Wouverman is well known for his white horses ; and also \Vynants, who was his instructor, as well as that of Van der Velde, who painted marine subjects to perfection. Heem painted flowers and fruit, accompanied with glasses, vases, and other similar articles, of which we see such perfect representations by many of the Dutch painters. Laar, called Bambaccio, who studied in Italy, and was the intimate friend of Poussin and Claud de Lorraine, painted 'turnings, robberies, and wild ocasts. Gerard Douw, the most punctilious and careful of painters, Ter burg and Mieris, who excelled in green grocers and kitchen subjects : his figure subjects have occasionally a dash of libertinism about them, which does not enhance their merit ; but in all his works there is a degree of magical command of penCil and colour, and a closeness to nature that was never surpassed. The son of was little inferior to his father in excellence.
As to Rembrandt van Ryn, this extraordinary genius may be said to have constituted a school of his own. It was of no importance what subject, or however mean, Rem brandt selected for his pencil. He was gifted with the power of enchantment ; and whatever fell within the magic circle of his genius assumed the character of his extraor dinary creation. A sort of thunder and lightning conflict of light and darkness envelopes every object in maze and mystery, as if issuing from the depths of a dungeon; so that, however ignoble the subject may in reality be, under his hands it comes forth w ith imposing dignity, and as sumes that sort of prophetic, though illusory importance, which we are apt to ascribe to the last words of any per son conscious of treading on the verge of eternity. Rem brandt seemed to behold nature through the medium of a highly wrought poetic imagination, and to exhibit his vi sions by the sudden and startling light of a meteor. He had no communication with sober common-place daylight; a flaring luminary of his own creation was required to give the solemn and dazzling effe.:.t with which he delight ed to make the darkness of his pictures visible. In power of execution, and dexterity in the management of his ma terials, this romantic painter found no curb to the exube rance of his fancy ; it appears as if it had flowed from his pencil with the facility' of thought. His landscapes par take of the same character, and are much and deservedly valued. What Rembrandt would have become, under the influence of different circumstances, had he been horn in Rome, or even seen the works of Greece and Italy, which. to him, seem as if the beings of another world, it were hard to guess. He must have been great in whatever he attempted ; and, as it is, he stands alone in the republic of painting.
But, however much we may be captivated by the strik ing productions of Rembrandt, we must admit that his manner partakes of trick; and that at the expellee of the best principles of the arm, which is the truth of nature, and to the detriment of its highest object, sublimity.
We might add many names of painters of great merit, as Van der Neer, Shalker, Van der Werf, Van Huysum, and others issuing from the prolific school of Hol land, whose works are in great request.
Painting in England.
We doubt if, with propriety, we can term that a school of painting, which, though varying in some particulars of its taste and practice from those of other countries,cannot, however, be considered as having blocked out for itself any distinctive style and character, such as generally exists in the practice of the principal continental countries of Europe. The period at which the attention of the British nation was at all turned to the subject of the fine arts, was comparatively late. Like the ancient Romans, the disposi tion of the people seemed little calculated to relish the clegancies of life, until riches and luxury had begun to ex tend their influence, and soften down the austere and rug ged manners of our ancestors. It happened, however, at that particular xra of our history, when the fine arts might have obtained a footing, and when they would probably have fixed those roots which were ready to shoot forth into luxuriance, that an event occurred in the political %verld which at once blighted its early prospects.
In the course of the foregoing sketch of the progress of the fine arts, we have seen bow very dependent their prosperity seems in general to have been on the religious institutions of the country where they were practised. Not only' do these appear in the earliest times to have been the source whence they usually derived their origin, but the permanent basis of future support in all the stages of their progress. They gave dignity to the subject, which, aided
by the flame of national devotion, lighted up in the minds of artists that degree of enthusiasm which was calculated to call forth the full energy of genius. But, unfortunately, the first dawnings of taste in Britain were destined to sus tain the sudden deprivation of this important stimulus, at the most critical period of their existence. The Reforma tion, by banishing all the pageantry and show of religion, not only suspended the labours of the artists whose chief employment consisted in the decoration of churches, but rendered these harmless embellishments themselves odi ous in the eyes of the people. The necessity of utterly overthrowing every vestige of the ancient sin of idolatry, had rendered the first ages of Christianity fatal to the fine arts ; but, long before the event of the Reformation, the hostility of the Roman Catholic religion had changed into protection and favour. As Mr. Roscoe observes, she had become the foster-mother of the chisel and pencil, and supplied the noblest and most interesting subjects for the exercise of their powers. " The artist whose labours were associated with the religion of his country, enjoyed a kind of sacred character, and as his compensation was generally delayed from princes and pontiffs, from munifi cert ecelesiaS.ics or rich monastic institutions, the ample reward Ns hich he obtained stimulated both himself and others to farther exertions. To the complete success of the artist a favourable concurrence of extraneous circumstances is often necessary, and the mind, already impressed with religious awe by the silence and solemnity of the cloister or the cathedral, dwells with additional interest on repre sentations already in unison with its feelings, and which exemplify, in the most striking manner, the objects of its highest admiration and respect. Even the opportunity afforded the artist of a spacious repository for his produc tions. where they were likely to remain secure for ages, and Is here they might be seen with every advantage of position, were circumstances highly favourable to his suc cess. The tendency of the Reformation was to deprive him of these benefits, to exclude his productions from the place of worship as profane or idolatrous, to compel him to seek his subjects in the colder pages of history, and his patrons among secular and less wealthy individuals." It is much to be lamented that the spirit of fanaticism, which arose upon the introduction of the reformed reli gion, should, by turning its hostility so much against whatever was calculated to impress the outward senses with reverence, have proved so irreparably destructive to the tine arts. That a consequence, arising from a blind and misdirected zeal of the igriorant rabble, which never could have been the intention of the better informed and more liberal class of their instructors, should have been allowed to form itself into a dogma, and even, with many, to become a test of their faith, is quite surprising. In the circumstances of Luther's life we find him frequently ex erting his ineffectual influence to stem the torrent of de struction, which the headlong enthusiasm of his followers had misdirected from its intended course. But such is the tendency of human nature. It is often an easy matter to lay open the flood-gates of popular opinion, but a fear ful uncertainty hangs over the future course of the torrent, which human power and wisdom are alike incapable to control. The Reformation exposed to the minds of the peo ple many abuses in their faith, but the bewildered rabble sought for something more tangible than opinion to assail, and turned with fury on the harmless decorations of their former church service; although it is exceedingly doubt ful if these emblems and representations of sacred story ever were considered as objects of adoration, even in the most barbarous times of the Christian xra. It is to be hoped, therefore, that, in the course of time, this preju dice against the appropriate decoration of our churches may be softened down with the decline of bigotry and the fastidious austerity of early timcs—that we may again see the walls of our temples ornamented with the subjects of Christian story, in the best efforts of human skill, as illus trative of the great precepts taught from the pulpit. Even in the churches of the presbyterian worship, the bare and homely fashion of the structure is fast giving way to a bet ter taste ; so that the time is probably not far distant, when some interior decoration may be resumed, and, perhaps, the full choired anthem once more be heard to peal within their walls.