is given him not for his figure-pieces. They were not always
successful, lacking as they did in imagination and originality, though
done with force. His best work was his portraiture, for which he
became famous, painting nobility in every country of Europe in which
he visited. At his best he was a portrait-painter of great power, but
not to be placed in the same rank with Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, and
Velasquez. His characters are gracefully posed, and appear to be
aristocratic. There is a noble distinction about them, and yet even
this has the feeling of being somewhat affected. The serene
complacency of his lords and ladies finally became almost a mannerism
with him, though never a disagreeable one. He died early, a painter of
mark, but not the greatest portrait-painter of the world, as is
sometimes said of him.

There were a number of Rubens's pupils, like Diepenbeeck (1596-1675),
who learned from their master a certain brush facility, but were not
sufficiently original to make deep impressions. When Rubens died the
best painter left in Belgium was Jordaens (1593-1678). He was a pupil
of Van Noort, but submitted to the Rubens influence and followed in
Rubens's style, though more florid in coloring and grosser in types.
He painted all sorts of subjects, but was seen at his best in
mythological scenes with groups of drunken satyrs and bacchants,
surrounded by a close-placed landscape. He was the most independent
and original of the followers, of whom there was a host. Crayer
(1582-1669), Janssens (1575-1632), Zegers (1591-1651), Rombouts
(1597-1637), were the prominent ones. They all took an influence more
or less pronounced from Rubens. Cornelius de Vos (1585-1651) was a
more independent man--a realistic portrait-painter of much ability.
Snyders (1579-1657), and Fyt (1609?-1661), devoted their brushes to
the painting of still-life, game, fruits, flowers, landscape--Snyders
often in collaboration with Rubens himself.

[Illustration: FIG. 79.--TENIERS THE YOUNGER. PRODIGAL SON. LOUVRE.]

Living at the same time with these half-Italianized painters, and
continuing later in the century, there was another group of painters
in the Low Countries who were emphatically of the soil, believing in
themselves and their own country and picturing scenes from commonplace
life in a manner quite their own. These were the "Little Masters," the
_genre_ painters, of whom there was even a stronger representation
appearing contemporane