n Diemen
died at Batavia on the 19th of April 1645.

DIEPENBECK, ABRAHAM VAN (1599-1675), Flemish painter, was born at
Herzogenbusch, and studied painting at Antwerp, where he became one of
Rubens's "hundred pupils." But he was not one of the cleverest of
Rubens's followers, and he succeeded, at the best, in imitating the
style and aping the peculiarities of his master. We see this in his
earliest pictures--a portrait dated 1629 in the Munich Pinakothek, and a
"Distribution of Alms" of the same period in the same collection. Yet
even at this time there were moments when Diepenbeck probably fancied
that he might take another path. A solitary copperplate executed with
his own hand in 1630 represents a peasant sitting under a tree holding
the bridle of an ass, and this is a minute and finished specimen of the
engraver's art which shows that the master might at one time have hoped
to rival the animal draughtsmen who flourished in the schools of
Holland. However, large commissions now poured in upon him; he was asked
for altarpieces, subject-pieces and pagan allegories. He was tempted to
try the profession of a glass-painter, and at last he gave up every
other occupation for the lucrative business of a draughtsman and
designer for engravings. Most of Diepenbeck's important canvases are in
continental galleries. The best are the "Marriage of St Catherine" at
Berlin and "Mary with Angels Wailing over the Dead Body of Christ" in
the Belvedere at Vienna, the first a very fair specimen of the artist's
skill, the second a picture of more energy and feeling than might be
expected from one who knew more of the outer form than of the spirit of
Rubens. Then we have the fine "Entombment" at Brunswick, and "St Francis
Adoring the Sacrament" at the museum at Brussels, "Clelia and her Nymphs
Flying from the Presence and Pursuit of Porsenna" in two examples at
Berlin and Paris, and "Neptune and Amphitrite" at Dresden. In all these
compositions the drawing and execution are after the fashion of Rubens,
though inferior to Rubens in harmony of tone and force of contrasted
light and shade. Occasionally a tendency may be observed to imitate the
style of Vandyck, for whom, in respect of pictures, Diepenbeck in his
lifetime was frequently taken. But Diepenbeck spent much less of his
leisure on canvases than on glass-painting. Though he failed to master
the secrets of gorgeous tinting, which were lost, apparently for ever in
the 16th century