182 



sublime, as the severer styles of the Ro- 

 man and Florentine schools, yet it is much 

 more so, than the fresh and sensual tints 

 of Rubens*, or the silvery tone of Guido; 

 and in this it accords with the general 

 character of the picturesque, which more 

 readily mixes with the sublime than the 

 beautiful does. Sometimes also, the grand- 

 est effects have arisen from the broken tints 

 of the Venetian painters; effects that are 

 displayed in their highest perfection in 

 the back grounds and skies of Titian, and 

 which, in those parts of the picture, could 

 not be produced by the unbroken, and 

 distinct colours of the Roman school. 

 Claude always mixed a much larger 

 proportion of cool, fresh colours in his 

 landscapes, than the Venetians did in 

 theirs. In some of his early pictures, 

 those cool tints prevail too much, and give 



* I am here speaking solely of the tints of Rubens, 

 especially those of his women and children, without any 

 reference to the forms or the dispositions of his figures, or 

 the richness of his dresses and decorations ; on account 

 of which Sir Joshua Reynolds has classed him with th<2 

 Venetians, as belonging to the ornamental, and, in that l<?n 

 spect, the picturesque style. 



