Belgium - Artists of Belgium!!! (Belgian artists). Belgian painting of the 17th century Moussin Irjan

Jan van Eyck is a key figure of the Northern Renaissance, its founder.

Van Eyck was considered the inventor of oil paints, although in fact he only improved them. However, thanks to him, the oil received universal recognition.

For 16 years, the artist was the court painter of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, the lord and vassal were also connected by strong friendship, the duke took an active part in the fate of the artist, and van Eyck became an intermediary in the marriage of the lord.

Jan van Eyck was a real "personality of the Renaissance": he knew geometry well, had certain knowledge in chemistry, was fond of alchemy, was interested in botany, and also carried out diplomatic missions very successfully.

Where could I buy: Gallery De Jonckheere, Gallery Oscar De Vos, Gallery Jos Jamar, Gallery Harold t'Kint de Roodenbeke, Gallery Francis Maere, Gallery Pierre Mahaux, Gallery Guy Pieters

René Magritte (1898, Lessin— 1967, Brussels)

The big joker and trickster Rene Magritte once said: "Look, I draw a pipe, but this is not a pipe." Using an absurd combination of ordinary objects, the artist fills his paintings with metaphors and hidden meanings that make one think about the deceitfulness of the visible, the mystery of the ordinary.

However, Magritte was always aloof from the rest of the surrealists, but rather considered himself a magical realist, in particular because, surprisingly, he did not recognize the role of psychoanalysis.

The artist's mother committed suicide by jumping off a bridge when he was 13 years old, some researchers believe that the "signature" image of a mysterious man in a coat and bowler hat was born under the influence of this tragic event.

Where to look:

In 2009, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels allocated the artist's collection to a separate museum dedicated to his work.

Where could I buy: Gallery De Jonckheere, Gallery Jos Jamar, Gallery Harold t'Kint de Roodenbeke, Gallery Pierre Mahaux, Gallery Guy Pieters

Paul Delvaux (1897, Ante - 1994, Vörne, West Flanders)

Delvaux was one of the most successful surrealist artists, despite the fact that he was never officially a member of this movement.

In the sadly mysterious world of Delvaux, a woman always occupies a central place. A special deep silence surrounds the women in the paintings, as if they are waiting for the men who will awaken them.

The classic subject in Delvaux's depiction is a female figure against the backdrop of an urban or rural landscape, given in perspective, surrounded by mysterious elements.

The writer and poet Andre Breton even once remarked that the artist makes "our world the Kingdom of a Woman - the mistress of hearts."

Delvaux studied architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, but then switched to painting. However, architecture always takes an active part in his paintings.

Where could I buy: Jos Jamar Gallery, Harold t'Kint de Roodenbeke Gallery, Lancz Gallery, Guy Pieters Gallery

Wim Delvoye (genus. 1965)

The sharply modern, often provocative and ironic work of Wim Delvoye demonstrates ordinary objects in a new context for them. The artist combines modern and classical subjects in the subtlest references and parallels.

Among the most famous works of the artist are "Cloaca" (2009-2010) - a machine that parodies the action of the human digestive system, and "Art Farm" near Beijing, where Delvoye creates tattoo pictures on the backs of pigs.

The most popular is his series of pseudo-Gothic sculptures, which combine openwork carvings with modern subjects. One of these (“Cement Truck”) stands near the KVS theater in Brussels.

Where to look:

At the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Brussels, M HKA (Antwerp), in January at the Maison Particulière, Wim Delvoye will be a guest artist in the collective exhibition "Taboo". Also, the sculpture "Concrete mixer" is installed opposite the KVS theater (Royal Flemish Theatre) on the square between Hooikaai / Quai au Foin and Arduinkaai / Quai aux pierres de taille streets.

Most of his works constantly travel around the world, being exhibited at the best art venues.

Where could I buy:

Jan Fabre (born 1958, Antwerp)

The multi-talented Jan Fabre is known for his provocative performances, he is also a writer, philosopher, sculptor, photographer and video artist and is considered one of the most radical contemporary choreographers.

The artist is the grandson of a tireless researcher of butterflies, insects and spiders

Jean-Henri Fabre. Perhaps that is why the world of insects is one of the key themes of his work, along with the human body and war.

In 2002, Fabre, commissioned by Queen Paola of Belgium, decorated the ceiling of the Mirror Hall of the Royal Palace in Brussels (by the way, for the first time since Auguste Rodin) with millions of beetle wings. The composition is called Heaven of Delight (2002).

However, behind the iridescent surface, the artist reminds the royal family of a terrible shame - the huge loss of life among the local population of the Congo during the colonization of King Leopold II for the extraction of diamonds and gold.

According to the artist, the conservative Belgian society did not like this, to put it mildly: “The common man is often annoyed by the idea that the Royal Palace is decorated by an artist who openly calls not to vote for the right.”

Where to look:

In addition to the Royal Palace, the works of Jan Fabre can be seen in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Brussels, where, among others, his installation “Blue Look”, the Museum of Contemporary Art Ghent (S.M.A.K .), M HKA (Antwerp), Belfius Art Collection (Brussels), Museum Ixelles (Brussels), as well as curated temporary exhibitions at Maison Particuliere, Villa Empain, Vanhaerents Art Collection and others.

Where could I buy: Jos Jamar Gallery, Guy Pieters Gallery

Who is at the helm of the Belgian art market? Jan Fabre, Luc Tuymans and Francis Alus

In 2011, on the European art market with a modest share of 1.11%, Belgium took only sixth place, leaving behind not only the UK, France and Germany, but also Sweden and Italy. However, the low position of the Belgian art market does not at all reflect the success that Belgian artists have achieved at the international level. Four Belgians entered the Top 30 Contemporary European Authors in 2011, making Belgium the third most heavily represented country in the ranking after the UK and Germany.

Top 10 auction results of contemporary Belgian artists in 2011

In 2011, among Belgian artists, Luc Tuymans was not only the best-selling, but also the most generous. In fact, two of his top three results for the year came from charity auctions. His work “Deal - No deal” (“Lucky - no luck”) was offered to buyers on September 22 at the New York auction of Christie's “Artists for Haiti” (proceeds went to help those affected by the 2010 earthquake). 956 500 dollars, much more expensive than the estimate of 600-800 thousand dollars.Deal - No deal "was created by Tuymans in Bruges. The author says that he was inspired by a lonely man who played the machine in the corner of a night bar after midnight. On a large scale (200 x 130) in Tuymans' canvas, the player is in confusion and confusion.

LUCK TUYMANS Deal - No deal. 2011 Source: christies.com

LUCK TUYMANS Coast. 2011 Source: arcadja.com

A few weeks later, Takashi Murakami organized a charity auction for the victims of the earthquake in Japan, where Tuymans' The Shore (2011) was sold for $260,000. In this oil painting, the artist reworked his earlier 2005 "Shore" silkscreen based on a Polaroid photograph of the night surf. In the new version, the wave crashing on the shore and the night sky acquired shades of gray and white. In this work, the author expressed his personal attitude to the tragedy of the country affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

Another work by Tuymans - "Easter" (2006) - in May was sold at Sotheby's New York auction for 800 thousand dollars. The picture belongs to a series of works by Tuymans, exploring the influence of the Jesuit order on various decision-making systems (political, With these record results, prices for Tuymans are almost back to their peak levels of 2005, when the Tate Modern held a retrospective of him. Francisco.

WIM DELVO Caterpillar 5C truck and excavator models. 2004 Source: m.sothebys.com

WIM DELVO Caterpillar 5C truck and excavator models (detail). 2004 Source: m.sothebys.com

Belgian artist Wim Delvoye takes third place in the ranking with his Caterpillar 5C Truck and Excavator Models (2004), sold at Sotheby's London auction on October 13 for 297.7 thousand dollars. Made in the artist's signature style, a small truck and the excavator became Delvaux's most expensive work sold at public auction.The laser-cut gothic openwork patterns in steel are reminiscent of the artist's Flemish roots.Delvaux has long been considered the "bad boy" of Belgian modern art - it was he who tried to tattoo pigs and invented the machine for the production Excrement "Cloaca" Over the past year, in addition to scandalous fame, the artist has also come to commercial success: three of his works were sold for more than 150 thousand dollars - the same as in the previous four years.

Jan Fabre (Jan Fabre) as well as Delvaux can not be ranked among the angels, but the reputation of a provocateur did not prevent him from taking four lines in the ranking of the most successful Belgian authors. His best result of 2011 is in fifth place in the national standings. The secondary market for Fabre's work has finally begun to match the level of international recognition that the artist has achieved in recent years (Jan Fabre, for example, was a guest artist in the Belgian pavilion at the Venice Biennale). The bronze statue "Man Measuring Clouds" (1998) at Christie's auction on October 15 reached a hammer price of 252.4 thousand dollars - the best for the artist in 2011. In total, Fabre made 8 casts of this sculpture; one of them left in 2009 with hammer for about 230 thousand dollars, and another already this year, on February 16, was sold for 267 thousand, which updated last year's personal record of the artist and confirmed the rise in prices on the market for his work. The Man Who Gives Fire "(233.6 thousand dollars, Christie's, London) and" Anthropology of the Planet "(197.9 thousand dollars, Sotheby's, Amsterdam). Interestingly, one of Fabre's most expensive works in 2011 is" The Battle in the Hour Blue "(221.6 thousand dollars, Christie's, London) - drawing, while all previous results of Fabre's graphic works did not exceed 28 thousand dollars. The work represents three stag beetles, fixed in the center of a sheet of paper, completely painted over with a ballpoint pen. This is the oldest work of the rating - Fabre created it back in 1989.

From November 2004 to May 2008, 12 works by Francis Alyus (Francis Alys) went under the hammer for more than 150 thousand dollars. From June 2008 to May 2011, only one of his works reached a result of over 80 thousand dollars. The crisis affected the market for Alus's works dramatically: in the period 2008-2010, prices for his works fell by 37 percent. In 2011, the Tate Modern hosted one of the Belgian's most comprehensive exhibitions, A History of Deception. Now the demand for the work of Alyus has grown again: in 2011, only 21 percent of his works were left without buyers, while in 2009 this figure was 40 percent. Therefore, it is not surprising that two of them made it into the current ranking. Started as an architect, Francis Alus explores the interaction of man and space in his work using a variety of techniques - from painting to performance. At the already mentioned charity auction "Artists for Haiti", Alus' large oil painting "Le juif errant" ("The Eternal Jew") and several preparatory drawings for it went for 248 thousand dollars. The painting reflects the theme of migration from the point of view of mythology. Another excellent result was brought by the work "Untitled" ("Man / woman with a shoe on his head"): with a rather bold estimate of 100-150 thousand dollars (taking into account the last sale of this work in 2004 for 70 thousand dollars), the work was sold twice as much - for 200 thousand dollars.

So far, Belgian artists do not earn their best auction results at home. Nevertheless, Belgium is responsible for a quarter of all sold lots of these four authors, which corresponds to 11 percent of the total proceeds from their work at auction.

The material was prepared by Maria Onuchina,AI

Read also about Belgian artists:
Jan Fabre - artist and entomologist;
Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. Luc Tuymans;
Top 10 Newsweek. Francis Alus: Art as a Commentary on Existence.

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Among them you can also see a portrait of one of the most famous masters of Flanders of that era, Adrian Brauer. (1606-1632) , whose paintings were collected by Rubens himself (there were seventeen of them in his collection). Each work of Brauer is a pearl of painting. The artist was endowed with a huge coloristic talent. The theme of his work, he chose the everyday life of the Flemish poor - peasants, beggars, vagabonds - tedious in its monotony and emptiness, with its miserable entertainment, sometimes disturbed by an outbreak of wild animal passions. Brouwer continued the traditions of Bosch and Brueghel in art with his active rejection of the squalor and ugliness of life, the stupidity and animal baseness of human nature, and at the same time a keen interest in the uniquely characteristic. He does not aim to unfold before the viewer a wide background of social life. His strength is in the depiction of specific genre situations. He especially possesses the ability to express in facial expressions various affects of feelings and sensations experienced by a person. In contrast to Rubens, van Dyck and even Jordans, he does not think about any ideals and noble passions. He sarcastically observes the person as he is. In the museum you can see his painting "Drinking Buddies", remarkable for its delicate light coloring, strikingly conveying lighting and atmospheric conditions. The wretched cityscape near the ramparts, along with the vagabond players, evokes a heart-wrenching melancholy. This mood of the artist himself, speaking of the dull hopelessness of existence, is certainly deeply dramatic.

Frans Hals

The Dutch department of painting is relatively small, but it contains paintings by Rembrandt, Jacob Ruisdael, the Lesser Dutch, masters of landscape, still life, and genre scenes. A curious portrait of the merchant Willem Heithuissen, the work of the great Dutch artist Frans Hals (1581/85-1666) . Heithuissen was a wealthy but narrow-minded and extremely vain man. Rustic by nature, he nevertheless strove to resemble noble aristocrats by the elegance that his wealth seemed to be allowed to acquire. Hals is ridiculous and alien to the claims of this upstart. Because so persistently, with a certain amount of sarcasm, he makes the portrait image dual. First we notice Heithuissen's relaxed pose, his richly elegant suit, his hat with a dapper brim, and then his expressionless, pale, no longer young face with a dull look. The prosaic essence of this man emerges, despite all the tricks to hide it. The internal inconsistency and instability of the image is revealed most of all by the originally solved composition of the portrait. Heithuissen, with a whip in his hand, as if after a ride, sits on a chair, which he seems to be swinging. This pose is suggestive of the artist's quick fixation of the state of the model in a short period of time. And the same posture gives the image a shade of some inner relaxation and lethargy. There is something pitiful in this man, who is trying to hide from himself the inevitable withering, the vanity of desires and inner emptiness.

Lucas Cranach

In the section of German painting of the Brussels Museum, the brilliant work of Lucas Cranach the Elder attracts attention. (1472-1553) . This is a portrait of Dr. Johann Schering dated 1529. The image of a strong-willed, strong man is typical of the art of the German Renaissance. But Cranach every time captures the individual qualities of the mind and character and reveals them in the physical appearance of the model, sharply grasped by its uniqueness. In the stern look of Shering, in his face one can feel some kind of cold obsession, rigidity and intransigence. His image would be simply unpleasant if the enormous inner strength did not evoke a sense of respect for the peculiar character of this man. The virtuosity of the artist's graphic skill is striking, so sharply conveying the ugly large features of the face and many small details of the portrait.

Italian and French collections

The collection of paintings by Italian artists may arouse the interest of museum visitors, as it contains works by Tintoretto, the great painter, the last titan of the Italian Renaissance. "Execution of St. Mark” is a canvas of a cycle dedicated to the life of a saint. The picture is permeated with stormy drama, passionate pathos. Not only people, but also the sky in torn clouds and the raging sea seemed to mourn the death of a person.

The masterpieces of the French collection are the portrait of a young man by Mathieu Lenin and the landscape by Claude Lorrain.

In its section of old art, there are currently more than a thousand and a hundred works of art, many of which are capable of delivering deep aesthetic pleasure to the viewer.

Jacques Louis David

The second part of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts - collections of art from the 19th and 20th centuries. They contain mostly works by Belgian masters. The most outstanding work of the French school, kept in the museum, is the "Death of Marat" by Jacques Louis David (1748-1825) .

David is a famous artist of France, the head of revolutionary classicism, whose historical paintings played a huge role in awakening the civic consciousness of his contemporaries in the years preceding the French bourgeois revolution. Most of the artist's pre-revolutionary paintings were painted on subjects from the history of Ancient Greece and Rome, but revolutionary reality forced David to turn to the present and find in it a hero worthy of being an ideal.

“Maratu - David. Year two" - such is the laconic inscription on the picture. It is perceived as an epitaph. Marat - one of the leaders of the French Revolution - was killed in 1793 (according to revolutionary calculus in the second year) royalist Charlotte Corday. "Friend of the people" is depicted at the moment of death, immediately following the blow. A bloodied knife is thrown near the healing bath where he worked despite physical suffering. A harsh silence fills the picture, which sounds like a requiem for a fallen hero. His figure is powerfully sculpted with chiaroscuro and likened to a statue. The thrown head and the fallen hand seemed to be frozen in eternal solemn peace. The composition impresses with the severity of the selection of objects and the clarity of linear rhythms. The death of Marat is perceived by David as a heroic drama of the fate of a great citizen.

The Belgian Francois Joseph Navez became a student of David, who lived the last years of his life in exile and Brussels. (1787-1863) . Until the end of his life, Navez remained faithful to the tradition created by his teacher, especially in portraiture, although he introduced a touch of romantic interpretation of the image into this genre. One of the famous works of the artist “Portrait of the Emptinn family” was written in 1816. The viewer involuntarily conveys that the young and beautiful couple are united by feelings of love and happiness. If the image of a woman is full of calm joy, then the male one is fraught with some romantic mystery and a slight shade of sadness.

Belgian painting of the 19th and 20th centuries

In the halls of the museum you can see the works of the largest Belgian painters of the 19th century: Henri Leys, Joseph Stevens, Hippolyte Boulanger. Jan Stobbarts is presented with one of his best paintings, Farm in Kreiningen, which truly depicts peasant labor in Belgium. Although the artist was self-taught, the painting is superbly constructed and of high quality in painting. Its theme may have been inspired by Rubens' The Return of the Prodigal Son. Stobbarts was one of the first painters of the 19th century to proclaim the principles of realism.

The beginning of his artistic career was difficult. Accustomed to the romantic concept of the artistic image, the Antwerp public indignantly rejected his truthful paintings. This antagonism proved so strong that Stobbarts was eventually forced to move to Brussels.

The museum has twenty-seven canvases by the famous Belgian artist Henri de Brakeleur. (1840-1888) , who was the nephew and student of A. Leys, an outstanding historical painter. Heightened interest in the national history of Belgium, its traditions, way of life, culture combined in de Brakeler with some strange feeling of love, full of slight regret and longing for the past. His genre scenes are permeated with memories of the past, his characters resemble people of bygone centuries, being surrounded by antiques and objects. In the work of de Brakelera there is undoubtedly an element of stylization. In particular, his painting "Geographer" resembles the work of the Dutch masters of the 17th century G. Metsu and N. Mas. In the picture we see an old man sitting on a 17th century velvet stool and immersed in the contemplation of an old painted satin.

Painting by James Ensor (1860-1949) "Lady in Blue" (1881) bears traces of the strong influence of French Impressionism. The picturesque scale consists of blue, bluish-gray and green tones. A lively and free stroke conveys vibration and air movement.

The picturesque interpretation of the picture turns the everyday motif into a poetic scene. The artist's heightened pictorial perception, a penchant for fantasy, and a constant desire to transform what he sees into something unusual are also reflected in his brilliant still lifes, the most successful example of which is the Brussels Skat. Sea fish is repulsively beautiful with its sharp pink color and shape, as if blurring before the eyes, and there is something unpleasant and disturbing in its bewitchingly piercing gaze directed directly at the viewer.

Ensor lived a long life, but the activity of his work falls on the period from 1879 to 1893. The irony of Ensor, the rejection of the ugly features of human nature with merciless sarcasm, is manifested in numerous paintings depicting carnival masks, which can also be seen in the Brussels Museum. Undoubtedly Ensor's successive connection with the art of Bosch and Brueghel.

The finest colorist and most gifted sculptor who died in the First World War, Rick Wauters (1882-1916) represented in the museum as paintings and sculptures. The artist experienced the strongest influence of Cezanne, joined the current of the so-called "Brabant Fauvism", but nevertheless became a deeply original master. His temperamental art is permeated with a passionate love for life. In The Lady with the Yellow Necklace, we recognize his wife, Nel, perched in an armchair. The festive sound of the yellow color of the curtains, the red - checkered plaid, the green garlands on the wallpaper, the blue - of the dress evokes a feeling of joy of being, captivating the whole soul.

The museum houses several works by the outstanding Belgian painter Permeke (1886-1952) .

Constant Permeke is widely regarded as the head of Belgian Expressionism. Belgium was the second country after Germany where this trend gained a great influence in the artistic environment. The heroes of Permeke, mostly people from the people, are depicted with deliberate coarseness, which, according to the author, should reveal their natural strength and power. Permeke resorts to deformation, a simplified color scheme. Nevertheless, in his "Betrothed" one feels a kind of monumentalization, albeit primitive images, a desire to reveal the character and relationship of a sailor and his girlfriend.

Among the masters of the realistic trend of the 20th century, Isidore Opsomer and Pierre Polus stand out. The first is known as a wonderful portrait painter ("Portrait of Jules Destre"), the second - as an artist who, like C. Meunier, devoted his work to depicting the difficult life of Belgian miners. The halls of the museum also feature works by Belgian artists belonging to other trends in contemporary art, mainly surrealism and abstractionism.

More varied and colorful than Flemish architecture and sculpture, Flemish painting of the 17th century unfolds in its magnificent flowering. Even more clearly than in these arts, the eternally Flemish emerges here from a mixture of northern and southern foundations, as an indestructible national treasure. Contemporary painting in no other country captured such a rich and colorful area of ​​subjects. In new or restored temples, hundreds of gigantic baroque altars were waiting for images of saints painted on large canvases. In palaces and houses, vast walls yearned for mythological, allegorical and genre easel paintings; Yes, and portraiture, which developed in the 16th century to a life-size portrait, remained a great art in the full sense of the word, combining captivating naturalness with the nobility of expression.

Next to this large painting, which Belgium shared with Italy and France, flourished here, continuing the old traditions, original cabinet painting, mostly on small wooden or copper boards, unusually rich, embracing everything depicted, not neglecting religious, mythological or allegorical subjects, preferring everyday life of all classes of the population, especially peasants, cab drivers, soldiers, hunters and sailors in all its manifestations. The designed landscape or room backgrounds of these small-figured paintings turned into independent landscape and architectural paintings in the hands of some masters. This series is completed by images of flowers, fruits and animals. To the nurseries and menageries of the ruling archdukes in Brussels, overseas trade brought marvels of flora and fauna. The richness of their forms and colors could not be overlooked by the artists who mastered everything.

For all that, in Belgium there was no longer any ground for monumental wall painting. With the exception of Rubens's paintings in the Antwerp Jesuit Church and a few ecclesiastical series of landscapes, the great masters of Belgium created their large paintings on canvas, wall and ceiling paintings for foreign rulers, and the decline of the Brussels technique of tapestries, to which Rubens's participation gave only a temporary rise, made participation superfluous. other Belgian masters, such as Jordans and Teniers. But the Belgian masters took a well-known, although not as deep as the Dutch, participation in the further development of engraving and etching. The Dutch by birth were even the best engravers before Rubens, and the participation of the greatest Belgian painters: Rubens, Jordanses, Van Dycks, Brouwers and Teniers in "painting engraving" - etching, is partly only a side affair, partly even doubtful.

Antwerp, the wealthy Low German trading city on the Scheldt, is now, more than ever, the capital of Low Netherlandish painting. Brussels painting, perhaps only in the landscape looking for independent paths, became a branch of Antwerp art; even the painting of the old Flemish centers of art, Bruges, Ghent and Mecheln, at first lived only by its relationship to the Antwerp workshops. But in the Walloon part of Belgium, namely in Lüttich, one can trace an independent attraction to the Italians and the French.

For the general history of Flemish painting of the 17th century, in addition to the collections of literary sources by Van Mander, Goubraken, de Bie, Van Gool and Weyermann, the lexicons of Immerseel, Kramm and Wurzbach, consolidated, only partly outdated, books by Michiels, Waagen, Waters, Rigel and Philippi are important . In view of the predominant importance of Scheldt's art, one can also mention the history of Antwerp art by Van den Branden and Rooses, which, of course, requires additions and changes. The related chapter of the author of this book in his and Woltmann's History of Painting is already outdated in detail.

Flemish painting of the 17th century achieved complete freedom of pictorial arrangement and execution, internal unity of drawing and colors, the most smooth breadth and strength in the creative hands of its great master Peter Paul Rubens, who made Antwerp the central place for the export of paintings for all of Europe. There was no shortage, however, of masters standing at the transition between the old and the new directions.

In the national realistic sectors, with small figures against the backdrop of a developed landscape, only echoes of the greatness and immediacy of Pieter Brueghel the Elder still lived. The rendering of the landscape in the transitional era remains within the "stage style" created by Giliss Van Coninxloo, with its tufted tree foliage and bypassing the difficulties of aerial and linear perspective by developing separate, alternating one after another, differently colored tones. The founders of the present landscape painting, the Antwerp brothers Matthäus and Paul Bril (1550-1584 and 1554-1626), also proceeded from this conditional style, about the development of which almost nothing is known. Matthäus Bril appeared suddenly as a painter of landscape frescoes in the Vatican in Rome. After his early death, Paul Bril, his brother's friend in the Vatican, further developed the then-new Netherlandish landscape style. Few authentic paintings by Matthäus have survived; the more came from Paul, whose ecclesiastical and palace landscapes in the Vatican, in the Lateran, and in the Rospigliosi Palace in Santa Cecilia and Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, I have reported in other places. Only gradually do they pass under the influence of the freer, with greater unity of the executed landscapes by Annibale Carracci, to the balanced transitional style indicated above. The further development of Bril, which is part of the general history of landscape painting, is reflected in his numerous, partly marked by years, small landscapes on boards (1598 in Parma, 1600 in Dresden, 1601 in Munich, 1608 and 1624 in Dresden, 1609, 1620 and 1624 - in the Louvre, 1626 - in St. Petersburg), usually abundant in trees, rarely trying to convey a certain area. In any case, Paul Bril belongs to the founders of the landscape style, from which the art of Claude Lorrain grew.

In the Netherlands, the Antwerp Josse de Momper (1564 - 1644), best represented in Dresden, developed the Koninxloo stage style in smartly painted mountain landscapes, not particularly rich in trees, on which "three backgrounds", sometimes with the addition of a fourth sunlit, usually appear in in all its brown-green-gray-blue beauty.

The influence of older paintings by Bril is reflected in the second son of Peter Brueghel the Elder, Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568 - 1625), before his return to Antwerp, in 1596, who worked in Rome and Milan. Criveli and Michel dedicated separate works to him. He painted mostly small, sometimes miniature pictures that give the impression of a landscape even when they represent biblical, allegorical or genre themes. It is they who firmly adhere to the Coninksloo style with tufted foliage, although they convey the mutual transitions of the three backgrounds more subtly. Characteristic of Jan Brueghel's versatility is that he painted landscape backgrounds for figure painters like Balin, figures for landscape painters like Momper, floral wreaths for masters like Rubens. Known for his freshly and subtly executed "Fall" of the Hague Museum, in which Rubens painted Adam and Eve, and Jan Brueghel landscape and animals. His own landscapes, abundantly equipped with a motley folk life, still not particularly expressive in conveying the sky with its clouds, are predominantly hilly areas irrigated by rivers, plains with windmills, village streets with tavern scenes, canals with wooded banks, busy country roads on wooded heights and forest roads with woodcutters and hunters, vividly and faithfully observed. Early paintings by him can be seen in Milan's Ambrosiana. It is best represented in Madrid, well in Munich, Dresden, St. Petersburg and Paris. Of particular importance in the sense of searching for new ways was his painting of flowers, which most convincingly conveyed not only the beauty of forms and the brightness of colors of rare colors, but also their combinations. Pictures of the colors of his brush possess Madrid, Vienna and Berlin.

Of his collaborators, we must not miss Hendrik van Balen (1575 - 1632), whose teacher is considered to be Rubens' second teacher, Adam van Noort. His altar paintings (for example, in the Church of Jacob in Antwerp) are unbearable. He became famous for his small, smoothly painted, sugary paintings on boards with content mainly from ancient fables, for example, the Feast of the Gods in the Louvre, Ariadne in Dresden, Gathering Manna in Brunswick, but his paintings of this kind also lack artistic freshness and immediacy.

The transitional landscape style described above continued, however, among weak imitators until the beginning of the 18th century. Here we can note only the strongest masters of this direction, who transferred it to Holland, David Winkboons from Mecheln (1578 - 1629), who moved from Antwerp to Amsterdam, painted fresh forest and village scenes, on occasion also biblical episodes in a landscape setting, but most willingly temple holidays in front of village taverns. His best paintings in Augsburg, Hamburg, Braunschweig, Munich, St. Petersburg are quite directly observed and painted with flowery colors, not without force. Rellant Savery of Courtrai (1576 - 1639), to whom Kurt Erasmus devoted a lovingly written study, studied the German wooded mountains in the service of Rudolph II, after which he settled as a painter and etcher, first in Amsterdam, then in Utrecht. His light-filled, gradually merging three planes, but somewhat dry in execution, mountainous, rocky and forest landscapes, which can be well seen in Vienna and Dresden, he equipped with live groups of wild and tame animals in hunting scenes, in images of paradise and Orpheus. He also belongs to the earliest independent flower painters. Adam Willaerts from Antwerp (1577, died after 1649), who moved to Utrecht in 1611, was a representative of the seascape of this transitional style. His coastal and marine views (for example, in Dresden, at Weber in Hamburg, in the Liechtenstein Gallery) are still dry in the pattern of the waves, still rude in depicting ship life, but captivating with the honesty of their relationship to nature. Finally, Alexander Kerrinx of Antwerp (1600 - 1652), who transferred his Flemish landscape art to Amsterdam, still follows Coninxloe in the paintings with his signature, but in the later paintings of Brunswick and Dresden, is obviously influenced by Van Goyen's brownish Dutch tonal painting. . He belongs, therefore, to the transitional masters in the fullest sense of the word.

Of the Antwerp masters of this type who remained at home, Sebastian Vranks (1573 - 1647) reveals undoubted success as a landscape painter and painter of horses. He also depicts foliage in the form of bunches, most often hanging like a birch, but gives it a more natural connection, gives a new clarity to the airy tone and knows how to convey a vital character to the actions of the confidently and coherently written horses and riders of his battle and robber scenes that can be seen. , for example, in Braunschweig, Aschaffenburg, Rotterdam and at Weber in Hamburg.

Finally, in architectural painting as early as the 16th century, following the paths of Steenwick the Elder, he developed a transitional style, consisting in the gradual replacement of the letter following nature with artistic charm, his son Gendrik Steenwick the Younger (1580 - 1649), who moved to London, and next to him, the main Thus, Peter Neefs the Elder (1578 - 1656), whose interior views of churches can be found in Dresden, Madrid, Paris and St. Petersburg.

In general, Flemish painting was obviously on the very right path of returning to small art, when the great art of Rubens rose above it like the sun and carried it along with it into the realm of light and freedom.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640) - the sun around which all Belgian art of the 17th century revolves, but at the same time one of the great luminaries of the pan-European art of this period. Contrary to all Italian Baroque painters, he is the main representative of the Baroque in painting. The fullness of forms, freedom of movement, dominance over the masses, which gives picturesqueness to the baroque style of architecture, in Rubens' paintings, they renounce the heaviness of stone and, with the intoxicating luxury of colors, receive an independent, new right to exist. With the power of individual forms, the grandeur of the composition, the blossoming fullness of light and colors, the passion of life in the transfer of sudden actions, the strength and fire in exciting the bodily and spiritual life of his fleshy male and female, dressed and undressed figures, he surpasses all other masters. The luxurious body of his fair-haired women with full cheeks, full lips and a cheerful smile shines with whiteness. Burnt by the sun, the skin of his male heroes glows, and their bold convex forehead is enlivened by a powerful arch of the eyebrows. His portraits are the freshest and healthiest, not the most individual and intimate for their time. No one knew how to reproduce wild and tame animals as vividly as he did, although due to lack of time, in most cases, he left his assistants to depict them in his paintings. In the landscape, the execution of which he also entrusted to assistants, he saw, first of all, the general effect due to atmospheric life, but he himself painted, even in old age, amazing landscapes. His art embraced the whole world of spiritual and physical phenomena, the whole complexity of the past and the present. Altar paintings and again altar paintings he painted for the church. He painted portraits and portraits mainly for himself and his friends. Mythological, allegorical, historical images and hunting scenes he created for the greats of this world. Landscape and genre paintings were occasional side jobs.

Orders rained down on Rubens. At least two thousand paintings came out of his studio. Great demand for his art caused the frequent repetition of whole paintings or individual parts by the hands of his students and assistants. At the zenith of his life, he usually left hand-painted paintings to his assistants. There are all transitions between his own handwritten works and the paintings of the studio, for which he only gave sketches. With all the similarity of the basic forms and basic moods, his own paintings reveal significant changes in style, the same as those of many of his contemporaries, from hard plastic modeling and thick, heavy writing to a lighter, freer, bright execution, to more lively outlines, to more soft, airy modeling and full of mood, illuminated by the flowery colors of tonal painting.

At the head of the latest literature on Rubens is Max Rooses' broadly conceived cumulative work: The Works of Rubens (1887-1892). The best and most important biographical works are those of Rooses and Michel. Collected works, after Waagen, were also published by Jakob Burchardt, Robert Fischer, Adolf Rosenberg and Wilhelm Bode. Separate questions about Rubens were analyzed by Ruelens, Voltman, Riegel, Geller von Ravensburg, Grossman, Riemanns and others. Rubens, as an engraver, was engaged in Gimans and Voorthelm-Schnevogt.

Rubens was born in Siegen, near Cologne, from respected Antwerp and received his first artistic education in the city of his fathers from Tobias Verhegt (1561 - 1631), a mediocre landscape painter of the transitional style, then studied for four years with Adam Van Noort (1562 - 1641), one of the average masters of mannered Italianism, as is now known, and then worked for another four years with Otto Van Ven, a rich in fiction, empty in the forms of a false classic, to whom at first he closely joined and in 1598 became a guild master. In 1908, Habertzwil devoted detailed articles to the three teachers of Rubens. It is impossible to establish with certainty a single picture of the early Antwerp period of Rubens. From 1600 to 1608 he lived in Italy; first in Venice, then mainly in the service of Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua. But already in 1601, in Rome, for the three altars of the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, he painted The Finding of the Cross, The Crowning with Thorns, and The Exaltation of the Cross. These three paintings, now belonging to the chapel of a hospital in Grasse, in southern France, reveal the style of his first Italian period, still searching for himself, still influenced by copies from Tintoretto, Titian and Correggio, but already full of independent striving for strength and movement. In 1603, the young master went to Spain with an order from his prince. From the paintings he painted there, the figures of the philosophers Heraclitus, Democritus and Archimedes in the Madrid Museum reveal still pompous, dependent forms, but also a strong impression to the psychological depth. Returning to Mantua, Rubens painted a large three-part altarpiece, the middle picture of which, with the homage of the Gonzaga family to St. Trinity, was preserved in two parts in the Mantua library, and from the wide, abundant side paintings, showing the ever-growing power of the forms and actions of the masses, the Baptism of Christ ended up in the Antwerp Museum and the Transfiguration in the Nancy Museum. Then in 1606, the master again painted in Rome for Chiesa Nuova a magnificent, already full of Rubensian power in his light-filled figures, the altarpiece of the Assumption of St. Gregory”, now owned by the Grenoble Museum, and in Rome replaced already in 1608 by three other, not at all the best paintings by the same master. More clearly reminiscent of Caravaggio's style is the spectacular "Circumcision of Christ" of 1607 in Sant'Ambrogio in Genoa. However, researchers such as Rooses and Rosenberg attribute the master to the Italian period, when he copied the works of Titian, Tintoretto, Correggio, Caravaggio, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, and a number of paintings by his brush, apparently, however, written later. Large allegories of display and virtue in Dresden, originating from Mantua, strong in form and color, if they were not written, as Michel thinks with us, around 1608 in Mantua, then we rather admit, together with Bode, that they appeared according to return of Rubens to his homeland than with Roosers, that they were written before his Italian trip to Antwerp. The confidently drawn and plastically modeled image of Jerome in Dresden also reveals a peculiar Rubensian manner, perhaps even too developed for his Italian period, to which we now attribute this picture. Upon the return of Rubens in 1608 to Antwerp, already in 1609 he was appointed court painter to Albrecht and Isabella, and his style, already independent, quickly developed to grandiose power and grandeur.

Cluttered in composition, restless in outline, uneven in lighting effects is his Adoration of the Magi (1609-1610) in Madrid, marked, however, by a powerful movement. Full of life and passion, powerful in muscular modeling of bodies, his famous three-part image "Exaltation of the Cross" in Antwerp Cathedral. Stronger Italian memories are felt in simultaneous mythological pictures, such as Venus, Cupid, Bacchus and Ceres in Kassel, and the stout, chained Prometheus in Oldenburg. Characteristic examples of a large-scale portrait of this era are the landscape portraits of Albrecht and Isabella in Madrid and the magnificent Munich picture, representing in a honeysuckle arbor the master himself with his young wife, Isabella Brant, brought back to his homeland in 1609, an incomparable image of calm pure happiness love.

The art of Rubens discovered a further flight between 1611 and 1614. The huge painting "Descent from the Cross" with the majestic "Visit Mary Elizabeth" and "Entrance into the Temple" on the wings, in the Antwerp Cathedral, is considered the first work in which the master brought his types and his method of writing to full development. Wonderful is the passionate vitality of individual movements, even more wonderful is the penetrating power of pictorial performance. Mythological paintings such as "Romulus and Remus" in the Capitoline Gallery, "Faun and Faun" in the Schonborn Gallery in Vienna also belong to these years.

Paintings by Rubens in 1613 and 1614, confident in composition, with clearly defined forms and colors, are some paintings marked as an exception by his name and year of execution. Such are the pure in form, beautiful in colors painting “Jupiter and Callisto” (1613), full of magical light “Flight into Egypt” in Kassel, “Frozen Venus” (1614) in Antwerp, pathetic “Lamentation” (1614) in Vienna and "Susanna" (1614) in Stockholm, whose body is no doubt more pleasant and better understood than the too luxurious body of his earlier Susanna in Madrid; in terms of painting, powerful symbolic images of the lonely crucified Christ against the background of a darkened sky in Munich and Antwerp adjoin these paintings.

From that time on, commissions piled up in Rubens' studio to such an extent that he gave his assistants a more conspicuous participation in the execution of his paintings. The oldest, besides Jan Brueghel, belongs to the outstanding painter of animals and fruits Frans Snyders (1579 - 1657), according to Rubens himself, who painted the eagle in the Oldenburg painting with Prometheus mentioned above, and the lively landscape painter Jan Wildens (1586 - 1653), who worked from 1618 for Rubens. The most remarkable collaborator was Anton van Dyck (1599 - 1641), who later became an independent figure. In any case, having become a master in 1618, he was until 1620 the right hand of Rubens. Rubens's own paintings of these years usually contrast the bluish penumbra of the body with a reddish-yellow spot of light, while the paintings with the clearly established cooperation of Van Dyck are distinguished by a uniform warm chiaroscuro and a more nervous pictorial transmission. Among them are six large, enthusiastically painted images from the life of the Roman consul Decius Moussa, in the Liechtenstein Palace in Vienna, the cardboards of which Rubens made for woven carpets in 1618 (surviving copies are in Madrid), and large decorative plafond paintings (preserved only sketches in various collections), and some of the spectacular in composition, with many figures of the altarpieces of this church, “The Miracle of St. Xavier" and "Miracle of St. Ignatius”, saved by the Vienna Court Museum. Van Dyck's collaboration is also undeniable in the huge Crucifixion in Antwerp, on which Longinus, on horseback, pierces the side of the Savior with a spear, in the Madonna with penitent sinners in Kassel, and according to Bode also in the Munich Trinity Day and in the Berlin Lazar, according to Rooses also in the dramatic lion hunt and in the no less dramatic, passionate and quick kidnapping of the daughters of Leucippus in Munich. All these paintings shine not only with the bold power of Rubens' composition, but also with the penetrating subtlety of the feeling of Van Dyck's painting. Among the hand-painted paintings, painted in the main parts by Rubens himself between 1615 and 1620, there are also the best religious paintings - full of ebullient, agitated mass movements "The Last Judgment" in Munich and full of inner animation "Assumption of Our Lady" in Brussels and in Vienna, as well as masterful mythological paintings, luxurious "bacchanalia" and images of "Thiazos" in Munich, Berlin, St. Petersburg and Dresden, in which the power of the overflowing sensual joy of life, translated from Roman into Flemish, apparently reaches full expression for the first time . The “Battle of the Amazons” in Munich (circa 1620), a creation inaccessible in the sense of the picturesque transmission of the most violent scuffle and battle, although written in a small size, adjoins here. Then there are life-sized naked children, like excellent putti with a garland of fruit in Munich, then violent hunting scenes, lion hunting, of which the best is in Munich, and boar hunting, of which the best hangs in Dresden. This is followed by the first landscape paintings with mythological additions, for example, the full mood of Aeneas' Shipwreck in Berlin, or with natural surroundings, such as the radiant Roman landscape with ruins in the Louvre (circa 1615) and the landscapes full of life "Summer" and "Winter (c. 1620) at Windsor. Majestically conveyed, broadly and truthfully written without a hint of the old mannerisms, illuminated by the light of all kinds of celestial manifestations, they stand like landmarks in the history of landscape painting.

Clearly, majestically, powerfully, the portraits of Rubens of this five-year period finally appear. A masterful work of his self-portrait in the Uffizi, his portrait group "Four Philosophers" in the Pitti Palace is magnificent. In the prime of her beauty is his wife Isabella in the noble portraits of Berlin and The Hague. Around 1620, an amazing portrait of Susanna Fuhrman in a hat with a feather, fanned with the most delicate chiaroscuro, was also painted in the London National Gallery. The famous male portraits of the master of these years can be seen in Munich and in the Liechtenstein Gallery. How passionately Rubens depicted episodes from the sacred world history, hunting scenes and even landscapes, he painted his portrait figures just as calmly, being able to convey their bodily shell with monumental power and truth, but without trying to spiritualize internally, grasped only in general, facial features.

Van Dyck left Rubens in 1620, and his wife Isabella Brant died in 1626. A new impetus for his art was his remarriage to the beautiful young Helena Furman in 1630. However, his artistic and diplomatic trips to Paris also served as impetus ( 1622, 1623, 1625), Madrid (1628, 1629) and London (1629, 1630). Of the two large historical series with allegories, 21 huge paintings from the life of Marie de Medici (the story was written by Grossman) now belong to the best decorations of the Louvre. Sketched by the masterful hand of Rubens, painted over by his students, finished by himself, these historical paintings are filled with many modern portraits and allegorical mythological figures in the spirit of modern baroque and present such a mass of individual beauties and such artistic harmony that they will forever remain the best works of painting of the 17th century. From a series of paintings of the life of Henry IV of France, two half-finished ones ended up in the Uffizi; sketches for others are kept in different collections. The nine paintings glorifying James I of England, with which Rubens a few years later decorated the plafond fields of the main hall in White Hall, blackened from London soot, are unrecognizable, but they themselves do not belong to the most successful works of the master.

Of the religious paintings painted by Rubens in the twenties, the great fiery "Adoration of the Magi" in Antwerp, completed in 1625, again marks a turning point in his artistic development with its freer and broader brush, lighter language of forms and more golden, airy coloring. . The light, airy "Assumption of Mary" of the Antwerp Cathedral was completed in 1626. This is followed by the picturesque, free "Adoration of the Magi" in the Louvre and "The Education of the Virgin Mary" in Antwerp. In Madrid, where the master again studied Titian, his coloring became richer and "flowery". The "Madonna" with saints adoring her in the Augustinian church in Antwerp is a more baroque repetition of Titian's Frari Madonna. A meaningfully revised part of the "Triumph of Caesar" by Mantegna, located in 1629 in London (now in the National Gallery), judging by her letter, could also appear only after this time. This decade is especially rich in large portraits of the master. Older, but still full of warming good looks, is Isabella Brant in a beautiful portrait of the Hermitage; already sharper features are represented by the portrait in the Uffizi. Among the finest and most colorful is the double portrait of his sons in the Liechtenstein Gallery. The expressive portrait of Caspar Gevaert at his desk in Antwerp is famous. And the aged master himself appears before us with a thin diplomatic smile on his lips in a beautiful bust portrait of Aremberg in Brussels.

The last decade that fell to the lot of Rubens (1631 - 1640) stood under the star of his beloved second wife, Elena Furman, whom he painted in all forms, and who served him as nature for religious and mythological paintings. Her best portraits by Rubens belong to the most beautiful female portraits in the world: half-length, in a rich dress, in a hat with a feather; life-size, sitting, in a luxurious dress open at the chest; in a small form, next to her husband for a walk in the garden - she is in the Munich Pinakothek; naked, only partly covered with a fur mantle - in the Vienna Court Museum; in a suit for walking in the field - in the Hermitage; with her firstborn on the sashes, arm in arm with her husband, and also on the street, accompanied by a page - at Baron Alphonse Rothschild in Paris.

The most significant church works of this flourishing, radiant late era of the master are the majestic and calm in composition, shining with all the colors of the rainbow, the altar of St. Ildefons with powerful figures of donors on the doors of the Vienna Court Museum and a magnificent altarpiece in Rubens' own funerary chapel in the Church of Jacob in Antwerp, with saints of the city painted from faces close to the master. More simple works, such as: St. Cecilia in Berlin and magnificent Bathsheba in Dresden are not inferior to them in tone and colors. Among the precious mythological pictures of this period are the glittering Judgments of Paris in London and Madrid; and what passionate vitality breathes Diana's hunt in Berlin, how fabulously luxurious the feast of Venus in Vienna, what a magical light illuminates Orpheus and Eurydice in Madrid!

Preparatory for this kind of paintings are some genre images of the master. So, the character of the mythological genre captures the boldly sensual, life-size "Hour of Date" in Munich.

The prototypes of all the secular scenes of Watteau are the famous, with flying gods of love, paintings called "Gardens of Love", with groups of luxuriously dressed couples in love at a festival in the garden. One of the best works of this kind is owned by Baron Rothschild in Paris, the other is in the Madrid Museum. The most important genre paintings with small figures from folk life, painted by Rubens, are the majestic and vital, purely Rubensian peasant dance in Madrid, the half-landscape tournament in front of the moat of the castle, in the Louvre, and the fair in the same collection, the motives of which are already reminiscent of Teniers.

Most of the real landscapes of Rubens also belong to the last years of his life: such is the radiant landscape with Odysseus in the Pitti Palace, such are the landscapes, new in design, artistically explaining, with a simple and wide image of the surroundings, the flat area in which Rubens' dacha was located, and with a majestic, full of mood transfer sky changes. The most beautiful are the fiery sunset in London and the landscapes with a rainbow in Munich and St. Petersburg.

Whatever Rubens undertook, he turned everything into shining gold; and whoever came into contact with his art, as a collaborator or follower, could no longer break out of his vicious circle.

Of the numerous pupils of Rubens, only Anton van Dyck (1599 - 1641) - whose light, of course, refers to the light of Rubens, like the lunar light of the sun - reaches the heavens of art with a head illuminated by brilliance. Although Balen is considered his real teacher, Rubens himself called him his student. In any case, his youthful development, as far as we know, was under the influence of Rubens, from which he never deviates completely, but, in accordance with his more impressionable temperament, reworks into a more nervous, gentle and subtle manner in painting and less strong in drawing. . A long stay in Italy finally turned him into a painter and master of colors. It was not his business to invent and dramatically exacerbate live action, but he knew how to place figures in his historical paintings in clearly thought-out relationships to each other and communicate to his portraits the subtle features of social status, which became the favorite painter of the nobles of his time.

The latest summary works on Van Dyck are by Michiels, Giffrey, Kust and Schaeffer. Separate pages of his life and art were explained by Vibiral, Bode, Hymans, Rooses, Lau, Menotti and the author of this book. Even now they are arguing about the distinction between different periods of life, which were connected mainly with travel. According to the latest research, he worked until 1620 in Antwerp, in 1620 - 1621 in London, in 1621 - 1627 in Italy, mainly in Genoa, with a break from 1622 to 1623, carried out, as Rooses showed, probably at home, in 1627 - 1628 in Holland, then again in Antwerp, and from 1632 as a court painter of Charles I in London, where he died in 1641, and during this period, in 1634 - 1635 was in Brussels, in 1640 and 1641 in Antwerp and Paris.

There are hardly any early works of Van Dyck in which the influence of Rubens would not be noticeable. Even his early Apostolic series already show traces of the Rubensian manner. Of these, some of the original heads are preserved in Dresden, others in Althorp. Among the religious paintings painted by Van Dyck according to his own design, at his own peril and risk, from 1618 to 1620, while he was in the service of Rubens, belong to the “Martyrdom of St. Sebastian", with the overloaded old composition "Lamentation of Christ" and "Bathing Susanna" in Munich. "Thomas in St. Petersburg", "The Copper Serpent" in Madrid. None of these paintings can boast of perfect composition, but they are well painted and flowery in color. The Dresden “Jerome” is picturesque and deeply felt in the soul, representing a vivid contrast to the neighboring more calm and roughly written Jerome Rubens.

Then follow: The Mocking of Christ in Berlin, the strongest and most expressive of these semi-Rubens paintings, and beautiful in composition, no doubt sketched by Rubens, St. Martin" at Windsor, sitting on a horse, holding out a cloak to a beggar. The simplified and weaker repetition of this Martin in the Saventham church is closer to the later manner of the master.

Van Dyck is a great artist in this Rubens era, especially in his portraits. Some of them, combining the well-known advantages of both masters, were attributed to Rubens in the 19th century, until Bode returned them to Van Dyck. They are more individual in individual features, more nervous in expression, softer and deeper in writing than the simultaneous portraits of Rubens. The oldest of these semi-Rubens portraits by Van Dyck are both bust portraits of an elderly married couple in 1618 in Dresden, the most beautiful are the half-figures of two married couples in the Liechtenstein gallery: a woman with gold lacing on her chest, a gentleman pulling on gloves, and sitting in front of a red curtain lady with a child on her lap, in Dresden. The magnificent Isabella Brant of the Hermitage belongs to him, and from the Louvre a double portrait of the alleged Jean Grusset Richardeau and his son standing next to him. Of the double portraits, the spouses standing next to each other are known - the portrait of Frans Snyders and his wife with very forced poses, Jan de Wael and his wife in Munich, is the most picturesque. Finally, in the youthful self-portraits of the master, with a thoughtful, self-confident look, in St. Petersburg, Munich and London, his very age, about twenty, indicates an early period.

From religious paintings painted by Van Dyck between 1621 - 1627. in Italy, in the south, there remained a beautiful scene, inspired by Titian, with the "Coin of Peter" and "Mary with the Child" in a fiery halo, in the Palazzo Bianco, reminiscent of Rubens, the "Crucifixion" in the royal palace in Genoa, tenderly felt in picturesque and spiritual terms , the Entombment of the Borghese Gallery in Rome, the languid head of Mary in the Pitti Palace, the magnificent, radiant family in the Turin Pinacothek, and the powerful, but rather mannered altarpiece of the Madonna del Rosario in Palermo with elongated figures. Of the secular paintings, we will mention here only the beautiful, in the spirit of Giorgione, the painting depicting the three ages of life in the city museum in Vincenza and the simple in composition, but fiery painting "Diana and Endimon" in Madrid.

A confident, firm and at the same time gentle stroke modeling in dark chiaroscuro and a deep, rich coloring of the Italian heads striving for unity of mood are also manifested in his Italian, especially Genoese portraits. Painted in a bold foreshortening, almost facing the viewer, the equestrian portrait of Antonio Giulio Brignole Sale, waving his hat in his right hand as a sign of greeting, located in the Palazzo Rossi in Genoa, was a true indicator of the new path. Noble, with Baroque columns and draperies in the background, the portraits of Signora Geronimo Brignole Sale with her daughter Paola Adorio in a dark blue silk dress with gold embroidery and a young man in the clothes of a noble person, from the same collection, stand at the height of absolute portrait art. They are adjoined by portraits of the Marchesa Durazzo in a light yellow silk damask dress, with children, in front of a red curtain, a lively group portrait of three children with a dog and a noble portrait of a boy in a white dress, with a parrot, kept in the Palazzo Durazzo Pallavicini. In Rome, the Capitoline Gallery has a very vital double portrait of Luca and Cornelis de Wael; in Florence, in the Palazzo Pitti, there is a spiritually expressive portrait of Cardinal Giulio Bentivoglio. Other portraits of Van Dyck's Italian period found their way abroad. One of the finest is owned by Pierpont Morgan in New York, but they can also be found in London, Berlin, Dresden and Munich.

The five-year period (1627 - 1632) spent by the master in his homeland after returning from Italy turned out to be extremely fruitful. Large, full of movement altarpieces, what are the powerful Crucifixes in the church of St. Zhen in Dendermonde, in the church of Michael in Ghent, and in the church of Romuald in Meheln, and the adjoining "Exaltation of the Cross" in the church of St. Gens in Courtrai does not represent him as well as the works full of inner life, to which we include the Crucifixion with the forthcoming in the Lille Museum, "Rest during the Flight" in Munich and individual Crucifixions full of feeling in Antwerp, Vienna and Munich. These paintings translate the images of Rubens from the heroic language to the language of feeling. The most beautiful paintings of this period include the Madonna with a kneeling couple of donors and angels pouring flowers in the Louvre, the Madonna with the Christ Child standing in Munich and the full mood of "Lament over Christ" in Antwerp, Munich, Berlin and Paris. Madonnas and lamentations in general were Van Dyck's favorite themes. He rarely took on images of pagan gods, although his Hercules at the Crossroads in the Uffizi, the images of Venus, Vulcan, Vienna and Paris show that he was able to deal with them to some extent. He remained mainly a portrait painter. About 150 portraits of his brush have been preserved from this five-year period. Their facial features are even sharper, in typically graceful, inactive hands there is even less expression than in Italian paintings of him of the same kind. A somewhat more aristocratic ease was added to their posture, and a more subtle general mood appeared in the colder coloring. Clothes usually fall easily and freely, but materially. Among the most beautiful of them, painted in full size, are the characteristic portraits of the ruler Isabella in Turin, in the Louvre and in the Liechtenstein Gallery, Philippe de Roy and his wife in the Wallace collection in London, double portraits of a gentleman and a lady with a child in their arms in the Louvre and in the Gothic Museum and a few more portraits of gentlemen and ladies in Munich. Among the most expressive waist and generation portraits we include the portraits of Bishop Mulderus and Martin Pepin in Antwerp, Adrian Stevens and his wife in St. Petersburg, Count Van den Berg in Madrid, and Canon Antonio de Tassis in the Liechtenstein Gallery. The organist Liberty looks languidly, the sculptor Colin de Nole, his wife and their daughter look boring at the portrait group in Munich. The portraits of a gentleman and a lady in Dresden and Marie Louise de Tassis in the Liechtenstein Gallery are distinguished by a noble, picturesque posture. Van Dyck's influence on all portraiture of his time, especially English and French, was enormous; however, in natural characteristic and inner truth, his portraits cannot be compared with those of his contemporaries Velázquez and Frans Hals, not to name others.

On occasion, however, Van Dyck also took up the engraving needle. Known for 24 easily and with great meaning executed sheet of his work. On the other hand, he commissioned other engravers to reproduce a large series of small portraits of famous contemporaries painted by him, painted in one gray tone. In the complete collection, this "Iconography of Van Dyck" in one hundred sheets appeared only after his death.

As the court painter of Charles I, Van Dyck painted little religious and mythological paintings during the last eight years of his life. Nevertheless, several of the best paintings written during his short stay in the Netherlands belong to this late time of the master. It was the last and most picturesque depiction of the "Rest on the Flight into Egypt", with a round dance of angels and flying partridges, now in the Hermitage, the most mature and most beautiful "Lamentation of Christ" in the Antwerp Museum, not only clear, calm and touching in composition, but an expression of true grief, but also in colors, with its beautiful chords of blue, white and dark gold, representing a masterful, enchanting work. Then follow the extremely numerous portraits of the English period. True, under the influence of the London court type, his heads become more and more like masks, his hands become less and less expressive; but the dresses are more refined and more material in writing, the colors, the silvery tone of which only gradually began to fade, win more and more in tender charm. Of course, Van Dyck also set up a workshop in London with large-scale production, in which numerous students were engaged. The family portrait at Windsor, showing the seated royal couple with two children and a dog, is a rather weak display. The equestrian portrait of the king in the same place in front of the triumphal arch was painted with great taste, his equestrian portrait in the National Gallery is even more picturesque, the delightful portrait of the king in a hunting suit in the Louvre is really picturesque. Of the portraits of Queen Henrietta Maria by Van Dyck, the one owned by Lord Northbrook in London and depicting the queen with her dwarfs on a garden terrace is among the freshest and earliest, and the one in the Dresden gallery, for all its nobility, is among the weakest and latest. Various portraits of the children of the English king are famous, belonging to the most attractive masterpieces of Van Dyck. Turin and Windsor have the finest portraits of the three royal children; but the most luxurious and prettiest of all is the Windsor portrait with the five children of the king, with a large and a small dog. Of the other numerous portraits of Van Dyck at Windsor, the portrait of Lady Venice Digby, with its allegorical additions in the form of doves and gods of love, heralds a new era, and the double portrait of Thomas Killigrew and Thomas Carew strikes with the life relationships depicted that are unusual for our master. The portrait of James Stuart, with a large dog clinging to him, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is distinguished by a special grace, a portrait of the betrothed, the children of William II of Orange and Henrietta Maria Stuart, in the city museum in Amsterdam is delightful. About a hundred portraits of the master's English period have been preserved.

Van Dyck died young. As an artist, he spoke, apparently, all. He lacks the versatility, fullness, and power of his great teacher, but he surpassed all his Flemish contemporaries in the subtlety of a purely pictorial mood.

Other important painters, collaborators and students of Rubens in Antwerp before and after Van Dyck, live only echoes of Rubens' art, Even Abraham Dipepbeck (1596 - 1675), Cornelis Schut (1597 - 1655), Theodor van Thulden (1606 - 1676), Erasmus Quellinus (1607 - 1678), the brother of the great sculptor, and his grandson Jan Erasmus Quellinus (1674 - 1715) are not so significant as to dwell on them. Representatives of various realistic departments of the Rubens workshop are of more independent importance. Frans Snyders (1579 - 1657) began with a dead nature, which he liked to perform in life size, broadly, realistically and, for all that, decorative; all his life he painted large, full of healthy observation images of kitchen supplies and fruits, such as are available in Brussels, Munich and Dresden. In the workshop of Rubens, he also learned to depict lively and fascinating, almost with the strength and brightness of his teacher, the living world, life-size animals in hunting scenes. His large hunting paintings in Dresden, Munich, Vienna, Paris, Kassel and Madrid are classic in their way. Sometimes conflated with Snyders is his brother-in-law Paul de Vos (1590 - 1678), whose large paintings of animals cannot match the freshness and warmth of Snyders' paintings. The new landscape style, developed under the influence of Rubens, which almost completely did away with the old three-color stage backgrounds and traditional tuft-like tree foliage, appears before us more clearly in the paintings and etchings of Lucas van Oudens (1595 - 1672), an assistant in the late period of the master in the landscape. His numerous but mostly small landscape paintings, of which nine hang in Dresden, three in St. Petersburg, two in Munich, are simple, naturally grasped images of the charming local border landscapes between the Brabant hilly region and the Flemish plain. The performance is wide and meticulous. His colors strive to convey not only the natural impression of green trees and meadows, brownish earth and bluish hilly distances, but also a slightly cloudy, bright sky. The sunny sides of its clouds and trees usually twinkle with yellow spots of light, and under the influence of Rubens, rain clouds and rainbows sometimes also appear.

The art of Rubens caused a revolution in the Netherlandish copper engraving. Numerous engravers, whose work he looked through, were in his service. The oldest of them, the Antwerp Cornelis Galle (1576 - 1656) and the Dutch Jacob Matham (1571 - 1631) and Jan Müller, still translated his style into an older language of forms, but the engravers of the Rubens school, a number of which are opened by Peter Southman from Harlem (1580 - 1643), and continues to shine with such names as Lukas Forstermann (b. 1584), Paul Pontius (1603 - 1658), Boethius and Schelte. Bolswerth, Pieter de Jode the younger, and above all the great chiaroscuro engraver Jan Wittdöck (b. 1604) managed to imbue their sheets with Rubensian force and movement. The new mezzotint technique, which roughened the surface of the plate by means of a pickaxe in order to scrape out a drawing on it in soft masses, was, if not invented, then for the first time widely used by Vallerand Vaillant from Lille (1623 - 1677), a student of Rubens's student Erasmus Quellinus, a famous excellent portrait painter and original painter of dead nature. Since, however, Vaillant studied this art not in Belgium, but in Amsterdam, where he moved, the history of Flemish art can only mention him.

Some important Antwerp masters of this period, who did not have direct relations with Rubens or his students, who joined Caravaggio in Rome, formed a Roman group. Clear outlines, plastic modeling, heavy shadows of Caravaggio soften only in their later paintings of a freer, warmer, broader painting that spoke of the influence of Rubens. At the head of this group is Abraham Janssens Van Nuessen (1576 - 1632), whose student Gerard Zegers (1591 - 1651) in his later paintings undoubtedly moved into the fairway of Rubens, and Theodore Rombouts (1597 - 1637) reveals the influence of Caravaggio in his genre, in life-size, with metallic lustrous colors and black shadows, paintings in Antwerp, Ghent, St. Petersburg, Madrid and Munich.

The oldest of the then Flemish painters who were not in Italy, Caspar de Crayer (1582 - 1669), moved to Brussels, where, competing with Rubens, he did not go further than taken eclecticism. They are headed by the Antwerp Jacob Jordaens (1583 - 1678), also a student and son-in-law of Adam Van Noort, the head of the truly independent Belgian realists of the era, one of the most significant Flemish outstanding painters of the 17th century, next to Rubens and Van Dyck. Rooses also dedicated an extensive work to him. Rougher than Rubens, he is more direct and original than him. His bodies are even more massive and fleshy than those of Rubens, his heads are rounder and more ordinary. His compositions, usually repeated, with slight changes for different paintings, are often more artless and often overworked, his brush, for all its skill, is drier, smoother, sometimes denser. For all that, he is a wonderful, original colorist. At first he writes freshly and briskly, weakly modeling in saturated local colors; after 1631, carried away by the charms of Rubens, he moves on to more delicate chiaroscuro, to sharper intermediate colors and to a brownish tone of painting, from which juicy deep basic tones effectively shine through. He also portrayed everything depicted. He owes his best success to life-size allegorical and genre paintings, in most cases on the theme of folk proverbs.

The earliest known painting by Jordaens "Crucifixion" in 1617 in the church of St.. Paul in Antwerp reveals the influence of Rubens. Jordaens is quite himself in 1618 in the "Adoration of the Shepherds" in Stockholm and in a similar picture in Braunschweig, and especially in the early images of a satyr visiting a peasant, to whom he tells an unbelievable story. The earliest painting of this kind is owned by Mr. Celst in Brussels; followed by copies in Budapest, Munich and Kassel. Early religious paintings also include the expressive images of the Evangelists in the Louvre and the Disciples at the Tomb of the Savior in Dresden; of the early mythological paintings, Meleager and Atlanta in Antwerp deserves mention. The earliest of his living compositions of family portrait groups (circa 1622) belong to the Madrid Museum.

The Rubensian influence is again evident in the paintings of Jordaens, written after 1631. In his satire of a peasant in Brussels, a turn is already noticeable. His famous depictions of the "Bean King", of which Kassel possesses the earliest copy - others are in the Louvre and in Brussels - as well as his innumerable images of the proverb "What the old sing, the little ones squeak", an Antwerp copy of which is dated 1638. even fresher in colors than the Dresden, written in 1641 - others in the Louvre and Berlin - already belong to the master's smoother and softer manner.

Before 1642, the rough mythological paintings "Procession of Bacchus" in Kassel and "Ariadne" in Dresden, lively excellent portraits of Jan Wirth and his wife in Cologne were also painted; then, until 1652, paintings animated externally and internally, despite the calmer lines, like St. Ivo in Brussels (1645), a superb family portrait in Kassel and a vibrant "Bean King" in Vienna.

In 1652, the master was in full force with an invitation to The Hague to take part in the decoration of the "Forest Castle", to which the "Deification of Prince Friedrich Heinrich" and "The Victory of Death over Envy" by Jordaens give his imprint, and in 1661 an invitation to Amsterdam, where he painted surviving but now almost indistinguishable paintings for the new town hall.

The finest and most religious painting of his later years is Jesus among the Scribes (1663) in Mainz; splendidly in colors, "Entrance to the Temple" in Dresden and the "Last Supper" permeated with light in Antwerp.

If Jordaens is too crude and uneven to be ranked among the greatest of the greats, then nevertheless, as an Antwerp burgher painter and painter of burghers, he occupies a place of honor next to Rubens, prince of painters and painter of princes. But precisely because of his originality, he did not create any remarkable disciples or followers.

Cornelis de Vos (1585 - 1651) was a master, like Jordans, who independently adjoined the pre-Rubensian past of Flemish art, especially outstanding as a portrait painter, striving for artless truth and sincerity with a calm, penetrating painting style, a peculiar brilliance in the eyes of his figures and full of light coloring. The best family portrait-group, with a relaxed composition, belongs to the Brussels Museum, and the strongest single portrait of the guild master Grapheus belongs to Antwerp. His double portraits of the married couple and his little daughters in Berlin are also very typical.

In contrast to his purely Flemish style, with an Italian touch, which was held with greater or lesser deviations by the vast majority of the Belgian painters of the 17th century, the Luttich Walloon school, explored by Gelbier, developed the Roman-Belgian style of the Poussin trend following the French. At the head of this school is Gerard Duffet (1594 - 1660), an inventive, highly polished academician, best known in Munich. Gérard Leresse (1641 - 1711), a pupil of his pupil Bartolet Flemalle or Flemal (1614 - 1675), a sluggish imitator of Poussin, who already moved to Amsterdam in 1667, transplanted from Lüttich to Holland this academic style imitating the French, which he pursued not only as a painter and printmaker of mythological subjects, but also with a pen in his book, which has a significant impact. He was an extreme reactionary and most of all contributed at the turn of the century to the turn of the healthy national trend of Netherlandish painting into the Romanesque fairway. "Seleucus and Antioch" in Amsterdam and Schwerin, "Parnassus" in Dresden, "Departure of Cleopatra" in the Louvre give a sufficient idea of ​​him.

Leres, finally, returns us from the great Belgian painting to the small one; and this latter, undoubtedly, still experienced in small-figure paintings with landscape or architectural backgrounds the mature national flowering of the 17th century, which grew directly from the soil prepared by the masters of the transitional period, but achieved complete freedom of movement thanks to the omnipotent Rubens, in some places also thanks to new influences, French and Italian, or even the impact of young Dutch art on Flemish.

A real genre picture, and now, as before, played the first role in Flanders. At the same time, a rather sharp border is noticeable between the masters who depicted the life of the upper classes in secular scenes or small group portraits, and the painters of folk life in taverns, fairs and country roads. Rubens created examples of both genera. Secular painters, in the spirit of Rubens' Gardens of Love, depict ladies and gentlemen in silk and velvet, playing cards, having a feast, playing cheerful music or dancing. One of the first among these painters was Christian van der Lamen (1615 - 1661), known for paintings in Madrid, Gotha, especially in Lucca. His most successful student was Jérôme Janssens (1624 - 1693), the "Dancer" and whose dancing scenes can be seen in Braungschweig. Above him as a painter stands Gonzales Kokvets (1618 - 1684), a master of aristocratic small group portraits depicting family members united at home in Kassel, Dresden, London, Budapest and The Hague. The most prolific Flemish portrayers of the folk life of the lower classes were the Teniers. David Teniers the Elder (1582 - 1649) and his son David Teniers the Younger (1610 - 1690) stand out from the large family of these artists. The older one was probably a student of Rubens, the younger Rubens probably gave friendly advice. Both are equally strong in both landscape and genre. However, it was not possible to separate all the works of the elder from the youthful paintings of the younger. Undoubtedly, the elder owns the four mythological landscapes of the Vienna Court Museum, still busy transmitting the "three planes", "The Temptation of St. Anthony" in Berlin, "Mountain Castle" in Braunschweig and "Mountain Gorge" in Munich.

Since David Teniers the Younger was influenced by the great Adrien Brouwer of Oudenard (1606-1638), we give precedence to the latter. Brouwer is the creator and layman of new paths. Bode thoroughly researched his art and life. In many respects he is the greatest of the Netherlandish painters of folk life and at the same time one of the most inspired Belgian and Dutch landscape painters. The influence of Dutch painting on Flemish in the 17th century was first seen with him, a student of Frans Hals in Haarlem, already before 1623. Upon his return from Holland, he settled in Antwerp.

At the same time, his art proves that the simplest epithets from the life of the common people can, thanks to their performance, acquire the highest artistic value. From the Dutch, he took the immediacy of the perception of nature, the pictorial performance, in itself artistic. As a Dutchman, he declares himself by strict isolation in conveying moments of various manifestations of life, like a Dutchman, with precious humor, he highlights scenes of smoking, fights, card games and tavern drinking parties.

The earliest paintings he painted in Holland, peasant drinking bouts, fights, in Amsterdam, reveal in their rough, nosy characters the responses of the Old Flemish transitional art. The masterpieces of this time are his already Antwerp “Card Players” and the tavern scenes of the Städel Institute in Frankfurt. Further development comes out sharply in "Knife" and "Village Bath" of the Munich Pinakothek: here the action is dramatically strong already without superfluous secondary figures; execution in all details is picturesquely thought out; from the golden chiaroscuro of color, red and yellow tones still glow. This is followed by the mature late period of the master (1633 - 1636), with more individual figures, a colder tone of color, in which green and blue paint locales stand out. These include 12 of his eighteen Munich and the best of his four Dresden paintings. Schmidt-Degener attached to them a number of paintings from private collections in Paris, but their authenticity, apparently, is not always precisely established. The best landscapes of Brouwer, in which the simplest motifs of nature from the environs of Antwerp are fanned with a warm, radiant transmission of air and light phenomena, also belong to these years. "Dunes" in Brussels, a painting with the name of the master, prove the authenticity of others. They have a more modern feel than all of his other Flemish landscapes. Among the best are the moonlight and pastoral landscape in Berlin, the red-roofed dune landscape in Bridgewater Gallery, and the powerful sunset landscape attributed to Rubens in London.

The genre paintings of the last two years of the life of the master of large sizes prefer light, shaded writing and a clearer subordination of local colors to a general, gray tone. Singing peasants, soldiers playing dice and the host couple in the drinking house of the Munich Pinakothek are joined by strong paintings depicting operations at the Staedel Institute and the Louvre "Smoker". Brouwer's original art is always the complete opposite of all academic conventions.

David Teniers the Younger, the favorite genre painter of the noble world, invited in 1651 by the court painter and director of the gallery of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm from Antwerp to Brussels, where he died in old age, cannot be compared with Brouwer in the immediacy of the transfer of life, in the emotional experience of humor, but that is why it surpasses him with external refinement and urban stylization of folk life understood. He liked to depict aristocratically dressed townspeople in their relations with the village people, on occasion he painted secular scenes from the life of the aristocracy, and even transmitted religious episodes in the style of his genre paintings, inside exquisitely decorated rooms or among truthfully observed, but decorative landscapes. Temptation of St. Anthony (in Dresden, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, Madrid, Brussels) belongs to his favorite topics. More than once he also painted a dungeon with the image of Peter in the background (Dresden, Berlin). Of the mythological themes in the style of his genre paintings, we will name "Neptune and Amphitrite" in Berlin, the allegorical painting " Five Senses" in Brussels, poetic works - twelve paintings from "Liberated Jerusalem" in Madrid. His paintings representing alchemists (Dresden, Berlin, Madrid) can also be classified as a high society genre. The vast majority of his paintings, of which there are 50 in Madrid, 40 in St. Petersburg, 30 in Paris, 28 in Munich, 24 in Dresden, depict the environment of villagers having fun during their leisure hours. He depicts them feasting, drinking, dancing, smoking, playing cards or dice, at a party, in a tavern or on the street. His light and free in its natural language of forms, sweeping and at the same time gentle writing experienced changes only in color. The tone of his “Temple Feast in the Half Light” of 1641 in Dresden is heavy, but deep and cold. Then he returns to the brown tone of the early years, which quickly develops into a fiery golden tone in such paintings as the dungeon of 1642 in St. Petersburg, the "Guild beer house" in 1643 in Munich and "The Prodigal Son" in 1644 in the Louvre, flares up brighter in such as the "Dance" of 1645 in Munich and the "Dice Players" of 1646 in Dresden, then, as the "Smokers" of 1650 in Munich show, gradually becomes grayer and, finally, in 1651, in "Peasant Wedding" in Munich, turns into a refined silver tone and is accompanied by the increasingly light and fluid writing that distinguishes Teniers' paintings of the fifties, such as his 1657 "Guard" at Buckingham Palace. Finally, after 1660 his brush becomes less confident, the coloring is again more brown, dry and cloudy. Munich owns a painting representing an alchemist, with features of a painting by an aged master from 1680.

Among the students of Brouwer, Joos van Kreesbeek (1606 - 1654) stands out, in whose paintings fights sometimes end tragically; Gillis van Tilborch (circa 1625 - 1678) is known from the students of Teniers the Younger, who also painted family group portraits in the style of Kokves. Along with them are members of the Rikavert family of painters, of whom especially David Rikaert III (1612 - 1661) rose to a certain breadth of independence.

Next to the national Flemish small-figure painting, there is a simultaneous, although not equivalent, Italianizing trend, the masters of which temporarily worked in Italy and depicted Italian life in all its manifestations. However, the largest of these members of the Dutch “community” in Rome, carried away by Raphael or Michelangelo, were the Dutch, to whom we will return below. Pieter Van Laer of Gaarlem (1582 - 1642) is the true founder of this trend, who influenced both the Italians of the Cherkvozzi type and the Belgians of the type of Jan Mils (1599 - 1668) equally. Less independent are Anton Goubau (1616 - 1698), who filled the Roman ruins with colorful life, and Peter Van Blemen, nicknamed Standardaard (1657 - 1720), who preferred Italian horse fairs, cavalry battles and camp scenes. Italian folk life has remained since the time of these masters an area that annually attracts crowds of northern painters.

On the contrary, landscape painting developed in the national Flemish spirit, with battle and robber themes, adjoining Sebastian Vranks, whose student Peter Snyers (1592 - 1667) moved from Antwerp to Brussels. Sniers' early paintings, such as those in Dresden, show him on a quite picturesque track. Later, as a battle painter of the House of Habsburg, he emphasized topographical and strategic fidelity more than painterly fidelity, as his large paintings in Brussels, Vienna and Madrid show. His best student was Adam Frans Van der Meulen (1631 - 1690), a battle painter of Louis XIV and a professor at the Paris Academy, who transplanted to Paris the style of Snyers, refined by him in aerial and light perspective. At the Palace of Versailles and at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris, he painted large series of wall paintings, flawless in their confident forms and the impression of a picturesque landscape. His paintings in Dresden, Vienna, Madrid and Brussels with campaigns, sieges of cities, camps, victorious entry of the great king are also notable for their bright pictorial subtlety of perception. This New Netherlandish battle painting was transferred to Italy by Cornelis de Wael (1592-1662), who settled in Genoa, and, having acquired here a more perfect brush and warm color, he soon moved on to depicting Italian folk life.

In Belgian landscape painting proper, described in more detail by the author of this book in The History of Painting (his own and Woltmann's), one can quite clearly distinguish the original, native, only slightly touched by southern influences trend from the pseudo-classical trend that adjoined Poussin in Italy. National Belgian landscape painting retained, in comparison with the Dutch, leaving aside Rubens and Brouwer, a feature of somewhat external decorativeness; with this feature, she appeared in the decoration of palaces and churches with decorative series of paintings in such abundance as nowhere else. Antwerpian Paul Bril instilled this kind of painting in Rome; later Frenchized Belgians Francois Millet and Philippe de Champagne decorated Parisian churches with landscape paintings. The author of this book wrote a separate article about church landscapes in 1890.

Of the Antwerp masters, one should first of all point to Caspar de Witte (1624 - 1681), then Peter Spirincks (1635 - 1711), who owns church landscapes erroneously attributed to Peter Risbrak (1655 - 1719) in the choir of the Augustinian church in Antwerp, and especially on Jan Frans Van Bloemen (1662 - 1748), nicknamed "Horizonte" for the clarity of the blue mountain distances of his successful, strongly reminiscent of Duguet, but harsh and cold paintings.

The national Belgian landscape painting of this period flourished predominantly in Brussels. Its ancestor was Denis Van Alsloot (circa 1570 - 1626), who, based on the transitional style, developed great strength, firmness and clarity of painting in his semi-rural, semi-urban paintings. His great-disciple Lucas Achtschellingx (1626 - 1699), influenced by Jacques d'Artois, participated in the decoration of Belgian churches with biblical landscapes with lush dark green trees and blue hilly distances, in a wide, free, somewhat sweeping manner. Jacques d'Artois (1613 - 1683), the best Brussels landscape painter, a student of the almost unknown Jan Mertens, also decorated churches and monasteries with large landscapes, the biblical scenes of which were painted by his friends, historical painters. His landscapes of the chapel of St. The author of this book saw the wives of the Brussels Cathedral in the sacristy of this church. Church landscapes were, in any case, also his large paintings of the Court Museum and the Liechtenstein Gallery in Vienna. With his small room paintings, representing the lush forest nature of the surroundings of Brussels, with its gigantic green trees, yellow sandy roads, blue hilly distances, bright rivers and ponds, you can best get to know Madrid and Brussels and also perfectly in Dresden, Munich and Darmstadt. With a luxurious closed composition, deep, saturated with bright colors, with a clear air with clouds, which are characterized by golden-yellow illuminated sides, they perfectly convey the general, but still only the general character of the area. Golden, warmer, more decorative, if you like, more Venetian in color than d'Artois, his best student Cornelis Huysmans (1648 - 1727), whose best church landscape is "Christ at Emmaus" of the Church of St. Wives in Mecheln.

In the seaside city of Antwerp, a marina also naturally developed. The desire for freedom and naturalness of the 17th century was realized here in the paintings representing the coastal and sea battles of Andries Aartvelt or Van Ertvelt (1590 - 1652), Buonaventura Peters (1614 - 1652) and Hendrik Mindergout (1632 - 1696), which, however, cannot to catch up with the best Dutch craftsmen in the same industry.

In architectural painting, which willingly depicted the inside of Gothic churches, the Flemish masters, like Peter Neefs the younger (1620 - 1675), who hardly went beyond a rough transitional style, also lacked the internal, light-filled, picturesque charm of Dutch images of churches.

The more audacity and brightness the Belgians brought to the images of animals, fruits, dead nature and flowers. However, even Jan Fit (1611 - 1661), a painter of kitchen supplies and fruits, did not go further than Snyders, who carefully executed and decoratively merged all the details. Flower painting also did not go in Antwerp, at least on its own, further than Jan Brueghel the Elder. Even Brueghel's student in this area, Daniel Seghers (1590 - 1661), surpassed him only in the breadth and luxury of the decorative layout, but not in understanding the charms of the forms and iridescent colors of individual colors. In any case, Seghers' flower wreaths on the Madonnas of great figure painters and his rare, independent images of flowers, like a silver vase in Dresden, reveal the clear cold light of incomparable execution. Antwerp in the 17th century is the main place of the Netherlandish painting of flowers and fruits, yet it owes this not so much to local masters as to the great Utrechtian Jan Davids de Gey (1606 - 1684), who moved to Antwerp and raised his son Cornelis, who was born in Leiden. de Gay (1631 - 1695), later also an Antwerp master. But it is they, the greatest of all painters of flowers and fruits, who are distinguished by their infinite love for finishing details and the power of painting, capable of internally merging these details, like masters of the Dutch, and not the Belgian type.

We have seen that there were significant connections between Flemish painting and Dutch, Italian, and French art. The Flemings were able to appreciate the direct, intimate perception of the Dutch, the pathetic elegance of the French, the decorative luxury of the forms and colors of the Italians, but, leaving aside defectors and isolated phenomena, they always remained only a quarter of themselves in their art, for the other quarter they were internally romanized and outwardly Germanic Dutch, who were able to grasp and reproduce nature and life with strong and impetuous enthusiasm, and in a decorative sense with mood.

There are several museums along the way. In this article I will tell you about the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels. Rather, it is a whole complex consisting of six museums.

Four in the center of Brussels:

*Museum of Ancient Art.
A wonderful collection of old masters from the 15th to 18th centuries.
The bulk of this collection consists of paintings by South Netherlandish (Flemish) artists. The masterpieces of such masters as Rogier van der Weyden, Petrus Christus, Dirk Bouts, Hans Memling, Hieronymus Bosch, Lucas Cranach, Gerard David, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Rubens and others…
The collection originated during the French Revolution, when many works of art were seized by the invaders. A significant part was transported to Paris, and from what was stored, the museum was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801. All confiscated valuables returned from Paris to Brussels only after the deposition of Napoleon. Since 1811 the museum became the property of the city of Brussels. With the emergence of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands under King William I, the museum's funds expanded significantly.

Robert Campin. "Annunciation", 1420-1440

Jacob Jordanes. Satyr and peasants, 1620

*Modern Art Museum.
The contemporary art collection covers works from the late 18th century to the present day. The basis of the collection is the work of Belgian artists.
The famous painting by Jacques-Louis David - the death of Marat can be seen in the old part of the museum. The collection illustrates Belgian neoclassicism and is based on works dedicated to the Belgian Revolution and the founding of the country.
It is now presented to the public in the form of temporary exhibitions in the so-called "Patio" room. These allow regular rotation of contemporary art pieces.
The museum houses "Salome" by Alfred Stevens, the most famous representative of Belgian impressionism. And also such famous works as "Russian Music" by James Ensor and "Tenderness of the Sphinx" by Fernand Khnopf are presented. Among the masters of the 19th century represented in the museum, the masterpieces of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Gustave Courbet and Henri Fantin-Latour stand out. French painting of the late 19th century. represented by "Portrait of Suzanne Bambridge" by Paul Gauguin, "Spring" by Georges Seurat, "Bay" by Paul Signac, "Two Disciples" by Edouard Vuillard, landscape by Maurice Vlaminck and sculpture by Auguste Rodin "Caryatid", "Portrait of a Peasant" by Vincent van Gogh (1885. ) and Still Life with Flowers by Lovis Corinth.

Jean Louis David. "Death of Marat", 1793

Gustav Wappers. "Episode of the September days", 1834

* Magritte Museum.
Opened in June 2009. In honor of the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte (November 21, 1898 – August 15, 1967). The museum's collection contains more than 200 works of oil on canvas, gouache, drawings, sculptures and painted objects, as well as advertising posters (he worked for many years as a poster and advertising artist in a paper factory), old photographs and films shot by Magritte himself.
At the end of the 20s, Magritte signed a contract with the Cento Gallery in Brussels and thus devoted himself entirely to painting. He created the surrealistic painting "The Lost Jockey", which he considered his first successful painting of its kind. In 1927 he arranges his first exhibition. However, critics recognize it as unsuccessful, and Magritte leaves for Paris, where he meets Andre Breton and joins his circle of surrealists. He acquires a signature style that makes his paintings recognizable. Upon returning to Brussels, he continues his work in a new style.
The museum is also a research center for the legacy of the surrealist artist.

*Museum of the end of the century (Fin de siècle).
The museum brings together works of the late 19th and early 20th century, the so-called "end of the century", mainly with an avant-garde character. Painting, sculpture and graphics on the one hand, but also applied arts, literature, photography, film and music on the other.
Mostly Belgian artists are represented, but also works by foreign masters that fit into the context. Works by artists who were members of the great progressive movements of Belgian artists of the time.

And two in the suburbs:

*Wirtz Museum
Wirtz (Antoine-Joseph Wiertz) - Belgian painter (1806-1865). In 1835, he painted his first significant painting, The Struggle of the Greeks with the Trojans for the Possession of the Corpse of Patroclus, which was not accepted for an exhibition in Paris, but aroused strong enthusiasm in Belgium. It was followed by: “The death of St. Dionysius", the triptych "The Entombment" (with the figures of Eve and Satan on the wings), "The Flight into Egypt", "The Revolt of the Angels" and the best work of the artist, "The Triumph of Christ". The originality of the concept and composition, the vigor of colors, the bold play of light effects and the sweeping stroke of the brush gave the majority of Belgians a reason to look at Wirtz as the revivalist of their old national historical painting, as the direct heir of Rubens. The further, the more eccentric his stories became. For his works, mostly of enormous size, as well as for experiments in the application of matte painting invented by him, the Belgian government built him an extensive workshop in Brussels. Here Wirtz, who did not sell any of his paintings and existed only as portrait orders, collected all his, in his opinion, capital works and bequeathed them, together with the workshop itself, as a legacy to the Belgian people. Now this workshop is the Wirtz Museum. It stores up to 42 paintings, including the aforementioned six.

*Meunier Museum
The museum was opened in honor of Constantin Meunier (1831-1905) who was born and raised in a poor family of immigrants from the Belgian coal mining region Borinage. From childhood, he was familiar with the difficult social situation and often miserable existence of miners and their families. Meunier captured his impressions of the life of the mining region in plastic forms, demonstrating a man of labor as a harmoniously developed personality. The sculptor has developed such an image of a worker, which reflects his pride and strength, and who is not ashamed of his profession as a loader or docker. Recognizing some idealization with which Meunier created his heroes, one must also recognize his great historical merit in the fact that he was one of the first masters to make a man engaged in physical labor the central theme of his work, while showing him as a creator full of inner dignity.