DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22421#0416
352
NATIONAL GALLERY.
Letter X.
The name of Gevartius is certainly wrong ; for of the two persons
known by that name, the canon, John Gevartius, died in the year
1623, when Vandyck was in Italy. He cannot have painted it
before he set out on that journey, for this is not the performance of
a young man of twenty years of age. Neither can it be Caspar
Gevartius, the intimate friend of Rubens ; for he was born in
1593, and therefore only thirty-three to thirty-eight years of age,
in 1626-1631, which is the period when this picture was painted;
for after that Vandyck painted in a different manner, and also this
portrait is that of a man from fifty to sixty years of age, with grey
hair.
2. Three figures, half-lengths (No. 49), one of whom is called
Rubens, though in fact it has but little resemblance to him, did
not much please me. Perhaps this may be owing to the dull state
of the picture, for Sir Joshua Reynolds, in whose possession it for-
merly was, is said to have valued it highly. On canvas, 3 ft. 9 in.
high, 3 ft. 9 in. wide. (Angerstein.)
3. St. Ambrose refusing to allow the Emperor Theodosius to enter
the church at Milan (No. 50) is a free repetition, on a reduced scale,
of the great picture by Rubens in the Gallery of the Belvedere at
Vienna. This fine picture is of the early time of Vandyck; it
combines the great clearness and brightness of colouring, which he
retained from the school of Rubens, with his own more tender har-
mony and more refined feeling for nature. From the collection
of Lord Scarborough. On canvas,-4 ft. 10 in. high, 3 ft. 9 in. wide.
(Angerstein.)
4. A study of horses (No. 156), among which the painter has
evidently had the horses of Achilles in view, is very spirited and
animated. On wood, 3 ft. 6 in. high, 2 ft. 11 in. wide. Formerly
in the possession of Sir Joshua Reynolds. (Lord Farnborough.)
Rembrandt.—Though there are none of those larger works by
this master, which, by their striking effect, attract the attention of
the spectator even at a distance, yet the six pictures by him in the
Gallery are admirably calculated to give an idea of his wonderful
originality in many respects.
1. By far the finest is (No. 45) the Woman taken in Adultery—
nay, of all Rembrandt's cabinet pictures, it perhaps holds the first
place. In general, we admire in the pictures of this master the
magical effect of the deep chiaroscuro, the bold conception, and the
NATIONAL GALLERY.
Letter X.
The name of Gevartius is certainly wrong ; for of the two persons
known by that name, the canon, John Gevartius, died in the year
1623, when Vandyck was in Italy. He cannot have painted it
before he set out on that journey, for this is not the performance of
a young man of twenty years of age. Neither can it be Caspar
Gevartius, the intimate friend of Rubens ; for he was born in
1593, and therefore only thirty-three to thirty-eight years of age,
in 1626-1631, which is the period when this picture was painted;
for after that Vandyck painted in a different manner, and also this
portrait is that of a man from fifty to sixty years of age, with grey
hair.
2. Three figures, half-lengths (No. 49), one of whom is called
Rubens, though in fact it has but little resemblance to him, did
not much please me. Perhaps this may be owing to the dull state
of the picture, for Sir Joshua Reynolds, in whose possession it for-
merly was, is said to have valued it highly. On canvas, 3 ft. 9 in.
high, 3 ft. 9 in. wide. (Angerstein.)
3. St. Ambrose refusing to allow the Emperor Theodosius to enter
the church at Milan (No. 50) is a free repetition, on a reduced scale,
of the great picture by Rubens in the Gallery of the Belvedere at
Vienna. This fine picture is of the early time of Vandyck; it
combines the great clearness and brightness of colouring, which he
retained from the school of Rubens, with his own more tender har-
mony and more refined feeling for nature. From the collection
of Lord Scarborough. On canvas,-4 ft. 10 in. high, 3 ft. 9 in. wide.
(Angerstein.)
4. A study of horses (No. 156), among which the painter has
evidently had the horses of Achilles in view, is very spirited and
animated. On wood, 3 ft. 6 in. high, 2 ft. 11 in. wide. Formerly
in the possession of Sir Joshua Reynolds. (Lord Farnborough.)
Rembrandt.—Though there are none of those larger works by
this master, which, by their striking effect, attract the attention of
the spectator even at a distance, yet the six pictures by him in the
Gallery are admirably calculated to give an idea of his wonderful
originality in many respects.
1. By far the finest is (No. 45) the Woman taken in Adultery—
nay, of all Rembrandt's cabinet pictures, it perhaps holds the first
place. In general, we admire in the pictures of this master the
magical effect of the deep chiaroscuro, the bold conception, and the