DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61252#0218
174
THE SUTHERLAND GALLERY.
had nature before them, around them—the glowing vigorous
nature of their southern clime. The students in the Seville
academy began where others end—by painting, not drawing.
The exquisite truth of imitation—all the mechanical secrets
of colour, light and shade, and aerial effect—all the dexterity
of hand which the Dutch applied on a small scale, and to
the most trivial and often base subjects, the Spaniards ap-
plied on a large scale, and to the grandest subjects, which,
let it be observed, gained nothing in sublimity by this illu-
sive truth of effect—rather lost. Yet the tendency and
principle of Spanish art being the appeal to our sensibilities,
the skill of the execution certainly heightened this power into
a kind of enchantment—a fascination. Look at the “ Pro-
digal Son” here; it will exemplify all that has been said.
It is the most difficult thing in the world to describe the
pictures of Murillo or Juanes, and the most unsatisfac-
tory when done, for they are addressed chiefly to the
feeling and to the eye; their beauties are those of senti-
ment, colour, countenance, execution. They must be seen
to be appreciated, engraving gives no adequate idea of them;
and for this reason it is that we see so very few engravings
after the Spanish masters.*
Hence, too, they excelled in portraiture; some, as Ve-
lasquez, combining the excellences of the Venetian and
Flemish styles. I recollect a portrait in the Louvre, that
of his own daughter, by Domenico el Greco, which I should
have taken for a Titian—lovely! As to Murillo, original
in portraiture as in everything else, his style was no style
but that of nature—a noble unconscious simplicity—as
different from the chivalrous elegance of Vandyck, as from
the “ senatorial dignity” of Titian. For instance, the por-
trait of Don Faustino Neve, at Bowood; and the head
(No. 50) in this Gallery.
Of all painters, tho=e of the Carracci school are best rendered by engravings.
THE SUTHERLAND GALLERY.
had nature before them, around them—the glowing vigorous
nature of their southern clime. The students in the Seville
academy began where others end—by painting, not drawing.
The exquisite truth of imitation—all the mechanical secrets
of colour, light and shade, and aerial effect—all the dexterity
of hand which the Dutch applied on a small scale, and to
the most trivial and often base subjects, the Spaniards ap-
plied on a large scale, and to the grandest subjects, which,
let it be observed, gained nothing in sublimity by this illu-
sive truth of effect—rather lost. Yet the tendency and
principle of Spanish art being the appeal to our sensibilities,
the skill of the execution certainly heightened this power into
a kind of enchantment—a fascination. Look at the “ Pro-
digal Son” here; it will exemplify all that has been said.
It is the most difficult thing in the world to describe the
pictures of Murillo or Juanes, and the most unsatisfac-
tory when done, for they are addressed chiefly to the
feeling and to the eye; their beauties are those of senti-
ment, colour, countenance, execution. They must be seen
to be appreciated, engraving gives no adequate idea of them;
and for this reason it is that we see so very few engravings
after the Spanish masters.*
Hence, too, they excelled in portraiture; some, as Ve-
lasquez, combining the excellences of the Venetian and
Flemish styles. I recollect a portrait in the Louvre, that
of his own daughter, by Domenico el Greco, which I should
have taken for a Titian—lovely! As to Murillo, original
in portraiture as in everything else, his style was no style
but that of nature—a noble unconscious simplicity—as
different from the chivalrous elegance of Vandyck, as from
the “ senatorial dignity” of Titian. For instance, the por-
trait of Don Faustino Neve, at Bowood; and the head
(No. 50) in this Gallery.
Of all painters, tho=e of the Carracci school are best rendered by engravings.