Account of the Marquis of Staford’s Gallery of Pictures. 623 , 
was well acquainted with it, is evident 
from the excellence of gradation observ- 
able in his sunsets. 7 
A View on a Canal, by Cuyp. 
This piece possesses a delightful trans- 
parency in the water ; the figures are nu- 
merous and very well arranged, the sunny 
warmth of the sky, 1s harmonious and is 
diffused in a most agreeable manner over 
the whole picture. ‘The chief defect is, 
that a heavy sloop, with its sails spread 
out, forms a cumbrous and disagreeable 
object in the front. 
Several excellent landscapes, by Wy- 
nants, Ruysdael, and Wouvermans, be- 
long to’ this part of the collection. The 
colouring of Wynants has been'so often 
remarked forits pleasingwarmth aud truth, 
that there will be no necessity to repeat the 
observation: suffice to say, that his clouds 
surpass in the variety of their tints and 
beauty those of any other painter, either 
ancient or modern, The. colouring of 
Ruysdael is in all his pictures too black, 
although his scenes it is true are gene- 
rally accompanied with a rainy sky ; his 
trees also have too much uniformity. His 
waterfalls and canalscenery undoubtedly 
form the best part of his works. Of 
Wouverman the excellent colouring in 
respect to horses and figures is very weil 
known; sometimes however his pieces 
degenerate tov much into a black’style, 
which deprives them in some degree of 
the captivating charm they otherwise 
would possess. Several beautiful cattlo- 
pieces, by Berghem, complete this part 
of the gallery, and give an agreeable air 
of gaiety and life to the whole. 
The Muleteers, by Corregpie. 
An early sketch ia: oil colours by this 
great master. ‘I'here 1s nothing very pleas- 
ing either in the drawing or effect: this 
piece, therefore, must be valued more asa 
curiosity than in any other point of view. 
As, however, we have made mention of 
some copies from Correggio, which are in 
this collection, previously to our entering 
upon the description of the Venetian 
and Flemish masters, we shall lay before 
the reader a parallel of those three great 
ornaments of the Roman style of paint- 
ing, Correggio, Raphael, and. Poussin. 
By this means, the praise which has al- 
ready heen bestowed upoh them will ap- 
pear more plainly to arise from a just 
appreciation of their merits than froma 
hicatted attachment to the works of the 
oldest masters. For the truth of delinea- 
tion and the choice of the beautiful in 
mature, these princes of the art have 
PA) he 
(et 
never been excelled, and but seldom 
equalled; whilst.in other respects, to 
speak impartially, no painter of the Ve- 
netian, Spanish, French,’ or Flemish 
schools has been able to equal them. 
Thus Raphael, by an exquisite gift of 
taste and discernment, with which he 
was richly endowed by nature, discovered 
and produced upon canvas the real 
heauty, in the faces and forms of all bis 
female figures, hitherto wholly” unknown 
to artists, and resulting from 
combination and selection of what 1s 
most, excellent in the ancient statues of 
Greece, united to living models. Cor- 
regvio excelled all other painters in the 
fore-shortening of the limbs, in the gently 
undulating and varied outline.of his ob« 
jects, and in his ‘simplicity. Poussin 
excelled in the expression of the pas- 
sions, & most important department of 
the art, in which he stands wholly with- 
out arival. Indeed from the description 
we have already given of his master- 
pieces of art, The Seven Sacraments, it 
appears that he entered deeply into the 
philosophy of the mind and the sympa- 
thies which are.most natural to man, 
The palm. is justly due therefore to Ra-~ 
phael tor beauty, to Correggio for grace, 
and to Poussin for éxpression; circum. 
stances in which every other succeeding 
school has hitherto fallen short. of them, 
Perhaps the Spauish school. has ap, 
proached in the nearest degree to the 
Roman, ia all the hicher excellencies of 
the art; and the naines of Murillio, 
Spagnoletti, and Velasquez, may be al- 
lowed to hold the second scale of general | 
excellence, (of whose works there happen 
to -be none in this collection.) To 
these succeeded the Venetian school un- 
der Vitian and his followers, the Loiabard 
school of the Caraccis, and lastly the 
Ilemish masters, under Rubens; in all 
these tle truth of drawing, seems to hare 
degenerated considerably. Rembrandt, 
however, burst forth shortly afterwards 
with all the force of original genius; and 
by choosing a curious and hitherto an. 
known path to fame, namely, the con- 
trasts arising from exeessive lights and. 
shades, he has left inonuments of his. 
skill, which will ke adinired by all suc- 
ceeding ages, Vanderwert appears by 
himself in the list of the German painters 
of history, au artist without a tutor and 
without any disciples; nevertheless his 
great character for trath and expression, 
enforce the necessity of placing his name. 
near to the greatest prodigies of the art. 
DINING 
a happy 
