Smith, John: A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters: in which is included a short biographical notice of the artists, with a copious description of their principal pictures : a statement of the prices at which such pictures have been sold at public sales on the continent and in England; a reference the the galleries and private collections in which a large portion are at present; and the names of the artists by whom they have been engraved; to which is added, a brief notice of the scholars & imitators of the great masters of the above schools (Part 7) (London: Smith and Son, 1836)

REMBRANDT VAN RHYN.

xxxvii

among the greatest painters. If, however, as is gene-
rally allowed, he was defective in the higher graces of
art, he amply compensated for this deficiency by the
more solid acquirements ; his proportions in drawing
are correct, the attitudes of his figures well chosen, and
his extremities, particularly the hands, both well drawn
and admirably in unison with the sentiment depicted
in the countenance. Rembrandt possessed an inde-
pendent mind, and claimed and freely used the privilege
allowed to poets and painters ; he, therefore, adopted
whatever style of dress in the draping his figures he
thought would best suit his purpose and give pic-
turesque effect to his subjects. In furtherance of this,
he formed a large collection of old fantastical dresses,
and whimsical ornaments, together with a quantity of
armour, pistols, sabres, halberts, flags, and other mili-
tary implements ; these he jocosely styled his cabinet of
antiques, and applied them indiscriminately in dressing
and decorating his figures, without troubling himself
about the propriety of the costume, or the suitability of
the habiliments to the characters introduced. This
neglect or indifference to the propriety of costume could
not have arisen from ignorance, for he is said to have
possessed some fine Italian prints and pictures, and had
besides other means of informing himself on the sub-
ject, had he chosen to have availed himself of them.
The critic may, therefore, descant on the presence of
a Turk at the Crucifixion, and Entombment of Our
Lord; or, on the Virgin Mary attired in a brocade
dress, and at other similar anachronisms ; the real
amateur will neither dispute or envy his knowledge,