Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/418

Rh took part in the learned discussions there. The professors of the University of Leyden paid her the compliment of erecting a tribune where she could hear all that passed in the lecture-room without being seen by the audience.

As an artist the Schurmann reached such excellence that the painter Honthorst valued a portrait by her at a thousand Dutch florins—about four hundred and thirty dollars—an enormous sum when we remember that the works of her contemporary, Albert Cuyp, were sold for thirty florins! and no higher price was paid for his works before the middle of the eighteenth century. A few years ago his picture, called "Morning Light," was sold at a public sale in London for twenty-five thousand dollars. How astonishing that a celebrated artist like Honthorst, who painted in Utrecht when Cuyp painted in Dort, should have valued a portrait by Anna Maria Schurmann at the price of thirty-three works by Cuyp! Such facts as these suggest a question regarding the relative value of the works of more modern artists. Will the judgments of the present be thus reversed in the future?

This extraordinary woman filled the measure of possibilities by carving in wood and ivory, engraving on crystal and copper, and having a fine musical talent, playing on several instruments. When it is added that she was of a lovable nature and attractive in manner, one is not surprised that her contemporaries called her "the wonder of creation." Volsius was her friend and taught her Hebrew. She was intimately associated with such scholars as Salmatius and Heinsius, and was in correspondence with scholars,