A landscape is seen at the back.  The Virgin Surrounded by Virgins, by an unknown master of the fifteenth century (school of Bruges), is one of the most amazing pictures in the collection.  It has a nuance of the Byzantine and of the hieratic, but the portraits are enchanting in their crystalline quality.  Quentin Matsys’ Legend of St. Anne is much admired, though for sincerity we prefer The Passion of the Master of Oultremont.  Gerard David’s Adoration of the Magi is no longer attributed to him.  It was always in doubt:  now the name has been removed, though the picture has much of his mellowness.  Dr. Scheuring, the old man with the shaved upper lip, beard, and hair over his forehead, by Lucas Cranach, and Jean Gossaert’s Chevalier of the Golden Fleece, are masterly portraits.  Van Cleve, Van Orlay, Key—­perhaps a portrait of the bloody Duke of Alva—­also one of himself, Coello’s Maria of Austria, are among the sterling specimens in this gallery.

We need not expect to find duplicated here the Rubens of Antwerp.  The most imposing example is the Adoration of the Magi, while his portraits of the Archduke Albert and his Archduchess, Isabella, are perhaps the best extant.  The Calvary is a splendid canvas, full of movement and containing several members of the well-known Rubens family.  Such devotion is touching.  You find yourself looking for Isabella Brandt and Helena Fourment among the angels that hover in the sky above the martyred St. Lieven.  The four negro heads, the Woman Taken in Adultery, a Susanna (less concerned about her predicament than any we have encountered), a curious and powerful portrait of Theophrastus Paracelsus (Browning’s hero), with a dozen others, make a goodly showing for the Antwerp master.  Otho Vaenius (Octave Van Veen), one of the teachers of Rubens, is hung here.  There are nearly a dozen Van Dycks, of prime quality all.  The Crucifixion, the portrait of an unknown gentleman wearing a huge ruff and the winning portrait of a Flemish sculptor, Francesco Duquesnoy, (on a stand), give you an excellent notion of his range, though better Van Dycks are in France and England.

The portrait of an old man, by Rembrandt, is beginning to fade, but that of an old woman is a superior Rembrandt.  Of Frans Hals there are two fine specimens; one, a portrait of Willem van Heythusen, is a small picture, the figure sitting, the legs crossed (booted and spurred) and the figure leaning lazily back.  On his head a black felt hat with a broad upturned brim.  The expression of the bearded man is serious.  The only Jan Vermeer is one of the best portraits by that singularly gifted painter we recall.  It is called The Man with the Hat.  Dr. Bredius in 1905 considered the picture by Jean Victor, but it has been pronounced Vermeer by equal authorities.  It was once a part of the collection of Humphry Ward.  The man sits, his hand holding a glove resting negligently over the back of a chair.  He faces the spectator, on his head a long, pointed black hat with a wide brim.  His collar is white.  A shadow covers the face above the eyes.  These are rather melancholy, inexpressive; the flesh tints are anaemic, almost morbid.  We are far away from the Vermeer of the Milkmaid and the Letter.  There is something disquieting in this portrait, but it is a masterpiece of paint and character.