MASS, NICOLAS (1632-1693), Dutch painter born at Dor drecht, went about 165o to Amsterdam, where he entered Rem brandt's studio. Before his return to Dordrecht in 1654 Maes painted a few Rembrandtesque genre pictures, with life-size figures and in a deep glowing scheme of colour. like the "Reverie" at the Ryks museum in Amsterdam, the "Card Players" at the National Gallery, and the "Children with a Goat Carriage," in the collection of the late J. P. Morgan, New York. In his best period, from 1655 to 1665, Maes devoted himself to domestic genre on a smaller scale, retaining to a great extent the magic of colour he had learnt from Rembrandt. His favourite subjects were women spinning, or reading the Bible, or preparing a meal. He visited Antwerp between 1660 and 1670, and his Antwerp period coincides with a complete change in style and subject. He devoted himself almost exclusively to portraiture, and abandoned the intimacy and glowing colour harmonies of his earlier work for a careless elegance which suggests the influence of Van Dyck. The
change gave rise to the theory of the existence of another Maes, of Brussels. Maes is well represented at the National Gallery by five paintings : "The Cradle," "The Dutch Housewife," "The Idle Servant," "The Card Players," and a man's portrait. At Amster dam, besides the splendid examples to be found at the Ryks museum, is the "Inquisitive Servant" of the Six collection. At Buckingham Palace is "The Idle Servant," and at Apsley House "Selling Milk" and "The Listener." Other examples are at Berlin, Brussels, Leningrad, The Hague, Frankfort, Hanover and Munich.