As opposed to the abundance of glowing
colours on the exuberant Venetian palette, we should place the subtile
gradations, the well-balanced and restrained splendour and the endless
variations of the seemingly restricted colour scale of the Dutch artist.
We shall so learn to love both better than we did before and, needless to
say, our eyes will then be more open to the value of Amsterdam's scenery
which so often inspired or stimulated the painters.

[Plate 12. The Tower called "Swyght-Utrecht", and the "Doelen" in
Amsterdam]

Plate 12. The Tower called "Swyght-Utrecht", and the "Doelen" in Amsterdam
(see _plate 20_). After the drawing by Rembrandt in the collection of Dr.
C. Hofsteded de Groot, The Hague.

After this little excursion let us reconsider the town's appearance. In
doing so, we must remember that it was already highly flourishing when
Rembrandt settled within its ramparts; consequently it is clear that by
far the greater part of the living houses belonged to the more picturesque
preceding period. The houses generally had three or four stories, and
their fronts were without exception crowned by pointed gables, most of
them stepped. In the older quarters, where the houses were more crowded
together, they very often had more stories and were strangely tall, but
everywhere that irregular saw-like profile, formed by the steep-pitched
gable-tops, appeared silhouetted against the sky (horizontal roof-lines,
more in accordance with the new style of Van Campen, were slowly
introduced but remained scarce). All these house-fronts were, as we said
before, gay in colour and enlivened by sandstone ornaments, windows with
their small glistening panes set in lead, brightly painted shutters, here
and there woodwork decorating the house-fronts, and as a rule an
artistically carved stone-panel with figures and inscription or date
lending a separate character to each house. The house in which Rembrandt
passed most of the years and in which he knew fortune and fame as well as
sorrow and reverse, offers a good type of the then prevailing domestic
architecture (_plate 16_). The house still exists and has become, since
its restoration, a few years ago, a place of pilgrimage for art-loving
tourists. We must, however, here call attention to a fact which is
generally unknown to the public, namely, that, though restored, the house
does not appear as it probably looked w