est excellence and were on the decline, and so we pass
to the Dutch school, or the painters of Holland.

There was doubtless a very early school of Dutch painters, dating back to
the fourteenth century even; but the records of it are so imperfect, and
so few pictures remain from its early days, that for our purpose it is
best to pass over the fifteenth century and say that during the sixteenth
century the painters of Holland gave up the painting of sacred subjects
very largely, and began to take on the characteristics of what is
generally known now as the Dutch School. This school is distinguished for
its portraits, which form a large and important part of its painting; next
for its domestic scenes, which are realistic and true to life in an
astonishing degree.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century Holland had obtained a
position as a nation that freed its artists from the influence of the
Romish Church and the fear of the Inquisition, and they soon used their
freedom to establish a national art, and one which became very important
to the world. FRANZ HALS (1584-1666) was the most noteworthy of the
portrait-painters. He was born at Mechlin, but passed most of his life at
Haarlem. There was a custom in Holland of painting portraits of the
members of guilds and societies in groups, and some such works of his at
Haarlem are very fine. I have told a story of his rapid manner in the
sketch of Vandyck. He was the first master to introduce that free, bold,
sleight-of-hand manner which was afterward used by the Dutch masters, and
is so strong in its effect. This painter led a merry, careless life. His
portraits of single heads or figures are rare, and his small _genre_
subjects still more so. In the Hotel de Ville at Haarlem there are as many
as eight of his large works, most of them having ten or a dozen portraits.

The Dutch painters of still-life--flowers, dead game and poultry, and
metals, glass, and other beautiful objects--were very skilful, and have
never been surpassed. The names of these masters would make a long list.
There is little to be told of the circumstances of their lives, though
their works are seen in most European galleries, and well repay one for
careful examination.

[Illustration: FIG. 57.--PORTRAIT OF AN OFFICER. _By Franz Hals._]

Another form of Dutch art is the representation of scenes from peasant
life, and there were some very eminent painters who devoted themselves to
these subjects ent