and to carry with him a perception of excellence by which he may exercise a critical judgment of painting in general.

CHARACTER OF RUBENS.

"The works of men of genius alone, where great faults are united with great beauties, afford proper matter for criticism. Genius is always eccentric, bold, and daring; which, at the same time that it commands attention, is sure to provoke criticism. It is the regular, cold, and timid composer who escapes unseen, and deserves no praise.

"The elevated situation on which Rubens stands in the esteem of the world is alone a sufficient reason for some examination of his pretensions. His fame is extended over a great part of the Continent without a rival; and it may be justly said that he has enriched his country, not in a figurative sense alone, by the great examples of art which he left, but by what some would think a more solid advantage, the wealth arising from the concourse of strangers whom his works continually invite to Antwerp. To extend his glory still further, he gives to Paris one of its most striking features, the Luxemburg Gallery; and if to these we add the many towns, churches, and private cabinets where a single picture of Rubens confers eminence, we cannot hesitate to place him in the first rank of illustrious painters. Though I still entertain the same general opinion both with regard to his excellences and defects; yet having now seen his greatest compositions, where he has more means of displaying those parts of his art in which he particularly excelled, my estimation of his genius is, of course, raised. It is only in large compositions that his powers seem to have room to expand themselves. They really increase in proportion to the size of the canvass on which they are to be displayed. His superiority is not seen in easel pictures, nor even in detached parts of his greater works; which are seldom eminently beautiful. It does not lie in an attitude, or in any peculiar expression, but in the general effect, in the genius which pervades and illuminates the whole.

"The works of Rubens have that peculiar property always attendant on genius, — to attract attention, and enforce admiration in spite of all their faults. It is owing to this fascinating power that the performances of those painters with which he is surrounded, though they have, perhaps, fewer defects, yet appear spiritless, tame, and insipid; such as the altar-pieces of Crayer, Schut, Segers, Huysum, Tyssens, Van Balen, and the rest. They are done by men whose hands, and, indeed, all their faculties, appear to have been cramped and confined; and it is evident that every thing they did was the effect of great labour and pains. The productions of Rubens, on the contrary, seem to flow with a freedom and prodigality, as if they cost him nothing; and to the general animation of the composition there is always a correspondent spirit in the execution of the work. The striking brilliancy of his colours, and their lively opposition to each other; the flowing liberty and freedom of his outline; the animated pencil with which every object is touched,—all contribute to awaken and keep alive the attention of the spectator; awaken in him, in some measure, correspondent sensations, and make him feel a degree of that enthusiasm with which the painter was carried away. To this we may add the complete uniformity in all the parts of the work, so that the whole seems to be conducted and grow out of one mind: every thing is of a piece, and fits its place. Even his taste of drawing and of form appears to correspond better with his colouring and composition than if he had adopted any other manner, though that manner, simply considered, might have been better. It is here, as in

personal attractions, there is frequently found a certain agreement and correspondence in the whole together, which is often more captivating than mere regular beauty.

"Rubens appears to have had that confidence in himself which it is necessary for every artist to assume when he has finished his studies, and may venture in some measure to throw aside the fetters of authority; to consider the rules as subject to his control, and not himself subject to the rules; to risk and to dare extraordinary attempts without a guide, abandoning himself to his own sensations, and depending upon them. To this confidence must be imputed that originality of manner by which he may be truly said to have extended the limits of the art. After Rubens had made up his manner, he never looked out of himself for assistance: there is, consequently, very little in his works that appears to be taken from other masters. If he has borrowed any thing, he has had the address to change and adapt it so well to the rest of his work that the thief is not discoverable.

"Besides the excellency of Rubens in these general powers, he possessed the true art of imitating. He saw the objects of nature with a painter's eye; he saw at once the predominant feature by which every object is known and distinguished; and as soon as seen, it was executed with a facility that is astonishing: and, let me add, this facility is to a painter, when he closely examines a picture, a source of great pleasure. How far this excellence may be perceived or felt by those who are not painters, I know not to them certainly it is not enough that objects be truly represented; they must likewise be represented with grace, which means, here, that the work is done with facility and without effort. Rubens was, perhaps, the greatest master in the mechanical part of the art, the best workman with his tools, that ever exercised a pencil."

His

"This power, which Rubens possessed in the highest degree, enabled him to represent whatever he undertook better than any other painter. animals, particularly lions and horses, are so admirable, that it may be said they were never properly represented but by him. His portraits rank with the best works of the painters who have made that branch of the art the sole business of their lives; and of these he has left a great variety of specimens. The same may be said of his landscapes; and though Claude Lorraine finished more minutely, as becomes a professor in any particular branch, yet there is such an airiness and facility in the landscapes of Rubens, that a painter would as soon wish to be the author of them as those of Claude, or any other artist whatever.

"The pictures of Rubens have this effect on the spectator, that he feels himself in nowise disposed to pick out and dwell on his defects. The criticisms which are made on him are, indeed, often unreasonable. His style ought no more to be blamed for not having the sublimity of Michael Angelo, than Ovid should be censured because he is not like Virgil.

"However, it must be acknowledged that he wanted many excellences which would have perfectly united with his style. Among those we may reckon beauty in his female characters: sometimes, indeed, they make approaches to it; they are healthy and comely women, but seldom, if ever, possess any degree of elegance: the same may be said of his young men and children. His old men have that sort of dignity which a bushy beard will confer; but he never possessed a poetical conception of character. his representations of the highest characters in the Christian or 'the fabulous world, instead of something above humanity, which might fill the idea which

In

is conceived of such beings, the spectator finds little more than mere mortals, such as he meets with every day.

"The incorrectness of Rubens, in regard to his outline, oftener proceeds from haste and carelessness than from inability: there are in his great works, to which he seems to have paid more particular attention, naked figures as eminent for their drawing as for their colouring. He appears to have entertained a great abhorrence of the meagre, dry manner of his predecessors, the old German and Flemish painters; to avoid which, he kept his outline large and flowing: this, carried to an extreme, produced that heaviness which is so frequently found in his figures. Another defect of this great painter is his inattention to the foldings of his drapery, especially that of his women: it is scarcely ever cast with any choice of skill. Carlo Maratti and Rubens are, in this respect, in opposite extremes: one discovers too much art in the disposition of drapery, and the other too little. Rubens's drapery, besides, is not properly historical; the quality of the stuff of which it is composed is too accurately distinguished, resembling the manner of Paul Veronese. This drapery is less offensive in Rubens than it would be in many other painters, as it partly contributes to that richness which is the peculiar character of his style, which we do not pretend to set forth as of the most simple and sublime kind.

"The difference of the manner of Rubens from that of any other painter before him, is in nothing more distinguishable than in his colouring, which is totally different from that of Titian, Correggio, or any of the great colourists. The effect of his pictures may be not improperly compared to clusters of flowers: all his colours appear as clear and as beautiful; at the same time, he has avoided that tawdry effect which one would expect such gay colours to produce; in this respect resembling Barocci more than any other painter. What was said of an ancient painter, may be applied to those two artists, - that their figures look as if they fed upon roses.

"It would be a curious and a profitable study for a painter to examine the difference, and the cause of that difference, of effect in the works of Correggio and Rubens, both excellent in different ways. The preference, probably, would be given according to the different habits of the connoisseur: those who had received their first impressions from the works of Rubens would censure Correggio as heavy; and the admirers of Correggio would say Rubens wanted solidity of effect. There is lightness, airiness, and facility in Rubens, his advocates will urge, and comparatively a laborious heaviness in Correggio, whose admirers will complain of Rubens's manner being careless and unfinished, whilst the works of Correggio are wrought to the highest degree of delicacy; and what may be advanced in favour of Correggio's breadth of light, will, by his censurers, be called affected and pedantic. It must be observed, that we are speaking solely of the manner, the effect of the picture; and we may conclude, according to the custom in pastoral poetry, by bestowing on each of these illustrious painters a garland, without attributing superiority to either.

"To conclude,—I will venture to repeat in favour of Rubens, what I have before said in regard to the Dutch school, (§ 14.)—that those who cannot see the extraordinary merit of this great painter, either have a narrow conception of the variety of art, or are led away by the affectation of approving nothing but what comes from the Italian school.". Sir Joshua Reynolds.

ROUTES THROUGH BELGIUM.