The German and Flemish Masters in the National Gallery (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 Excerpt: ... of every-day life an idyl of warm, glowing colour to delight the eyes. We may admire his dexterity and appraise his conscientious care, but nevertheless, we gladly pass on to something in which the meaner aspects of life are left in the background, and not paraded before us. Of Patinir, the artist who has been mentioned.as. painting landscape backgrounds for Quentin Matsys and perhaps also for Gerard David, little is known, and the whole question of their connection remains cloudy. According to van Mander he was something of a ne'erdo-well, spending half his time in the drinking taverns, though, as in the case of our own George Morland, his peaceful rural scenes belie this sinister imputation. He was born in the valley of the upper Meuse, the cradle of so many Flemish artists, at Dinant, and though he left the hilly country of the Ardennes to settle in Antwerp, he never forgot the impressions of his youth. It was this scenery which inspired his landscapes, with their wide stretches of watered plain and distant mountain peaks. He was living in Antwerp when Albert Diirer, in the course of his journey in the Netherlands, made a short stay in that city. During this visit Patinir celebrated his second marriage, and the great German artist, bidden to the feast, sketched the bride and bridegroom and their guests. One of Diirer's portrait drawings of Patinir is now at Weimar, and shows us a thoughtful young man in a large hat. The most friendly relations seem to have existed between the two painters. Diirer relates how he borrowed from Patinir some colours and an assistant to grind them, in return for which courtesy he handed the Antwerp artist down to posterity in the pages of his Diary as "Joachim, the good landscape painter"--no mean praise from one w...