Handbook of Painting, Vol. 2 of 2

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Excerpt from Handbook of Painting, Vol. 2 of 2: German, Flemish, and Dutch SchoolsHarmony of colour - was seen for the first time developed in the utmost perfection, while the other great qualities of general keeping, chiaroscuro, and that treatment of the brush - not lost, as formerly, in a fused surface, but employed for purposes of modelling - found ready response in their art-sympathies. As regards the class of subjects also available for the treatment of art a proportionable change had taken place. To the Van Eycks and their school the deep religious feeling of their time had chie¿y appealed for expression, and only occasionally did other subjects find admittance into the atelier. Now in all countries which had adopted the Reformation in its stricter forms - such as Holland, Switzerland, and parts of Germany - the Church had entirely abolished the services of art. In Catholic lands, it is true, a new religious impulse had found birth towards the close of the sixteenth and in the first half of the seventeenth century, but even there the invention of printing had robbed the artist of what in the middle ages had been his most important function, that of imparting instruction to the laity. Endowed, however, as art was by that time with all the powers of representation, she still sought to devote herself to the glorification of religion. On the other hand, in the more general diffusion of knowledge, other classes of sub jects, such as mythology and profane history, etc., could no longer be excluded from the painter's mind, thus the very power to devote himself solely to the contemplation of religious themes became sensibly diminished. A large por tion of his interest, therefore, was absorbed by the forms of representation which then obtained favour with the world, and especially by those far-fetched allegorical scenes which sought to embody, in a cold and artificial form, the learn ing of the day. In Belgium even, which had remained Catholic, many painters devoted themselves to subject and landscape painting. At the same time these branches of art, including the study of animals and ¿owers, played at all times a subordinate part in that country, and the smal number of painters who cultivated them belong especially to the earlier division of this period. It was in Protestant.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.