all
these little fellows "King Charles spaniels." To-day, two hundred
years after, they are still called King Charles spaniels.

[Illustration: Courtesy of Pratt Institute

FIG. 21. CHILDREN OF CHARLES I. VAN DYCK. DRESDEN GALLERY]

THE BUTTERY

PIETER DE HOOCH (1632?-1681)

Pieter de Hooch is a Dutch artist you are going to love. Usually you
can tell his pictures by the checked or plaid floors. The floors in
the homes in Holland are mostly made of squares of black and white
marble. Did you ever see a cuter little girl than this one in the
picture? She has come for her pitcher of milk. Her mother went to the
"buttery" for it: a buttery is a place for keeping casks and barrels
and bottles. We can see one end of the cask or barrel under the window
in the buttery. Now look into the next room and see the chair on a
little platform. That platform is quite common in the Dutch home and
is probably the place where mother or grandmother sits to read or sew
by the window. What a beautiful day it must be out of doors to make
the rooms so cheerful and bright! Hooch loved the sunshine and used it
to brighten every home he painted. The sunshine on the checked floors
makes his pictures sing with joy and happiness.

We can find very little about the life of the "Dutch little masters,"
yet the pictures they have left us are among our greatest treasures:
just little home scenes that you and I know about.

It is said that de Hooch often put in his people after he had finished
painting his picture. In one picture he has added a girl near a
fireplace to make the picture more balanced. We know that she was
added after the picture was made, for we can see the plaid floor
through her dress where the paint was too thin to cover the original
floor. Such little things tell us something of the method of work of
the Dutch painters.

[Illustration: Courtesy of Pratt Institute

FIG. 22. THE BUTTERY. DE HOOCH. RYKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM]

THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN

SANDRO BOTTICELLI (1446-1510)

The children who are holding the book and ink-bottle in this picture,
"The Coronation of the Virgin," lived four hundred years ago. Their
names are Giovanni and Giulio de' Medici. Botticelli, the artist, knew
them well for he was born and brought up in Florence and used to spend
a great deal of time at the Medici Palace.

The boys were cousins. Giulio, the younger, was left an orphan when a
wee child and his uncle, Lorenzo the M