PAIN 
Leyden, his education mud altogether have depended on 
the exertion of great talents and the ftudy of nature. He 
ftudied the grotefque figure of a Dutch peafant or the 
fervant of an inn with as much application as the greateft 
mailers of Italy would have ftudied the Apollo of Belvi- 
dere or the Venus de Medicis. This was not the manner 
of elevating himfelf to the noble conceptions of Raphael; 
but it was acquiring the imitation of truth in vulgar 
painting. 
Rembrandt’s manner of painting is a kind of magic. 
Noartift knew better the effefls of different colours min¬ 
gled together, nor could better diftinguifti thofe which 
did not agree from thofe which did. He placed every 
tone in its place with fo much exa&nefs and harmony, 
that he needed not to mix them, and fo deftroy what may 
be called the flower and frelhnefs of the colours. He 
made the firft draught of his pi&ures with great precifion, 
and with a mixture of colours altogether particular ; he 
proceeded on his firft Iketch with a vigorous application, 
and fometimes loaded his lights with fo great a quantity 
of colour, that he feemed to model rather than to paint. 
Such is the power of genius, that Rembrandt, with all 
his faults, and they are enormous, is placed among the 
greateft artifts by M. Defcamps, who faw his works, and 
was himfelf an artift. It is neceflary to obferve, that if 
Rembrandt was ignorant of the eflential parts of his art, 
or neglected them, he was yet acquainted with expreffion , 
which alone was capable of giving animation to his works. 
His expreflions are not noble ; but they are juft, live!}'', and 
excited with great judgment. In him the world poflefled 
another of thofe men of powerful genius, who created 
an atmofphere of art for themfelves, and moved within 
it uncontrolled, with a fecuritv that fets imitation at 
defiance. What Corregio had given to the Italians, Rem¬ 
brandt bellowed upon the Dutch ; chiaro-fcuro concen¬ 
trated, or expanded, rivalling the purity and brilliancy 
of nature. That, and colour, were his immediate agents ; 
with w hich he played at will, in all the varieties which a 
viv^d imagination, and clofe obfervation of the more ftri- 
king effedls of nature, could poflibly fupply him ; and 
not unfrequeritly, by their means, gave beauty even to 
deformity, at leaft, robbed it of difguft, and rendered it 
engaging to the eye. 
John de Laer, a miniature-painter, and who made 
choice of his fubje&s from common life, deferves a dif- 
tinguiftied place in the Dutch fchool. He painted hunt- 
ing-fcenes, the attacks of robbers, public feftivals, land- 
fcapes, and fea-views ; and he ornamented his pidlures 
with old ruins, and enriched them with figures of men 
and animals. He had a correct defign, and employed 
vigorous and lively colouring. Oftade, although born at 
Lubeck, Gerard Dow, Metzu, Miris, Wouverinans, Ber- 
ghem, and the celebrated painter of flowers Van Huyfurn, 
belong to the Dutch fchool. 
The charafteriftic features of the fchools, at the head 
of which Rubens and Rembrandt are duly placed, are— 
a perfeft (kill in combination and arrangement of chiaro- 
fcuro; great ftrength of natural and local character; and 
a precife truth of imitation, even almoft to perfedt de¬ 
ception, in form, colour, and effedl. Thefe powerful 
qualities are, however, too conftantly degraded by a low 
and vulgar application of them, particularly among the 
painters of the Dutch fchool. Among the Flemings, 
many of the pupils of Rubens adhered to his clafs of 
fubjedls, and exhibited a brilliancy of imagination, and 
power of execution, w’ortby of the fource whence they 
proceeded. Vandyke more efpecially; who, in point of 
chaftity of defign, and purity of colouring, excelled even 
the power of his mailer, though he had not his capacious 
genius, to whom the reprefentation of all things feemed 
equally facile, and whole abilities leem to have been en¬ 
larged according to the fphere he was called to adt in, or 
the canvas he was employed to cover. 
The hillory of the patronage of the art in Holland and 
Flanders lies within a very lliort compafs 5 as it relted 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1238. 
TING. 229 
almoft entirely with the church, who called for altar- 
pieces, (and their chapels were filled with them,) and 
the munificence and tafte of private individuals. Very 
few indeed of their public eftablilhments were adorned 
with pidlures, notwithftanding the immenfe fund of abi¬ 
lities the countries poflefled ; and it was left to find its 
own interefts, by gratifying the tafte for portraiture, 
among the rich merchants and burghers ; or the execu¬ 
tion of fmall pictures, within the fcale of admiflion to pri¬ 
vate rooms, on fubjedts of ordinary intereft, of landfcape, 
or of vulgar amufement. Its pradlice in thofe countries 
failed completely foon after the commencement of the 
jStli century. 
In fadl, the greater part of the fchools of which we 
have treated have no longer any exiftence. Italy alone 
had four fchools, and there only remain at prefent a very- 
few Italian artifts known to foreigners. The fchool of 
Rubens is in vain fought for in Flanders. If the Dutch 
fchool ftill exifts, it is not known beyond the precindts. 
of Holland. Mengs, a German artift, has made himfelf 
famous in our days; but it was in Italy that he chiefly 
improved his talents and exercifed his art. M. Dietrich, 
another German, has made himfelf known to ftrangers 1 
but two folitary artifts do not form a fchool. 
French School.— The adoption of Leonardo da Vinci 
by Francis I. after he had left Italy, (and in whofe arms 
he died,) together with the powerful talents of Prima- 
ticcio, of Rofi’o, and of Nicolo Abbati, employed by the. 
fame monarch to paint in frefco the chambers of the royal 
palace of Fontainbleau, it might have been imagined,, 
would have laid fo ftronga foundation of exalted tafte in 
the country where it came with all the charms of novelty,, 
that it could not but have been purfued by a people emi¬ 
nent for their ingenuity, with a degree of fuccefs rivalling 
the neighbouring country of Italy ; more efpecially as 
they had perpetual intercourfe with it, and were under 
the influence of the lame fyftem of religion, which had 
there adopted painting as a portion of itfelf. Yet, very 
little arole from thefe admirable examples ; and the only 
French painters whofe names have come down to us of 
any pretenfions to excellence for the next hundred 
and fifty years, are Jean Coufin and Jacques Blanchard. 
The former lived towards the end of the lixteenth cen¬ 
tury, and was a Ikilful defigner, though in a meagre tafte. 
He painted principally on giafs. The latter was of forne- 
what later date; and having, by ftudy at Venice, ac¬ 
quired a tafte for Venetian defign and colouring, he ob¬ 
tained the name of the French Titian, and his works 
were much elteemed. 
After thefe, the art did not rife in France, till Pouftin,, 
having imbibed a tafte for its excellencies in Italy, re¬ 
turned to his native country, but with reluftance, at the 
invitation of Louis XIII. Although the treatment he 
received was handfome, and becoming both patron and 
painter, yet he found the tafte of his country not formed 
to relilh the fimplicity of his ftyle. The facile mediocrity 
of Simon Vouet received more admiration ; and Pouftin,. 
difgufted, returned to his tranquil life at Rome; leaving 
the field toa competitor, who laid the foundation of that 
flutter and frivolity which charadterifed the ftyle of the 
French fchool up to the time of the late fweeping and 
grand revolution. Le Sueur, indeed, felt like a man of a 
pure and elevated mind ; and fpurned the trammels im- 
pofed by the ftyle of Vouet. The chaftity, the feeling, 
and purity of foul, of Raphael, feem to have been in- 
fufed into his mind, and exhibited itfelf in the feries of 
pidlures painted for the convent of the Chartreux at Pa¬ 
ris, and known as the Life of St. Bruno ; in the Burning 
of the Books of Magic at Ephefus, &c. But no pre¬ 
paration had been made to receive fo pure a tafte as Le 
Sueur’s ; and in a court where oftentation took place of 
magnificence, its fuavity and gentlenefs were ill capable 
of withftanding the brilliant but falfe glitter, which ac¬ 
companied the exertions of his fellow-ftudent under 
Vouet, Charles leBrun. He funk under the unjuft abafe- 
3 N ment 3 . 
