VITHE NETHERLANDS

Theseventeenth century, which witnesses German art in its decline, brings about a wonderful flowering of art in the neighboring Netherlands. This country had passed from Burgundian rule to the Hapsburg dynasty. With the advent of Charles V, it passed under the rule of Spain. The master hand of that emperor had been able to curb the feeling of unrest and ferment caused by the Reformation, but the oppressive measures of his somber successor, Philip II, drove the Dutch and Flemish people to rise in arms for the defense of their liberties. A long, cruel war of emancipation ensued, and near its close there came a parting of the ways which bears directly upon our subject. In 1598, the division occurred; the southern—Flemish—provinces remained true to the House of Hapsburg, true also to the long-establishedCatholic faith. Consequently their art retained its strongly religious element, tinged with Italian traditions. The great exponent of this Flemish trend of art is Peter Paul Rubens, of whom more presently.

The northern (Dutch) provinces adopted the teachings of Calvin, and soon established their independence. Their churches were bare of any pictorial adornment; their art was forced, therefore, to develop mainly in the sphere of home life. If we term Rubens the leader of Flemish art, Rembrandt stands for the highest development of Dutch art. Between these two leaders lies a broad field with many blending, interweaving influences, many local characteristics, in this magnificent epoch. The only way to approach the subject in a few brief sentences is by considering as one vast unit the whole period of seventeenth-century art in the Netherlands, both Dutch and Flemish.

JOHANNES ZURENUSHendrik Goltzius

JOHANNES ZURENUS

Hendrik Goltzius

It will ever be a matter for surprise thatthis small country should burst into the full glory of a great period of art at a time of incessant, strenuous warfare. First the long, exhausting war with Spain; then a war with England; finally, a war with the powerful France of Louis XIV. Within the time limit of these wars lie the dates of the birth of Rubens, and of Rembrandt’s death, marking the culmination of art in the Netherlands. If we look back to earlier days of Dutch engraving, we discern the isolated figure of Lucas van Leyden, the only painter-engraver of fame in the Netherlands at the time of Dürer. After his death no master of similar merit arose to carry on his traditions. Engraving, deprived of eminent guidance, sank to levels of commercialism. Saints’ pictures being always in great demand throughout Christendom, engravers in the Netherlands devoted their energies largely to this field, and that country became the center of production of all kinds of engraved devotional prints.Trained by daily routine practice, the engravers acquired a high degree of dexterity in handling the graver. Whole families of engravers—the Wierix, the Van de Passe, the Galle—devoted themselves to this work, which assumed the character of amanufactureof engravings. One did the figures, another the backgrounds, another again the draperies, ornaments, etc., according to their respective aptitudes. Toward the close of the sixteenth century, this Northern skill in handling the graver was communicated to Italy, and there mastered by Agostino Carracci. In Holland manual dexterity was carried to its height by a virtuoso of the graver, Hendrik Goltzius. His “Pietà” in the manner of Dürer, and a series of large plates, in which he exhibits, in turn, characteristics of this and other noted artists, reveal his technical mastery. They disclose also his power of close observation, which appears to best advantage in portraits such as that of Zurenus. Excellent judgment is shown in the selection of line; the effect is sparkling, brilliant; in fact, this very brilliancy, this cleverness in the telling use of the line, becomes an end to be striven for, and no longer the means only employed to express an artistic thought. This worship of technique carries Goltzius and his numerous followers to extremes of mannerism, where we must leave them and turn to the engravers grouped around Rubens.

PETER PAUL RUBENSPaul Pontius

PETER PAUL RUBENS

Paul Pontius

JAN BRUEGHELAnthony van Dyck

JAN BRUEGHEL

Anthony van Dyck

Peter Paul Rubens perceived the advantages which prints might bring to a painter by the propagation of his compositions. So he surrounded himself with experienced engravers, whom he guided by suggestions and corrections. How well they interpreted the work of the master may be seen in Rubens’s portrait of himself, engraved by Paul Pontius, one of the noted engravers of this group. A stride toward the expression of color is to be perceived in this plate; great variety in the rendering of cloth, hair, lace, the face, the background and frame. Theproblem of expressing color, as well as form, now enters more and more into the sphere of engraving; a problem much more difficult than would appear at first thought. Here is the task which faces the engraver: he must keep true to the original he reproduces, true in form, true in color values, by a judicious gradation of tone. At the same time he must strive to make his plate interesting, spirited, brilliant, and apparently easy and free in handling. Singly these qualities are not uncommon, but that engraver is far from common, who, having the power to do such brilliant work, has moreover the wish and ability to efface himself, and let only the artist speak, whose work he interprets. It is a claim to distinction for many engravers of the Rubens group that they came so near to solving this problem. Whether or not Rubens made use of the etching-needle himself remains a matter for speculation; there is no doubt, however, that his great pupil—Anthony van Dyck—used etching very effectively, as will be seen by this portrait taken from his famous “Iconography.”4The likeness is sketched with his characteristic sureness and ease upon the grounded copper plate. The biting was doubtless left to the engraver who was to finish the plate. Neither Rubens nor Van Dyck seems to have been interested in etching or engraving as such; to them the graphic arts were excellent means of reproduction, nothing more.

4A large series of portraits after Van Dyck, engraved by a number of the Rubens engravers.

GELLIUS DE BOUMACornel Visscher

GELLIUS DE BOUMA

Cornel Visscher

ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDSRembrandt

ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS

Rembrandt

THE THREE TREESRembrandt

THE THREE TREES

Rembrandt

You will notice that the engraver has begun his work in fine, parallel lines, close together, in the upper corner of the plate. The print thus presents one aspect of the use—conjointly—of etching and engraving, which had then come into universal use. Another example of the combined use of the two processes, blended into a rich harmonious tone, is the portrait of Gellius de Bouma by one of the great portrait engravers of the seventeenth century, Cornel Visscher, anartist who tolerated no hard-and-fast system in the graphic arts. Here is a vigorous, well-modeled figure, broadly treated in so interesting a manner that the means of expression are quite forgotten in the enjoyment of the effect achieved. A new element now enters the sphere of our interest: the problem of light, bright or subdued, in infinite gradations. Interiors with the light focused on one spot; night effects partially brightened by a torch or lantern, or by a fire, all else enfolded in darkness. The pioneer in thisclair-obscurmanner is the painter, Adam Elzheimer, but no one made more effective use of this play of light and shade in the graphic arts than Rembrandt. Take the “Adoration of the Shepherds” as an instance, with the feeble light of the lantern and the rich tone of surrounding darkness, with indistinct forms of figures and objects half seen and half guessed, which gain shape as we look more closely. In the famous plate known as the “Three Trees” our attention is at first attracted by the vast expanse of threatening sky, with its lofty thunder-clouds, and the immense plains, with dikes and level fields stretching to the distant horizon. As we look at the picture, details appear,—the team behind the trees, the people in the fields, the couple in the bushes. They are overlooked, then seen, just as they would be in nature; they keep their subordinate places, and do not intrude and disturb the general effect of grand simplicity. Color is so well suggested by differentiations in handling and varying intensities of tone that one almost forgets the simple black and white presentation of the scene. As an example of Rembrandt’s mastery in etching applied to portraiture, no better print could be chosen than the “Janus Lutma,” especially if we can see it in the glorious richness exhibited by the first state of the plate. All the resources of the process are in evidence here,—they are seen in the subtle modeling, in the insensible gradations of tone, in thebrilliancy of the accents, in the depth of the velvety shadows. It will be readily understood that such delicate, almost breathlike differences in shading, cannot long withstand the wear and strain to which they are subjected at each successive impression. Every print taken from the plate means rubbing the ink into every one of these delicate incisions in the copper; then comes the severe pressure as the plate passes through the press. A soft metal like copper soon shows the effect of these wearing influences: the delicate ridges of the dry-point work flatten down, and the edges of the etched lines become blunt. After a very little while the difference in the impressions grows more and more noticeable; then comes the touching-up of the plate, in an endeavor to restore—in a measure—its former brilliancy and freshness; naturally this modifies the appearance of the print to some extent. The first of these retouches are probably made by the artist himself; later on, as the plate again wears, it may have passed into the hands of dealers, who, in turn, have the copper touched up repeatedly for further printing. Thus you may have a Rembrandt print, from the original copper, yet without even the echo of that which the great master had originally expressed. This applies not to Rembrandt etchings only, but to prints in general; whatever the print, the first essential must always be to secure a good impression of it.

JANUS LUTMARembrandt

JANUS LUTMA

Rembrandt

TOBIT BLINDRembrandt

TOBIT BLIND

Rembrandt

We cannot leave Rembrandt without glancing at one of those sketchy little prints which, upon examination, reveal to us his big-hearted knowledge of human nature and his keen powers of observation. Here is the old Tobit, a groping figure, eloquently described by means of a few telling lines in its pathetic, helpless blindness, the little dog acting as a guide.

THE SPINNERAdriaen van Ostade

THE SPINNER

Adriaen van Ostade

THE TRAVELERSJacob Ruysdael

THE TRAVELERS

Jacob Ruysdael

The influence of Rembrandt on his contemporaries and on subsequent artistic productions is very great indeed; none of hisfollowers, gifted though they be, approach him in excellence and universality. To the Northern mind there is a great fascination in presentments of the life of the common people. Brouwer, Brueghel, Teniers are among those partial to this theme, and each of them has done some experimental work with the etching-needle. In Germany we find plates relating to peasant life among the prints of Dürer, Holbein, and the little masters. Rembrandt has devoted a good many plates to character sketches of beggars and of peasants. Among the other Dutch etchers the greatest interpreter of the peasantry is without doubt Adriaen van Ostade. He shows them to us at their homes, or at the tavern, smoking, drinking, dancing, merrymaking. The gay, sunny side of their existence is revealed in his fifty etchings, which display a thorough command of the medium employed. In the scene which has been chosen as an example of his powers, we discern the sympathetic interest incountry life which characterizes all his work. Jacob Ruysdael, the landscape painter, has sketched on the copper a number of characteristic subjects, none, perhaps, finer than this clump of sturdy, gnarled oaks, with roots bathed in a shallow pool. The distant trees are flooded with sunlight, while the foreground is toned down to a lower key. All this is done in the simplest possible manner. The whole plate speaks of close, careful observation, and truthfully, suggestively expresses actual nature. Another notable feature is the subordination of the figures. Here, as in Rembrandt’s “Three Trees,” the figures are quite subordinate; the quiet beauty of the scenery presented is the main theme of the artist’s message. Passing by numerous other delightful landscape etchers, Everdingen, Waterloo, Saftleven, likewise the gifted etcher of animals, Paul Potter, we must turn now to Nicolas Berghem, who combines animal life with landscape. In his masterpiece, known as the“Diamond,” there is apparent the close study of nature, characteristic of the period, also much clevermise en scène, but as we examine the plate more closely, we realize the admixture of Italian inspiration. The vigor of home influences is weakening, and the art of the South again asserts itself as we approach the eighteenth century. The same Southern influence pervades the landscapes of Jan Both; they are very pleasing, technically fine, but the evil which creeps into Dutch art is quite evident here. The ideal landscape of Titian, Poussin, and Claude Lorrain gradually warps the former frank realistic rendering of nature; elegance, hollow display gradually take the place of the good, wholesome naturalness of Dutch art.

With the advent of the eighteenth century, painting and the graphic arts decline to levels which we may pass by in this rapid survey.

THE DIAMONDNicolaes Berghem

THE DIAMOND

Nicolaes Berghem

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