRL. Lucas Cranach (German-Saxon: 1472-1553). An interesting study of female costume, rather than female beauty, by Lucas Sunder, called Cranach from his birthplace, one of the chief of the early German painters—after Dürer the most famous artist of his day, and the close friend of Martin Luther. Notice in the lower left-hand corner the painter's mark-a crowned serpent, the arms granted to him by one of the Electors of Saxony, to three of whom in succession he was court painter. 945. ST. AGNES ADORING. Ascribed to Joachim Patinir (Early Flemish died 1524). Patinir (born at Dinant, but settled in Antwerp) was styled by Albert Dürer, who stayed with him when in Antwerp, "Joachim the good landscape painter." What distinguishes his landscape is its greater expanse, as compared with earlier works. The Flemish painters preceding him were mostly content with the narrow domestic scenery of their own Maas scenery. But Patinir's pictures "embrace miles of country, and open on every side. . . . Some far-away cottage by the river-side, some hamlet nestling against a remote hill-slope, some castle on a craggy peak, blue against the transparent sky-such objects were a joy to him. Moreover, with Patinir the fantastic He saw element was of much importance. He wished his landscapes to be romantic. . . . He would have precipitous rocks. . . . His river must pass through gorges or under natural archways; his skies must be full of moving clouds; his wide districts of country must present contrasts of rocky mountain, water, and fertile plains. . . also the grandeur of wild scenery, and strove, though not with perfect success, to bring that into his pictures, showing thereby the possession of a foretaste of that delight in nature for her own sake, the full enjoy. ment of which has been reserved for the people of our own century" (Conway, pp. 299, 300). St. Agnes, the young martyr virgin, attired as a Pensive nun, devout and pure, kneels before the infant Christ, for "knowest thou not that Agnes has been a Christian from her infancy upwards, and the husband to whom she is betrothed is no other than Jesus Christ?" The infant Christ holds a coral rosary in his hand, for he would crown her with jewels compared with which all earthly gifts are as dross. 264. A COUNT OF HAINAULT AND HIS PATRON SAINT. Ascribed to Gerard van der Meire (Early Flemish).1 The count and the confessor. The count, attired as a monk, is praying. Behind him is his patron saint (St. Ambrose), holding a cross in one hand, a scourge in the other. More important, however, than the penitence of the count is the splendour of the robes. The picture is a good illustration of the love of jewellery characteristic of the time. "That this love of jewels was shared by the painters is sufficiently shown by the amount and beauty of the jewelled ornaments introduced by them into their pictures. Not only are brooches and clasps, sceptres and crowns, studded with precious stones, but the hems of garments are continually sewn with them, whilst gloves and shoes of state are likewise so adorned" (Conway, p. 121). 261. ST. COSMAS, ST. DAMIAN, AND THE VIRGIN. The Meister von Liesborn (Early German-Westphalian : about 1465). See under 260, p. 268; and for Saints Cosmas and Damian, see under IV. 594, p. 68. 664. THE DEPOSITION IN THE TOMB. Roger van der Weyden (Early Flemish: 1400-about 1464). See under 653, p. 267. An unfinished picture on linen and in tempera-very characteristic in subject and treatment of the northern art. Coupled with their absence of feeling for the beautiful there is in the work of these artists a strange fondness for death-for 1 Nothing is yet really known about this painter except the bare fact of his existence, nor have any pictures of his been certainly identified. He is commonly spoken of as an immediate follower of Van Eyck, and the Official Catalogue gives his dates as "about 1410-1474." Others class him with Memling's contemporaries, and give his dates as " about 1450-1512" (see Wauters: The Flemish School, p. 91). "It is not that agonies, crucifixions, depositions, exhumations. the person needs excitement, or has any such strong perceptions as would cause excitement, but he is dead to the horror, and a strange evil influence guides his feebleness of mind rather to fearful images than to beautiful ones,—as our disturbed dreams are sometimes filled with ghastlinesses which seem not to arise out of any conceivable association of our waking ideas, but to be a vapour out of the very chambers of the tomb, to which the mind, in its palsy, has approached" (Modern Painters, vol. iv. pt. v. ch. xix. § 16). Thus in painting such subjects as this the Italians endured the painfulness, the northern artists rejoiced in it-compare for instance V. 180, p. 87. And in so doing they were only meeting the wishes of their patrons. There is a contract, for instance, still in existence in which it is expressly stipulated that the form of our Lord in a picture ordered at Bruges shall be painted “in all respects like a dead man.” 1084. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. Joachim Patinir (Early Flemish: died 1524). 295. OUR SAVIOUR AND THE VIRGIN. Quentin Metsys 1 (Flemish: 1466-1530). Metsys, the first of the great Antwerp painters, was the last who remained faithful to the traditions of the early Flemish School. The gold background recalls the earliest Flemish pictures in the Gallery. The figure of our Saviour resembles the “Salvator Mundi" of Antonello da Messina (VII. 673, p. 172)—the Italian painter who introduced the Flemish influence to his country. 1081. A MAN AT PRAYER. Unknown (Early Flemish: 15th century). Probably a portrait of the donor of an altar-piece, of which this picture formed one compartment. Meister Wilhelm of Cologne (Early German School: died 1378). A work of interest as being by the first artist who emerges in the North as an individual painter-painting before his time being a mere 1 Often written Matsys, but Metsys is the signature on his triptych at Brussels. appendage of other arts and the work solely of guilds. This "Master William," who is mentioned in an old chronicle as having "painted a man as though he were alive," was a native of Herle, near Cologne, and attained a prominent position in the latter town. The subject of this picture is the compassionate woman whose door Christ passed when bearing his cross to Calvary. Seeing the drops of agony on his brow she wiped his face with her napkin, and the true image (Vera Icon: hence her name) of Christ remained miraculously impressed upon itthe Christ-like deed thus imprinting itself and abiding ever with her. The subject of the picture gives it a further historical interest as being suggestive of the mystics, the "Friends of God," as they called themselves, who were preaching in the Rhine Valley at this time, and under whose influence this early school of painting arose. "The mystic is one who claims to be able to see God with the inner vision of the soul. He studies to be quiet that his still soul may reflect the face of God "1—even as did the cloth of St. Veronica. Unknown (German-Westphalian: 15th-16th century). A good example of the strength and weakness of this German art. What is good are the clothes, which are very quaint and various. The figures show a ghastly enjoyment of horror and ugliness: notice especially the crucified thief on the left. 944. TWO USURERS. Marinus van Romerswael (Flemish painted 1521-1560). One inserts items in a ledger; the other puzzles over the particulars of some business transaction. Marinus of Romerswael (his birthplace), also called "de Zeeuw" (the Zeelander), was fond of this subject, the composition of which he seems to have borrowed from Quentin Metsys, by whom also similar pictures are common. It is a powerful realisation of what Mr. Ruskin calls the new Beatitude, "Blessed are the merciless, for they shall obtain money." 1087. THE MOCKING OF CHRIST. Unknown (Early German: 15th century). Mr. Conway (p. 202) says of the Lyversberg Passion what is equally applicable to this picture, and indeed to most of the 1 Beard's Hibbert Lectures, cited by Conway, p. 27. |