DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61217#0087
‘MODERN PAINTERS’—FIFTH VOLUME. 75
rection of Death ” of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. First of Salvator Rosa, “the condemned
Salvator,” the bearer of the last signs of the spiritual
life in the art of Europe, who named himself “ Despiser
of wealth and of death.” “Two grand scorns,” says
Ruskin, but “ the question is not for man what he
can scorn but what he can love.” Diirer, on the
other hand, was quiet, riding in fortitude with Death,
like his own Knight. Claude and Gaspar Poussin,
“ classical,” but incapable of the Greek or the Roman
spirit, renounced the labour and sorrow whereto man
is born and so became ornamental, renounced the
pursuit of wealth and so became pastoral and pretended
to study nature; they made selections from amongst
the gods. In their works “ Minerva rarely presents
herself, except to be insulted by the judgment of Paris.”
And in this chapter occurs the last elaborate passage
on Claude, the man of “ fine feeling for beauty of form
and considerable tenderness of perception,” whose
“ aerial effects are unrivalled,” and whose seas are “ the
most beautiful in old art ”; but who was an artist with-
out passion. For its humour I must quote the de-
scription of Claude’s “ St George and the Dragon ” :
“A beautiful opening in woods by a river side; a
pleasant fountain . . . and rich vegetation. . . . The
dragon is about the size of ten bramble leaves, and is
being killed by the remains of a lance ... in his
throat, curling his tail in a highly offensive and threaten-
ing manner. St George, notwithstanding, on a prancing
horse, brandishes his sword, at about thirty yards’ dis-
rection of Death ” of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. First of Salvator Rosa, “the condemned
Salvator,” the bearer of the last signs of the spiritual
life in the art of Europe, who named himself “ Despiser
of wealth and of death.” “Two grand scorns,” says
Ruskin, but “ the question is not for man what he
can scorn but what he can love.” Diirer, on the
other hand, was quiet, riding in fortitude with Death,
like his own Knight. Claude and Gaspar Poussin,
“ classical,” but incapable of the Greek or the Roman
spirit, renounced the labour and sorrow whereto man
is born and so became ornamental, renounced the
pursuit of wealth and so became pastoral and pretended
to study nature; they made selections from amongst
the gods. In their works “ Minerva rarely presents
herself, except to be insulted by the judgment of Paris.”
And in this chapter occurs the last elaborate passage
on Claude, the man of “ fine feeling for beauty of form
and considerable tenderness of perception,” whose
“ aerial effects are unrivalled,” and whose seas are “ the
most beautiful in old art ”; but who was an artist with-
out passion. For its humour I must quote the de-
scription of Claude’s “ St George and the Dragon ” :
“A beautiful opening in woods by a river side; a
pleasant fountain . . . and rich vegetation. . . . The
dragon is about the size of ten bramble leaves, and is
being killed by the remains of a lance ... in his
throat, curling his tail in a highly offensive and threaten-
ing manner. St George, notwithstanding, on a prancing
horse, brandishes his sword, at about thirty yards’ dis-