servations, to pass unnoticed three pictures of high excellence in their moral allusions: namely, the Arcadian Shepherds; the Image of Human Life; and the Triumph of Truth. Of the two former it may justly be said, that, for beauty and pathos of imagery, for fine poetic taste and moral feeling, they have no rivals in art.

*

Landscape painting, which, with few exceptions, had hitherto been treated rather as an auxiliary than a principal, acquired under his skilful hand a grandeur and an effect of a highly poetical character. Nature is portrayed by his pencil in her most gigantic forms and primæval wildness, and the temples and edifices which are introduced, appear to belong to beings of a nobler order than the mere mortals of our world; such pictures, therefore, are generally illustrated with appropriate subjects, taken from the heathen mythology, or ancient history. Of this class the most celebrated are the Polyphemus and Galatea, Hercules and Cacus, the Giant Orion, Arcas and Calisto, the Death of Eurydice, Diogenes casting away his Cup, the Bier of Phocion, and St. John in the Island of Patmos.

Nor was this class of painting less subservient to his plastic hand than those already noticed, and it is evident, both from the number and excellence of his productions, that he had studied nature under all her various appearances, and could with equal facility depict the awful effects of the raging storm and tempest of winter,

*Titian, Carracci, Domenichino, and Claude.

season.

as the sweet serenity of spring, the beauteous brilliancy of summer, and the rich hues which gild the autumnal Proofs of his skill in the former, may be adduced in the sublime picture of the Deluge, and in those of Pyramus and Thisbe, Dido and Æneas, and the terrified Peasants; and of the latter description, are the Paradise, Boaz and Ruth, and the Jewish Spies.

Before concluding these observations, it may be proper to glance at the mechanical peculiarities of Poussin's works, his style, execution, colouring, and effect. His style, although unquestionably of French origin, owes all its beauty to his subsequent study of a few of the great Italian masters, and of ancient sculpture. To such an extent was he carried in his enthusiastic admiration of the latter, that most of the celebrated statues and monuments, both of Greek and Roman origin, may be recognised in his pictures. This fondness for the chaste beauty of the antique, may have led him, in some instances so far, as to give to his figures a rigidity which ill accords with the elasticity of nature. This defect (if it be one), is amply compensated by the grace and dignity of attitude, and the chaste correctness of drawing which pervade his works. EXECUTION, that medium by which the conceptions of a painter are embodied, and by which the connoisseur is frequently enabled to judge of the originality of a picture, is distinguished in this artist (in his best period), by breadth and precision of hand, and a firm and decided outline; every touch of the pencil appears the result of consideration and profound

knowledge, and in this respect, it is the very reverse of that rapidity and dexterous freedom of hand observable in the works of Rubens, Paul Veronese, and Giordano. COLOUR, one of the chief blandishments of the art, does not appear to have so allured his eye, as to have called forth any of his energies to attain its charms; he appears to have treated it as an adjunct to his profession of a secondary nature, and to have contented himself with such hues and tints as best accorded with

his abstract conceptions of nature.* Colouring, therefore, is not an eminent quality of his works. The flesh tints of his figures are generally of a pale or livid hue, or tawny and adust, and the shadows cold and gray; the dresses are frequently composed of yellow, blue, and scarlet of various hues and unbroken brilliancy, sometimes so mingled as to produce an unpleasing effect on the eye: these light imperfections are confined to his historical works, for in those of a mythological description, the colouring is in every respect most appropriate. It will readily be conceived, that when such an admixture of positive colours occur in a picture, the CHIARO-SCURO is not always the most agreeable part of it. If, however, a few of his productions are liable to criticism for such defects, and

*There is an observation in the life of Nicholas Poussin by the author of Abrégé de la Vie des plus fameux Peintres, which states that, while Poussin was engaged copying a picture by Titian, he was so struck with the beauty of the colouring, as to express his apprehension of the danger of its alurement, to the injury and neglect of good drawing; and observed "that the charm of the one, might cause him to overlook the importance of the other."-Vol. IV., p. 33.

which time has tended greatly to increase, the larger portion are not devoid of the important principle of EFFECT, or GOOD KEEPING, and whenever he departed from this rule, it was for some reason connected with the subject of the piece. Sir Joshua Reynolds, in discoursing on Poussin's works, observes, "that he is in the distribution of his lights the very reverse of Rembrandt; the works of the former being as much distinguished for simplicity, as those of the latter for combination; and in the two extremes he observes, it is difficult to determine which of the two is most reprehensible, both being equally distant from the demands of nature, and the purposes of art."

VOL. VIII.