MELCHIOR, a famous Dutch painter, born at Utrecht, excelled in painting animals, and especially birds. His father and grandfather were of the same profession, and their subjects the same. He was trained up to the art by his father; but surpassed not only him, but even the best of his contemporaries, in a very high degree. Till he was seventeen years of age, he continued under the direction of his father, and accustomed himself to paint several sorts of birds; but particularly he was pleased to represent cocks, hens, ducks, chickens, and peacocks, which he described in an elegant variety of actions and attitudes. After his father's death, which happened in 1653, he received some instructions from his uncle John Baptist Weenix; but his principal and best instructor was nature, which he studied with intense application.—His pencil was wonderfully neat and delicate; his touch light; his colouring exceedingly natural, lively, and remarkably transparent; and the feathers of his fowls were expressed with such a swelling softness, as might have readily and agreeably deceived the eye of any spectator. It is reported that he had trained up a cook to stand in any attitude he wanted to describe, and that it was his custom to place that creature near his easel; so that at the motion of his hand the bird would fix itself in the proper posture, and would continue in that particular position without the smallest perceptible alteration for several hours at a time. The landscapes which he introduces as the back grounds of his pictures are adapted with peculiar judgment and skill, and admirably finished; they harmonize with his subject, and always increase the force and the beauty of his principal objects. His touch was very singular, in imitating the natural plumage of the fowls he painted; which not only produced a charming effect, but also may prove serviceable to an intelligent observer, to assist him in determining which are the genuine works of this master, and which are impostions. His pictures fell at a high price, and are much sought after. He died at Utrecht in 1695, aged 59.