PAINTING.
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attention. Dominic, who was the second Italian artist .who paint-ed in oil, instructed James Beilin, whose two sons, Gentel andJohn, became eminent painters. Gentel, the eldest, paintedchiefly in water-colours. John contributed much to the progressof his art in painting constantly in oil, and after nature, lie hadfor scholars Giorgion ami Titian, who are considered as thefounders of the Venetian school. Giorgion distinguished himselfby a design of a better taste than that ot his master ; but he chietlvsurpassed him in colouring. Tiziano Vecelli , best known by thename of Titian , was instructed to copy nature in the most servilemanner in the school of John Beilin ; but when he had seen theworks of Giorgion, lie began to study the ideal in colouring.The truth of history is not to be expected in iris historicalpaintings, or in those of the artists of the same school, lieseems to have paid little attention to the consistence of scene,to the costume, to expression adapted to the subject, or, tqthe accommodation of parts which characterise the works ofthose who have studied the ancients. lie was in short a greatpainter, and nothing more. But although he deserves not to beplaced among the most distinguished artists in point of judgement,yet he is by no means destitute of great and noble conceptions.There is often to be found among his male figures a considerabledegree of grandeur. The beauties of bis works consist in thehappy dispositions of colours both proper and local ; and he car-ries this to the highest point of perfection. At Naples , in theearly part of the 17th century, Guiseppe Ribera , called Spagno-letto, painted in the style of Caravaggio , and surpassed him in in-vention, design, and choice of subject. Luca Gioidano was hisdisciple, who afterwards studied under Pietro da Cortona at Rome ,and returning to Naples, became the founder of the Neapolitan school. Of this school Solimeni and Sebastian Conca are theprincipal ornaments. The distinguishing characteristics of theLombard school are, grace, an agreeable taste for design, withoutgreat correction, a mellowness of pencil, and a beautiful mixtureof colours. Antony Allegri, or Corregio , was the father andgreatest ornament of this school. He began to imitate naturealone ; but, as he was chiefly' delighted with the graceful, he wascareful to purify his design from all short turnings and unneces-sary angles. He perceived that largeness contributed to grace;and therefore not only rejected all small figures, but enlarged asmuch as possible the outlines, avoided acute angles and straight lines,and by these means gave an easy grandeur to his design. liemade Ins figures elegant and large ; he varied the outlines by fre-quent undulations; yet he was not always pure and correct. TheCaracci , Lewis, Augustin, and Hannibal, formed what is calledthe second Lombard school, which is frequently distinguished bythe name of the school of Bologna . Lewis was the master of theother two ; he had studied the works of Titian and Paul Veronese at Venice, those of Andrew Del Sarte at Florence, those of Cor-regio at Parma, and those of Julius Romano at Mantua ; but hechiefly endeavoured to imitate the maimer of Corregio . Hanni-bal fluctuated between Corregio and Titian . Augustin had hismind cultivated by learning, and devoted part of his lime topoetry, music, &c. These three painters often employed theirtalents on the same piece ; and seemed to be animated’with thesame spirit. They established an academy at Bologna , whichtheir zeal for the advancement of their art made them call 1’ Aca-demia degli Desiderosi; but it was afterwards called the Academyof the Caracci , from their high reputation. In this school weretaught the art of constructing models, perspective, and anatomy ;lessons were given on the beautiful proportions of nature, on thebest manner of using colours, and on the principles of light andshade. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, paintingbegan to appear anew in Germany, France, Holland, and Flan-ders. In the German school, the names of Albert Durer , Kra-j'ach, Holbein, and Amberger, stood high at Nuremberg , Atigs-mrg, Basil, and Weimar , in the beginning of the sixteenth een-mry, but the
capital of Vienna afforded no encouragement 1opainting till the reign of Rudolph the Second. Alter this periodthe artists became numerous, but few of them have risen to emi-nence. Of those few, Albert Durer is the first in the order ofand Mengs the latest. Albert was born in 1471, ai d ex-celled in painting and engraving. His pictures were finished withgreat exactness, but his maimer was dry and hard. His principal'orks were painted at Prague in the palace of the emperor Maxi-
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milian, by whom, as well as by Charles the Fifth, he. was held ingreat esteem. Rafifaele is said to have hung the prints of AlbertDurer in his own apartment. Holb ein was nearly contemporarysVitb Purer . He is known by a multitude of accurate portraits,and was likewise eminent for richness of invention, which he dis-played in numerous designs for gravers, sculptors, and jewellers.His Dance of De ath, painted inl|lie town-luill of Basle, is univer-sally celebrated. He is remarkable for having, like Turpilius,the Roman, performed all his work4\vith his left hantT. Kneller,born at Lubeck , in the duchy of Holstein, received his first in-structions from Rembrand t He painted chiefly portraits, whichwere highly celebrated in" England during the reigns of Charlesthe Second, James the Second, William the Third, Anne, andGeorge the First. Antonio Raffael Mengs, one of the most scien-tific painters of any country, was educated in Germany ; butpainted chiefly at Rome, and at Madrid . His works possess inanvbeauties of composition, and mechanical execution. His writingsare too frequently metaphysical, but contain many excellent dis-quisitions on painting, calculated to inspire the artist with exaltedideas of his profession. '"The Dutch and Flemish schools tirenearly as much distinguished by the number, as by the excellence,of their artists. In the former school, the precedence of fame inpoint of date is given to Lucas, van Leyden, born in 1494 liewas a laborious competitor of Albert Durer , and resembles him inmanner and style. Polemberg, Ostade, Gerard Dow, Mieris ,Wouvermans, Cuyp , Berghe tn, Vanderwerf, Van Iluysnm,Schalchen , Brower, llemskirK, *are amongst the eminent paintersof the Dutch school; but they are all greatly surpassed by thetruly astonishing genius of Rembrandt , in whose works we everywhere see the force and dignity of nature. The honour of found-ing the Flemish school is attributed to John of Bruges ; and thenames of his successors are too many to admit of detail. Theirworks are to be found in every cabinet. The most illustriousmasters of this school are Reubens and Vandyck. To John ofBruges, better known by the name of John Van Eyk , was for along time attributed the invention of oil-panitnig; but he hadonly the honour of transmitting that method to Italy , where a pic-ture painted by him', and sent to Alphonso, king of Naples , first di-v ulged th e discovery. Frans Fioris is celebrated as the Rlifiaeluof JFlanders. De Vos, Segre, Diepenbech, Teniers , Jordaensstand prominent in the catalogue of merit in the same school.Rubens possessed a most fertile and extensive genius, and pro-duced an immense number of works. This extraordinary painterdistinguished himself equally in historical, portrait, and landscapepainting-; in animals, fruits, aud flowers. He both invented andexecuted with the utmost facility. Ilis drawing, although over-charged, is not without considerable merit. lie had great know-ledge of anatomy ; hut he was hurried away by the ardour ofexecution, and too often sacrificed form and correctness to splen-dour, and the magic charms of colour. He excelled in colour-ing, and chi aro-s curo. He studied principally in Lombardy ,after the works oT Titian, Paolo, Veronese , and Tintorot, fromwhose excellences he formed rules for his own practice, from whichhe seldom deviated. He was not only an eminent painter, hutan accomplished scholar, and rose to high employment in theservice ot his country, visiting several courts in the c haracler ofan ambassador. Of the disciples ot Rubens, Vandyck best com-prehended all the rules and general maxims of his master ; andeven surpassed him in the delicacy of his colouring, particularlyin portraits, in which he stands one of the highest masters of hisart. The French school or schools may be classed in three dif-ferent a-ras, and characterized bv as many different styles ; twoprior, and one modern, since the period of the late revolution.'I’he artists of the former schools chiefly adopted the manners ofthe various painters whose works they studied or imitated. ButPoussin,-Vouet, Le Brim, and Le Sueur , are those masters whohave given distinction to the French school in the province ofhistory. The first and tin* last of these have been compared bythe French to RalTaele, whose example Le Sueur in parlieularconsidered as his model. Poussin studied the antique statues withno great devotion, that his pictures frequently bear a strong resem-blance to them. Le Brim’s battles of Alexander are deservedlycelebrated for their spirit, composition, and correct drawing. Gas-par Dughct (commonly called Gaspar Poussin , from his master’sname, which he adopted), and Claude Golhe (called Claude Lor-3 ( ’ raiivw