CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



who developed it with success ; and Michael 

 Angelo Buonarotti (1474-1563), whose works are 

 characterised by severe grandeur of design ; his 

 style, however, is marred by excessive muscular 

 development. The Roman School, headed by 

 Raphael (1483-1520). The great characteristic 

 of this school is idealisation, combined with cor- 

 rect drawing, and perfect development of the 

 principles of composition. In this country, the 

 Cartoons at Hampton Court are well known, and 

 afford a good illustration. The Venetian School, 

 headed by Giorgione (1477-1511) and Titian 

 (1477-1576), is famed for its gorgeous colouring, 

 and fineness of tone in light and shade. The 

 works of Paul Veronese (1532-1588) and Tinto- 

 retto (1512-1594), belonging to this school, are con- 

 spicuous as examples for study. The School of 

 Lombardy, headed by Correggio (1494-1534) and 

 Parmigiano (1503-1540), is characterised by great 

 beauty and softness of effect, resulting from general 

 excellence of design, colour, and light and shade. 

 The Bolognese School commenced by the three 

 Caracci (1555-1619), and embracing Guido (1574- 

 1642), whose works are admirable examples for 

 the student, Domenichino (1581-1641), and Guer- 

 cino (1590-1666) is characterised by great refine- 

 ment and general excellence. The German School, 

 led by Albert Durer (1471-1528). The Flemish 

 School, founded by Rubens (1577-1640) whose 

 works are admirable examples of colour and 

 design ; the drawing of his figures, however, is 

 deficient in refinement contains also Vandyke 

 (1599-1641), of whose portraits we possess so many 

 excellent examples in this country, and Teniers 

 (1610-1694), famed for his representations of 

 ordinary life, fine colour, and delicate execution. 

 The Dutch School, of which the most prominent 

 painter is Rembrandt (1606-1669), famed as the ' 

 greatest master of light and shade, possesses [ 

 generally but little in common with him, and is 

 more distinguished for its pictures of ordinary \ 

 life, called the genre style, worked out with great 

 beauty of colour and minuteness of detail. The 

 most prominent painters of the Spanish School 

 are Velasquez (1599-1660) who ranks in por- 

 traiture with Titian and Vandyke and Murillo 

 (1613-1685). 



The principal masters of landscape in the old 

 schools are Claude Getee of Lorraine (1600-1682, 

 Roman School), whose works are characterised 

 by great refinement of taste, delicate colouring, 

 and light and shade possessing the best qualities 

 of art ; he may be said to be the Raphael of 

 landscape-painting. Cuyp (1606-1667, Dutch 

 School), noted for excellence of colour and com- 

 position. Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), whose taste 

 was for the wild, rugged, and romantic aspects of 

 nature, and Caspar Poussin (1613-1675), whose 

 pictures are grand, possess fine tone of colour, 

 and are remarkably true to nature. The works 

 of Wouvermans, Jacob Ruysdael, and Hobbima, 

 possess many points which might be studied with 

 advantage. 



The principal painters of cattle-pieces are Paul 

 Potter whose celebrated picture of a Bull, now 

 in the Royal Museum at the Hague, is valued at 

 ^5000 and Nicholas Berghem, whose works are 

 characterised by high finish and great delicacy of 

 execution. The first great name in the English 

 school is William Hogarth (1697-1764), whose 

 powers as a satirist are well known. His works 



654 



possess great technical excellence. Sir Joshua 

 Reynolds (1723-1792), distinguished for his rich 

 and mellow tone of colouring ; but his works are 

 characterised by a certain looseness of style, 

 which should not be imitated. Benjamin West 

 (1738-1820), the principal historic painter of the 

 school at that time. James Barry and Henry 

 Fuseli, whose works display much power of im- 

 agination, but are inferior in execution. The 

 landscapes of Richard Wilson (1713-1782) have 

 seldom been surpassed; and those of Thomas 

 Gainsborough (1727-1788) are distinguished as 

 fine examples of colour and natural style : he was 

 equally distinguished in portraiture. The por- 

 traits of Sir Henry Raeburn and Sir Thomas 

 Lawrence deserve especial study. The historic 

 productions of Hilton are also very fine; and 

 those of Etty, in several instances, are splendid 

 examples of colour. The genre pictures by Wilkie 

 are well known, and are characterised by fine 

 colour and great delicacy of execution. The land- 

 scapes of the Nasmyths, of Constable, Calcott, 

 Collins, Bonnington, and Turner, rival the best 

 works of the old masters. Some of Turner's, 

 indeed, may be said to excel them. More 

 recently, the names of Mulready, Leslie, Ward, 

 Maclise, Hunt, Rosetti, Millais, and Noel Paton 

 in figure-painting, Stanfield in marine, Harding 

 and Creswick in landscape, and Roberts in archi- 

 tecture, Sir J. W. Gordon in portrait, and Sir E. 

 Landseer in animal painting, occupy a high posi- 

 tion. 



SCULPTURE. 



The greater number of sculptures, ancient and 

 modern, are executed in single blocks of white 

 marble ; a few are in bronze. A sculptor com- 

 mences by drawing his design on paper ; when 

 satisfied with this, he proceeds to form a model of 

 his proposed figure in moist clay, supporting it 

 partly by irons and framework. Having, as he 

 thinks, brought his model to perfection as respects 

 attitude and surface, it is ready to form a copy to 

 work from ; but as it is a perishable material, he 

 takes a cast from it in plaster, and this cast serves 

 as a mould for a fac-simile model in plaster of 

 Paris. The plaster-cast being hard and durable, 

 it is used as the permanent copy by the different 

 workmen. The first operative employed on it, by 

 means of a machine, takes off the rougher parts of 

 the marble, and gradually diminishes the block in 

 the required directions. The next is an able 

 assistant, who brings the figure still nearer in form 

 to the copy ; and it lastly passes under the hands 

 of the sculptor, who gives that tasteful finish and 

 spirit which the nature of the subject requires. 

 Statues in bronze are cast in moulds taken from 

 finished models. 



Sculpture is practised in various ways namely, 

 in forming detached, insulated figures, technically 

 called the round, or in representing objects more 

 or less raised, without their being entirely detached 

 from a background, termed relief. Various de- 

 grees of relief are defined, as alto-rilievo, when 

 the object is nearly complete ; basso-rilievo, when 

 slightly raised ; and mezzo-rilievo, when a medium 

 is preserved between the extremes of high and 

 low relief. 



The finest works of sculpture are generally 



