BIRMINGHAM SOCIETY OF AIITS. 115 



the committee to " look to it." Instead of three children (the won- 

 drous trinity in the unity of one member of parliament), we find 

 in the picture, besides the knight and Lady Alice, three young 

 ladies, with brocade gowns and Mechlin ruffs ; one young gentle- 

 man, looking very tight in a new doublet, stepping out of the garden 

 with a plate ; another, younger, is placed beside his mamma, and 

 apparently sitting upon nothing; two more juveniles are deposited 

 in front of the group : while the youngest hope of the illustrious 

 family appears in nurse's arms, in the background. We leave our 

 readers to select for themselves, out of these eight sedate little peo- 

 ple, the Member-of-Parliament-trinity. The individual portions of 

 the picture are painted with minute and exquisite finish. 



Rembrandt's Tobit and the Angel, though a work of great beauty 

 as regards its execution in many parts, is so burlesqued in design 

 and idea, that we can scarcely do justice to the manner in which it 

 is depicted. Rembrandt's finest pictures are those the life-size, 

 either portraits, or simple half-length groups ; such as The Standard 

 Bearer, Eli and Samuel, &c. In grouping scriptural figures 

 smaller than life, he is too apt to degenerate into the coarse and ab- 

 surd, especially where any angelic personages are introduced. The 

 angel in the picture now before us is one of the most substantial, 

 athletic figures imaginable ; heavily clad in a thick, long garment, 

 outside which he sports a pair of magnificent brown wings ; and his 

 proboscis is portentously red. Guido shews us a far better Angel 

 delivering St. Peter from Prison ; though this is inferior in beauty 

 to the generality of celestial beings imagined by this graceful pain- 

 ter. His Susanna and the Elders is a fine picture. In the female 

 figure his peculiar and delicate manner of delineating the flesh is 

 well shewn. 



We are compelled to pass slightly over many gems to which we 

 would willingly devote individual notices : among these are Paul 

 Potter's admirable animal portraits, Cuyp's sunny and delicious 

 fields and half-living groups of cattle, several fine coast scenes by 

 Vandervelde, landscapes by Rubens, Berchem — that prince of truth- 

 painters ; Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c. : but as we must condemn sun- 

 dry court beauties by Sir Peter Lely to the same fate, we can 

 scarcely be accused of partiality. 



Gainsborough's portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, though good, 

 only incline us to rejoice more heartily that he discovered his supe- 

 rior strength in landscape painting. 



Vandyck's Portrait of Prince Maurice is a splendid picture. The 

 present exhibition is most rich in his works ; among them is his 

 superb Portrait of Sir Kenelrn Digby, whose fine intellectual head 

 lives on the canvass. Nor is Waller's Sacharissa (the Countess of 

 Sunderland,) one of the least interesting of the great master's be- 

 quests to posterity. The portrait painters of the present day would 

 do well to qualify their studies of the brilliant and luxurious Law- 

 rence by an equal attention to the chaste, quiet dignity, and calm 

 unobtrusive grace of Vandyck. Sir Kenelm Digby and the fair mo- 



