LANDSCAPE PAINTING OF 16TH AND 1 7lH CENTURIES. 447 



iiese school, adhered faithfully to this elevation of style. If, 

 however, the great epoch of historical painting belong to 

 the sixteenth century, that of landscape painting appertains 

 undoubtedly to the seventeenth. As the riches of nature be- 

 came more known, and more carefully observed, the feeling 

 of art was likewise able to extend itself over a greater diver- 

 sity of objects, while at the same time the means of technical 

 representation had simultaneously been brought to a higher 

 degree of perfection. The relations between the inner tone 

 of feelings and the delineation of external nature became more 

 intimate, and b the links thus established between the two, 

 the gentle and mild expression of the beautiful in nature was 

 elevated, and, as a consequence of this elevation, belief in 

 the power of the external world over the emotions of the 

 mind was simultaneously awakened. When this excitement, 

 in conformity with the noble aim of all art, converts the 

 actual into an ideal object of fancy, when it arouses within 

 our minds a feeling of harmonious repose, the enjoyment is 

 not unaccompanied by emotion, for the heart is touched 

 whenever we look into the depths of nature or of humanity.* 

 In the same century we find thronged together Claude Lor- 

 raine, the idyllic painter of light and aerial distance ; Ruys- 

 dael, -with his dark woodland scenes and lowering skies; 

 Gaspard and Nicholas Poussin, with their nobly delineated 

 forms of trees ; and Everdingen, Hobbima, and Cuvp, so true 

 to life in their delineations. f 



In this happy period of the development of art, a noble 

 effort was manifested to introduce all the vegetable forms 

 yielded by the North of Europe, Southern Italy, and the 

 Spanish Peninsula. The landscape was embellished with 



* Wilhelmvon Humboklt, Gesammelte Werke, bd. iv. s. 37; see also, 

 on the different gradations of the life of nature, and on the tone of mind 

 awakened by the landscape around, Carus, in his interesting work, 

 Briefen uber die Landschaftmalerei, 1831, s. 45. 



f The great century of painting comprehended the works of Johann 

 Breughel, 1569-1625; Rubens, 1577-1640; Domenichino, 1581-1641 ; 

 Philippe de Champaigne, 1602-1674; Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1655; Gas- 

 par Poussin (Dughet). 1613-1675; Claude Lorraine, 1600-1682; Albert 

 Cuyp, 1606-1672; Jan Both, 1610-1650; Salvator Rosa, 1615-1673; 

 Everdingen, 1621-1675; Nicolaus Berghem, 1624-1683; Swanevelt, 

 1620-1690; Ruysdael, 1635-1681; Minderhoot Hobbima, Jan Wynants, 

 Adriaan van de Yelde, 1639-1 C 72; Carl Dujardin, 1644-1C37. 



