[Evolution-project] was a very great labor to descend to the ground, and the workmen

[Flem <nec...@so...>]

Ght had supplied all that was wanting to complete the ideal of his
favorite subjects. Thenceforth, he followed no more after enticing
damsels, but remained in his cloister, painting the Madonna more
serenely beautiful, and the Arch Enemy more curiously appalling than
ever. GERARD DOUW. This extraordinary artist was born at Leyden, in
1613. He was the son of a glazier, and early exhibited a passion for the
fine arts, which his father encouraged. He received his first
instruction in drawing from Dolendo, the engraver. He was afterwards
placed with Peter Kowenhoorn, to learn the trade of a glass-stainer or
painter; but disliking this business, he became the pupil of Rembrandt
when only fifteen years of age, in whose school be continued three
years. From Rembrandt he learned the true principles of coloring, to
which he added a delicacy of pencilling, and a patience in working up
his pictures to the highest degree of neatness and finish, superior to
any other master. He was more pleased with the earlier and more finished
works of Rembrandt, than with his later productions, executed with more
boldness and freedom of pencilling; he therefore conceived the project
of combining the rich and glowing colors of that master with the polish
and suavity of extreme finishing, and he adopted the method of uniting
the powerful tunes and the magical light and shadow of his instructor
with a minuteness and precision of pencilling that so nearly approached
nature as to become perfect i