DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22421#0092
28
ILLUMINATED MSS.
Letter II.
had obtained in different parts of Europe; and lastly, the collec-
tion of Mr. Brunet, the architect. In Holland, too, every oppor-
tunity was seized to obtain drawings by the ancient masters of that
country from the collections of old families. In the same manner
many articles from the celebrated collection of Count Fries in
Vienna, were transferred to England. The greater part of all
these treasures flowed into the collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence,
late President of the Royal Academy, who, with an enthusiastic
passion for works of art of this description, spared no expense, and
is said to have laid out 40,000/. upon them. Other important
collections were formed, the best known of which were those of
Messrs. Esdaile, Ford, Hibbert, Payne Knight, Mordant Cratche-
rode, and General Sir Charles Greville. In the last sixteen years
also the collections of Baron Verstolk and of the Kino1 of the
Netherlands have afforded excellent opportunities in this line, of
which full advantage has been taken.
Another branch of the fine arts, of which the English were very
fond, were MSS. illustrated with miniatures, which are of so much
value in the history of painting; for, as more important remains
of the early centuries of the middle ages are entirely wanting in
most countries in Europe, and are very rare in others, it is only by
means of those miniatures that we can obtain a knowledge of the
state of painting from the fourth to the fifteenth century. They
teach us how Christian art, long faithful, in conception and me-
chanical part, to its mother the antique, gradually assumed in both
a new and peculiar manner ; and how, subsequently, the tendencies
of the different nations were impressed upon it. In them alone is
contained the complete and wide circle of representations and
inventions which the paintings of the middle ages have described.
Nay, from them proceeded the entire development of the art of
painting, both in Italy and the Netherlands, in the fifteenth cen-
tury. For the celebrated Fiesole, who was the first in Italy who,
in his paintings, made the happiest use of the variety of intellectual
expression in the human countenance, and thereby led to a new
era in the arts, was the pupil of a miniature painter, and first cul-
tivated that quality in this branch of the art. In like manner the
celebrated brothers, Flubert and John Van Eyck, the founders of
the great Flemish school, were essentially disciples of that school of
miniature painters, which in the second half of the fourteenth cen-
ILLUMINATED MSS.
Letter II.
had obtained in different parts of Europe; and lastly, the collec-
tion of Mr. Brunet, the architect. In Holland, too, every oppor-
tunity was seized to obtain drawings by the ancient masters of that
country from the collections of old families. In the same manner
many articles from the celebrated collection of Count Fries in
Vienna, were transferred to England. The greater part of all
these treasures flowed into the collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence,
late President of the Royal Academy, who, with an enthusiastic
passion for works of art of this description, spared no expense, and
is said to have laid out 40,000/. upon them. Other important
collections were formed, the best known of which were those of
Messrs. Esdaile, Ford, Hibbert, Payne Knight, Mordant Cratche-
rode, and General Sir Charles Greville. In the last sixteen years
also the collections of Baron Verstolk and of the Kino1 of the
Netherlands have afforded excellent opportunities in this line, of
which full advantage has been taken.
Another branch of the fine arts, of which the English were very
fond, were MSS. illustrated with miniatures, which are of so much
value in the history of painting; for, as more important remains
of the early centuries of the middle ages are entirely wanting in
most countries in Europe, and are very rare in others, it is only by
means of those miniatures that we can obtain a knowledge of the
state of painting from the fourth to the fifteenth century. They
teach us how Christian art, long faithful, in conception and me-
chanical part, to its mother the antique, gradually assumed in both
a new and peculiar manner ; and how, subsequently, the tendencies
of the different nations were impressed upon it. In them alone is
contained the complete and wide circle of representations and
inventions which the paintings of the middle ages have described.
Nay, from them proceeded the entire development of the art of
painting, both in Italy and the Netherlands, in the fifteenth cen-
tury. For the celebrated Fiesole, who was the first in Italy who,
in his paintings, made the happiest use of the variety of intellectual
expression in the human countenance, and thereby led to a new
era in the arts, was the pupil of a miniature painter, and first cul-
tivated that quality in this branch of the art. In like manner the
celebrated brothers, Flubert and John Van Eyck, the founders of
the great Flemish school, were essentially disciples of that school of
miniature painters, which in the second half of the fourteenth cen-