It is the unnatural mixture of truth and allegory, and the superabundance of the latter, that is so offensive in some of Rubens' pictures ; but we must confess, when we see that he has the sanction of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who occasionally followed the same taste, that we speak with diffidence, although we have the authority of Lord Orford in deprecating the exuberance of allegory. He says, " I never could conceive that riddles and rebuses (and I look upon such emblems as litttle better) are any improve ments upon history. Allegoric personages are a poor decomposition of human nature, whence a single quality is separated and erected into a kind of half deity. and then, to be rendered intelligible, is forced to have its name -written by the accompaniment of symbols. You must be a natural philosopher before you can decipher the voca tion of one of these simplified divinities. Their dog, or their bird, or their goat, or their implement, or the colour of their clothes, must all be expounded, before you know who the person is to whom they belong, and for what vir tue the hero is to be celebrated, who has all this hierogly -ohic cattle around him. How much more genius is there in expressing the passions of the soul in the lineaments of the countenance !" We know of no finer display of al legorical painting than that great work of the Caraccis, in the decoration of the Farnese palace at Rome, where the different effects of love are so beautifully and intelligibly described by a series of ancient fables. But then there is here no incongruity by the intermixture of true history. The whole subject is the creation of fancy, in which the introduction of one real personage would be sufficient to dissolve the charm.
Rubens is perhaps as great in landscape as in any branch of the art which he practised. There is here no alloy ; every part is admirable : a sort of mixture of Salvator Rosa and Claud, uniting the vigour of wild and savage scenery with the vapoury freshness and glow of Claud de Lorraine His general character as a painter is given by Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose opinions are always valuable and accurate. He says, that " in his composition his art is too apparent. His figures have expression, and act with energy, but without simplicity or dignity His colouring, in which he is eminently skilled, is notwithstanding too much of what we call tinted. Throughout the whole of his works, there is a proportionable want of that nicety of distinction and elegance of mind which is required in the higher walks of painting; and to this want it may be in some degree ascribed, that those qualities which make. the excellency of this subordinate style appear in him with their greatest lustre. Indeed, the facility with which he invented, the richness of his composition, the luxuriant harmony and brilliancy of his colouring, so dazzled the eye, that, whilst his works continue before us, we can not help thinking that all his deficiencies are fully sup plied." Sir Antony Vandyke was a pupil of Rubens. His ge nius took the humbler path of portrait, but in that path he is unrivalled With all the delicate precision o' the Flemish school, he added the mellow tone of Titian, and a clear transparent silvery touch peculiarly his own. He is true to nature, and free from affectation of every kind. l le throws into his beads an air of contemplative compo sure and sedateness, which adds much to their dignity, and unites all the parts with such an harmonious tone of mellow colouring, that his portraits become highly va luable as specimens of art. His subject was confined, but no painter ever possessed a more perfect command of what he undertook to represent. There is a downy soft
ness of his flesh colours, under which we seem to see the suffusion of the circulating blood, contradistinguised from the iridescent play of colour in the satin draperies, which are quite illusory and beautiful. Vandyke seldom painted history, nor would he probably have succeeded in that class, as none of his works indicate fancy.
The father of Teniers was likewise a pupil of Rubens, and painted the familiar ale-house subjects of the Dutch school. His son, David Teniers, acquired a higher re putation in the same class, which we shall consider more at length in the sequel. He possessed a great readiness of pencil in characterizing the homely subjects of his taste. His trees are light and airy, and, in general, a character of cheerfulness is diffused over his works. The fami liarity and amusement of his subjects, as well as the high merit of the execution, have made them universally prized.
There are various other painters of note belonging to the Flemish school, whose merits our limits will not admit of considering : as Schwaneveldt, so excellent in land scape ; Peter Neefs, inimitable in his representations of the interior of churches; besides many others.
Dutch School.
The distinctive features of this school are abundantly different from those of Italy, arising principally front the selection of subjects in a walk of life totally different ; for, with regard to knowledge in the execution of their art, and dexterity in the use of their pencil and colours, the perfection attained in Holland is equal to that of any other country. The Dutch artists reject all connection with the heroic, or beau ideal of the Greeks and Italians ; and con fine their attention exclusively to a careful and almost juggling imitation of nature. Instead of selecting for the personages of their pictures those possessing beauty and elegance of person, so captivating either in nature or as represented ; they seem purposely to have copied from the most homely subjects ; to have preferred those figures, in which age had substituted the rugged lines of the picturesque for the beautiful of youth, or the formed grace and dignity of the meridian of life ; and to people their subjects almest exclusively with the hard-weather countenances of aged fishermen and mariners, or the bois terous carousing of peasants in their cups. And even in the favourite subject of the kermis. or village festival, so often repeated by the Dutch artists, where youth, and the playful season of life must be introduced as indispensably connected with the nature of the theme, it seems yielded to with reluctance. The personages of a younger and less sedate period of life are usually thrown into the back ground, to give place to a rugged group of ancient Bauers contemplating the revels in Turkish solemnity, or steep ing their cares in the long tankard. We might willingly tolerate the had taste in choosing, on account of the art dis played in executing ; were it not for the edifying circum stance invariably introduced of some impure joke, in which the unceremonious proceeding of the actors is often as unceremoniously represented with the broadest vulgarity. The representation is no doubt to the life ; but we shall find little in a Dutch picture to elevate our sentiments of human nature,—every thing is groveling, debasing, and low. We cannot regard their performances without feeling that we are in bad company, and have nothing to do in such society.