鲁本斯在画室里教过许多年轻人画画，其中有些在鲁本斯潜移默化的影响下，自然而然地也出了名。鲁本斯门下最出色的学生要属安东尼·凡·戴克。他后来到英国居住，在那儿为国王画画。国王因为他出色的工作而授他爵位。安东尼爵士因为替王亲贵族画肖像而出名，但他也画了不少有分量的宗教画。下面是他为英王查理一世的孩子们画的画。
安东尼爵士因为贵族们画肖像而出名。他画中的王公贵族都留着又小又尖的胡须，所以直到现在，我们还把这种尖胡须叫做“凡·戴克胡须”。
凡·戴克肖像画中人物的手大多修长纤细。据说他是以自己的手为原型的。我希望能有足够的空间来介绍其他的佛兰德斯画家。只用一个章节介绍他们，会让人觉得他们在绘画史上并没有那么重要。可是，我还得再告诉你最后三位佛兰德斯画家的名字。他们生活在凡·艾克兄弟和鲁本斯之间的那段时期。他们是父子三人，所以三人同姓，都叫勃鲁盖尔。如果你能让老师、母亲或图书管理员给你看看勃鲁盖尔父子的绘画，我敢说，你一定会喜欢。我不会告诉你原因，但你可以自己去查，看看到底会不会喜欢。我还要告诉你的是，勃鲁盖尔父子的画与意大利画家的画完全不同。
现在，我实际上已经多介绍了几位佛兰德斯画家，可我本来没打算这么做的。他们共有七位：
凡·艾克兄弟俩勃鲁盖尔父子仨鲁本斯凡·戴克
TWO DUTCHMEN
两个荷兰人
NEXT door to Flanders on the shore of the North Sea is the country called the Netherlands—the country of wooden shoes and windmills，of tulips and hyacinths，of the Zuider Zee，of canals and dikes.Often people speak of the Netherlands as Holland，but that is not quite correct because Holland is just a part of the country.The people of the Netherlands we generally call Dutch.
The Dutch，like the Italians and the Flemish，had a Renaissance too.The Dutch Born Again time was later in coming than the Italian and the Flemish，but when it did come it produced some of the very best artists of the world.
The Dutch artists painted pictures that were different from those of the Italians and the Flemish.The Dutch religion had become a Protestant religion instead of Roman Catholic，and the Dutch did not believe in decorating their churches as much as the Catholics did.And so the Dutch artists painted very few religious pictures，few Madonnas and Holy Families.Instead they painted portraits and landscapes and pictures of the everyday people and things they saw around them.
Their pictures differed in other ways too.In the older paintings，in Italy and Flanders，for instance，most of the people in the pictures had the natural expression on their faces that they usually wore.You can think of one of these artists saying to some one who was having his portrait painted，“Now just sit still and don’t move，and I’ll paint your portrait.”But some of the Dutch artists had a different idea of portrait painting.A Dutchman named Frans Hals painted portraits of people who you know were not told to sit still and look natural.The expression on the faces of Frans Hals’s portraits is what we call a fleeting expression.He caught a smile，or a grin，or a scowl—expressions that last only a second or two—and he made his pictures look as though in another second the expression would change.
Some pictures by Frans Hals were different in still another way.They showed the strokes of the paint brush not smoothed out，but left in the paint，as if the artist wanted you to see that he had painted the portrait quickly and caught the fleeting expression on the face with a few quick strokes of his brush.Not all his pictures are like this.Some are just as smoothly and carefully finished as can be.A portrait called “The Laughing Cavalier”is one of his most famous pictures and it shows the lace on the man’s cuffsdone very carefully—and lace is not an easy material to paint in a picture.“The Laughing Cavalier”really isn’t laughing.He seems to have a self-satisfied smile，instead of a laugh，on his lips.
Another picture by Hals will show you the quick brush-stroke work that he could do so well.It is called “Hille Bobbe”and shows a woman and her parrot.The parrot looks a good deal like an owl and the old woman isn’t a bit pleasant-looking.Sometimes the picture is even called “The Witch of Haarlem.”Haarlem was the Dutch city where Hals lived.
Now，at the time Frans Hals lived and painted，the Netherlands had recently become a free and independent country.To make sure that they would be strong enough to keep this freedom from other countries the Dutch had bands of citizens who were trained to act as companies of soldiers in case of need.Gunpowder and guns were still so new that some of these companies still called themselves archers or crossbowmen.The officers of each company generally had their portraits painted all in one picture and Hals painted several group portraits of the archers and other companies.He is generally spoken of as the greatest of all Dutch portrait painters except Rembrandt.
No.17-1HILLE BOBBE（《希勒·巴贝》）HALS（哈尔斯作）Courtesy of The University Prints
This master，Rembrandt，did most of his work in the city of Amsterdam.He did not do portraits only.He painted almost every kind of’subject an artist could paint.
Rembrandt created a light in his pictures that was unlike real daylight or lamplight but which makes his pictures marvels of brilliant light and deepest shadow.For years he worked hard，lived happily，and earned money and fame.But he spent so much money in collecting beautiful things he liked that he finally owed more than he could pay.His pictures became unpopular，too，and so he found it hard to make money in his old age.
You wouldn’t think，would you，that a picture that is now considered one of the great pictures of the world would be laughed at and disliked，and would make the painter unpopular when it was painted？But that is what happened when Rembrandt painted his “Night Watch.”“The Night Watch”was ordered by one of the companies of men who acted as guards for the city in time of danger.It was to hang in their club house and each member of the guard was to pay his share for having the picture painted.
Rembrandt wanted to show the stir and excitement as the guards marched out，and he painted the picture with the captain and his lieutenant in the front and the members of the guard hurrying out behind them with guns and spears.Children are there to watch the show，and even a dog appears in the picture.The light is very bright on some of the figures and the rest are in the darkness of night.And yet the light is so different from ordinary light that some think the picture is a daytime scene and should not be called “The Night Watch.”
