FINE ARTS. 353 



as a representation of English scenery, rather deficient in the mellow, 

 shadowy verdure of this countrj' ; to say the truth, the vernal suavity and 

 freshness of local colouring, in woodland landscape, is a point to which the 

 admirable Creswick may direct some attention without any disadvantage. 

 In street and city views, every effort of his pencil is a victory. 



*' 32 — Teniers in his Study," the property of the Rt. Hon. Lord North- 

 wick, by J. Fraser. The British artist has here represented his celebrated 

 Flemish predecessor painting *' The Temptation of St. Anthony," a story 

 which had been a favourite with the painters and engravers in Germany, 

 Holland, and Flanders, during nearly two centuries before. Martin 

 Schoen, of Culmback, engraved his temptation of ** Saint Anthony 

 carried into the air by Demons" about the year 1470. The temptation, 

 by old Jerome Bos, of Boisle Due, is dated 1522. Jacques Callot, of 

 Nancy, was so enamoured of the whimsical distresses of the holy man, 

 that he made a number of different designs of it (of which Watelet saw 

 four) before he etched his first Temptation, dated 1635. His second 

 print is without a date, and rather scarce. Jacques vied with hellish 

 Breughell in the ungovernable freaks of fancy, with which he animated 

 these drawings, some too ludicrous, others not over delicate, but more 

 merry than sad. The temptations painted by old Teniers were very 

 popular : his son's became more so. Although young David was not re- 

 markably squeamish in peopling his canvass with diablerie, he kept his 

 pencil more under decorum than some of his predecessors. In his repeti- 

 tions of the Saint's perils, his imps, fiends, goblins, and monstrous appa- 

 ritions, present themselves to the eye under the most fantastic shapes of 

 strange fishes, beasts, birds, and reptiles ; some headless bodies frisking 

 it in the dance, and bodiless heads on the wing, spitting fire. Again, 

 the members of different species are conjunct in one unseemly form, and 

 groups of these are diversified by imaginary spectres of the artist's 

 prolific invention. 



The temptation of the Saint on the easel before Teniers, is copied by 

 Fraser either from the painting or well-known engraving. He has 

 represented a female with a cup in her hand, sitting to the painter as a 

 model for the principal tempter or temptress ; it being supposed that 

 Satan, from his knowledge of human frailty, rested his chief hope 

 of a triumph over the virtue of the Saint, on the assumed form of a fair 

 syren with a wine-cup. The small copy on the easel is nearly finished, 

 and in drawing, touch, and colouring so much in the spirit of the 

 original, that, if any Goth were to cut it out, it might be easily mistaken 

 for a study by Teniers. 



In the texture and the surface of the numerous accessories, the artist's 

 acute eye and discriminative pencil have been eminently successful. Of 

 his extraordinary talent, the carved crucifix, huge open volume, terres- 

 trial globe, skull, hour-glass, and other articles, on the right side of the 

 picture, furnish examples. A peacock, the painter's cabinet-stand of 

 oil-bottles and colours near him, and an old portrait, supposed to be 

 hanging in its frame on the wall, are equally striking. On the left side, 

 a parrot, fruit, fire-arras, a gauntlet, musical instruments, and other 

 articles somewhat beyond, exhibit, in different degrees, a surprising 

 fidelity of imitation. I may not be very exact in naming those varieties, 

 but of the artist's extraordinary powers I speak with confidence. 



Much of the beauty of effect in Teniers' paintings is produced by light 

 upon light ; and Fraser has introduced the light from a high window, 

 and spread it finely through the apartment, in a clear, cool, silvery style. 

 My former remark on the burly person of Teniers, and my wish for 

 some more beauty in the female model, to render her a more seducing 

 temptress to the Saint, are chiefly respecting the degree of gentility in 

 his figure, of attraction in hers, and of more warmth in the carnations. 



