They are of two kinds; the one attached to a cylinder like the barrel of an organ, which always repeats the same tunes, and is moved by machinery; the other of a superior kind, played by a musician, with a set of keys. In all the great towns there are amateurs or a salaried professor, usually the organist of a church, who perform with great skill upon this gigantic instrument, placed high up in the church steeple. So fond are the Dutch and Belgians of this kind of music, that in some places the chimes appear scarcely to be at rest for ten minutes, either by day or night. The tunes are usually changed every year. Chimes were in existence at Bruges in 1300-thus the claim of the town of Alost to the invention, A.D. 1487, is disposed of. The public clocks in Belgium strike the hour half an hour beforehand: thus, at half-past 11 the clock strikes 12.

27. WORKS OF ART IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. *-THE SCHOOLS OF VAN EYCK AND RUBENS.

It is not in architecture alone that the artists of Belgium have attained an eminent degree of perfection: this country has had the rare distinction, at two distinct periods, of producing two different Schools of Painting; the founders of which, in both instances, equalled and even surpassed their contemporaries throughout the whole of Europe inthe excellence of their works.

The founders of the two schools of painting were Van Eyck and Rubens.

The numerous works produced by them and their scholars, still existing in Belgium, and nowhere else to be found in equal perfection, form another great attraction of a journey through this country, and will be highly appreciated by every traveller of taste.

The brothers HUBERT and JOHN VAN EYCK, the founders of the early school, are believed to have flourished between 1370 and 1445.

The painters were enrolled at Bruges as early as 1358 into a guild, which enjoyed the same privileges as any other corporation, and attained the highest reputation under Philip the Good, whose court at Bruges was resorted to by men of learning and science, as well as artists of the first eminence in Europe, in who society he took great delght. It was in consequence of this patronage that the brothers Hubert and John Van Eyck (the latter sometimes called John of Bruges) settled there, and have left behind them so many proofs of their skill as painters, some of which still remain at Bruges. In the days of the Van Eycks the corporation consisted of more than 300 painters, who were enrolled on the books, and formed the most celebrated school of art of the time.

Van Eyck, though not, as is sometimes stated, the original inventor of oil painting, may, at any rate, be justly termed the father of the art, as he introduced some improvement, either in the material or the mode of mixing and applying the colours, which produced a new effect, and was immediately brought into general use. Although oil painting had been previously practised in Italy, Giotto having mixed oil with his colours nearly 200 years before the time of Van Eyck, we find that an Italian artist, Antonello of Messina, made a journey to Flanders on purpose to learn this new method; and it is also recorded that Andrea del Castegna, to whom he imparted it, murdered a brother artist through whom the secret had been conveyed, in order to prevent the knowledge extending further. The depth and brightness of Van Eyck's colours, which, if they can be equalled, are certainly not to be surpassed in the present day, and their perfect preservation, are truly a source of wonder and admiration, and prove with what rapid strides these artists had arrived at entire perfection in one very important department of painting.

The works of the brothers Van Eyck are rare, and scarcely, for this reason, perhaps, appreciated as they deserve in England. With them must be associated HANS HEMLING (or Memling), another artist of the same school, whose name even

* See Kugler's Handbook of Painting; German and Dutch Schools.

is hardly known except to a very few among us. His masterpieces exist at Bruges in the hospital of St. John and in the Academy: no traveller should omit to see them. If he have any love for art, or any pretension to taste, he will not fail to admire the exquisite delicacy and feeling which they display, their brilliancy of colouring, and purity of tone.

In contemplating the works of the early Flemish school, it must be borne in mind that the artists who attained to such excellence at so early a period had none of the classic works of antiquity to guide them, no great masters to imitate and study from: the path they struck out was entirely original; they had no models but nature, and such nature as was before them. Hence it happens that their works exhibit a stiffness and formality, and a meagreness of outline, which are unpleasing to the eye, combined with a want of refinement which is often repugnant to good taste. Still these defects are more than counterbalanced by truth and force of expression, and not unfrequently by an elevation of sentiment in the representation of sacred subjects. The progress of the Flemish School may be traced, in an uninterrupted course, through the works of Quentin Matsys, Frans Floris, de Vos, the Breughels, and a number of artists little known in England, down to Otto Vennius and Rubens.

School of Rubens.-The ruling spirits of the second epoch of Flemish art were RUBENS and his distinguished pupil VANDYKE. And here we shall again avail ourselves of the excellent observations of Sir Joshua Reynolds, being fully convinced of how great value they will prove to the young traveller. They will induce him not to rest satisfied with the name of a painter and the subject of a picture; they will point out to him the beauties, the reason why such works are esteemed, and induce him to examine for himself, thus enabling him to form his taste, 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 canvas 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 Îie 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 app

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 everything 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 : everything 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 anything, 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.

"This power, which Rubens possessed in the highest degree, enabled him to represent whatever he undertook better than any other painter. His 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. In his representations of the highest characters in the Christian or the fabulous world, instead of something above humanity, which might fill the idea which 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 difference, 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

the variety of art, or are led away by the affectation of approving nothing but what comes from the Italian school."-Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Belgium possesses at the present day a School of Living Painters, whose works have high claims to attention, and may be seen at the yearly exhibitions at Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, as well as in the palaces, museums, and churches of the principal towns. The historical pictures of Wappers, de Keyzer, Biefve, Maes, Gallait, Brakelaer, the animals of Verboekhoven, the woody landscapes of Hellemans, are worthy of being placed by the side of the best productions of any existing school.

ROUTES THROUGH BELGIUM.