zabeth Cheron, they won both artistic and literary fame.

* * * * *

The seventeenth century was an age of excellence in the art of Flanders,
Belgium, and Holland, and is known as the second great epoch of painting
in the Netherlands, this name including the three countries just
mentioned.

After the calamities suffered under Charles V. and Philip II., with
returning peace and prosperity an art was developed, both original and
rich in artistic power. The States-General met in 1600, and the greatest
artists of the Netherlands did their work in the succeeding fifty years;
and before the century closed the appreciation of art and the patronage
which had assured its elevation were things of the past.

Rubens was twenty-three years old in 1600, just ready to begin his work
which raised the school of Belgium to its highest attainments. When we
remember how essentially his art dominated his own country and was
admired elsewhere, we might think--I had almost said fear--that his
brilliant, vigorous, and voluptuous manner would attract all artists of
his day to essay his imitation. But among women artists Madame O'Connell
was the first who could justly be called his imitator, and her work was
done in the middle of the nineteenth century.

When we turn to the genre painting of the Flemish and Dutch artists we
find that they represented scenes in the lives of coarse, drunken boors
and vulgar women--works which brought these artists enduring fame by
reason of their wonderful technique; but we can mention one woman only,
Anna Breughel, who seriously attempted the practice of this art. She is
thought to have been of the family of Velvet Breughel, who lived in the
early part of the seventeenth century.

Like Rubens, Rembrandt numbered few women among his imitators. The women
of his day and country affected pleasing delineations of superficial
motives, and Rembrandt's earnestness and intensity were seemingly above
their appreciation--certainly far above their artistic powers.

A little later so many women painted delicate and insipid subjects that I
have not space even for their names. A critic has said that the Dutch
school "became a nursery for female talent." It may have reached the
Kindergarten stage, but went no farther.

Flower painting attained great excellence in the seventeenth century. The
most elaborate masters in this art were the brothers De Heem, Willem
Kalf, Abraham Mignon, and Jan v