CLAUDE AND SALVATOR ROSA 175 



quiet lapse of waters, and all the pastoral beauty 

 that poets have delighted to feign. 



" Directly opposite to the blandishments of this 

 great master, but true to itself, is the genius of 

 Salvator Rosa. Little recked he of Arcadian scenes. 

 Mysterious and elevated in thought, he delighted to 

 stalk over the wilds of Calabria ; and there, in re- 

 gions desolate and dolorous, by the side of some 

 impending rock, amidst the din of torrents plunging 

 down to the horrid gulf below him, he formed a 

 style, original, savage, and indomitable. Nothing 

 entered into his pictures that was commonplace or 

 mean. His figures were banditti, forlorn travellers, 

 or wrecked mariners. His trees the monarch chest- 

 nut, forming impenetrable forests, or blasted and 

 riven by the thunderbolt. All his forms were grand ; 

 even his winged clouds had a stern aspect, and par- 

 took of the general character. Titian, Claude, 

 Poussin, Salvator Rosa these, and some others of 

 the good old times, drew the poetry and soul of land- 

 scape, and not its mere dead image and this is the 

 triumph of art." 



I fancy my new friend the artist paid very little 

 attention to my remarks, which I am not at all sur- 

 prised at ; for he began to soliloquise in an absent 

 manner about Poussin, whom he said I should have 

 placed between Claude and Rosa ; and as he seemed 

 to threaten rather a long encomium, I pretended to 

 see a fish rise, and glided away quietly ; for I 

 thought enough had been said on the subject of 

 painting already. As I stole off, however, I caught 

 a few unconnected expressions ; such as " dark 



