PAINTING. 
230 
merit, and fell a victim to mortality at the early age of 37 ; 
not without leaving caufe for a fufplcion of his having 
been poifoned. 
His fortunate competitor Le Brun formed, by the great 
extent of his ability, an era in the hiftory of the art in 
France ; and Hands unrivalled in his ftyle, as the acknow¬ 
ledged head of the French fchool ; the deity of its fuc- 
ceeding artills, and the theme of their eternal adoration, 
to the utter exclufion of all the real great painters of 
Italy, of Flanders, or of Spain. And, if a vigorous 
imagination, and powerful execution of rich combina¬ 
tions in forms and colour, with an eye and a hand 
which arranged with facility the various parts of extended 
compofitions, and united them as a whole, will effec¬ 
tively weigh againft the want of fimplicity, natural ex- 
preffion, and purity in defign ; then he well merited the 
diftinffion given him by his countrymen. The fplendid 
arrangement of the gallery of Verfailles (now in danger 
of perifliing, by the negleft it experienced during the days 
of republican France), is a fatisfaffory proof of the ex¬ 
tent of his abilities; and, when his Battles of Alexan¬ 
der are placed in conjunftion with it, we can no longer 
wonder that fuch a difplay of talent, fo congenial to the 
mind of that vain ambitious monarch, Louis XIV. com¬ 
pletely overpowered all competitors. During his long 
reign, talent of all kinds Atone confpicuous round his 
throne; and painting was confequently elevated and en¬ 
couraged; the fplendour of the court, and the dignity of 
the king, being made the principal objefts of attention 
by its profefl'ors. An academy of painting, &c. was 
formed at Paris, under the immediate patronage of his 
majelty ; and another at Rome, for the benefit of French 
ftudenls. Vander Meulen accompanied him in his cam¬ 
paigns, and painted the principal events that occurred, to 
perpetuate his renown. But a more clafiical tribute of 
homage was required of the art in that age of learning. 
In imitation therefore of Caefar, who had perverted the 
pictures of Alexander, painted by Apelles, to his own 
exaltation, by adopting them as fymbolic of that power 
which he had created for himfelf; fo, by the inftrumen- 
tality ofLe Brun, Louis XIV. contrived to make the vic¬ 
tories of that immortal conqueror emblematic of his own 
reftlefs ambition. The grand monarch, however, in this 
mifraken application of the art, acknowledged the uti¬ 
lity of it, as an agent of glory to himfelf; and the refult 
has been, another proof added to the teAimony of former 
ages, of the increafed renown which may be acquired by 
a monarch and a country, from a cultivation of the arts 
which adorn human nature, above that derived from po¬ 
litical caufes. 
If even the firm bafis of nature, upon which the fiyle 
of Michael Angelo was founded, did not preferve it from 
perverfion by his imitators, it was not likely that Le 
Brim's, built as it was upon the Tandy foundation of ar¬ 
tifice, fhould ffiare a happier fate. As it led the way in 
fubftituting theatrical for natural tafte in geffureand in 
expreflion, and had obtained fuch a commanding influ¬ 
ence by its fuccefs, thofe who adopted it appear to have 
imagined that the former was the belt prototype of the 
two; and accordingly the Aage, and its artificial airs and 
graces, which were ready made to their hands, and pre¬ 
vented the difficulty and trouble of fearching and feleft- 
ing from the coy haunts of nature what was neceflary for 
their works, was made the fubjeft of their imitation. In- 
Aead of forming their tafte on the beautiful fimplicity of 
nature, their painters ftudied the geftures and the atti¬ 
tudes of comedians, the fopperies of women of faftiion, 
the affected airs of courtiers, the pageantry of Verfailles, 
and the magnificence of the opera. Mengs fays, <e The 
French have formed a national ftyle, of which ingenuity, 
and what they call efprit, are the dif'criminating qualities ; 
they have ceafed to introduce Greek, Egyptian, Roman, 
or barbarian, perfonages into their paintings; and they con¬ 
tent themfelves with figures altogether French, as if it 
were their intention to hand down to pofterity that fuch 
a nation once exifted.” 
No want of ability, however, appears in the men who 
immediately fucceeded Le Brun. The wonder is, that 
men endowed with fo much talent could have fubmitted 
their underftandings to fo falfe a tafte. Seballian Bour¬ 
don, indeed, rulhed from it, and with true poetic feeling 
endeavoured to imitate, and often very fuccefsfully did 
imitate, the purer tafte of Pouffin; but Pierre Mignard, 
Jouvenet, Champagne, and Rigaud, gave into the fyf- 
tem, till it became reduced to pompous no-meariing flut¬ 
ter; and, in the hands of Van Loo, Bouchet, 8 pc. loft all 
trace of its mafterly origin, and funk into contempt, 
even in the country where it originated. In a more mi¬ 
nute detail of the progrefs of the art than our limits will 
admit, the names of Watteau and of Vernet ought not 
to be overlooked ; the former, particularly, who created 
a pleafing ftyle of execution and colour, and exhibited it 
in fportive feenes of imagination, drawn principally from 
the amufements of the higher circles ; and the latter in¬ 
troduced a tafte for landfcape and views of fea-ports, 
which had been unknown till his time, but was too arti¬ 
ficial in his colouring. 
When the terrors of the recent revolution had fome- 
what fubfided, and in meafure even during its courfe, it 
was thought proper, in France, to revolutionize the tafte 
of its arts. But, whether the fervour of hatred to roy¬ 
alty, the determination to exterminate all remnants of it, 
or a real feeling of the indire6l courfe jvhich the tafte of 
their fchool of art had taken, guided them in the choice 
of their prefent ftyle of defign, and was the caufe or not 
of the change, certain it is that, in its vibration, it has 
gone almoft as far beyond the true line of propriety on 
the one fide, as it had before done on the other. In place 
of the pompous difplay of figures in affected attitudes, 
overloaded with draperies of rich fluffs, flowing in all the 
parade of unmeaning magnificence, a dry and infipid imi¬ 
tation of Greek fculpture is adopted ; and, in fpite of 
the immenfe mafs of perfeft exemplars, in the works 
of Raphael, of Titian, of Domenichino, and almoft 
all the renowned mafters of Italy and of Flanders, &c. 
with which the gallery of the Louvre abounds, and 
which, with a fuperior judgment, the government leave 
free to their ftudy; the prefent rulers of tafte in France 
have marked a line of conduft for the ftudents, imitative 
of the condition of painting before thofe mafters were 
born. Rejecting the efforts of the happy period of its 
maturity, they prefer retorting to the infancy of the art, 
with about as much propriety as a man who is defirous of 
walking, might tie up his legs, and throw himfelf into the 
arms of his nurie. Whether the minute attention now 
given by the French fchool to drawing, and the peculiar 
tafte in which it is directed, viz. to the adoption, in paint¬ 
ing, of the forms which appear to belong exclufively to 
fculpture, be likely to produce, in any length of time, 
the end propofed, is extremely problematic. We rather 
fufpedt the f'yftem muft be changed ere they will reach the 
objeft of their wifhes ; and then, perhaps, this preparatory 
attention to fimpie forms may really have a beneficial 
effeft. 
The English School. —So very little is known of 
what occurred concerning the art of painting in this 
country previous to the time when Henry VIII. encou¬ 
raged the abilities of Holbein in portraiture, and invited 
Titian to come here, that it would be ufelefs to endea¬ 
vour to trace its hiffory. Enough, however, is known, 
to fatisfy us that it was at a very low ffandard. It was 
but little before his time, that the people of England be¬ 
gan to throw oft' the yoke of ignorance and barbarifm, 
and to cultivate literature and Icience. The ambition of 
Henry to be renowned, and his fpirit of rivalry to his 
great neighbour Francis I. of France, were quite fufff- 
cient motives to ftimulate him to the proud aim of be¬ 
coming a patron of the liberal arts; had not his theolo- 
i 
