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IN THE NETHERLANDS. xlix
love-making of the noble and the coarse pleasures of the vulgar.
This versatility is peculiarly his own, although he possesses cer-
tain characteristics in common with his contemporaries, just as he
shares with them the same national atmosphere and the same tra-
ditionary precepts.
Rubens occupied this field along with several other painters.
No wonder, then, that similar characteristics are observable in his
and that they so closely resemble one
7 to be confounded. Abraham Janssens (1587-
very near to Rubens in fr
sdom of brush and in
igures. Indeed there were few of
aped his influence, pervading as it
art, inspiring in an especial manner the
The most notable of Antwerp artists who were contempo-
raries of Rubens are Gerard Seghers 651), Theodore Rom-
bouts (1597-1637), Gaspar de Crayer (45 9), who evinced
in his quiet compositions a charming vein of thought, and Lucas
van Uden (1595-1662), who painted in many instances the land-
scape in the ba ound of Rubens’ pictures, as well as Frans
Snyders (1597-1657), who placed his extraordinary talent for ani-
mal painting at the disposal of the gr
Of Rubens’s most distinguished disciple, ANrHony Van Dycx
9, died in London 1641), owing to the
gum in his native city, few important works
being initiated in painting first by Henry
Rubens, he visited Italy in his 24th year,
1ere Genoa especially ted him, as it had done his master
‘ore him. From 1626 to 1632 he lived at Antwerp, after that
in London, in the service of Charles I. It was not only the
fashion then prevailing in aristocratic circles which engaged Van
Dyck in portraiture. Portraiture made the strongest appeal to his
proclivities as an artist. He does not shine in the invention of
gorgeous or stirring scenes; but in the refined and animated pour-
istinguished person in particular, there are few who
His portraits are not only instinct with life: they
iate by their dignity of conception and grace of delineation,
which, without sacrifice of truthfulness, impart a certain stateliness
as well beauty to the individual represented. In what a rare
degree Van Dyck possessed this faculty is best seen in his admirable
etchings which are still preserved, and in which he presents us with
an inyaluable gallery of portraits illustrative of the 17th century.
Of the remaining pupils of Rubens, few acquired distinction ;
but, owing to the copiousness of their works, they are by no means
unimportant. They occupy in the department of religious art the entire
century. From Diepenbeeck, Erasmus Quellinus, and Cornelis Schut,
Jacozn Jornparns (1593-1673) may be distinguished by a marked
individuality. No study in Italy had estranged his thoughts from his
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