Lectures on the true, the beautiful and the good Part 29

Lectures on the true, the beautiful and the good Part 29

We were more fortunate in the National Gallery.

There, to begin, what admirable Claudes! We counted as many as ten, some of them of the highest value. We will confine ourselves to the recapitulation of three, the Embarkation of St. Ursula, a large landscape, and the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba.

1st. _The Embarkation of St. Ursula_, which was painted for the Barberini, and adorned their palace at Rome until the year 1760, when an English amateur purchased it from the Princess Barberini, with other works of the first cla.s.s. This picture is 3 feet 8 inches high, 4 feet 11 inches wide.

2d. The large landscape is 4 feet 11 inches high, 6 feet 7 inches wide.

Rebecca is seen, with her relatives and servants, waiting the arrival of Isaac, who comes from afar to celebrate their marriage.

3d. _The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba_, going to visit Solomon, formed a pendent to the preceding figure, which it resembles in its dimensions. It is both a sea and landscape drawing, M. Waagen declares it to be the most beautiful _morceau_ of the kind he is acquainted with, and a.s.serts that Lorrain has here attained perfection, vol. i., p. 211.

This masterpiece was executed by Claude for his protector, the Duke de Bouillon. It is signed "Claude GE. I. V., faict pour son Altesse le Duc de Bouillon, anno 1648." Doubtless the great Duke de Bouillon, eldest brother of Turenne. This French work, destined, too, for France, she has now forever lost, as well as the famous Book of Truth, _Libro di Verita_, in which Claude collected the drawings of all his paintings, drawings which may be themselves regarded as finished pictures. This invaluable treasure was, like the _Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba_, for a long time in the hands of a French broker, who would willingly have relinquished it to the Government, but failing to find purchasers in Paris in the last century, ultimately sold it for a mere nothing into Holland, whence it has pa.s.sed into England.[286] The author of the _Musees d'Allemagne et de Russie_, mentions that in the gallery of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, amongst a large number of Claudes, whose authenticity he appears to admit, there are four _morceaux_, which he does not hesitate to declare equal to the most celebrated _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of that master, in Paris or London, called the _Morning_, the _Noon_, the _Evening_, and the _Night_. They are from Malmaison. Thus the sale of the gallery of an empress has in our own time enriched Russia, as, twenty-five years before, the sale of the Orleans gallery enriched England.

In the National Gallery, along with the serene and quiet landscapes of Lorrain, are five of Caspar's, depicting nature under an opposite aspect--rugged and wild localities, and tempests. One of the most remarkable represents Eneas and Dido seeking shelter in a grotto from the violence of a storm. The figures are from the pencil of Albano, and for a length of time remained in the palace Falconieri. Two other landscapes are from the palace Corsini, and two from the palace Colonna.

But to return to our real subject, which is Poussin. There are eight paintings by his hand in the National Gallery, all worthy of mention. M.

Waagen has merely spoken of them in general terms, but we shall proceed to give a description in detail.

Of these eight paintings, only one, representing the plague of Ashdod, is taken from sacred history. This is described in the printed catalogue as No. 105. The Israelites having been vanquished by the Philistines, the ark was taken by the victors and placed in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod. The idol falls before the ark, and the Philistines are smitten with the pestilence. This canvas is 4 feet 3 inches high, and 6 feet 8 inches, wide. A sketch or copy of the _Plague of the Philistines_ is in the Museum of the Louvre, and has been engraved by Picard. Poussin was, in fact, fond of repeating a subject; there are two sets of the _Seven Sacraments_, two _Arcadias_,[287] two or three _Moses striking the Rock_, &c. The science of painting is here employed to portray the scene in all its terrors, and display every horror of the pestilence, and it would seem that Poussin had here endeavored to contend with Michael Angelo, even at the expense of beauty. It is said the commission for this work was given by Cardinal Barberini. It comes from the palace of Colonna. The subjects of the remaining seven pictures in the National Gallery are mythological, and may be nearly all referred to the early epoch of Poussin's career, when he paid tribute to the genius of the 16th century, and yielded to the influence of Marini.

No. 39. The _Education of Bacchus_, a subject chosen by Poussin more than once. On a small canvas 2 feet 3 inches high, and 3 feet 1 inch wide.

No. 40. Another small picture 1 foot 6 inches high, and 3 feet 4 inches broad: _Phocion washing his Feet at a Public Fountain_, a touching emblem of the purity and simplicity of his life. To heighten this rustic scene, and impart its meaning, the painter shows us the trophies of the n.o.ble warrior hung on the trunk of a tree at a little distance. The whole composition is striking and full of animation. We believe that it has never been engraved. It forms a happy addition to the two other compositions consecrated by Poussin to Phocion, and which have been so admirably engraved by Baudet, _Phocion carried out of the City of Athens_, and the _Tomb of Phocion_.

No. 42. Here is one of the three baccha.n.a.ls painted by Poussin for the Duke de Montmorency. The two others are said to be in the collection of Lord Ashburnham. This baccha.n.a.l is 4 feet 8 inches high, and 3 feet 1 inch wide. In a warm landscape Bacchus is sleeping surrounded by nymphs, satyrs, and centaurs, whilst Silenus appears under an arbor attended by sylvan figures.

No. 62. Another baccha.n.a.l, which may be considered one of Poussin's masterpieces. According to M. Waagen, it belonged to the Colonna collection, but the catalogue, published _by authority_, states that it was originally the property of the Comte de Vaudreueili, that it afterwards came into the hands of M. de Calonne, whence it pa.s.sed into England, and ultimately found its way into the hands of Mr. Hamlet, from whom it was purchased by Parliament, and placed in the National Gallery.

It is 3 feet 8 inches high, and 4 feet 8 inches wide. Its subject is a dance of fauns and bacchantes, which is interrupted by a satyr, who attempts to take liberties with a nymph. Besides the main subject, there are numerous spirited and graceful episodes, particularly two infants endeavoring to catch in a cup the juice of a bunch of grapes supported in air, and pressed by a bacchante of slim and fine form. The composition is full of fire, energy, and spirit. There is not a single group, not a figure, which will not repay an attentive study. M. Waagen does not hesitate to p.r.o.nounce it one of Poussin's finest. He admires the truth and variety of heads, the freshness of color, and the transparent tone (_die Farbung von seltenster Frische, h.e.l.le und Klarheit in allen Theilen_). It has been engraved by Huart, and accurately copied by Landon, under the t.i.tle of _Danse de Fauns et de Bacchantes_.

No. 65. _Cephalus and Aurora._ Aurora, captivated by the beauty of Cephalus, endeavors to separate him from his wife Procris. Being unsuccessful, in a fit of jealousy she gives to Cephalus the dart which causes the death of his adored spouse. 3 feet 2 inches high, 4 feet 2 inches wide.

No. 83. A large painting, 5 feet 6 inches high, and 8 feet wide, representing _Phineas and his Companions changed into Stones by looking on the Gorgon_. Perseus, having rescued Andromeda from the sea monster, obtains her hand from her father Cepheus, who celebrates their nuptials with a magnificent feast. Phineas, to whom Andromeda had been betrothed, rushes in upon the festivity at the head of a troop of armed men. A combat ensues, in which Perseus, being nearly overcome, opposes to his enemies the head of Medusa, by which they are instantly changed to stone. This composition is full of vigor, with brilliant coloring, although somewhat crude. It is nowhere mentioned, and we are not aware of its having been engraved.

No. 91. A charming little drawing, 2 feet 2 inches high, 1 foot 8 inches wide: _A sleeping Nymph, surprised by Lore and Satyrs_, engraved by Daulle, also in Landon's work.

Pa.s.sing from the National Gallery to that of Bridgewater, we come upon another phase of Poussin's genius, and encounter not the disciple of Mariai but the disciple of the gospel, the graces of mythology giving way to the austerity and sublimity of Christianity. Such is the account of what we came to see; we looked for much, and found more than we expected.

The Bridgewater Gallery is so named after its founder, the Duke of Bridgewater, by whom it was formed about the middle of the eighteenth century. He bequeathed it to his brother, the Marquis of Stafford, on the condition of his leaving it to his second son, Lord Francis Egerton, now Lord Ellesmere. The best part of this collection was engraved during the life of the Marquis of Stafford, by Ottley, under the t.i.tle of the Stafford Gallery, in 4 vols. folio.

It occupies the first place in England amongst private collections, on account of the number of masterpieces of the Italian, and Dutch, and French schools. A large number of paintings were added to it from the Orleans Gallery, and we could not repress a feeling of regret to meet at Cleveland Square with so many masterpieces formerly belonging to France, and which have been engraved in the two celebrated works: 1. _La Galerie du duc d'Orleans au Palais-Royal_, 2 volumes in folio; 2. _Recueil d'estampes d'apres les plus beaux tableaux et dessins qui sont en France dans le cabinet du roi et celui de Monseigneur le duc d'Orleans_, 1729, 2 volumes in folio; a most valuable collection known also under the name of the _Cabinet of Crozat_. This admirable collection is deposited in a building worthy of it, in a veritable palace, and consists of nearly 300 paintings. The French school is here well represented. The _Musical Party_, from the Orleans Gallery, and engraved in the _Galerie du Palais-Royal_, three Bourguignons, four Gaspars, four fine Claudes, described by M. Waagen, vol. i., p. 331, the two former described in the catalogue as Nos. 11 and 41 were painted in 1664 for M. de Bourlemont, a gentleman of Lorraine; the former, _Demosthenes by the Sea-side_, offers a fine contrast between majestic ruins and nature eternally young and fresh; the second, _Moses at the Burning Bush_, a third, No. 103, of the year 1657, was likewise painted for a Frenchman, M. de Lagarde, and represents the _Metamorphosis of Apuleius into a Shepherd_; lastly, there is a fourth, No. 97, the freshest idyll that ever was, a _View of the Cascatelles of Tivoli_.

The memory of these charming compositions, however, soon fades before the view of the eight grand pictures of Poussin, marked in the catalogue Nos. 62-69, the _Seven Sacraments_, and _Moses striking the Rock with his Rod_.

It would be difficult to describe the religious sensations which took possession of us whilst contemplating the _Seven Sacraments_. Whatever M. Waagen may please to a.s.sert, there is certainly nothing theatrical about them. The beauty of ancient statuary is here animated and enlivened by the spirit of Christianity, and the genius of the painter.

The moral expression is of the most exalted character, and is left to be noticed less in the details than in the general composition. In fact, it is in composition that Poussin excels, and, in this respect, we do not think he has any superior, not even of the Florentine and Roman school.

As each _Sacrament_ is a vast scene in which the smallest details go to enhance the effect of the whole, so the _Seven Sacraments_ form a harmonious entirety, a single work, representing the development of the Christian life by means of its most august ceremonies, in the same way as the twenty-two _St. Brunos_ of Lesueur express the whole monastic life, the intention of the variety being to give a truer conception of its unity. Can any one, in sincerity, say as much as this for the _Stanze_ of the Vatican? Have they a common sentiment? Is the sentiment profound, and, indeed, Christian? No doubt Raphael elevates the soul, whatever is beautiful cannot fail to do that; but he touches only the surface, _circ.u.m praecordia ludit_; he penetrates not deep; moves not the inner fibres of our being: for why? he himself was not so moved. He s.n.a.t.c.hes us from earth, and transports us into the serene atmosphere of eternal beauty; but the mournful side of life, the sublime emotions of the heart, magnanimity, heroism, in a word, moral grandeur, this he does not express; and why was this? because he did not possess it in himself, because it was not to be met with around him in the Italy of the 16th century, in a society semi-pagan, superst.i.tious, and impious, given up to every vice and disorder, which Luther could not even catch a glimpse of without raging with horror, and meditating a revolution. From this corrupt basis, thinly hidden by a fict.i.tious politeness, two great figures, Michael Angelo and Vittoria Colonna, show themselves. But the n.o.ble widow of the Marquis of Pescaria was not of the company of the Fornarina; and what common ground could the chaste lover of the second Beatrice, the Dante of painting and of sculpture, the intrepid engineer who defended Florence, the melancholy author of _the Last Judgment_ and of _Lorenzo di Medici_, have with such men as Perugino boldly professing atheism, at the same time that he painted, at the highest price possible, the most delicate Madonnas; and his worthy friend Aretino, atheist, and moreover hypocrite, writing with the same hand his infamous sonnets and the life of the Holy Virgin; and Giulio Romano, who lent his pencil to the wildest debaucheries, and Marc' Antonio, who engraved them? Such is the world in which Raphael lived, and which early taught him to worship material beauty, the purest taste in design, if not the strongest, fine drawing, sweet contours, of light, of color, but which always hides from him the highest beauty, that is, moral beauty. Poussin belongs to a very different world. Thanks to G.o.d, he had learned to know in France others besides artists without faith or morals, elegant amateurs, rich prelates, and compliant beauties. He had seen with his eyes heroes, saints, and statesmen. He must have met, at the court of Louis XIII., between 1640 and 1642, the young Conde and the voting Turenne, St. Vincent de Paul, Mademoiselle de Vigean, and Mademoiselle de Lafayette; had shaken hands with Richelieu, with Lesueur, with Champagne, and no doubt also with Corneille. Like the last, he is grave and masculine; he has the sentiment of the great, and strives to reach it. If, above every thing, he is an artist, if his long career is an a.s.siduous and indefatigable study of beauty, it is pre-eminently moral beauty that strikes him: and when he represents historic or Christian scenes, one feels he is there, like the author of the Cid, of Cinna, and of Polyeuete, in his natural element. He shows, a.s.suredly, much spirit and grace in his mythologies, and like Corneille in several of his elegies and in the Declaration of Love to Psyche: but also like him, it is in the thoughtful and n.o.ble style that Poussin excels: it is on the moral ground that he has a place exalted and apart in the history of art.

It is not our intention to describe the _Seven Sacraments_, which has been done by others more competent to the task than ourselves. We will only inquire whether Bossuet himself, in speaking of the sacrament of the _Ordination_, could have employed more gravity and majesty than Poussin has done in the n.o.ble painting, so well preserved, in the gallery of Lord Ellesmere. It is worthy of remark, in this as in the other paintings of Poussin's best period, how admirably the landscape accords with the historic portion. Whilst the foreground is occupied with the great scene in which Christ transmits his power to St. Peter before the a.s.sembled apostles,[288] in the distance, and above the heights, are descried edifices rising and in decay. Doubtless, the _Extreme Unction_ is the most pathetic; affects and attracts us most by its various qualities, particularly by a certain austere grace shed around the images of death;[289] but, unhappily, this striking composition has almost totally disappeared under the black tint, which has little by little gained on the other colors, and obscured the whole painting, so that we are well-nigh reduced to the engraving of Pesne, and the beautiful drawing preserved in the museum of the Louvre.[290]

Most unhappily a technical error, into which even the most inconsiderable painter would not now fall, has deprived posterity of one half of Poussin's labors. He was in the habit of covering his canvas with a preparation of red, which has been changed by the effect of time into black, and thus absorbed the other colors, destroying the effect of the etherial perspective. As every one knows, this does not occur with a white preparation, which, instead of destroying the colors, preserves them for a length of time in their original state. This last process Poussin appears to have adopted in the _Moses striking the Rock with his Staff_, incomparably the finest of all the _Strikings of the Rock_ which proceeded from his pencil. This masterpiece is well known, from the engraving by Baudet, and has pa.s.sed, with the _Seven Sacraments_, from the Orleans gallery into the collection at Bridgewater. What unity is in this vast composition, and yet what variety in the action, the pose, the features of the figures! It consists of twenty different pictures, and yet is but one; and not even one of the episodes could be taken away without considerable injury to the _ensemble_ of the piece. At the same time, what fine coloring! The impastation is both solid and light, and the colors are combined in the happiest manner. No doubt they might possess greater brilliancy; but the severity of the subject agrees well with a moderate tone. It is important to remember this. In the first place, every subject demands its proper color: in the second, grave subjects require a certain amount of coloring, which, however, must not be exceeded. Although the highest art does not consist in coloring, it would nevertheless be folly to regard it as of small importance: for, in that case, drawing would be every thing, and color might be altogether dispensed with. In attempting too far to please the eye, the risk is incurred of not going beyond and penetrating to the soul. On the other hand, want of color, or what is perhaps still worse, a disagreeable, crude, and improper coloring, while it offends the eye, likewise impairs the moral effect, and deprives even beauty of its charm. Color is to painting what harmony is to poetry and prose. There is equal defect whether in the case of too much or too little harmony, while one same harmony continued must be looked upon as a serious fault. Is Corneille happily inspired? His harmony, like his words, are true, beautiful, admirable in their variety. The tones differ with his different characters, but are always consistent with the conditions of harmony imposed by poesy. Is he negligent? his style then becomes rude, unpolished, at times intolerable. The harmony of Racine is slightly monotonous, his men talk like women, and his lyre was but one tone, that of a natural and refined elegance. There is but one man amongst us who speaks in every tone and in all languages, who has colors and accents for every subject, _nave_ and sublime, vividly correct yet unaffectedly simple. Sweet as Racine in his lament of Madame, masculine and vigorous as Corneille or Tacitus when he comes to describe Retz or Cromwell, clear as the battle trumpet when his strain is Roeroy or Conde, suggestive of the equal and varied flow of a mighty river in the majestic harmony of his Discourse on Universal History, a History which, in the grandeur and extent of its composition, in its vanquished difficulties, its depth of art, where art even ceases to appear as such, in its perfect unity, and, at the same time, almost infinite variety of tone and style, is perhaps the most finished work which has ever come from the hand of man.

To return to Poussin. At Hampton Court, where, by the side of the seven cartoons of Raphael, the nine magnificent Montegnas representing the triumph of Caesar, and the fine portraits of Albert Durer and Holbein, French art makes so small a figure, there is a Poussin[291] of particularly fine color, _Satyrs finding a Nymph_. The transparent and l.u.s.trous body of the nymph forms the entire picture. It is a study of design and color, evidently of the period when Poussin, to perfect himself in every branch of his art, made copies from t.i.tian.

Time fails us to give the least idea of the rich gallery of the Marquess of Westminster, in Grosvenor-street. We refer for this to what M. Waagen has said, vol. ii., p. 113-130. The Flemish and Dutch schools preponderate in this gallery. One sees there in all their glory the three great masters of that school, Rubens, Van Dyck, and Rembrandt, accompanied by a numerous suite of inferior masters, at present much in vogue, Hobbema, Cuyp, Both, Potter, and others, who, to our idea, fade completely before some half-dozen by Claude of all sizes, of every variety of subject, and nearly all of the best time of the great landscape-painter, between 1651 and 1661. Of these paintings, the greatest and most important is perhaps the _Sermon on the Mount_.

Poussin appears worthily by the side of Lorrain in the gallery at Grosvenor-street. M. Waagen admires particularly _Calisto changed into a Bear, and placed by Jupiter among the Constellations_, and still more a _Virgin with the infant Jesus surrounded by Angels_. He extols in this _morceau_ the surpa.s.sing clearness of coloring, the n.o.ble and melancholy sentiment of nature, together with a warm and powerful tone. M. Waagen places this painting amongst the masterpieces of the French painter (_gehort zu dem vortrefflichsten was ich von ihm kenne_). Whilst fully concurring in this judgment, we beg leave to point out in the same gallery two other canvases of Poussin, two delicious pieces from the easel, first a touching episode in _Moses striking the Rock_, in the gallery of Lord Ellesmere, of a mother who, heedless of herself, hastens to give her children drink, whilst their father bends in thanksgiving to G.o.d; the other, _Children at play_. Never did a more delightful scene come from the pencil of Albano. Two children look, laughing, at each other; another to the right holds a b.u.t.terfly on his finger; a fourth endeavors to catch a b.u.t.terfly which is flying from him; a fifth, stooping, takes fruit from a basket.

But we must quit the London galleries to betake ourselves to that which forms the ornament of the college situated in the charming village of Dulwich.

Stanislas, king of Poland, charged a London amateur, M. Noel Desenfans, to form him a collection of pictures. The misfortunes of Stanislas, and the dismemberment of Poland left on M. Desenfans' hands all he had collected; these he made a present of to a friend of his, M. Bourgeois, a painter, who still further enriched this fine collection, and bequeathed it, at his death, to Dulwich College, where it now is in a very commodious and well-lighted building. It consists of nearly 350 paintings. M. Waagen, who visited it, p.r.o.nounces judgment with some severity. The catalogue is ill-compiled, it is true, but in this it does not differ from numerous other catalogues. Mediocrity is frequently placed side by side with excellence, and copies given as originals; this is the case with more than one gallery. This one, however, has to us the merit of containing a considerable number of French paintings, to some of which even M. Waagen cannot refuse his admiration.

We will, first of all, mention without describing them, a Lenain, two Bourguignons, three portraits by Rigaud, or after Rigaud, a Louis XIV., a Boileau, and another personage unknown to us, two Lebruns, the _Ma.s.sacre of the Innocents_, and _Horatius Cocles defending the Bridge_, in which M. Waagen discovers happy imitations of Poussin, three or four Gaspars and seven Claude Lorrains, the beauty of most of which is a sufficient guarantee of their authenticity; together with a very fine _Fete champetre_ by Watteau, and a _View near Rome_, by Joseph Vernet.

Of Poussin, the catalogue points out eighteen, of which the following is a list:

No. 115. _The Education of Bacchus_; 142, _a Landscape_; 249, _a Holy Family_; 253, _the Apparition of the Angels to Abraham_; 260, _a Landscape_; 269, _the Destruction of Niobe_; 279, _a Landscape_; 291, _the Adoration of the Magi_; 292, _a Landscape_; 295, _the Inspiration of the Poet_; 300, _the Education of Jupiter_; 305, _the Triumph of David_; 310, _the Flight into Egypt_; 315, _Renald and Armida_; 316, _Venus and Mercury_; 325, _Jupiter and Antiope_; 336, _the a.s.sumption of the Virgin_; 352, _Children_.

Of these eighteen pictures, M. Waagen singles out five, which he thus characterizes:

_The a.s.sumption of the Virgin_, No. 336. In a landscape of powerful poesy, the Virgin is carried off to heaven in clouds of gold: a small picture, of which the sentiment is n.o.ble and pure, the coloring strong and transparent (_in der Farbe kraftiges und klaares Bild_). _Children_, No. 352. Replete with loveliness and charm. _The Triumph of David_, No.

305. A rich picture, but theatrical.

_Jupiter suckled by the goat Amalthea_, No. 300. A charming composition, transparent tone. _A Landscape_, No. 260. A well-drawn landscape, breathing a profound sentiment of nature; but which has become rather blackened.

We are unable to recognize in the _Triumph of David_ the theatrical character which shocked M. Waagen. On the contrary, we perceive a bold and almost wild expression, a great deal of pa.s.sion finely subdued.

A triumph must always contain some formality; here, however, there is the least possible, and that with which we are struck is its vigor and truth to nature. The giant's head stuck on the pike has the grandest effect: and we believe that the able German critic has, in this instance, likewise yielded to the prejudices of his country, which, in its pa.s.sion for what it styles reality, fancies it perceives the theatrical in whatever is n.o.ble. We admit that at the close of the seventeenth century, under Louis XIV. and Lebrun, the n.o.ble was merged in the theatrical and academic; but under Louis XIII. and the Regency, in the time of Corneille and Poussin, the academic and theatrical style was wholly unknown. We entreat the sagacious critic not to forget this distinction between the divisions of the seventeenth century, nor to confound the master with his disciples, who, although they were still great, had slightly degenerated, and who were oppressed by the taste of the age of Louis XIV.

But our gravest reproach against M. Waagen is, that he did not notice at Dulwich numerous _morceaux_ of Poussin, which well merited his attention; amongst others, the _Adoration of the Magi_, far superior, for its coloring, to that in the Museum at Paris; and, above all, a picture which seems to us a masterpiece in the difficult art of conveying a philosophic idea under the living form of a myth and an allegory.

In this art, Poussin excelled: he is pre-eminently a philosophical artist, a thinker a.s.sisted by all the resources of the science of design. He has ever an idea which guides his hand, and which is his main object. Let us not tire to reiterate this: it is moral beauty which he everywhere seeks, both in nature and humanity. As we have stated in relation to the sacrament of _Ordination_, the landscapes of Poussin are almost always designed to set off and heighten human life, whilst Claude is essentially a landscape painter, with whom both history and humanity are made subservient to nature. Subjects derived from Christianity were exactly suited to Poussin, inasmuch as they afforded the sublimest types of that moral grandeur in which he delighted, although we do not see in him the exquisite piety of Lesueur and Champagne; and if Christian greatness speaks to his soul, it appears to do so with no authority beyond that of Phocion, of Scipio, or of Germanicus. Sometimes neither sacred nor profane history suffices him: he invents, he imagines, he has recourse to moral and philosophic allegory. It is here, perhaps, that he is most original, and that his imagination displays itself in its greatest freedom and elevation. _Arcadia_ is a lesson of high philosophy under the form of an idyll. _The Testament of Eudamidas_ portrays the sublime confidence of friendship. _Time Rescuing Truth from the a.s.saults of Envy and Discord_, _the Ballet of Human Life_, are celebrated models of this style. We have had the good fortune to meet at Dulwich with a work of Poussin's almost unknown, and of whose existence we had not even an idea, sparkling at the same time with the style we have been describing, and with the most eminent qualities of the chief of the French school.

This work, entirely new to us, is a picture of very small size, marked No. 295, and described in the catalogue as _The Inspiration of the Poet_, a delightful subject, and treated in the most delightful manner.

Fancy the freshest landscape, in the foreground a harmonious group of three personages. The poet, on bended knee, carries to his lips the sacred cup which Apollo, the G.o.d of poesy, has presented to him. Whilst he quaffs, inspiration seizes him, his face is transfigured, and the sacred intoxication becomes apparent in the motion of his hands and his whole body. Beside Apollo, the Muse prepares to collect the songs of the poet. Above this group, a genius, frolicking in air, weaves a chaplet, whilst other genii scatter flowers. In the background, the clearest horizon. Grace, spirit, depth--this enchanting composition unites the whole. Added to this, the color is well-grounded and of great brilliancy.

It is very singular that neither Bellori nor Felibien, who both lived on terms of intimacy with Poussin, and are still his best historians, say not a word of this work. It is not referred to in the catalogues of Florent Lecomte, of Gault de St. Germain, or of Castellan; nor does M.

Waagen himself, who, having been at Dulwich, must have seen it there, make the least mention of it. We are, therefore, ignorant in what year, on what occasion, and for whom this delicious little painting was executed: but the hand of Poussin is seen throughout, in the drawing, in the composition, in the expression. Nothing theatrical or vulgar: truth combined with beauty. The whole scene conveys unmixed delight, and its impression is at once serene and profound. In our idea, _The Inspiration of the Poet_ may be ranked as almost equal with _The Arcadia_.

Notwithstanding this, _The Inspiration_ has never been engraved, at least we have not met with it in any of the rich collections of engravings from Poussin we have been enabled to consult, those of M. de Baudicour, of M. Gatteaux, member of the Academy of Fine Arts, and lastly, the cabinet of prints in the _Bibliotheque Nationale_. We hope that these few words may suggest to some French engraver the idea of undertaking the very easy pilgrimage to Dulwich, and making known to the lovers of national art an ingenious and touching production of Poussin, strayed and lost, as it, were, in a foreign collection.

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[284] This is the sketch which Felibien so justly praises, part v., p.

37, of the 1st edition, in 4to.

[285] This great work has been long in England, as remarked by Mariette, see the _Abecedario_, just published, article S. Bourdon, vol. i., p.

171. It appears to have been a favorite work of Bourdon, he having himself engraved it, see de Piles, _Abrege de la Vie des Peintres_, 2d edition, p. 494, and the _Peintre graveur francais_, of M. Robert Dumesnil, vol. i., p. 131, etc. The copperplates of the _Seven Works of Mercy_ are at the Louvre.

[286] The _Libro di Verita_ is now the property of the Duke of Devonshire. M. Leon de Laborde has given a detailed account of it in the _Archives de l'Art francais_, tom. i., p. 435, et seq.