An example of excellence in this way, is a drawing from the collection of the late Paul Sandby, R. A., where Death is exhibited as preaching from a charnel-house, amidst skulls and bones; another skeleton form is introduced as making a back on which to rest the book from which the phantom is discoursing; and, though highly ludicrous in point of character, the groups and composition are in the best style of art. The auditors of the grim preacher are of every age and class, and are happily contrasted: the peasant and the ruler, the matron and the gayly attired female, the cavaner and the person of low degree, all disposed with skill in their appropriate and varied postures of attraction. Part of a cathedral-like building forms the background; the design is from the pencil of Van Venne,* and,

*In the first edition of this work, Van Venne is mentioned as synonymous with Otho Vænius. A similar error exists both in Pilkington and in Bryan; in whose Dictionaries of Painters, under the article "Van," ," "Vænius Otho, or Van Venne," is written.

By the kindness of Mr. Douce, an opportunity is now allowed of distinguishing the individuals, and showing the character of the artist from whose design is the etched frontispiece to the present edition of "Death's Doings."

"Van Venne, or, as he writes himself, Adr. Vande Venne, has not the smallest connexion with Otho Vænius, who was a Flemish painter, but the former a Dutch painter and poet. He was born at Delft, about 1590, and died in 1650. He usually painted in black and white, and seems to have worked chiefly in Denmark, where his paintings were much esteemed, and are now very rarely to be seen. He appears to

from the picturesque costume and character of the composition, would do credit to the talents of the best artists of that period.

Mr. D'Israeli, in his "Theory of the Skeleton,” has shown that a tendency similar to that which has just been noticed pervaded many of the writers on the subject of Death.

"When," observes this ingenious and intelligent author, "the artist succeeded in conveying to the eye the most ludicrous notions of Death, the poet also discovered in it a fertile source of the burlesque. The curious collector is acquainted with many volumes where the most extraordinary topics have been combined with this subject. They made the soul and body debate together, and ridiculed the complaints of a damned soul! The greater part of

have made many of the designs for the celebrated and extremely popular work, entitled, "Catz's Emblems," but he never etched or engraved. He likewise published a set of emblems under his own name, with poetry by himself, 1635, 4to. His name on the prints stands Adrian Vande Venne.

Otho Vænius, the master of Rubens, was also distinguished for his emblematical designs, and appears, from a painting of his in the possession of Mr. Douce, to have exercised his pencil in a similar way to Hans Holbeins. In this painting, Death is represented as intimating his approach to an old man, by the tinkling of a musical instrument.

the poets of the time were always composing on the subject of Death in their humorous pieces.

"Of a work of this nature, a popular favourite was long the one entitled, 'Le Faut Mourir, et les Excuses Inutiles qu'n apporte à cette Necessité; a tout en vers burlesques, 1556.' Jaques Jaques, a canon of Aubrun, was the writer, who humorously says of himself, that he gives his thoughts just as they lie on his heart, without dissimulation; for I' have nothing double about me except my name. I tell some of the most important truths in laughing, -it is for thee d'y penser tout a bon.""

Mr. D'Israeli goes on to remark,-" Our canon of Aubrun, in facetious rhymes, and with the naïveté of expression which belongs to his age, and an idiomatic turn fatal to a translator, excels in pleasantry; his haughty hero condescends to hold very amusing dialogues with all classes of society, and to confound their excuses inutiles. The most miser.. able of men,—the galley-slave, the mendicant, alike would escape when he appears to them. • Were I not absolute over them,' Death exclaims, they would confound me with their long speeches; but I have business, and must gallop on!'"

Our monumental effigies, where the figure of Death is introduced, are not entirely free from a cast of the ludicrous, though, from the nature and character of sculpture, fewer offences this way are exhibited. Like the muse of history, the dignity of sculpture would be lessened in the service of comedy: the temple and the tomb are its proper sphere; deities, heroes, statesmen, and poets, are the objects it contemplates; and the ideal perfection of grace grace and beauty is its principal aim.

Under the hand of sculpture, the familiar may, however, in some degree become exalted, and modern costume be made subservient to the purposes of fine art. But it requires the skill of a Roubilliac, a Chantrey, or a Baily, to mould folds and cast form into that character which judgment and taste sanction or approve.

Of the power to mould and fashion form and costume into the character of grandeur, Roubilliac's figure of Handel, in Westminster Abbey, is a striking example; and, while contemplating the dignified attitude of the portrait, the arrangement of the accessories, and its composition throughout, it is impossible to imagine it could be improved, even by

the introduction of what is termed the classic in art,-the costume of Greece and Rome.

In this artist's monument of Lady Nightingale, he has necessarily employed a drapery suitable to the introduction of an ideal character,-that of Death; and has, in his personification of the phantom, enveloped the figure with a loosened drapery, in order, it may be readily conceived, as much as possible to avoid the skeleton shape.

The same artist has introduced, in the monument of William Hargrave, one of the finest allegorical representations that has ever been imagined,-that of Time's victory over Death: yet, here the skill with which the bony structure of the struggling skeleton is executed, is apt to attract the regard of the vulgar (like the deceptive in painting), rather than the sublimity and character of the composition, and its reference to the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body.

While thus treating of subjects connected with the Abbey of Westminster, it is impossible not greatly to regret, that from the inspection of these monumental remains-these efforts of sculptured art,