CHRISTIAN. See historical part of art. Astronomy; and the fourth and fifth Preliminary Dissertations to this work.

JAN VAN, one of the greatest fruit and flower painters, was born at Amsterdam in 1682. He learned his art from his father Justus van Huysum, a painter of very considerable merit, but whose fame has been completely lost in that of his son. After thoroughly mastering the technicalities of his art, and the styles of the greatest masters of that branch of it in which he himself became unrivalled, Van Huysum betook himself to the study of nature. He sounded her most secret depths, and reproduced the brightest tints of her brightest ornaments with a skill and truthfulness that sometimes deceived the keenest eyes. He always chose the most gorgeous flowers to paint from, and was careful to watch the hour of the day at which their lustre was most brilliant. He heightened the effect of his flower-groups by placing them in vases of the most graceful shape, and working out the ornaments traced on them with the same exquisite finish as he put upon the flowers themselves. When his fame was fairly established he received almost fabulous prices for his works; and was thus enabled to bestow upon them the highest amount of care and finish. He was very jealous of his fame, and would allow no one to enter his studio while he was at work. It was believed that he had some secret in the mixing of his colours, which enabled him to preserve the brilliancy of his tints; but this, if it ever existed, perished with him. There are some very good specimens of Van Huysum in English galleries, and his pieces always fetch very high prices in the market. Van Huysum died in England in 1749.