MEMLING or HEMLING, HANS. 1435-95 (about) probably a native of Brug,es, but very little is known about the date and place of his birth or the time of his death, which could not, however, have been later than 1495. Several other ways of spelling the name are given, but " Memling-" has decidedly the best authority. He was, at leait, an artist of the Flemish school, if not of Flemish birth, and painted a large number of altar pieces and pictures on sacred subjects, to which his work was almost wholly confined. It is a matter of great uncertainty to say what were and what were not his productions. Rathgebei designates over one hundred pictures, but very few of these are fully authen ticated. The earliest of those which it Is thought are genuine is dated in 1450 and the latest in 1491. Memling is said to have served under Charles the bold of Burgundy-, and it is related that after the battles of Grauson and Morat, he was admitted as a wounded soldier, into the hospital of St. John's, at Bruges. Here it was, at all events, that Were painted many of the finest works attributed to him. Of these, the principal ale; the
illustration in a picture composed of many small compartments, of the history of St. Ursula and her companions; the marriage of St. Catherine, his finest picture, and one of the best of that c., consists of a central composition representing the marriage, and two. wings or side pieces, depicting the beheading of John the Baptist and the vision of John the Evangelist. There are many pictures, presumably Memling's, at Berlin, Antwerp. the Hague, and other parts of Europe, and two or thme in England. Specially worthv of praise are:—" St. Christopher carrying the Child," " Joys and Sorrows of the Virgin,"'and "The Journey of the Three Kings front the East." In all of these there is not only great hartnony in color and effective use of light and shade, but most noteworthy of all is the wonderful perfection in matters of detail. The last named picture contains nearly 1500, objects and figures of small size, all of which are elaborated in the most minute manner, and this, too, without neglect of general effects.