LOW COUNTRIES, ENGRAVERS OF THE. 



Wael amoris dicat." i. Reprefents a fountain playing on 

 fome figures who are running to a^oid it. 2. Hunters 

 halting at an inn door. 3. Peafants beating an overladen 

 afs. 4. A quack doftor (hewing fpecimens of his ikill 

 at the door of a tavern. 5. Peafants before an alehoufe 

 door. 6. A man on an afs, and fpeftators laughing at 

 him. 7. An alTembly of people of rank of both fexes ; 

 and a tennis-court with peafants fightmg ; a fmall plate 

 lengthways. 



CorneUus had a nephew, John BaptiRa de Wael, who 

 engraved feveral of the pictures of liis uncle, and among 

 tliem " The Life of the Prodigal Son," in eight fmall 

 Mpright plates. 



Lucas Van Uden was born at Antwerp in the year 1595, 

 and became a very didinguilhed painter and engraver of 

 landfcape. He was inftruded by his father, who was alfo 

 an artiil, but, by his accurate obfervation of nature, Lucas 

 foon furpalfed him in merit. He particularly ftudied, and was 

 happy in reprefenting, the various effefts of fun-fhine, from 

 the firft dawn of morning till his light feebly glimmers in 

 the evening horizon. Rubens faw his landfcapes with ad- 

 miration, and tametimes peopled them with figures, while 

 Van Uden returned the favour by occafionally painting the 

 landfcape back-grounds of that great mailer. His llcies and 

 diftances are beaatifully clear and finely toned, while of his 

 trees it has been faid that their foliage was fo loofely pendant, 

 that it feemed fwayed by the motion of the air. 



Van Uden etched many of his own compofitions, and 

 fome few plates from thofe of other painters, with great 

 delicacy, fpirit, and freedom. Huber thinks that his prints 

 merit not lefs praife than his piiilures. Among them may 

 be diftinguilhed three pair of fmall, but beautiful, land- 

 fcapes, confining of village fcenery adorned with trees and 

 figures. A landfcape of padoral character, on the tot'e- 

 ground of which is a piping Ihepherd with his flock. A 

 landfcape with a wooden bridge and two windmills. A land> 

 fcape adorned with travellers, with a woody fore-ground, and 

 the city of Antwerp in the back-ground. A landfcape 

 with figures carrying a litter, in folio. Four fine land- 

 fcapes after Rubens, in fmall folio, the earlieft impreffions of 

 which are without the name of the painter, i. A landfcape, 

 and figures converfing. 2. Cows in a river, and a man 

 bringing horfes to drink. 3. A landfcape, with water, 

 cows, and figures. And 4. A landfcape, in which are two 

 women with bafliets. A landfcape, into which a holy family is 

 mtroduced ; and another with the goed Samaritan, both in 

 folio, after Titian. 



Of that well-known and very diftinguilhed artift, Jacques 

 Jordacns, we have already treated as a painter in our 

 nineteenth volume. ( See Jordaens.) His biographers 

 have ftated, that his early marriage prevented that journey 

 to Italy, which was at the time etleemed an alinolt indif- 

 penfable part of the education of an artift. Whatever 

 caufe kept him at home, taught him to depend lefs upon 

 other men, and more upon nature and himfelf, and to this 

 it is probable, that if we owe his low choice of fubjeds, 

 we owe alfo the vigour by which his produdions are cha- 

 raderized. 



His etchings are haftily performed, but glow with the 

 fire, and teem with the intelligence of a mafter. Accord- 

 ing to Hecquet, who has favoured the public with a cata- 

 lotrue raifonee of the works of Jordaens, they are thirty- 

 three in number, and Huber has juftly regretted "that they 

 are not more numerous, as they rank with the fineft pro- 

 diidions of the Flemifti fchool." 



In colleding thefe etchings, which are all from compo- 

 fitions by Joi-daens himfelf, the connoiffeur will bear in 



mind, that the earlieft and bell irapreflions are infcribed with 

 the words " cum privclegio." 



Of the thirty-three prints mentioned by Hecquet, we 

 are only able to enumerate " The Flight into Egypt," 

 dated 1652; " Jefus Chrift expelling the Money-Changers 

 from the Temple;" "The Defcent from the Crofs ;" 

 " Mercury beheading Argus ;" " Jupiter and lo ;" "The 

 Infant Jupiter fuckled by the Goat Amalthea ;" " A Pea- 

 fant arrelling an Ox by the Tail, aniidll a great Concourfe 

 of Spedators." Thefe are all in fmall folio, and engraved 

 in the courfe of the fame year, namely 1652. "Saturn 

 devouring his Children ;" a very rare 4to. plate, without 

 any name or cypher, is alfo attributed by moll connoifteurs 

 to the hand of Jordaens. 



John Percelles, the pupil of H. Cornelius de Vrooms, 

 was born at Ley den in the year 1597. His fon Julius was 

 a native of the fame city, and both excelled in painting and 

 engraving fhipwrecks, and other marine fubjeds. From the 

 circumftance of the works of the father and fon being 

 marked with the fame initial letters, fome confufion has 

 arifen ; nor is it known whether to attribute the twelve 

 fmall fea views which bear thefe initials, to John or Ju- 

 lius. 



Another fet of twelve in folio, of which the fubjeds are 

 the Dutch navy, are etched in a fomewhat broader ilyle, 

 and are moft likely the performance of the elder Percelles, 

 being infcribed " Notatas a famofiffimo Navium Pidore 

 Johannes Percelles," without any feparate mention of the 

 engraver's name. 



Roland Rogman, or Roghman, was alfo born at Leyden 

 in the year I5'97, and died there in 1685, or 1686. He 

 was an original artiit ; he ftudied under no mafteo, but 

 formed his ftyle, both of painting and etching, from the 

 ftudious contemplation of nature only. His piftures are 

 fpoken of with great commendation, and he etched feveral 

 landfcapes, whicli confift chiefly of views in Holland and 

 the Low Countries, in a Iketchy, but mafterly ftyle. 



Among them may be diftinguiftied " A View of the 

 Caftle of Zuylen," in folio ; a pair of ditto with bridges 

 and canals, &c. in 4to. A fet of four mountainous land- 

 fcapes and figures, in 4to. ; and another pair of town views, 

 in folio. 



Gertrude Rogman is believed to have been of the fame 

 family with Roland, after whofe pidures ftie executed feveral 

 engravings, among which is a fet of four in fmall folio, of 

 the domeftic occupations of the fair fex. 



The family of Van de Velde are of great celebrity in the 

 annals of fine art. Efaias, or Ifaiah, was born at Leyden, 

 A.D. 1597. He became tha difciple of Peter Deneyn. 

 With what talent he painted landfcapes and battles will be 

 fpoken of in our biography of Van de Velde, as a painter. 

 His etchings, which are executed with confiderable firmnefs 

 and intelligence, are rare, and, what is much better, are of 

 intrinfic value. A landfcape, with peafants drinking on the 

 fore-ground, in foho. Another of quarto fizle, with a bridge 

 and round-tower, in which is introduced a Ihepherd and 

 fliepherdefs tending their flocks. Another, with cottages 

 among ruined architedure ; and another of paftoral cha- 

 rader, with a ftiephf rd's hut near the fore-ground, of folio 

 dimenfions, are all we are able to enumerate of the cngravingfi 

 of Ifaiah Van de Velde. He fometimes combined his initials 

 in a monogram, which will be found in Plate III. of thofe 

 ufed by the artifts of the Low Countries. 



John Van de Velde, brother of Ifaiah, was born in the fame 

 city, and in the following year ; and though a painter of 

 great merit, is, perhaps, better known by his excellent 



engraving? ; 



