Hemskirk, Martin

, an eminent painter, was a peasant’s son, and born at a village of that | Dame in Holland, in 1498. In his youth he was extremely dull, and nothing was expected from him; but afterwards he became a correct painter, easy and fruitful in his inventions. He was the disciple and imitator of Schoreal. He went to Home, and intended to stay there a long time; but at the end of three years, returned to his own country, settled at Haerlem, and lived there the remainder of his days. Most of his works were engraved. Vasari, who gives a particular account of them, and commends them, says, Michael Angelo was so pleased with one of the prints, that he had a mind to colour it. Mr. Fuseli thinks that he invented with more fertility than taste or propriety; “his design is ostentatious without style, and his forms long without elegance. He rather grouped than composed, and seems to have been unacquainted with chiaroscuro. His costume is always arbitrary, and often barbarous, and in the admission of ornaments and the disposition of his scenery, he oftener consulted the materials which he had compiled at Rome, than fitness of place, or the demands of his subject.” He died in 1574. ¹