231 
P A I N 
gical difcufllons with Luther, and afterwards his more 
fublunary quarrel with the pope, fo powerfully diverted 
his attention from them, and produced him fo aCtive an 
employment in deciding the courfe of the reformation in 
religion which confequently enfued. But, however great 
be the caufe that England has to rejoice in the general 
fruits of that change in religious principles and govern¬ 
ment, its effeCls were fatal to the cultivation of the arts 
of painting and fculpture. Thofe arts, particularly the 
latter, being then fo thoroughly interwoven with the fyf- 
tem of the church of Rome, were of confequence as tho¬ 
roughly oppofed by that of England, fet up in defiance of 
its authority. Had the arts at this time, when the nation 
was new-modelling its character, been adopted by the re¬ 
formed fyftem of religion ; and had they accompanied it 
with progrefhve Iteps in its courfe to our prefent date of 
cultivation ; we might, together with our juft privilege 
to boaft of an exalted rank as a nation in literature and 
feience, have likewife heightened our importance by ex¬ 
hibiting a fettled flyle of hiftorical-painting. But it was 
nipped in the bud; and to this day has not overcome the 
effeft of the chilling blaft of difappointment and negleCt. 
In the fucceeding reigns of Edward VI. Mary, and 
Elizabeth, a few portrait-painters, natives fome, but 
principally foreigners, exerted themfelves to gratify the 
defires of our nobility, and preferve their features to the 
admiration of pofterity. St. Antonio More, Frederic 
Zucchero, Ifaac Oliver, Lucas de Heere, and others of 
lefs note, fupported this branch of the art with varied 
fuccefs. But, during the long and fplendid reign of the 
latter of the three fovereigns, not only was encourage¬ 
ment denied to hilforical-painting, but the very humble, 
and even graceful, attempt made by the dean of her raa- 
jefty’s chapel, Dr. Nowell, to afford her pleafure from the 
fight of prints upon religious fubjefts, met only with the 
feverity of rebuke. (See vol. xvii. p. 280.) Whether it 
were natural bigotry, or political neceffity, which incited 
the queen to the ufe of the repuliive air fhe affumed, it 
aflecl like a command upon the church; and, from that 
rime fo the prefent hour, the prejudice, except in a very 
few inflances, remains in full force. See vol.xiii. p.407,8. 
In Italy, on the revival of letters, poets and painters 
appeared at the fame time. A Raphael painted, and a 
Vida fung. In England, from the caufes we have men¬ 
tioned, Spenfer and Siiakefpeare were not accompanied 
with any painters of eminence. Thus, -while the reli¬ 
gious enthufiafm which fill remained in Italy and other 
Roman-catholic countries, covered the walls of their 
churches with pi&ures, and enriched them with fculp- 
ture; while the painter and fculptor were creating forms 
and reprcfentations, before which the knee of the votary 
was to bend ; England was content to boaft that her poets 
ftruck the true chords, and breathed thofe drains which 
rivalled the poets of Greece and Rome, but without car¬ 
rying her boaft any farther. And thus was that channel 
through which alone the plaftic arts had ever been intro¬ 
duced with fuccefs into any country, doled upon the ef¬ 
forts of the Engliffi; and by that hand, which, if con¬ 
duced with true and enlightened policy, ought to have 
foftered it. 
Charles I. endeavoured to introduce a feeling for the 
art, which his father had almoft entirely overlooked ; but 
for which he appears to have had a very great affeCtion. 
He employed Rubens, during his Ihort reiidence here as 
envoy from the king of Spain, to paint the ceiling of the 
Banquetting-room, now the chapel of Whitehall; and 
procured a treafure of ineltimable value to the country, 
by the countenance and encouragement he afforded to 
Vandyke; and alfo to other ingenious foreigners, who 
have enriched the country with their productions. He 
formed a very confiderable colle&ion of pictures, in ad¬ 
dition to thole already poffeffed by the crown ; and, at the 
fuggeftion of Rubens, bought the cartoons. He employed 
an artift to copy the works of Titian in Spain; and pur- 
chafed the cabinet of the duke of Mantua, at the coft of 
TING. 
2o,oool. (fee Walpole’s Anecdotes, Car. I.) and fome 
were fent him as prefents. The whole were fold and dif- 
perfed by the parliament in 1643, who gave efpecial or¬ 
ders, “ that all pictures which had the reprei'entation of 
the Saviour or the Virgin Mary in them, fliould be burnt.” 
After the reftoration, many of them were returned to the 
royal collection, but only to meet utter annihilation by 
the fire which confumed the palace of Whitehall. 
Of the natives of England, few caught the flame of 
defire to imitate them even in portraiture, not one in hif- 
tory. Of the former, W. Dobfon took the lead, and fuc- 
ceeded in painting a head with great Ikill; but there his 
abilities relied. His exertions, and thofe of his contempo¬ 
raries, werearrefted almoft entirely by the Gothic barbarity 
of the puritanical fyftem which followed; and the tafte of 
Charles II. whatever he might have acquired from his 
father, was only immerfed in impurity and frivolity, by 
his long refidence at the French court; where he ac¬ 
quired a tafte for that parade and pompous difplay of 
magnificence which was the ruin of the French art. 
Verrio and Benedetto Gennaro were patronifed by this 
monarch. The former was employed by him to'decorate 
the ceilings and walls of the royal palace of Windfor; 
and received, for the extravagant load of ingenious ab- 
furdities with which he covered them, to the amount 
(according to Walpole) of 5500I. and upwards. Of the 
latter, there are feveral pictures at Windfor, in a ftyle of 
dull imitation of Guercino, of whom he was a nephew. 
In portraiture, fir Peter Lely filled with very great ability 
the place which Vandyke had held; and, in an original 
and very agreeable manner, he often rofe to a ftation. 
very nearly approaching that of his great predeceffor. In 
the expreftion of beauty, he frequently furpaffed him; and 
was a far more agreeable painter to the ladies. Sir God¬ 
frey Kneller, likewife, in this reign, began his longcareer 
of portrait-painting: he fucceeded to Lely’s fame, upon 
his deceafe in 1680, and as an artift was utterly ruined by 
fuccefs. Had he been under the neceffity of labouring 
with care to fupport the great name he enjoyed and 
abufed, he had talents efficient to the purpofe. Witnefs 
for him, the Converted Chinefe at Windfor, the portrait 
of Newton at Petworth, of Dr. Meade at Oxford, and 
many others. But he lived and praCtifed painting for five 
fucceffive reigns, almoft without a rival, making gain 
rather than fame the objeCi of his defire. Dahl, who was 
a Swede, was the only one who interfered with his prac¬ 
tice, to any extent. Willing, his countryman, threat¬ 
ened, by his carefulnefs in finiftiing, to have more effec¬ 
tually counteracted him; but he, unfortunately for Knel- 
ler’s reputation, died young. 
In hiltorical painting, no Englifh artift had appeared 
to rival the productions of foreigners introduced here, in 
any degree, till at length fir James Thornhill, born in 
1677, arofe to conteft the honours of the pallet with 
Laguerre, who had been employed to adorn the halls and 
ftaircafes of many among our nobility. The llyle he 
adopted, like that of his rival, was but a lower imitation 
than Verrio’s of the French fchool; and by no means 
ferved to elevate the tafte of the country. However, the 
ftatedid him the juftice to employ him in the decorations 
of St. Paul’s and at Greenwich, in which he was moll 
materially afiifted by a German of the name of Andre; 
but, fuch was the humiliating nature of his engagement, 
that he was paid at the rate of 40s. per fquare yard. With 
him properly commences the hiftory of Englifli art, though 
portraiture, as we have noticed, had been praCtifed by 
Dobfon after Vandyke; alfo by Riley, and by Cooper, 
who was a very ingenious artift, in miniature. But, after 
them, it funk lower and lower, in the hands of Green- 
hill, Jervas, Richardfon, (who, notwithftanding, has fo 
admirably written upon the art, and exhibited, in his ef- 
fays, a true feeling for thofe excellencies which he could 
never exemplify by manner;) and hundreds of others, 
whofe names it would be cruel to refcue from oblivion ; 
for the mania for portraiture did not ceafe, though the 
ability 
