Buchanan, William: Memoirs of painting: with a chronological history of the importation of pictures by the great masters into England since the French Revolution (Band 1) (London: Ackermann, 1824)

166

ORLEANS COLLECTION.

SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS.
Born at Cologne, in 1577.
Died at Antwerp, in 1640, aged 63.
This eminent person, often distinguished by the
title of Prince of the Flemish Painters, must ever be
regarded as one of the greatest men who has ap-
peared in the world of art. Whether we consider
his great and universal talent of embracing every
thing which came within the range of this science,
and of portraying it with the same happy facility,
in grand historical composition, or in landscape;
in allegorical subjects, or in portrait; in the re-
presentation of animals of a domestic or of a savage
class, in action, or in repose,—all equally bear the
stamp of truth and of nature ; all equally show a
great, enlightened, and comprehensive mind. The
fire of his glowing pencil is only equalled by the
versatility of his genius, and by the facility and
rapidity with which he combined his subjects;
while the beautiful blending of his colours, and
the judicious length to which he has carried the
finishing of his pictures, produce a splendour,
that surpasses every master of the same school,
and rivals the works of the great Venetian masters.
That a man of such unbounded talents as Ru-
bens should be regarded with respect, and his
society courted during his lifetime, is what might