BALEN, HENDRICK VAN, historical and portrait painter, was born at Antwerp in 1560. He was a disciple of Adam van Oort, but he quitted that master to acquire a better taste in design and composition by pursuing his studies at Rome, where he resided for a considerable time. He died in 1632. All the historical subjects painted by Van Balen have merit. His designs of the Deluge, of Moses striking the Rock, and the Drowning of Pharaoh,
are meritorious compositions. His Judgment of Paris is accounted a masterly performance; and the figure of Venus, in particular, is so elegantly designed, so full of life, and so round, that it seems to stand forth from the canvass.