The decline of the Antwerp school through the introduction of Italian mannerisms is illustrated in _Young Tobias restoring Sight to his Father_ (No. 2001), a fully signed late picture by Jan van Hemessen, who flourished in that city towards the middle of the sixteenth century, and in whose art the last traces of the great national tradition disappear. [Illustration: PLATE XIX.—QUENTIN MATSYS (1466?-1530) FLEMISH SCHOOL No. 2029.—THE BANKER AND HIS WIFE (Le Banquier et sa femme) On the far side of a table covered with a green cloth and strewn with various objects, which include a crystal cup and a circular mirror, are seated the banker, wearing a dark blue robe edged with fur, and his wife who is turning over the leaves of an illuminated book of hours. At the back are shelves, on which are displayed books and many decorative objects. Painted in oil on panel. Signed on a roll of paper in the background:—“QUENTIN MATSYS, SCHILDER, 1514.” 2 ft. 5¼ in. × 1 ft. 11¾ in. (0.74 × 0.60.)] BAREND VAN ORLEY Of the school that flourished in Brussels before Italianism appeared in the person of Barend van Orley (_c._ 1495-1542), the only name that has come down to posterity is that of Rogier van der Weyden’s follower, Colin de Coter, thanks to the clear inscription _Colin de Coter pinxit me in Brabancia Bruxelle_ on the hem of the dress of the kneeling Magdalen in _The Holy Women_ (No. 1952B), which, with _The Trinity_ (No. 1952A) and another lost panel, probably originally formed a triptych. The signed wing was presented to the Gallery in 1903; whilst the _Trinity_ centre-piece was bought two years later from the Abbé Toussaint at St. Omer for £120. Like Mabuse, Barend van Orley, after showing in his early work clear traces of his descent from the Flemish primitives, drank deeply at the fountain of Italian art. He was profoundly impressed by Raphael, from whom he endeavoured, with a certain degree of success, to learn the noble flow of drapery and the harmonious disposition of the design. On the other hand, he sacrificed the lustrous richness of Early Flemish colour and became addicted to dull grey shadows and pinkish lights. His _Holy Family_ (No. 2067A) does not rank with his finest works, _The Last Judgment_ at Antwerp and the _Holy Family_ at Liverpool. The architectural setting, with a statue of Neptune in a square in the background, indicates the advent of the Renaissance. The picture was bought at the Otlet sale in Brussels, in 1902, for £540. With Barend van Orley closes the chapter of the Early Flemish school. Indeed, he was rather the first of the new era than the last of the primitives. [Illustration: PLATE XX.—JAN MABUSE (1470?-1533?) EARLY FLEMISH SCHOOL