The great picture of The Battle of Courtrai, or the
Field of the Golden Spurs, now exhibiting in Stanley's Rooms in Maddox Street, is an instance of the good effect of the national encouragement given to historical painting on the Continent, and of the superiority of the instruction that artists obtain there. The painter, NICAISE DE )(Emit, of Antwerp, is only twenty-two—an age when artists with us are scarcely out of their pupilage; yet he has produced a picture that few among our veteran painters could equal. He displays learning in anatomy and costume, and power and facility in drawing and execution, worthy- a master. The subject is the death of Count Robert D'Artos, the leader of an expedition against the Flemings, in 1302, to revenge the massacre of the French at Bruges. The Count, in his ardour dashing forward a-head of his troops, was surrounded and butchered before his rank was known. The prostrate D'Artois, on the paint of receiving the coup de grace, calls for some knight to whom he may yield up his sword with honour; his foes consisting of the armed population, with here and there a common soldier. The artist has not been successful in his attempt to relieve the ghastly incidents of a scene of carnage, by the introduction of heroic sentiment and pathos : the pre- dominant characteristic is brutal ferocity and violence : the expression of grief, pity, and similar emotions is feeble. The action, too, appeals suspended as in a stage tableau. The merits of the picture, in short, are those of executive skill. The colouring is less peculiar than might be expected; the principal defect being the prevalence of a brownish hue. The picture wants that breadth and powerful effect that we are accustomed to consider one of the chief excellences of painting the details are admirable, but the ensemble is not impressive.
A large picture of Calvary, by this young artist, adorns the Catholic Church at Manchester.
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