The school of the Van 1.:yeka was fertile in good painters, and their influence extended wherever painting was practised. One of the of their scholars in the Netherlands was Justus Van Ghent ; others of considerable celebrity were Dierick Steurbout, or Dierick Van Harlem, two altar-pieces by whom are in St. Peter's, Louvain, and some large paintings from the legend of the emperor Otho are in the Town Hall of the same city; and Hugo van der Goes, of Ghent, who is mentioned by Vasari, and some of whose pictures found their way to Italy. But the most distinguished of the scholars of Jan van Eyck, and one who by his numerous pupils did more than any other to extend the influence of the school, was Rogier van der Wes-den, better known as Roger of Bruges (d. 1461). One of his finest works, a Last Judgment,' is in the hospital of Beaume ; another, the Adoration of the Kings,' in the Pinacothck at Munich; and several admirable pictures by him are in the Berlin museum ; others are in Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, and Loudon. Chief among the scholars of Itogier was Hans 3femling, perhaps the most eminent of the Netherlands painters In all that respects refinement of feeling, beauty of form, and tenderness of expression. Some very beautiful works by him are preserved in St. John's Hospital, Bruges, of which lie was an inmate about 1479. In the church of Our Lady at Dantzic is a large altarpiece,' The Last Judgment; a work of great extent and vigour, and probably the most important example of his pencil. Several of his pictures are at Munich. The traditions of the school were continued into the next century by Itogier van der Weyden the younger, Goswin van der Weyden, De Witte, Gerhart, Jan Gossaert, or Jan 3labuse, Jan Mostaert, and others, but towards the middle of the 16th century the Van Eyck influence had been nearly superseded.
• Of the Antwerp painters of this time, the most famous is Quentin :Vamps, or Matsys, ' the Blacksmith' (b. 1460, d. 1530), one of the earliest painters of those homely subjects for which the artists of the Netherlands afterwards became so celebrated. If is ' Misers,' of which there is a replica at Windsor Castle, Is a well-known example of his style ; but he also painted religious subjects, of which class the ' Virgin and Child' in the National Gallery is a favourable example. But his masterpiece, a' Deposition from the Cross,' is in the Antwerp Museum. Luc Jacobez, or Lucas Van Leyden (b. 1494, d. 1533), was one of the ablest and most versatile artists of his time. The ' Last Judgment,' in the Town House of Leyden, is his most important work. But he appears to most advantage in Lis engravings, which arc as numerous as his paintings are scarce.
The later works of Jan Nlabuse (b. 1499, d. 1562), and the pictures of Jan Schoreel (b. 1495, d. 1562), Michael Coils (b. 1497, d. 1592), Martin van Neen, or Martin Hemakerk (b. 1498, d. 1574), and Lambert Susterman, or L. Lombard (b. 1506, d. 1560), show that forced imi tation of the Italians which characterises the transition from the old Flemish to the school of Brabant. This tendency is more strongly marked in Franz Florio (b. 15.20, d. 1570), in the elder and younger Francks, in Bernhard van Orley (b. 1471, d. 1541), Heinrich Goltzius (b. 1588, d. 1617), still more famous as an engraver than a painter, Pieter de Witte, and Otho Venus (b. 1556, d. 1634), the master of Ruben. The works of these artists and their contemporaries-Abraham Bluanart (b. 1561, d. 1617), Cornelis van Harlem, Van Mien, and others-are deficient in independence and genuine feeling, though they interest us as being the groundwork of the school of Rubens.
Among the portrait-painters of this time are several who acquired even more celebrity in this country than in their own. Of these, we may mention Sir Antony More (b. 1518, d. 1588), who, as painter to Philip of Spain, resided at the court of Mary, and painted portraits of the Queen, Lord Essex, Sir Henry Sidney, and other courtiers; Paid van Somer (b. 1576, d. 1624), who painted Lord Bacon and other of the distiuguished men at the court of Elizabeth ; Mark Gerard (d. 1635), the favourite painter of Elizabeth and her courtiers ; Daniel Mytens, who painted James I. and Charles I.; and Cornelius Jansen, who suc ceeded 3Iytens as court painter.
The Netherlands witnessed, in the commencement of the 17th century, a revival of painting more striking than that effected by the Caracci. Peter Paul Rubens was born at Cologne in 1577, and died at Antwerp in 1640. After leaving the school of Otho Venius, be visited Italy, and studied particularly the works of Titian and Paul Veronese. His system of colour was based on that of the Venetians, and was only inferior to theirs. His forms are gross, but always full of life and vigour. His later pictures exhibit increased kuowledge of effect, but the earlier are more attractive than those which were exe cuted when the overwhelming number of commissions obliged him to employ unsparingly the pencil of his pupils. The Descent from the Cross,' in the cathedral of Antwerp, and its companion, are deservedly cited as among the best specimens of the master. His works may be studied in the greatest perfection in the museum and church of Ant werp, in the gallery of Vienna, and more especially at Munich. But almost every important Continental gallery contains paintings by him. Our own country contains a large number of his works. Among private collections, that at Blenheim is peculiarly rich in first-rate pictures by Rubens. The National Gallery possesses several of great excellence. Rubens is equally great in history, in landscape, and in portrait. To complain that the fire of his genius was not chastened as in the great Italian masters, is to wish that the artist had beeu a different individual from what he was formed to be. Wbeu we look at Rubens's works, their facility of execution, their energy, and their brilliancy hurry us beyond such considerations; when we think of them, we may regret that his forms are often ill-selected, that the brute animal vigour of his bacchanals is pushed to coarseness, and that the physical prevails so generally over the spiritual. [Ruaess, in BIOG. Div.] The most celebrated of the pupils of Rubens was Antony Vandyek (b. 1599, d. 16411. At first he imitated closely the peculiarities of his master ; but after his residence in Italy he adopted a more tranquil tone of feeling and soberer colour. His historical pictures have many excellent qualities, but they are not equal in their way to the nume rous and admirable portraits, many of which were executed during a residence in England, and still remain in this country. [VANDYCK, AYTONT, in Bloa. Div.] Of the other scholars of Rubens, few did more than imitate, and sometimes exaggerate, the outward characteristics of their leader, with the exception of Frans Snyders (b. 1579, d. 1657), who, as a painter of animals in vigorous action, has never been equalled. After Vandyck and Snydera, the best among Rubella's scholars were perhaps Jacob Jordaens (b. 1594, d. 1678), and Gaspar de Crayer (b. 1585, d. 1669).