the old ones sing, so the young ones pipe." Although a meal is served on the table around which the people are grouped, no one is taking any interest in it. The handsome young woman in the centre, who wears her blue cap with yellow plumes and pearls with such an air, is the painter's wife. The little child in her arms is blowing a pipe; the old woman in the high-backed willow chair is singing from a sheet of music; the old man opposite is singing and beating time; the bagpipe player reads also from his music; and the little boy between his knees is playing a pipe.

The Adoration of the Shepherds differs from most of the religious pictures painted by Jordaens.

"This time the artist has managed to paint a noble, graceful and intelligent Virgin: the shepherds are animated with real piety, and St. Joseph takes off his cap with great simplicity. Moreover, the painting is fine, harmonious, and quite different in touch from the usual productions of this master."-(A. M.)

Among the religious pictures Cornelis de Vos's St. Norbert Receiving the Host and Sacred Vessels that had been hidden during a period of war is of especial interest.

Ter Borch's Mandolin Player is an interior of elegance, fine colour and exquisite finish.

Jan Steen's Village Wedding is in the painter's merriest mood, and is an interesting record of contemporary life. The company is gathered in a hall where a fiddler, standing on a table, is playing for the dancers. The bride is seated at the head of the table.

In a different vein is Samson Insulted by the Philistines. The strong man is seated in the

vestibule of a palace, bound by ropes, taunted by children, and insulted by a man who is placing a fool's cap upon his head. His hair is strewn over the floor by his side. Delilah, on the left, is receiving attentions from an old man and mocking at Samson. The scissors with which she cut Samson's hair are conspicuous in the foreground. Musicians, soldiers and many other people are visible in the background.

Rembrandt's Dutch Burgomaster shows the model seated in an arm-chair. In the background a table with some books is discerned. His Old Jew is even more striking, in his brown doublet, red and white turban and careless necktie. His beard and moustache are greyish and his right cye is half-closed.

Van Dyck's portraits are of the first order, especially those of the Bishop of Antwerp, Jean Malderus, and of a little girl with the two dogs. The latter, however, are by Jan Fyt.

A Dutch Lord, by Frans Hals, is seated with a glove in his gloved right hand. He is smoothshaven; his hair, long and brown, his dark doublet is slashed with white and braided with yellow; and he also wears a flat collar and a black mantle. coat-of-arms appears in the background.

His

More celebrated is the half-length Fisher Boy of Haarlem, painted about 1640.

"Here in the sunburnt, rather earnest, stupid face of the open-mouthed lad, in the eyes bloodshot with wind and sand, one has the rudiments of that sympathetic insight into the life itself of the peasant which was, however, not destined in that century to go much further either with Hals, or his followers There is a certain rude pathos in the picture which reminds one that there was in Dutch peasant life a healthier, worthier and more pathetic side

than Brouwer, Ostade, or Jan Steen had it in them to see." (G. S. D.)

Gonzales Coques has a fine Portrait of a blonde lady leaning on a pillar. She has a watch in her hand; and a crimson curtain is draped behind her.

"She has an intelligent and benevolent expression. It is a painting of great finish, soft and sweet colour, and lights skillfully distributed: a little salon gem.”—(A. M.)

Cornelis de Vos has a curious portrait of Abraham Graphaeus, a servant of the Guild of St. Luke. His breast is covered with medals and plaques, and he is about to place a large drinkingcup on the table where similar cups stand. These were all cups presented to the Guild of St. Luke, and were melted down in 1794. They give the artist opportunity to show how he could paint metal.

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Notwithstanding the strangeness of his accoutrement, the portrait of Graphaeus is full of intimacy and good nature. It is, moreover, a painting of solidity, precision, and soberness, without great intensity of tone, or violence of touch."-(P. M.)

Salomon Ruysdael's Ferry is remarkable for its typical Dutch landscape and action.

The Italians are generally unimportant here.

True to the Sienese custom, the background of Simone Martini's Annunciation is gold, from which the kneeling figure of Gabriel stands out boldly, in its pink and blue draperies. His wings. are strong, and he holds in his crossed hands a tall lily stalk. In his hair is a diadem.

Antonello da Messina's Crucifixion

"has nothing Flemish in its treatment; the landscape and the finely conceived motives of the mourning figures recall

Carpaccio. Antonello repeated this subject with various changes. On a small panel in the National Gallery, the crucified thieves are omitted and the attitudes of the Virgin and St. John are modified and perhaps improved. In the Corsini collection the Crucified Saviour alone appears. The three are equally remarkable for minute finish: the two former for their carefully executed background, and for the vehement yet truthful expression of the figures." -(A. H. L.)

Titian's Alexander VI. and Bishop Pesaro is an early work.

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"In the Bishop Pesaro Kneeling Before St. Peter, as in the Virgin of the Parapet (see p. 321), in which constant affinities with Giorgione, Palma, and even other contemporaries testify of youthful effort to assimilate all the progress of those about him, we see being somewhat rapidly accentuated quite an individual taste for the rhythmic delicacies of colour harmonies, for the simple nobility of large and full forms, for the natural and brilliant rendering of the carnations, stuffs, accessories and landscapes, for the grave and affable expression of the faces. The handling of the brush is already singularly lively and supple; so that these first manifestations of his youth in flower retain, in their exquisite timidity, an indelible charm of poetry and freshness."-(G. Laf.)

THE HAGUE GALLERY

THE HAGUE

THE Hague Gallery, consisting of about 500 pictures, owes its origin chiefly to William V. of Orange, who purchased his treasures from the best collections available, such as the Lomier, Braamcamp and Slingerlandt. The pictures were sheltered at first in the Buitenhof; and in 1820, after works were returned from the Louvre, in the Mauritshuis, originally the Palace of Count John Maurice of Nassau. In 1829, King William I. bought Rembrandt's Anatomy; and under William III. the gallery was greatly increased. The collection is also greatly indebted to Baron Victor de Stuers. The strength of The Hague Gallery lies in the Dutch and Flemish masters. Rembrandt's Anatomy, Presentation in the Temple, and Portrait of Himself as an Officer; Potter's Bull and Vache qui se mire; T. de Keyser's Four Burgomasters; Ruysdael's View of Haarlem; Vermeer's Delft; Dow's Good Housekeepeer; Ter Borch's Despatch; Rubens's Helena Fourment; Teniers's Good Kitchen; and Steen's Oyster Feast, are counted as the chief treasures.

The most famous picture by Rembrandt is the Anatomy Lesson, which established the painter's reputation. Soon after Rembrandt's arrival in Amsterdam, he received an order from Dr. Tulp to represent him at an operation, to be hung in the dissecting room of the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons. Although Rembrandt followed the general plan of