LOW COUNTRIES, ENGRAVERS OF THE. 



plates, and among them feveral of tlic portraits for tlie 

 L,ives of the Painters, by Bellori, which were printed in 

 that city, A.D. 1672. He always worked witli the gra- 

 ver in a neat ftyle, imitating, in his hiftoriiral works, with 

 tolerable fuccefs, that of C. Bloemaert. His portraits are 

 fomctimes in theilyle of Mellan, at others in that of F. de 

 Poilly, and fometimes in that of Nanteiiil ; though by no 

 means equal in merit to the works ol thofe great, mailers, 

 t'ither in drawing, cffeft, or mechanical execution. 



Among various other Portraits, he has executed a colleftion 

 entitled " Effigies Cardin;il. nunc viveutium," which were 

 publifhed at Rome by J. Rofli. The following are likewifc 

 by him. 



Nicolas Pouflln ; Antony Vandyke ; the cardinal A zzo- 

 lifius, from Vonet ; cardinal Jacob Rofpigliofi, from J. M. 

 Morandi; cardinal Charles Rofetti; cardinal Francis William 

 de Wartenberg ; Maximili:in, count of Wolfegg ; and the 

 medallion of pope Alexander VH. fupported by the car- 

 dinal virtues ; all of quarto dimcnfions. 



Hijlorkal, i^c. — " St. John de la Croix," the flrft infti- 

 tutor of the order of Carmehtes ; Lazaro Baldi, pinx. in 

 large folio; " The Statue of the Happy Umiliana," after 

 a drawing by Baldlnucci ; " The Sepulchral Monument of 

 Pope Paul HI." from Dom. Barriere, both ■" folio ; " The 

 Obelift placed on an Elephant, erefted on the Place of Mi- 

 nerva," after G. L. Bernini, in large folio ; " The Myfte- 

 rious Conception of the Virgin," after P. Cortona, engraved 

 on two plates, very fine and rare ; " A Combat of Horfe- 

 Soldiery," after Jac. Courtois ; and a large print, engraven 

 on four plates, of " The Battle of Jofliua," after William 

 Courtois, brother to the preceding artill. 



A much more extraordinary artill is now to be introduced 

 to the reader's notice. Of wild, vigorous, and original 

 powers, both as painter and engraver. Paid Rembrandt 

 Gerretz, or Van Rhyn, gave a new impetus to art, and 

 efFefted a revolution in talle, of which the eifecls will long 

 continue to be felt. 



The profeffor Fufeli, by a grand metaphor, which fpeaks 

 whole pages in praife of the talents, powers, and influence of 

 our artift, fays, that the frantic pilgrimage of painters to 

 Italy ceafed at the apparition of the two meteors of art, 

 Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt Van Rhyn. Both Fufeli 

 and the profeffor Opie (who was too foon, alas I lofl to his 

 country) have ju'.Uy eftimated and defervedly praifed the 

 merits of Rembrandt as a painter, and they will doubtlefs 

 be not lefs faithfully reported in this work, when the writer, 

 to whofe pen is confided our biography of painters, ihall 

 arrive at his name. In this place he will be treated as an 

 engraver ; yet if the prefent writer fhould any where be 

 thought to trench on the province of painting, let it be 

 recolleiled, that of two arts fo intimately connefled as 

 painting and engraving, and which call forth and exercife 

 the fame energies of mind, how difEc.ilt, how almoll impof- 

 fible it is, to write feparately and to write well. 



Rembrandt was the fon of Herman Gerretz, a miller of 

 the neighbourhood of Leyden, and was born A.D. 1606, 

 in his father's mill, which flood on the banks of the Rhine, 

 between the villages -of Leyerdorp and Koukerk. A fpot 

 which became intereiling from being the birth-place of fo 

 great an artill as Rembrandt, became doubly intereiling 

 when brought to our view by the magic of his pencil. A 

 picture of this mill, which was once in the Choifeuil Collec- 

 tion, is now in the gallery of William. Smith, efq. M.P. for 

 Norwich. It reprefents a very early hour of morning, and 

 perhaps the figures which are introduced may have other 

 local allufions, of which the meaning is now lolt, to the 

 time and circumilance of his birth. 



Finding that he pofTelTed an enquiring and capacious mind, 

 Herman fent young Rembrandt to the college at Leyden, 

 where his reigning paffion for fine art, and his difi clination 

 for all other lludies, were foon manifell. Other maflers were 

 accordingly provided to inllrudl liim in the elementary prin- 

 ciples of art ; and Rembrandt iludied fucceflively under 

 Van Sccotens, Peter Laftmann (an engraver of whom we 

 have already treated), James Pcnas, and James Van Zwa- 

 ncnbourg. 



How a man of fo great genius came to feek inftruftion 

 from fo many mailers, it were difficult to fav, and Hill more 

 difficult to think that they did not encumber his progrefs ; 

 but, perhaps, to the variety of their advice, we may in part 

 owe the originality of Rembrandt. He did not, probablvj 

 remain long enough under the direflion of» any one of them, 

 to trammel his habits, or overwhelm or ftultify thofe feelings 

 and perceptions of nature, which are the genuine and free 

 inlets to lofty and original attainments in art. 



Hence Rembrandt has been compared to Shakefpeare ; 

 and hence, like another wild poet whom •' Leyden aids nt> 

 more, with many-Ianguagcd lore," and who voluntarily 



*' leaves the lofty Latian drain. 



Her ilately prole, her verfe's charms, 

 To hear the clafli ol rufty arms ;" 



he allowed that the ancients were " pretty fellows in their 

 day," but would point with farcallic air to the walls of his' 

 ftudy, which were hung round with fiiits of armour, rich 

 fluffs, and the pidlurefque dreffes of various ages and na- 

 tions, and fay " thefe are 7ny antiques." 



Both Rembrandt and his wife have been accufed of an 

 over-weening fondnefs for money. She fold his engravings 

 that he might not be interrupted in his profefTional purfuits ; 

 and underttanding the " tricks" of pnntfellers, w-as too much 

 of a " traveller" to allow herfelf to be impofed upon by 

 them. It is faid that a confiderable fortune was thus ac- 

 quired, xwhich devolved to an only fon, Titus, to whom 

 nature was as niggardly in her gifts, as fhe had been pro- 

 digal to the father. The mean propenfities of Titus have 

 been mentioned, and his inability to avail himfelf of his 

 father's inltruftions in art ; but the amount of his fortune 

 has never been flated, and has probably, by unrefledting 

 readers, been much over-eftimated. 



One of the mofl valuable paragraphs in Strutt's Difti- 

 onary of Engravers, is that which he has written on the 

 prints of Rembrandt ; becaufe while it defcribes their me- 

 rits with the fellow feeling of an engraver, it marks the 

 difference, which cannot be too ilrongly marked, or too 

 often repeated in the public ear, between mere rarity and 

 intrinfic worth ; the want of which dilcrimination, more, 

 perhaps, than any other caufe, has been the bane of engrav- 

 ing : retarding its progrefs, by keeping us too intent upon 

 nominal and extrinlic value, and too rcgardlefs of thofe in- 

 trinfic qualities, which, as men of tafle, fhould alone engagx; 

 our attention. 



He fays, " His prints, which are partly etchings, and 

 partly engravings, performed with the graver in a fingular 

 manner, have all that freedom of touch, fpirit, and greatnefs 

 of efFcft, difcoverable in his paintings, fuppofing them to be 

 aflilled by the vai-iety of colours. Confidering the great 

 quantity of etchings he made, we cannot fuppofe they 

 fhould be all equally well executed, or equal in value. 

 However, (according to the common courfe of things, on 

 which an imaginary value may be railed by accidental 

 caufes,) they are not always his bell prints which produce the 

 greatell prices ; but thofe that are the fcarrell. Thus we 

 frequently fee a print of great intrinfic worth in itfclf, if 



confidcred 



