DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62819#0431
SCHOLARS AND IMITATORS.
357
that he died young (and in this opinion the Writer is disposed to
coincide) ; others state that he went to Paris, and became
an assistant to Simon Vouet. A few portraits only are all that
the Writer has seen of this painter’s authenticated works, and
these were very inferior to those of his master’s productions of
a similar class.
Theodore Van Thulden. Few of Rubens’s scholars
deserve more honourable mention than this painter, whose
decided predilection for the art procured him, at an early
age, admittance into this eminent school, in which he soon
distinguished himself by the facility of his handling and a
remarkable aptitude in imitating his instructor; his talents
were, therefore, in constant exercise, either in copying or
forwarding large works; his ready hand could adapt itself,
with equal success, either to large or small pictures. He
possessed a more universal genius than most of his con-
temporaries, and painted history, battle-pieces, conversations,
merry-makings, and landscapes ; he also introduced figures into
the pictures of other artists, such as the interior views of
churches by Neefs, the landscapes by Wildens and Mompers,
and the game-pieces by Snyders. He appears to have retained
the friendship and occasional employment of Rubens, and was
one of the principal artists engaged by him in executing his
splendid designs for the triumphal arches erected in honour of
Ferdinand, in 1635. These are freely etched by his hand, in
a set of thirty-one plates; he also etched about ninety plates,
after pictures and designs of his own. Flis original works,
however, bear no comparison to the excellence of his master’s,
whose defects he always exaggerated, his forms being heavy
and his drawing incorrect; nor is his colouring less defective,
from the frequent predominance of pinky tones, and the violent
ressexes of colours. He was born at Bois-le-Duc, in 1607, and
died in 1676, aged sixty-nine.
Abraham Van Diepenbeck. The genius of this artist
357
that he died young (and in this opinion the Writer is disposed to
coincide) ; others state that he went to Paris, and became
an assistant to Simon Vouet. A few portraits only are all that
the Writer has seen of this painter’s authenticated works, and
these were very inferior to those of his master’s productions of
a similar class.
Theodore Van Thulden. Few of Rubens’s scholars
deserve more honourable mention than this painter, whose
decided predilection for the art procured him, at an early
age, admittance into this eminent school, in which he soon
distinguished himself by the facility of his handling and a
remarkable aptitude in imitating his instructor; his talents
were, therefore, in constant exercise, either in copying or
forwarding large works; his ready hand could adapt itself,
with equal success, either to large or small pictures. He
possessed a more universal genius than most of his con-
temporaries, and painted history, battle-pieces, conversations,
merry-makings, and landscapes ; he also introduced figures into
the pictures of other artists, such as the interior views of
churches by Neefs, the landscapes by Wildens and Mompers,
and the game-pieces by Snyders. He appears to have retained
the friendship and occasional employment of Rubens, and was
one of the principal artists engaged by him in executing his
splendid designs for the triumphal arches erected in honour of
Ferdinand, in 1635. These are freely etched by his hand, in
a set of thirty-one plates; he also etched about ninety plates,
after pictures and designs of his own. Flis original works,
however, bear no comparison to the excellence of his master’s,
whose defects he always exaggerated, his forms being heavy
and his drawing incorrect; nor is his colouring less defective,
from the frequent predominance of pinky tones, and the violent
ressexes of colours. He was born at Bois-le-Duc, in 1607, and
died in 1676, aged sixty-nine.
Abraham Van Diepenbeck. The genius of this artist