CORNELIUS, a painter of landscapes, cattle, and conversazioni, was born at Haerlem in 1620, and studied painting under Adrian Ostade. Falling into a dissipated way of life, he was disinherited by his father, for which reason he changed his paternal name, which was Beggeyn, and took that of Bega; hence his early pictures are marked with the former name, his subsequent works with the latter. Bega, at the age of forty-four, died of the plague, having taken the infection from his mistress, whom he attended with unceasing devotion till the last hour of her life.