DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52800#0025
ORLEANS COLLECTION. 5
be ranked with those of the most classic re-
putation.
The Flemish school, like that of Venice, draws
its principal excellence from the splendour of its
colouring. Rubens and Vandyck are its leaders.
To that high colouring for which the early Ger-
man schools had long been celebrated, Rubens in-
troduced a facility of execution, and a general
harmony, founded upon the principles of the Ve-
netian school, which reclaimed painting from the
Gothic style in which he found it. No painter
ever surpassed Rubens in richness of inventive
powers, or in that unity which is so necessary to
form a grand and harmonious whole. The more
extensive his scale, the more vast appears to have
been his genius. Vandyck, in portrait, stands
among the great leaders of painting in that par-
ticular branch. The works of D. Teniers may
likewise be classed among the chief ornaments of
this school.
The Dutch school, although inferior to the
others in point of character, and having no pre-
tensions whatever to sentiment, has nevertheless
strong claims to the attention of the amateur, from
the true stamp of nature which is impressed upon
the works of many of its best painters. A general
brilliancy of colouring, joined to a perfect know-
ledge of the clair obscure; a lively imagination,
be ranked with those of the most classic re-
putation.
The Flemish school, like that of Venice, draws
its principal excellence from the splendour of its
colouring. Rubens and Vandyck are its leaders.
To that high colouring for which the early Ger-
man schools had long been celebrated, Rubens in-
troduced a facility of execution, and a general
harmony, founded upon the principles of the Ve-
netian school, which reclaimed painting from the
Gothic style in which he found it. No painter
ever surpassed Rubens in richness of inventive
powers, or in that unity which is so necessary to
form a grand and harmonious whole. The more
extensive his scale, the more vast appears to have
been his genius. Vandyck, in portrait, stands
among the great leaders of painting in that par-
ticular branch. The works of D. Teniers may
likewise be classed among the chief ornaments of
this school.
The Dutch school, although inferior to the
others in point of character, and having no pre-
tensions whatever to sentiment, has nevertheless
strong claims to the attention of the amateur, from
the true stamp of nature which is impressed upon
the works of many of its best painters. A general
brilliancy of colouring, joined to a perfect know-
ledge of the clair obscure; a lively imagination,