THE DUKE OF NORTHUMDERLANWS cam. TO THE NATION. Tim National
Gall ry reopened on Monday,e after the usual autumnal recess ; and we took the first opportunity of gob g to see the three pictures presented by the Duke of Noitilli'Mr.t.T.LAND. They are A Capuchin Friar, by IlEmenaNtar, Thu Plague of Aland, by N. Porssis, and a Holy Family, by JORDAENS. The latter we will at once dismiss : even if it be genuine, which we doubt, it is worthless. The Virgin, Joaepin and the InfantChrist, and St. John, are all staring out of the picture with open mouths and vacant looks; and the painting is raw, hard, and brickdusty. A subject of this kind by JORDAENS, indeed, must needs be vulgarized ; for he had no itnagination, and his feeling and fancy were coarse and sensual : his ambition never vaulted above the height of a Lenders mare, bat it fell on the other side. The Pousstar is one of this classic paiatees least impressive pictures; but molting that ever came from his Land—as this evidently did—fails to excite admiration of his learned style of drawing the figure and arrauging draperies. Here, however, we have a scene of horror and dismay, whose revolting features are not redeemed by an answerable amount of awe or pathos. In the foreground, a mother lies dead of the plague, with one infant dead beside her, and another crying at not get- ting DOW ishtnent from the livid in east ; two men are bending over her, each holding a hand over his mouth and nostiils, and one of them put- ting buck a child that is unconsciously approaching the pestilential group. In all this there is nothing to move time higher feelings; the horrible reality is not retitled by profound emotions of pity, grief, or even horror depicted in the faces—suffetiog and loathsomeness predo-
• This was in lye last week. minate. A throng of people immediately lehind are pressing forward to the temple, where the image of Dagon has fallen before the ark of the Covenant: eager curiosity and amazement are depicted in their action and looks; but the supernatural character of the visitation is not strongly impressed on the scene. The interest of the picture is feeble; and the two incidents weaken, instead of strengthening it, by dividing the attention. The sense of desolation conveyed by the distant street, empty of all but a couple of men bearing a dead body, and the baleful light in the sky, are in keeping with time subject ; and the coppery tone of the painting, though disagreeable, may not be wholly accidental. It is not one of Poussix's best wanks by any means; the painting is slovenly, and appears, indeed, unfinished : far, very far inferior is it to the Gorgon (to which it futons the pendant picture) both in conception and execution.
The REMBRANDT is a masterpiece, both as a painting and a study of human character. The eyes of the monk, which seem to have shrunk in their sockets and lost their lustre, gaze with blank meaning upon vacancy; while the gudecon-moutia with its thin lips parted in listless pondering, looks like the slit in a poor'a.box mutely petitioning for an alms. The spirit of monachism, in its mealiest aspect, is depicted in the countenance that peers out of' its hollow hood, like a rapid ntortuunt of ascetic mortification. The sober tone of the picture is in fine har- mony with the subject : -the light on tite face seems dimmed by contact with it. The finish of the pailitit g and the gradations of the chiaro- scuro are marvellous.
We are far from wishing to disparage the value of this gift ; but, viewed in connexion with the name of one of the highest and wealthiest of our nobility, it 1,711s short of the nomifieient spirit that the public acts of such a man as the Indic of NORTHUMLERLAND might be ex- pected to evince; and it is impossibie to avoid remarking that the pictures are not of the most etigagieg kind. Such contributions as !hese ;:re lint calculated to fonove the prcvailing impression that the National Gallery is rigardell rather as a ma-an:tele for the uninteresting or disagreeable pictures in private collections, than as a monument of the riches and taste of the country, and an assemblage of the choicest pictures in the kingdem for the study and delight of artists and the public.
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