A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF
PORTRAITS.
Himself, in the Wallraf Mvseum, Cologne.
His Parents. „ „ „
Thorwaldsen, in the Berlin Gallery.
Queen of Bavaria. Meyerbeer.
Cornelius, Schellins.
Kitter. Buch.
Sehadow. Bauch.
Humboldt. Eadowitz.
BEGAS, OsKAR, painter, was born in Berlin. July 31, 1828. He was the son of Carl Begas, from whom he received his fir-st, teaching. In 1852 he won a premium, which enabled him to travel to Italy. He worked in Rome for some time, and there painted a ' Descent from the Cross ' for the church of St. Michael at Berlin. He then visited France and England, and on his return to Berlin devoted himself to portrait painting and decoration. In 1866 he became Professor at the Berlin Academy. On settling down in Germany, he became Com- missioner for the Berlin Museum and Professor of his old Academy. His ' Italian Peasants gossiping around a Fountain' (1853) is in the Nat. Gallery,. Berlin, and in that city he died in November, 1883.
BEGEIJN, Abraham Cornelisz, (or Beqa,) a native of Holland, bom in 1650, painted landscapes and cattle, in the style of Berchem, and his pictures of those subjects are very justly admired. His pencil is light and free, and his colouring is very agreeable. His principal residence was at Berlin, where his works were highly esteemed, and, accord- ing to Houbraken, he was principal painter to the Elector of Brandenburg, afterwards King of Prus- sia. He also worked at the Hague. In several of the collections in Holland, the pictures of this master are placed among the most admired painters, and they are held in considerable estimation in this country. Many Continental galleries contain ex- amples of his art ; there are three in the Copen- hagen Gallery; two in the Hermitage, St. Peters- burg ; the Dresden Gallery and the Louvre have each a ' Landscape with goats,' and the Berlin Gallery an ' Italian Landscape with cattle.' Unfor- tunately for Begeijn's reputation in England, his best works are here ascribed to Berchem, and are frequently altered to give a nearer approximation to that painter's manner. Begeijn died suddenly with the palette in his hand in 1697, at Berlin. Various forms of spelling his name occur.
BEGER, Ladrentius. According to Professor Christ, this artist was the nephew of Laurentius Beger, the celebrated German antiquary, who was librarian to Frederick William, Hector of Branden- burg. He engraved a set of twelve anatomical plates, taken from the designs in the book on Anatomy by Vesalius. He is also believed to have executed the greater part of the plates of antiquities, published by his uncle, entitled The- saurus Brandenburgicus. lie flourished towards the close of the 17th century.
BEHAM, Barthel, (Behaim, or Behem,) a Ger- man painter, and very eminent engraver, bom at Nuremberg in 1502. He was the younger brother of the celebrated Hans Sebald Beham, and, accord- ing to Sandrart, resided chiefly in Italy, whither he had been sent by Duke William of Bavaria, to whom he had gone on being expelled from Nurem- berg for his heretical opinions. He died in Italy, about 1540. The following are the pictures attri- buted to him by Rosenberg :
Adoration of the Magi ; an altar-piece with wings, painted with different subjects 108 Berlin. Carlsruhe. Niu-emberg. Stuttgart. Cologne. Prague. Augsburg. Sigmaringen. AVurtsburg. Cbrist on the Cross, with Mary and John, and the Magdalene kneeling.
The Virgin with the holy Child, standing on the Half- Moon, two angels crowning her; formerly an altar- piece with wings, paiuted with different subjects. Virgin with the holy Child at her breast, and St. Anna with two wings, paiuted with saints.
Four small pictures, formerly wings of an altar-piece, SS. Afra, Paul the hermit, Antony of Padua, and Jacobus the elder. [All these are at Donaueschingen, in the Koyal Gallery.] Christ ou the Mount of Olives. SS. Catharine, Paul, and Agnes, on a gold ground. SS. Crispin and Crispianus, also on a gold ground. The Flagellation, with wings ; painted with saints. Christ bearing His cross. The Entombment. St. Bruno. St. Jerome in Cardinal's habit. Portrait of the Duke of Bavaria and bis wife. Portrait of Duke Otto Henry. "Wings of an altar - piece ; paiuted with whole-length figures of saints. SS. Christopher and Andrew Waagen mentions two more, the principal being a Trinity with Mary, Andrew, and angels, and at Schleissheim are the portraits of all the princes and princesses of the reigning family ; fifteen in number. We believe some of these works men- tioned above are doubtful.
He is, however, more a designer in engraving than a painter, and may be considered as having been one of the most excellent draughtsmen and skilful engravers of the German school. Many of the plates by this master being without any designating mark, has led occasionally to some difiiculty and mistake. The prints that bear his signature are marked BB. sometimes, and are dated from 1520 to 1533. The following list gives his engravings on the best authority, that of Heir Rosenberg already quoted :
PORTRAITS.
Louis, Duke of Bavaria. Bust of Erasmus Balderman. 1535. Bust of Leonard van Eek. The Emperor Charles V. ; marked BB Ferdinand I. ; same mark.
VARIOUS SUBJECTS.
1. Adam and Eve. Adam holds a flaming sword in his right hand, and takes the apple from Eve with his left. 2, 3, 4. Three small prints. 5. Mary with the holy Child. A skull at the right. 6. „ ,, „ I, at a window A vase with flowers. 7. „ „ „ „ a parrot in the Child's hand. 8. „ suckling the Child at an open window. This and some others of the above not certainly meant for the Madonna. 9. Mary with the Child sitting on a rock. 10. Head of Christ with the crown of thorns. 11. St. Christopher. 12. St. Chrysostom's penance: the Mother and Child in the background. 13. St. Severinus, with crosier. 14. Apollo and Daphne. 15. Hercules. 16. A naked man, pos.Mbly Neptune. 17. „ „ with a sword. 18. Triumph car, of Mars and Venus (?), with other figores.
