OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLEMISH SCHOOL OF ART*,

ALTHOUGH it may be thought essential to a large and extensive Collection, that examples from the masters of every school should find there a place; yet as a separate school of art, perhaps none could exhibit greater variety, or show to more advantage those captivating qualities of colouring and chiar'-oscuro, than the Flemish.

It is true, the subjects connected with Flemish art are not generally calculated to please one of a highly, or rather classically cultivated mind, whose taste and acquirements have led him to subjects of ancient history. Such a person will be perhaps offended with the grossness of some and the vulgarity of others of the Flemish painters. Sacred subjects treated by them will in his eyes be offensive, and considered profaned, even by the pencil of Rembrandt. To his highly excited imagination the characters of saints and angels, patriarchs and prophets, in the garb and costume of that artist's choice, will appear a violation of truth, and the forms and features of his figures an insult to the personages they are meant to represent. Indeed it must be matter of surprise to those who are unacquainted with the principles of painting, or who have no eye for those qualities in art which constitute the charm of this artist's pencil, that such clumsy forms and glaring absurdities, sometimes found in works of this master, should attract the love and admiration they appear to do. In the matter of form, Rembrandt never appears to have looked beyond his model; nor does it seem that in his choice of this he was at all fastidious. As he never attempted grace, it may readily be imagined he would never see it, and did not know it

Continued from “Relics and Opinions, &c." ante, p. 54. These observations are taken principally from examples of Flemish art in the late King's collection.

even in the forms of the antique. He is sometimes dignified, but it is for the most part the dignity of age: his 'Standard-bearer,' 'Burgomaster' and 'Rabbis' are examples of this character. Rembrandt painted to display his wonderful powers in chiar'-oscuro, colouring, and effect. It does not appear that he thought about execution: though by no means deficient in that quality, it never obtrudes itself, as in the works of D. Teniers, G. Douw, Mieris, &c. Rembrandt could paint deceptively if he chose, but was too judicious to let his accessories divide the attention with his principal object, whether that object was character or effect.

What has been observed of the Flemish school in regard to the magical effect of colouring and chiar'-oscuro, is eminently seen in the works of Rembrandt; and it was from these qualities that the high and distinguished reputation of his works arose. His etchings are in like manner the objects of admiration to the artist and the amateur; for in most of them may be discerned, almost equally with his paintings, the effect of his chiar'-oscuro: and though the qualities with which his admirers often invest the mere ebullitions of his pencil, yet in the slightest of these hasty sketches character may always be found.

The examples from the works of Rembrandt in the King's collection are of the highest character, and the reputation of them almost as universal as those of Raphael and Michael Angelo. It would be difficult however to select from among them any single production of which it might be said, This is the finest specimen of the master; since the choice in all probability would be directed by the taste of his admirers, some having a preference for one quality, and some for another.

Although Rembrandt, like other painters, occasionally varied from himself in the sudden opposition of strength and colour, as in the 'Shipbuilder and his Wife,' in which may be found an abrupt division of the parts, which, though it does not take from the harmony of the colouring or the excellence of individual imitation, does not give that concentrated or focus-like effect for which the greater part of his works were distinguished, and which may be fairly said to be the leading feature of his pencil, his own Portrait, 'The Offering of the Magi,' and 'Christ appearing to Mary Magdalen after his Entombment,' possess this characteristic of his system in an eminent degree. The last of these performances is a combination of every quality that distinguished the works of this great master. In common with all his paintings, it is mellow and harmonious in colouring, but in effect of light and in character of chiar'-oscuro has never been surpassed. It has the merit, too, of excelling in character and expression. The point of time chosen by the artist is

where Mary Magdalen mistakes Christ for the gardener, and that his appearance should accord with the character, he is represented, with Rembrandt's usual matter-of-fact, local costume, and appears with a spade in his hand, and his head shadowed by a large wide-brimmed hat. The penitent Magdalen is kneeling near the tomb, and is in the act of turning round towards the figure of Christ, with an expression rather of surprise than inquiry. The character of the female, if not beautiful, is finely conceived, and approaches the sublime. Not so the angels, or, as they are called, the "shining ones"; they are the angels of Rembrandt's imagination, and, but for their wings, might be taken for farmers or waggoners in any other situation. The cool effect of early morning is seen through an opening of the cavern which contains the sepulchre, the light of which is opposed above and below by the broad masses of the interior, where the figure of Christ is entering, and whose form is also opposed, though less violently than the rocky entrance, to the light behind him, but not so as to be separated from the general mass of the composition. Upon the whole, the magic of this painting is such as to raise (if possible) the character of Rembrandt's talents in the opinion of all, even of those less informed of the principles and qualities to be found in the works of this great master.

It would be a great stretch of imagination, as well as an overweening partiality for the works of Rembrandt, to find any approach to beauty or feminine grace in his females of middle life or even of youth: and where they are represented by him as portraits of individual character, there is a homeliness of feature and complexion which, however natural, has none of the charms of delicacy which characterize the females of Vandyke even those by Rubens, in point of complexion have a purity of carnation never seen in those by Rembrandt. The single half-length figure of the Lady with the Fan' is one of the best examples of gentility, and from the hand of an artist more intent on embellishment or more associated with the graces, more justice might have been done to the individual. The 'Lady at her Toilet in the act of adornment' has no more pretensions to the charm of loveliness than the Lady with the Fan' so that unless the females that came under his pencil were of a very ordinary character in feature and complexion compared to others of their age and country, there must have been a plentiful lack of charming females in the Low Countries. Were it otherwise, it would only prove, what we believe to be the case, that this artist considered nothing beyond the composition of his picture, and the effect to be produced from his colouring and chiar'-oscuro. As a painting, it is a fine example from the pencil of Rembrandt :- -as a subject, it is better adapted for

that of a more refined genius. A lover, or even a husband at the toilet of his wife, culling the jewels that are to decorate her person, would afford ample scope for the display of the tender emotions which the occasion would naturally call forth*. As much of the 'Eastern Magi' as can be seen shows a powerful energy in the marking of the characters: there is a solemn dignity in all, and a grandeur of mien and aspect, which the massive and gorgeous costume is well calculated to set off. The artist doubtless intended to invest the scene with the same suitable effect, and called in aid the sort of obscurity that would best answer such a purpose; but that he would darken his interior with such a loaded mass of dense matter is hardly possible to think imaginable. At all events its dark and shining surface precludes all possibility of penetrating. It may present to the ardent and imaginative amateur vestiges of things "dimly seen," and furnish matter of triumph if in his voyage of discovery he can point out on the clouded chart some fragments of form that may have been. But the fact is, the picture is so covered with varnish and charged with colour, as to be little more than a fragment itself.

To step from darkness to light, from a cavern or dungeon to mid day, we have only to turn to the performance of P. De Hooge, 'An Interior, with Figures playing at Cards'.

Except by the artist or the amateur, it seldom happens that any inquiry passes in the mind of the spectator concerning the means by which this or any other striking effect is accomplished. They argue, and they argue rightly, that nature has been the prototype, and truth the result. But in the mind of the artist there are other calculations going on; he sees, in common with others, truth in the perfect imitation of nature, but he feels the difficulty of producing such an effect of open day-light. It is not in subjects like these, as in those of Rembrandt's, where a confined light, and dark shadows serve as concealments. In the blaze of light which P. De Hooge lets into his subjects, every object in the pic. ture is made visible to the sight, with all the strength of tone and character of detail which in ordinary practice is confined to the focus of the picture. But in looking at this wonderful production, with its magical effect of light, we are not to imagine that the painter has given all the truth, and nothing but the truth. There is, besides certain essential qualities of art, a calculated system of chiar'-oscuro, in which the proportions of the masses and the characters of the colours come in aid to produce the result.

Were it possible to find a room similar to that of the painting, and to

* The performance alluded to is 'Portraits of the Burgomaster Pancras and his Lady!?