RKD STUDIES

Volume 3, page 330-339

... rise to the heavens with Apollo’s lyre.Two arts close in nature united in companyApollo loves the brush, Apelles song and strings.In addition they had for themselves and the guests (who together, whether painters, poets or lovers of poetry and painting, were about 100 in number) a rule or table law was set up which in a manner of address to the invitees begins thus:...

... on this day:Who has carried out three toasts with uncovered head mayShould more be demanded of him, put them dow...

... rn for you for this benefaction?He who is thankful for favour has fulfilled the favourBecause gratitude is more than a thousand sacrifices,The father is satisfied now that St. Luke hereGives you Apelles’ shield, Apollo his laurels.Everyone became jolly and enjoyed this feast. The glasses clinked all around and the spirits, cheered up by Bacchus’ grape juice, seemed transplanted to Pindus’ hill. Thus...

... e shield made (very likely the old Roman custom of promissory shields came to mind, on which was depicted a broken and an erect commemorative obelisk, bannered with the inscription renewed by love. But this plan was foiled by envy, and the commemorative shield by time, just as the Roman shields are buried in ob...

... s, which is why one can hardly see them individually. But the description of the contents of the work is included as a service to strangers on page 427 of the Guidebook to Amsterdam.Amsterdam, one of the most beautiful cities on which the sun shines, is here formally dressed on airy clouds, marvellously elevated Etc. She carries in her lap a bundle axe wrapped in green laurels to show both her flowering and unified government. She leans on a graceful ship’s prow, which also (hung with the later cross shield) announces her famous s...

... edestals in their city. At the same time they spread it about (so that each artist would do his best) that a great sum of money would be paid to he who would make the best statue. Upon this the two artists got eagerly to work. Alcamenes had made his statue first and was pleased that, seen up close, it was praised. Finally Phidias also revealed his statue, which no one among the Athenians liked from up close. They instead slandered...

... ideousness, whereas the course hardness of Phidias’s sculpture changed to a caressing softness and kept its greatness and distinction at that distance.We have shown with many examples how many by association with painters and through daily reflection on art works were spurred on to that invaluable practice. But that natural passion may also achieve this without such reasons, we see confirmed by the commendable portrait painter JOHANNES VOLLEVENS.Geertruidenberg, within which enclosing wall he was born in the year 1654, had no practitioners ...

... and render a multitude of portraits that are well painted and full of life. He also nurtured a son in the practice, who is still alive like his father.Coming and going is the fat...

... his commendable cityWas warmed again, but not to be brought back.Who does not mourn over his crushed legs,Who has ever loved the art goddess Pictura?He was her favoured child,And sucked the greatest secrets from her breast and nipples.Thus you encountered him, oh death, so shrewldly aboutPainting with his distinguished brush,Brought the likeness naturally to the panelWhich was so like as one egg to another.Did Decker also need to die with him?As if envy still wished to envy him,That everyone’s eye w...

... ck, who first tested his abilities in art with his parents, then took a short flight to the land of Cleves, which succeeded well. Returned home, he undertook once more to join the painter Gerard Hoet before setting course for Rome. How addicted he was to travel by nature appears from the list that he himself presented to me of all the places where he left samples of his art, by which he will be remembered for centuries.In Rees he got an opportunity to paint for the...

Volume 3, page 310-319

... By turns; the frightening white stupefies, and is stupefied:While the beating heart secretly engages herselfTo Prince Antiochus,* who is torn by these quarrels.--------† Stratonice was the daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes. King of Macedonia.* Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, the 1st King of Syria, being in love with his father’s bride Stratonice, and concealing that passion, fell into a deathly illness. This was discovered by his medicine master who noticed that his spirits revived when Stratonicr came to visit him at his bedside and his illness, once she...

... eep him gave him his bride. Thus attests Plutarch in his life of Demetrius.* Phaedra. Lukas Rotgans says about her in a handsome way of rhyming:It was Phaedra who once charmed and made love to herSister’s groom, and fled with her Theseus,Where Ariadne, alone on the shore of Naxos sighed,And called out: my sister linger. Ach! Theseus turn back!But no invocation answered her prayers:The one had betrayed nature; the other broke his vows.It was Phaedra who fell from one sin into another,Falsely accused the stepson who spurned her lust,And by deceit compelled Theseus to infanticide.Thus died Hippolitus, but with a pure soul.And she, as murderess, possessed by insanity,Carried out the verdict of conscience with her hand....

... thus brought an end to his life. That was in the year 1685.Mister Ludolf Smids, who lived in Groningen until the year 1684, knew him and often visited him and also made inscriptions for some of his art works, as may be seen with his depiction of Alcestis, who is returned to her husband Admetus.Here Alcestis* is restored by Alcides’ strength;Alcestis, model of righteous spouses,--------* Admetus, King of Fereers in Thessalia, had received from Apollo as reward (for a service that he performed for his son Esculapius) that when he became ill and someone of his family wished to die for him, he would keep on living. It happed that be...

... s there is copper, and marble, and paints.And another poem on the depiction of Cassandra, murdered by Egysthus, and Clytemnestra.Your priestess, Apollo, is in danger!Egysthus, and the daughter of Tyndaar,Are already prepared, with drawn swords.Descend! Descend, and lift her up from the earth.Oh Pallas help! Cassandra* is done for.--------Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, his housewife, still in her youthful years and moved by his begging,...

... id de Coninck was one of that company. They asked him for his name (as they did for one after another) to which he answered in the Italian language, Il re Davide. Whereupon the servants of the Inquisition (thinking that he was the king of the group) said: You in particular we must have, and took all of them to prison. But the next day, called up for investigation, it soon appeared that they were not guilty of what they had been accused, and as a consequence were set free.With this dark cloud of persecution blown over, our Van Ingen joined the bent and received the bent name (because he was the first after the persecution) The first....

... oasts that Seghers was born there.He mostly painted in life size. What made him particularly famous is the natural depiction of suffering emotion that he was able to render in his Passion pieces of Jesus Christ and scenes of martyred Roman saints in such a way that the tears were squeezed out of the spectator's eyes. I do not know when he was born, but he died in Antwerp on the 18th of March of the year 1651. We have therefore placed him in the year o...

... thistles and herb. I find that his art works are better known amongst art lovers than his person, seeing that he avoided association with people, especially in the last years of his life, when he associated with no one other than Jan Luyken, who also adhered to the notions of Jacob Böhme. He finally left with his household (since he loved quiet) from Amsterdam to Alkmaar, where he also died in the year 1702, between 50 and 60 years old.Among his contemporaries and fellow artists who appear together with h...

Volume 3, page 250-259

... has reached an advanced age, is still with him, so that he daily practices it, by which he has extended a path to diligence to his daughter [= Margaretha Wulfraet] (who has already taken a great leap in art), whom we will bring onstage in her turn wreathed in deserved fame.His portrait, derived from one he painted himself, is to be seen in Plate L.How the passion for art finds itself spurred on when it sees others progress with large strides is evidenced by the artful horse and battle painter...

... ear. Having arrived in Paris he ended up by accident with the painter Adam Frans van der Meulen, under whom he further practiced and later painted on his own until late in the year 1670, when he returned to Holland, where he has made a great number of art works since that time that have made him famous.In the year 1708 or 1709 he entered the service of Prince Eugen von Savoyen.In the year 1711 he was given a gold medal and chain by Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector Palatine [= Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz].That the passions of the heart as well as the inclination of the human spirit can be dampened but not entirely overcome has been confirmed by many world sages. We have...

... ing how far he was still able to advance in his stolen hours.It was ever his pleasure to gather the prints of all the famous masters. Through this his judgement ripened from time to time, and as he had tracked down so many commendable models, he more than once turned in hand to the depiction of important histories, as where Pharaoh and his people drown in the red sea, where Moses by striking his staff on the rock has a spring of water come forth to give Israel, almost perished from thirst, to drink, etc.He now lives in Dordrecht, where he passes most of his time in his art cabinet, where each art book serves him as a garden of delight, filled with]...

... , for this book was reprinted in all silence and copies were brought to him 4, 6, 10 or 12 at a time by self-seeking people, of which he suspected nothing until he discovered he had collected more than he had printed, when he gave up the acquisition because his good intentions had been foiled by this perfidy. And it grieved him, seeing that...

... their services, sold his property, keeping a small portion and giving the rest to the poor, and left to live quietly off his faith with his old maid, who survived him and later received some part of his inheritance. But he discovered in little time that his faith was not strong or powerful enough, and that his conceit was built on sand. As a consequence he was forced by necessity to return and to take up the etching needle once more to provide for his nece...

... us Civilis, brother of Julius Paulus, the first Dutch noblemen, receives the most prominent heads of the tribes and the citizens for a meal in the Schakerbos, demonstrating with an ample address amidst this jollity how in olden times, counter to the treaty entered into with the Romans, they were oppressed and mistreated by their governors and captains and how the time seemed ripe (seeing that the Roman bands in this land had weakened and the remaining ones were too far away to prevent this plan) forever to rid themse...

... ting like Anakreon. He (so reads the translated Greek text on page 151 of De Mooyeriana) when he was told: Take the mirror and see how you have no hairs and how bald your forehead is, replied: I know nothing about that, whether I have hairs or if they have disappeared. But this I know, that it is fitting that the more closely an old man he nears death, the more easily he can belch.Such and similar contaminated pearls (which the reader will encounter again) add little lustre to the crown of painting. But what shall I say? The...

... ranslated into Dutch):About ANNIBALE CARRACCI, to say something about this great man and give a complete conception of his competence, one must know that the art of painting as it has currently improved is especially indebted to him because it is to this outstanding spirit that the restoration of art, which had fallen into decline, must be attributed, seeing that he discovered correct natural colouration and, while keeping the power of the pigments, was able to combine them and by a soft flattering unite the hard antiquated way of painting with the softness of nature, trying always to combine a conception of...

Volume 3, page 230-239

... ofs for biblical scenes, by which he demonstrated that he well understood the coupling of light and dark, and the harmony and elegance that are required for illustrative work. But he did not live long after the completion of this work, having to accept death (the fate of all men) on the 18th of Ma...

... also known as the New Church. In one of them Manna rains in the desert with all of Israel, men, woman and children, busy gathering [2]. In another one sees the Last Supper of Christ, with all the figures life size and so artful in arrangement and natural expression of the passions and other required matters that the work will adequately immortalize his glory.To give the mind a little relaxation now and then and not always to have it strained with great works, he would occasionally make a portrait, which makes me think of a certain advantageous incident about which the painter Jakob Christ...

... , he wanted to give it back to the duke, but one of the courtiers, who favoured him, restrained him, saying quietly to him: the Ruler would take it as a...

... he worth of his art so well that it brought him handfuls of work and made his purse fat. From his experience of these changes in art he took for a common saying: History painters make the dead come alive; and they themselves only live after they are dead. But I paint the living and help myself to their favour.Shortly thereafter Peter Lely, who had flowered at the English court for many years, came to die. One man’s death (the proverb says) is another man’s sustenance. He at once went to England where he is able to see to it that he mixes with the great of the court and then enters into the favour of King Charles II, who knights him. Thus it was reported to me by French writers, but later...

... s about to leave England as King to Spain [7]. He liked the work so well that he declared him hereditary knight of the German Empire and gave him a golden chain with a medal on which his portrait was minted. He now has the wind in his sails with the present king, who as proof of his favour has made him a hereditary knight-baronet.From that time until now, in which one writes, 1715, he has painted an innumerable number of portraits which have brought him both fame and great profit, so that good fortune has followed him on his heels like a shadow from the beginning.And as far as his art is concerned, it deserve...

... use it is acceptable in England that the masters do only the features and the hands, with the clothes and attributes done by others. But in Holland this would not pass for sound coinage, nor would dressing several portraits in one and the same costume.He has much love for the art of commendable masters and often lauded the great militia piece by Bartholomeus van der Helst (which now hangs in...

Volume 3, page 190-199

... and been buried, about which she was deeply sorrowful, all the more so because she had no remembrance of him in a painting. She asked them about this if they could paint a scene for her on the basis of a description of how he had been in appearance and nature. Job looked at Gerrit and Gerrit at Job. They at last understood one another and answered yes, and exacted a good sum of money. But another problem, they had nothing on which they could paint. Job, who was the more audacious, quickly invented a solution, asked the Beguine for a piece of old cloth, who gave him a shirt of her deceased brother...

... red two canvases. After which they painted the deceased priest (according to the account they received) on t...

... ch, and ventures remain stifled in stupefaction. But what shall I say about this? It is not always in man’s powers to heal the limitations of nature. The greatest intellects have suffered shipwreck on this reef. Juan Rufo, one of the greatest minds and orators of Spain, whom Gracián calls easily the most intelligent, imagined that he would not be moved in the presen...

... it was, had the works unwound, or loosened, and regarded them with astonishment, all the more because he discovered his own features as well as those of others in them. He had the painters called, praised their art, paid the...

... the year 1698. He was buried on the 14th of April, after he had seen his brother go before him on the 23rd of November 1693.Among the poems in praise of paintings etc. by the great poet Joost van den Vondel I find one on the view of the new Herengracht in Amsterdam painted by Gerrit Berckheyde [1], in which he says to his credit:Berckheyde paints the HerengrachtAfter life, worthy of inspecting.Buy paintings: avoid building.Why? It is French midnight:Therefore wait for a clear morning.House building involves difficulties and care.And also a great verse in his honour, in the...

... le in life is also counted JOHANNES VORSTERMANS from Zaltbommel.His father was a portrait painter of a good family, married to a widow whose husband had been burgomaster of Zaltbommel. With this wife our Vorsterman was engendered, but in what year I know not. But because he was the art teacher of Jan Soukens (who follows), we have placed the master (as appropriate) before the disciple.It is conceivable that he learned the rudiments of art with this...

... o was usually called Madam. Here he associated with the most excellent people of that place, deported himself as a nobleman, dressed with distinction, and let himself be seen in the best inns, always denying that he practised his art for money. But k...

Volume 3, page 180-189

... red on to art early on by the example of his father, Govert soon trotted past his father in practice with the brush, ...

... that way of painting. According to my calculations he must have been younger than his brother. Nor do I know in what year he was born. But he entered the artists’ society in Dordrecht in 1669 and (when I let myself be registered in the brotherhood in 1678) was the regent who recorded my name.He left a son who was an artful signet and stamp cutter.ABRAHAM van CALRAET, who was born in Dordrecht on the 7th of October of the year 1643, learned the ba...

... and the pride of the artist scoffed at. An example that makes the point is told to us by Franciscus Junius about Zeuxis. This artist had painted a boy with a bunch of grapes in his hand, and placed the scene in the open air. The birds, fooled by that display, flew back and forth at that scene, and when Zeuxis took pride in this, others who were present there, hastened to tell him that the birds had shown bad judgment, as the boy would otherwise have scared them off.There was also at that time one...

... painting of wild boar hunts in the manner of Frans Snijders. He spent the best part of his life in Genoa, both in luxury and in confinement. I say confinement because he was put in prison for life on the suspicion of having murdered his own wife.* There his fellow townsman and contemporary Jan [= Dirk] Visscher, otherwise known as Slempop,--------*Others say that she was his mistress whom, having tired of her, he had murdered by three airheads who were bought with money to that end....

... large pieces is the city hall of Enkhuizen of which some remained incomplete because death surprised him [7-8]. For he sailed by ship from Amsterdam to Enkhuizen feeling a little nauseous, because he thought he would be more comfortable there and better looked after by his friends. But the illness increased so severely that he was already dead before the ship could reach the harbour. This occurred in the year 1693, when he was 50 years old. In Amsterdam on the Herengracht, in the house of Mister Roeters [= Jacob Roeters], is a room with paintings by him which are spoken about with praise....

... usually called bentvogels, who are generally out to waste money. On the contrary, he tried to find out with how little money one can get through a year if one lives with sobriety. Thus he discovered the truth in the saying of Seneca: That our nature is of an amenable sort, and is satisfied with little. Even so this behaviour was of his own volition, without necessity; for he came from an ...

... maker, but it was strongly and elaborately painted. The art dealer Gerrit Uylenburgh had a piece by him that he valued at least 200 ducats.Horatius departed in the company of Jan Rote [= Johannes Rothé] (who raved about a procession to the Holy Land), first to England and from there to Hamburg, to recruit supporters. But this did not transpire all that smoothly, as they encountered opposition now and then and were robbed of their chests filled with ancestral banners and standards, with which they were to enter the Holy Land....

... her of silver, gold and ready cash and, without her husband’s knowledge, was taken in by this pious company and had returned home stripped and plundered, where she was not all that welcome. Where Horatius has gone, has not been heard since.The same Voorhout has also told me that in Hamburg around ...

... subjects as relaxation, notably the Tragedy of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Count of Holland, Zeeland etc.He favoured civil and polite behaviour, and further the study of books, as did his brother, of whom we have begun to say that he came to art late, that is in his twentieth year, but then entirely surrendered himself to it under the supervision of Adam Pijnacker, who was a particularly good friend of his brother.At first he copied some pictures by mentioned Pijnacker, but his spirit inclined more to the painting of horses and subsequently to battles and army marches etc. and was unusually taken by the handling of Lou...

Volume 3, page 170-179

... ng in Brabant to practice his art, he got to know a paintress, the daughter of the famous painter François Duchatel, whom he married. This Miss Marie Duchatel excelled in the painting of small portraits in miniature.She died in Brussels after he had engendered 9 children by her.After the passing of five years he got married for a third time in Düsseldorf in December of 1697 to Adriana Spilberg, daughter of Johann Spilberg II, court painter of Johann Wilhelm Elector Palatine and widow of the painter Willem Bre...

... his seventieth year with the court of the Elector Palatine, where he painted several detailed cabinet pieces and that (which is surprising) without decline in his art and in the same detail as before.He also often painted companies dressed in the modern manner, like Gerard ter Borch II, but sometimes also something different, seeing he was inclined to change.When he lived in Brabant he turned to the painting of landscapes and herbs, for which he found opportuni...

... is student.He was exceptionally diligent and his intellect, ever at work, always sought out the beautiful and lasting paints, to which he was exceptionally attached. But tired of searching any longer he said to his students, do not search for paints; there are now enough that are good. Learn to use them well, which lesson he applied to his ow...

... y came together in company to be jolly. In it he depicted himself, sitting undressed down to his shirt and underpants in the lap of a damsel. The other fi...

... metimes erred. Also, he often had his figures loom up through candle- or daylight, or lit by the sun through a cloth, so that the flesh might reveal itself more pleasantly through the clear reflection, which he was able to do so skilfully that it flattered and charmed the eyes of everyone.We have placed his portrait in Plate G.If we were to follow the example of Roger de Piles and compare one artist to another, we would find reason to place Schalcken with the knight Van der Werff with respect to his f...

Volume 3, page 140-149

... ry, being too lose, undertake things that are out of their reach, to the old Dutch saying which teaches, that no one should try to jump further than his pole can vault.No one should conclude incorrectly from our address that we deem understanding and facility in all sorts of competences to be useless for a painter, or that nothing would be able to provide some help to the intellect. The two adduced examples only show that it...

... than are the profane histories or heathen decorations, regardless of the old and famous precept of poetry, expressed by Horace, in his Poetry, with these verses:The Painter and Poet both received the power,To live off anything that each finds serviceable.And even clearer in the dedication to the Batavische Gebroeders in which we will at once see that all those who would treat the arts as required have to be sensible and closely observant.One should (he speaks about poetry)...

... . Nevertheless it is not unknown to us that in the telling repeating and showing of histories, written with that pure and show-white pigeon feather (pulled from the wing of the heavenly dove which on the shore of the Jordan descended on the radiant head of the immaculate one) is required to maintain an exceptional moderation and respect, while with the profane histories, even more in heather embellishments, one may sail more freely but always between the piers of probability.Certainly we must conclude that the grizzled father exercised his intellect in his associa...

... hus with its entire ado, with clarification of the facts and persons mentioned in it on the occasion of the abandoned and lamenting Ariadne on the island of Naxos:And while she 1) still poured forth her complaint 2) and lamenting speechOn the sad beach, Bacchus 3) comes along.--------Of what her lamentations consisted is mentioned by the poet Lukas Rotgans in the following ve...

... hus’ feast were called, after the Greek word which means crazy and furious.5) Lenades. That is what the priestesses of Bacchus are also named, after the Greek word which indicates from the press, with which the juice is pressed from the grapes.6) Long Spear. Named Thyrsus, thickly covered with vine leaves or ivy. Nonnus says this.A Thyrsus was his spear, thickly covered all overWith leaves from vinyards: the shaft was of iron.And Euripedes: He gave the Thyrsus in the hand,Full of climbing herbs on all sides.7) Silenus. Some poets say that he raised Bacchus, but most say that he only steadily accompanied him with his donkey, which was later deified. To...

... on happened, Nocturnum after the night. He himself was therefore called Nycteleus by the Greeks.10) Secret, öpyia. That is the secret equipment of Bacchus.11) Closed chests. The Greeks called those locked chests of Bachus xiσαs Tubullus: Et levis occultis conscia cista sacris.That is: And also next to the light chest,Which knew his hidden things.That the ancient heathens had the habit of carrying their gods around in splendidly decorated chests, beneath covered tents, is not only clear for the turn of phrase with Amos chapter 5, verse 26, but also from the testimony of Apuleius and Plutarch. Pausanius also speaks of such a...

... opened, in which were found the statue of father Bacchus, and the Suda. Also speaking about that he says: That they kept the secrets of Bacchus, Ceres and of Proserpina. The reason why this was required amongst the heathens was that the ground which supported their religion (devised only through trickery of their priesthood) consisted of nothing other than deception and falsehood, and that there ...

... voë.16)While we have now expansively dressed up the procession of Bacchus ...

Volume 3, page 90-99

... awing and dabbling with paint everything he could find, even the board of his box bed, on which (when he was still wearing a dress) he had painted a dairy farmer in colour so remarkable for his years that it was kept long after that time. This was to...

... l and several art practitioners in particular, to whose works his brush added great lustre, as can be seen in the works of Jan van der Heyen, Frederik de Moucheron and others. His portrait is found in Plate D 12.Among the commendable students that he nurtured with his art lessons, appears DIRCK van BERGEN. He painted oxen, cows, sheep, figures and landscapes, glowingly and clearly coloured like those of his master but not as detailed, with the trees and landscape more gloomily foliated, but other than that...

... reby they could honestly pass their time.Dr. Arnold Tulleken, a religious, commendable and rich man, later took in Caspar, who was a good-looking boy and one who evinced a great spirit, with the intention of teaching him Latin and of turning him into a medical doctor. This project was under way and had good results until he got to the third school, when the love of drawing in him broke out strongly and he covered all the paper he could obtain, including his essays, with little men and beasts,...

... but also the most important people in The Hague and elsewhere, including almost all of the potentates who came to The Hague, which caused his purse to swell and his fame to grow. Hence Charles II, King of England, who coveted his art, had ambassador William Temple request several times that he come to his court, which he declined politely because he loved his tranquillity, had no taste for courts, and feared the discomforts of the sea, but also because he had been plagued by stones since his twenties and in later years most lamentably with the...

... in the cabinets with the worthiest Netherlandish art of the brush.Many have attempted the most difficult in art, namely history painting, others have taken satisfaction with the least part of art, and still others have cleared a middle road between these two extremes, to their happiness. Amongst these we count ABRAHAM GENOELS II, bent-named Archimedes, born in Antwerp in 1640, who took portrait as well as landscape paintings as subjects for hi...

... nd subsequently had the rest of his chambers painted and who had hired Monsr. Gilbert de Sève, one of the twelve professors of the Roy...

... n painting landscapes for the famous pieces depicting the History of Alexander the Great [5-6], engraved in copper by Gérard Audran and treasured amongst the worthiest of prints [7-8].Audran, seeing his inventive handling of trees, prepared some plates for him and encouraged him to try etching. He made 26 small as well large landscapes in copper, of which I know 12 (but he etched these in Rome), which are handled loosely and inventively. But Adriaen Frans Boudewijns etc...

Volume 3, page 70-79

... erning him was in vain. She continued: in case a person such as you are were presented to me, I would know what to do about it. A bit taken aback by this response, Gillis de Hondecoeter said: Miss, the subject I put before you accords with your youth and is more fitting for you than for someone of my years, and took his leave from her. But this advantageous answer always remained in his thoughts until the passion of his son had disappeared with time and reflection on another object, when, inclined to marry again, he went to said damsel, and on some sweet pretext asked if she...

... in 1653, in his fortieth year, so that our Melchior was able to take advantage of his instruction until his seventeenth year.He surpassed his father in art, which he practiced until his sixtieth year and therefore garnered great fame with his brush.The commendable poet Willem van der Hoeven reacted thus in his elegies to his death on the 3rd of April 1695:Oh Melchior, who with your brush with pure sparks,Born of my eye ignited so arde...

... any and still more beautiful.But oh! This clear light disappeared all too soon,It shone for many years but still too briefly...

... satisfaction that it was being considered if he should be advanced in that practice instead of that of painting. In addition he was of a religious nature, and often poured forth prayers in the evening in his bedroom with such seriousness, so exalted, and mixed with divine considerations that his uncle and mother, with whom he then live...

... , he did not count the successive glasses as soon as a little wine had flowed over his tongue. Thus it went with him in this respect as the proverb says: Once one sheep is over the bridge, the others follow easily on their own. So that it has also happened on occasion as Caius Caesar writes about Cato, that those who encountered Cato coming drunk from a feast in the early morning were as ashamed as if Cato had caught them drunk, and not they Cato. Still (so testifies Willem van Royen II, who trained in art with him), if he had drunk above his mark the night before or had wasted a lot of money, he always had great regret the next day. But this las...

... ed amongst all his art works is an altarpiece depicting Simeon who embraces the infant Jesus in the temple, which is placed in the French Catholic church on the Bloemmarkt in Amsterdam. In addition he was a man who was immaculate in his way of life and who went to church diligently. He also had an unusual gift for friendship and was well worth being around for his sweet stories, and had the present undertaking entered my head, he would have been of great service to me, especially...

... red. From this one can easily calculate that he must have been born around the year 1636.Carrée sat in the lo...

... ey have the same fundamental laws and purpose; the one uses the pen, the other the brush to elucidate and bring out anew events obscured by the mould of ages, which is why it is no rare occurrence that the two gifts merge in the intellect of one person.Otto van Veen...