canvas. Fresco was probably used in the early days,
but the climate was too damp for it and it was abandoned. It was
perhaps the dampness of the northern climate that led to the
adaptation of the oil medium, something the Van Eycks are credited
with inaugurating.

[Illustration: FIG. 81.--HALS. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.]

THE EARLY PAINTING: The early work has, for the great part, perished
through time and the fierceness with which the Iconoclastic warfare
was waged. That which remains to-day is closely allied in method and
style to Flemish painting under the Van Eycks. Ouwater is one of the
earliest names that appears, and perhaps for that reason he has been
called the founder of the school. He was remarked in his time for the
excellent painting of background landscapes; but there is little
authentic by him left to us from which we may form an opinion.[17]
Geertjen van St. Jan (about 1475) was evidently a pupil of his, and
from him there are two wings of an altar in the Vienna Gallery,
supposed to be genuine. Bouts and Mostert have been spoken of under
the Flemish school. Bosch (1460?-1516) was a man of some individuality
who produced fantastic purgatories that were popular in their time and
are known to-day through engravings. Engelbrechsten (1468-1533) was
Dutch by birth and in his art, and yet probably got his inspiration
from the Van Eyck school. The works attributed to him are doubtful,
though two in the Leyden Gallery seem to be authentic. He was the
master of Lucas van Leyden (1494-1533), the leading artist of the
early period. Lucas van Leyden was a personal friend of Albrecht
Duerer, the German painter, and in his art he was not unlike him. A
man with a singularly lean type, a little awkward in composition,
brilliant in color, and warm in tone, he was, despite his
archaic-looking work, an artist of much ability and originality. At
first he was inclined toward Flemish methods, with an exaggerated
realism in facial expression. In his middle period he was distinctly
Dutch, but in his later days he came under Italian influence, and with
a weakening effect upon his art. Taking his work as a whole, it was
the strongest of all the early Dutch painters.

[Footnote 17: A Raising of Lazarus is in the Berlin Gallery.]

SIXTEENTH CENTURY: This century was a period of Italian imitation,
probably superinduced by the action of the Flemings at Antwerp. The
movement was somewhat like the Flemish one, but not so extensive or so