317 



and he looks back, as be walks, at the action 

 of his mother, with an expression of anx- 

 ious concern, terror, and uncertainty. So 

 superior is the interest arising from the hu- 

 man figure, and the expression of human 

 passions, that when I first saw this composi- 

 tion, I hardly thought of the landscape, ad- 

 mirable as it is in every part. The back- 

 ground, on account of which I have men- 

 tioned this noble work, is one of the richest 

 I ever saw ; it is the view of a magnificent 

 city, mixed with trees, and backed with 

 mountains : the principal buildings near 

 enough to be distinct ; distant enough to 

 have the whole taken in at one view. The 

 summits of them are most studiously vari- 

 ed, with domes, pyramids, obelisks, towers 

 of different heights and shapes; but, among 

 them all, not more than one sloping roof of 

 the straight kind, strikes the eye within the 

 town itself : without the walls indeed (per- 

 haps as a foil, and a contrast to so much 

 magnificence) he has placed a cottage with 

 a simple sloping roof ; still, however, vari- 



