ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 
capes cenfure, and deferves no 
praife. 
“ The elevated fituation on which 
Rubens ftands in the efteem of the 
world, is alone fufficient reafon for 
fome examination of his preten- 
fions. 
“‘ His fame is extended over a 
great part of the Continent, with- 
out arival; and it may be jufily 
faid that he has enriched his coun- 
try, not in a figurative fenfe only, 
by the great examples of art which 
he left, but by what fome would 
think a more folid advaniage, the 
wealth arifing from the concourfe 
_of ftrangers whom his works con- 
tinually invite to Antwerp, which 
would otherwife have little to re- 
ward the vifit of a connoiffeur. 
“ To the city of Duffeldorf he 
has been an equal benefactor. The 
. gallery of that city is confidered as 
containing one of the greateft col- 
lection of pictures in the world ; 
but if the works of Rubens were 
taken from it, I will venture to af- 
fert, that this great repofitory would 
be reduced to at leaft half its value. 
“To extend his glory {till far- 
ther, he gives to Paris one of its 
moft ftriking features, the Luxem- 
bourg gallery: and if to thefe we 
add the many towns, churches, and 
private cabinets, where a fingle 
picture of Rubens confers emi- 
nence, we cannot hefitate to place 
him in the firft rank of illuftrious 
painters. 
*“ Though I ftill entertain the 
fame general opinion both in re- 
gard to his excellencies and his de- 
ects, yet, having now feen his 
greateft compofitions, where he had 
-more means of difplaying thofe 
en of his art in which he particu- 
arly excelled, my eftimation of his 
genius is of courfe ‘raifed. It is 
491 
only in large compofitions that his 
powers feem to have room to ex- 
pand themfcives; for they really 
increafe in proportion to the fize of 
the canvas on which they are to be 
difplayed. His fuperiority is not 
feen in eafel pictures, nor even in 
detached parts of his greater works, 
which are feldom eminently beau- 
tiful. It does not lie inan attitude, 
or in any peculiar expreflion, but 
in the general effe¢t—in the genius 
which pervades and illuminates the 
whole. 
*<T remember to have obferved, 
in a picture of Diatreci, which I 
faw ina private cabinet at Bruffels, 
the contrary effect. In that perfor- 
mance there appeared to be a total 
abfence of this pervading genius; 
though every individual figure was 
correctly drawn, and to the ation 
of each as careful an attention was 
paid as if it were a fet Academy 
figure. Here feemed to be nothing 
left to chance ; all the nymphs (the 
fubjeét was the bath of Diana) were 
what the ladies call in attitudes ; 
yet, without being able to cenfure 
it for correétnels, or any other de- 
fect, I thought it one of the coldeft 
and moft infipid pitures I ever be- 
held. ; ’ 
** The works of Rubens have that 
peculiar property always attendant 
on genius to attraé attention and 
enforce admiration, in {pite of all 
their faults. It is owing to this 
fafcinating power that the perfor- 
mances of thofe painters with 
which he is furrounded, though 
they have seb A fewer defetts, 
yet appear {piritlefs, tame, and in- 
fipid ;—fuch as the altar-pieces of 
Crayer, Schutz, Segers, Heyfens, 
Tyfens, Van Bulen, and the reft. 
They are done by men whofe hands, 
and indeed all their faculties, appear 
to 
