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IN THE NETHERLANDS.
Rembrandt.
The grandeur of the 17th century school of Dutch painters has
partially obscured the excellencies of their predecessors, and thrown
into the shade what was of sterling value in the Dutch school be-
fore Rembrandt's time. It is only in recent times that research
has succeeded in bringing to light the earlier history of Dutch
Painting, and has surrounded Rembrandt, who hitherto had dazzled
as the flash of a meteor in the horizon, with precursors and associates.
Art flourished in the Dutch towns as early as the 15th century,
but it would be more than difficult to separate it from the con-
temporaneous art of Flanders; indeed, owing to the similarity of the
two peoples, no very ntial difference could have existed. When,
accordingly, at the beginning of the 16th century, painting in the
North became Italianised, the Dutch painters succumbed to the
prevailing influence. It must be noted, however, that the parti-
cular manner which most nearly responded to the national taste
was generally preferred, and most successfully imitated; that of
Caravaggio, for example, distinctly coarse as it is in its broad realism.
After Karel van Mander, Heemskerck, and Bloemaert, exponents
of a more imaginative treatment, came Honthorst (Gherardo della
Notte) and his whose art was entirely based upon this
realism. Thes fearlessly grapple with nature; they con-
cern themselves little about ce and beauty; they do not despise
what is vulgar and repulsive, if only it supplies life and energy.
Lamp-light, abounding as it does in glaring contrast, served ad-
mirably to e7
‘orce startling effects and an impassioned exuberance of
ion often bordering upon distortion, and was freely resorted
to with evident relish. Along with Caravaggio, another artist had
considerable influence upon the Dutchmen, viz. Adam Elshaimer
(1578-1620), of Frankfort, who, however, lived and died in
Rome. He painted as if nature were only to be seen through a ca-
Inera Obscura; but his pictures are harmonised by the utmost mi-
nuteness and indescribable delicacy of finish, and receive their
compensating breadth from a masterly management of colour. Last-
man, Poelenburg, Goudt, etc., learned from him.
expr
In the desperate struggle during the 16th century with the two-
fold yoke of Spain, artistic enterprise in the Netherlands was ne-
cessarily crippled. It is principally owing to this circumstance that
so many Dutch painters found their way to Italy, and there com-
pleted the training which their native land, sorely distracted as it
was, could not afford them. But just as the Netherlands finally came
forth from their eighty years’ struggle as glorious victors, and in
corresponding measure secured for themselves wealth and politi-
cal power, while their antagonist, Spain, once mistress of the world,
but now hopelessly impoverished, subsided into political insigni-
ficance, Dutch Art received during and at the conclusion of the war
its noblest impulse. It was now that the painters of the Netherlands
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