GASPARD DE

CRAYER (1582-1669)  , Flemish painter, was born at Antwerp, and learnt the art of painting from Raphael Coxcie . He matriculated in the guild of St Luke at Brussels in 1607, resided in the capital of Brabant till after 166o, and finally settled at Ghent . Amongst the numerous pictures which he painted in Ghent, one in the town museum represents the martyrdom of St Blaise, and bears the inscription A° 1668 aet . 86 . Crayer was one of the most productive yet one of the most conscientious artists of the later . Flemish school, second to Rubens in vigour and below Vandyck in refinement, but nearly equalling both in most of the essentials of painting . He was well known and always well treated by Albert and Isabella, governors of the Netherlands . The cardinal-infant Ferdinand made him a court-painter . His pictures abound in the churches and museums of Brussels and Ghent; and there is scarcely a country chapel in Flanders or Brabant that cannot boast of one or more of his canvases . But he was equally respected beyond his native country; and some important pictures of his composition are to be found as far south as Aix in Provence and as far east as Amberg in the Upper Palatinate . His skill as a decorative artist is shown in the panels executed for a triumphal arch at the entry of Cardinal Ferdinand into the Flemish capital, some of which are publicly exhibited in the museum of Ghent . Crayer died at Ghent .

His best

works are the " Miraculous Draught of Fishes " in the gallery of Brussels, the " Judgment of Solomon " in the gallery of Ghent, and " Madonnas with Saints " in the Louvre, the Munich Pinakothek, and the Belvedere at Vienna . His portrait by Vandyck was engraved by P . Pontius .