fita Jrto.
THE BRITISH INSTITUTION: EXHIBITION OF OLD MASTERS.
The Exhibition of the present year is not se decidedly less good as it is less interesting than some recent ones. There are no very great works of the highest class : misapplied Dutch labour preponderates over any- thing worthy of being treated by art.
One most eminent and admirable production there is, however—a por- trait of a "Lady and Child" by Vandyck, from the Earl of Caledon's col- lection. Such a Vandyck seldom comes before our or any eyes; one so solid in its dignity, so individual in its portraiture, SO characteristic in its expression, so broad and deep in its colour. Titian has scarcely done any- thing grander, nor Reynolds anything more socially ladylike and childlike. "Ann Carr, Wife of William fifth Earl of Bedford," and the Duke of Hamil- ton's "Portrait of a Boy with a Dog," though eclipsed by this, are still fine Vandycks. "Daedalus and Icarus" is more noticeable as a good torso study than on any other account. The second star of the collection is a stupend- ous mystery of colour by Rembrandt, which glows and burns in the second room—a "Magdalene" recumbent at a water-side, and seemingly. divest- ing herself of her ornaments, the badges of her shame. Description is baffled as well by the method as by the result : it is magic framed and varnished.
In the apartment devoted to English painters we shall come upon another work of more than common mark : a leisurely stroll will acquaint us with the paintings worth comment on the route. Salvator Itosa's " Beli- sarius,' well known through engravings is a heinous affair, calling sim- ply for reprobation. The Duke of Wellington has sent his Correggio of "Our Saviour in the Garden," a duplicate of which belongs to the Na- tional Gallery. The ravings of connoisseurs have long been launched at it : may the voice of commo:: sense, which declares it a low piece of jugglery, be not inaudible amid the uproar ! Regarding " Rubens's Wife and Child," by Rubens and Snyders, it may be remarked, that while the fruit which forms a conspicuous part of the materiel is painted with greater largeness and mastery of manner than characterize the present style in such matters, our most skilful painters come nearer to the real look of the thing. The Marquis of Bute's large Cuyp, "Cattle and Figures on the Bank of a River," is a bad one ; deficient in colour, and common in handling. Another' the property of Mr. Wynn Ellis, is better ; though the black cow's head seems level with her shoulders. The "Landscape and Sheep," still further on, is the one Cupp really good. Two finished sketches by Rubens, "A Jewish Sacrifice" and "A Triumphal Procession," are among the most remarkable contributions; being excellent specimens of the style to which they belong—not living only, but raging with life, and glorying in instinctive power. The Earl of Derby's Spagnoletto looks much more like a well-painted sheep-stealer than "Jacob with Laban's Flock."
May we inquire what warrant Sir J. Carnegie has for calling his "Vene- tian Lady" a Giorgione ? Its being such is not against possibility ; but, re- membering the extreme rareness of genuine works by the master, one must be chary of believing in any to which his name is attached unless stamped with the clearest authenticity ; and we find nothing strongly confirmatory U' this picture—well-painted and fine in style as it is. The lady is holding a drawing of Lucretia in the act of suicide, accompanied by the motto "Nee ulla impudica Lucretia° exemplo vivet." We should like to know something more of the work and its history. Another so-called Giorgione is a "Portrait" exhibited by the Duke of Hamilton ; liquid in its deep dark colour, but apparently a sufferer from retouching. Few hotter pictures of its curiously base order are to be found than "The Cock-fight" of Jan Steen ; a most choice eyesore. Porbus's "Portrait"
is of distinguished excellence—grand and manly. It looks as if done from an original of note : but we do not know the face, nor the motto "Fortune le vent." Still more faultlessly admirable is the "Dutch Gen- tleman," by Vander Heist; which harmoniously fuses the strong precise style and the broad effective style of representation. The unehristened half-figure by Rembrandt is also a fine one.
Mignard's head of" Moliere" is valuable rather than attractive ; yet it is a sound work. "Our Saviour in the House of Simon the Pharisee '' could be by none but Veronese ; so warm and spacious is the atmosphere, so gentle-blooded, however questionably introduced in such a subject, the humanity. The master is seldom seen in England so finely represented. "Sir Anthony Vandyck," by Rubens, strikes us as being widely unlike the ordinary portraits. Charles I. is more readily suggested at the first glance ; though after-inspection satisfies one that the resemblance is accidental. Metzu's "Woman feeding a Dog" stands on ground superior to the great majority of Dutch domesticisms. It has nothing of the abject in it, though perfectly homely to the very core; and is a beautiful piece of equal painting. That first of the Dutch artists, De Hooge, distinguished from all others by a feeling for refined beauty of light and arrangement, has also a capital work, "The Disputed Reckon- ing": and Schalken's "Woman weighing Cherries" is a chef-d'ceuvre of its kind. Tintoretto's "Dead Christ with Angel and St. Francis" surely did not deserve its close acquaintance with the ceiling. You feel, without discerning points of special greatness, that it is the work of a great man. Spagnoletto's " Witch " ranks among the most outré re- vellings in the horrible grotesque ; it is a regular charivari played with cross-bones and Death's-heads. We observe that "R. V. invenit " is marked in the corner, Sparoletto crediting himself as the man who " pinxit" only. "The Virgin and the Infant Jesus, with the Adoration of St. Bonaventura," is one of those Itubenses where the prodigal painter flourishes and skirmishes with his work on a large scale, "regardless of expense," and of propriety and sane reason as well. You could not get any one else to do the same thing at all : but that is a sorry justification of it. Subtermans's head of Galileo is very interesting, massive, and ad- mirable. We doubt the Bellini portrait. Though unnamed in the cata- logue, it appears to us by no means nnlike the painter's own pure and open face. This would naturally tend to confirm its genuineness : but it is yellow without warmth, and lifelessly exact,—qualities which more than counteract the inference. Two "Views in Venice" by Guardi, are bril- liant sketches—like Canaletti, and superior.
The English picture to which we referred by anticipation is Etty'a "World before the Flood,"—a gorgeous and daring idea of colour, as we may call it, which, though not here seen for the first time, fairly sur- prised us. It has the flash and variegation of a flower-bed, but richly harmonized and massed, and blocked out bravely into sun and shadow. There was something gloriously exultant in this man's perceptive fa- culty. He had a fervid sentiment of life, no less than of colour ; but be- yond this, unfortunately, the picture enables us to say little enough. Rus- kin was only too correct in calling Etty "a lost mind," sunk in dancing nymphs. "Southwark Fair" is a most Hogarthian Hogarth ; crowded with' figures, which, in the ease of such a painter, implies with incident and meaning also, remarkable for action,—as in the personages tumbling with the crash of the temporary stage,—but, it must be confessed, rather disagreeable generally, and sunken in colour. Reynolds makes his ap- pearance fourteen-strong, and strong not in number alone, but in quality. His famous " Puck " is one : another, "A Gentleman in his Library," is a splendid portrait, more than usually solid and regular in its finish. A "Landscape with Banditti," by Turner, and of his middle period, has too much liquid sparkle in its tone to be in keeping with the dull brown monotony of its colour. Of our last departed celebrity, Martin, two ex- amples are contributed, "The [Eve of the] Deluge," and "The Fall of Babylon,"—works thoroughly characteristic of his good as well as his bad points, but of whose monstrous faults it were difficult to speak with patience.
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