Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/434

418 where he resided till 1717, returning then to, where he died on the 1st of 1727.

1em

 HUYSUM, (1682–1749), was born at in 1682, and died in his native city on the 8th of  1749. He was the son of Justus van Huysum, whose practice remained entirely local, but who is said to have been expeditious in decorating doorways, screens, and s. A picture by this artist is still preserved in the gallery of, representing and the Beasts in a wooded landscape, and here we have some explanation of his son’s fondness for landscapes of a conventional and n kind; for Jan van Huysum, though skilled as a painter of still life, believed himself to possess the genius of a landscape painter. Half his pictures in public galleries are landscapes, views of imaginary s and s with impossible ruins and classic edifices, and woods of tall and motionless trees,—the whole very glossy and smooth, and entirely lifeless. The earliest dated work of this kind is that of 1717, in the, a grove with maidens culling s near a , ruins of a portico, and a distant palace on the shores of a bounded by s. In the picture market these landscapes are worth comparatively little, whilst the master’s  and  pieces are all the more appreciated, and good examples readily fetch from 800 to 900. It is doubtful whether any artist in this peculiar walk of art ever surpassed Van Huysum in representing and s. It has been said that his  has no savour and his s have no perfume,—in other words, that they are hard and artificial,—but this is scarcely true. In substance and  are delicate and finished imitations of nature in its more subtle varieties of matter. The has an incomparable blush of down, the s have a perfect delicacy of tissue. Van Huysum too shows supreme art in relieving s of various s against each other, and often against a light and transparent background. He is always bright, sometimes even gaudy. Great taste and much grace and elegance are apparent in the arrangement of bouquets and in s adorned with s or in baskets on  tables. There is exquisite and faultless finish everywhere. But what Van Huysum has not is the breadth, the bold effectiveness, and the depth of thought of from whom he descends through.

1em

 HWEN T’SANG (undefined, undefined) is the most eminent representative of a remarkable and valuable branch of, known during the last half century, chiefly through the labours of scholars. It consists of the narratives of  who travelled to, whilst their religion flourished there, with the view of visiting the sites consecrated by the history of , of studying at the great s which then existed in , and of collecting s, , and other sacred objects. In short, their objects and their narratives bear a strong analogy to the objects and narratives of the many s to in the same and later ages which have come down to us in ecclesiastical collections.

The importance of these writings as throwing light on the geography and history of and adjoining countries, during a very dark period, is great, and they have been the subject of elaborate commentaries by students in our own day, some of the chief of which will be noted at the end of this article. Several memoirs of this kind appear to have perished; and especially to be regretted is a great collection of the works of travellers to, religious and secular, in sixty s, with forty more of s and illustrations, published at the expense of the  Kao-T’song of the, , with a preface from the imperial hand. We will mention the clerical travellers of this description who are known to us by name.

1em

Hwen T’sang was born in the district of Keu-Shi, near, about, a period at which appears to have had a powerful influence upon a large body of educated. From childhood grave and studious, he was taken in charge by an elder brother who had adopted the, in a at the royal  of  in. Hwen T’sang soon followed his brother’s example. For some years he travelled over, teaching and , and eventually settled for a time at the capital (now  in ), where his fame for learning became great. The desire which he entertained to visit, in order to penetrate all the doctrines of the , and to perfect the collections of which existed in , grew irresistible, and in   he started upon his solitary journey, eluding with difficulty the strict prohibition which was in force against crossing the frontier.

The “master of the law,” as his biographers call him, plunged alone into the terrible of the, then known as the Sha-ho or “Sand River,” between  and  (now  or ). At long intervals he found help from the small s of the that dotted the  track. Very striking is the description, like that given six centuries later by, of the quasi-supernatural horrors that beset the lonely traveller in the wilderness—the visions of and s; and the manner in which they are dissipated singularly recalls passages in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. After great suffering Hwen T’sang reached, the seat of a , and pursued his way along the southern foot of the , which he crossed by a  pass (vividly described) in  