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the philanthropic trains of ideas with which it is associated, the whole is magnificently rich.

The colours and the undulating form of a young leopard, who, harmless

"and playful as the sportive kitten,"

lies on his back, near the fore-ground, contributes not a little to this variegated richness. He has evidently come from the garden of Hesperus, or some such golden orchard, with Pan (or Sylvan) and the horn of Amalthea, teeming with its delicious luxuries; and when taken with the group of children near him, will powerfully remind the reader of certain congenial passages in the Messiah of Pope. Indeed, the whole picture" rapt into future times," is in full harmony with the tenour of that poem: but we more particularly allude to the stanzas

"All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail!
Returning Justice lift aloft her scale.

See! Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring,
With all the incense of the breathing Spring:

No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes;
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover❜d o'er;
The brazen trumpet kindle rage no more:

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Shall finish what his shortliv'd sire begun;

The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,
And boys in flow'ry bands the tiger lead."

The prototype of both Pope and Rubens was doubtless that prophecy of Isaiah, wherein he predicts that "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the

leopard shall lie down with the kid," &c. " and a little child shall lead them."

But, beside the general congeniality, or agreement, which we have noticed between the prophet, the poet, and the painter, Rubens has introduced certain particular touches of nature, and of analogical accompaniment of a minor kind, which, when the first pleasurable tumult into which fancy is thrown by an introduction to this picture, has somewhat subsided, will steal agreeably on the attention. Among them, the bland little Zephyrus, or Halcyon, who has brought the olive-wreath, and floats sportfully in the air; and, that notwithstanding the leopard is playful and apparently harmless, our favourite little adolescent girl cannot entirely divest herself of a certain feminine timidity—an endearing, virgin apprehensiveness, which sits on her gracefully, and is most happily depicted. We may be quite sure that the artist caught this from nature. There is indeed a pervading modesty and artlessness about the whole of this infantile group, that is extremely interesting in itself, and intelligibly allegorical in its meaning; for the transmission of blessings such as are here invocated or anticipated by this accomplished painter, to an innocent and modest offspring, affects us more poetically, as well as more honourably and more profoundly, than would the immediate personal expectation, or self-enjoyment, of those same blessings; -Ah! but there is a vis inertia here. How shall we avoid to feel and reflect on what has resulted to England instead of these invocated blessings? How shall we avoid to think of those hell-principled national debts that have resulted from the wars in which our country, since the age of Rubens and of Charles, has

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unhappily been engaged, instead of the halcyon days of happiness with which the lyric painter would have blessed us?

As, after temporarily wearing green glasses, all objects for a while appear tinged with red; and as, after the intense inspection of any vivid colour, our optic nerves are for a time affected, or haunted as it were, with a spectrum of the antagonist tint; so do we find our minds affected, after permitting imagination to be soothed with this picture. The red antagonist tint is excited. We incontinently think of what England has really inherited, instead of the blessings invoked by Rubens. The picture of anticipated national happiness, introduces the baleful Walpole spectrum of national debt, which during the age of this great artist was unknown, and had not even been thought of.

Rubens lived in the cruel age of thumb-screws, it is true; but before the invention of this ingenious purse-and-heart-screw. Were he now to reappear, and paint for us of "this enlightened age" (as it calls itself)-a second edition of his generous wishes, what a horrible infanticidical monster he would have to depict among his retreating demons! or what a Herculean labour for his Britannia, or goddess of Wisdom, to encounter!-But it is most likely that his alarmed attention would avert itself from the task, and that, with Gray, he would write on his

canvas

"Visions of GLORY!-spare my aching sight!
Ye unborn ages, rush not on my soul!"

A FLEMISH LANDSCAPE AND FIGURES.

SIR P. P. RUBENS.

RUBENS is believed to have painted the two large landscapes, of which Sir George Beaumont possessed one, and Mr. Champernowne the other, at Genoa ! Yes; surprising as it may seem when we regard them attentively, and reflect on the local nature of their subjects, and how new in the world was the art of landscape painting at the era of their production.

They were painted at Genoa, and formerly adorned the Doria palace. But Genoa, having long since declined from her commercial importance, had for ages been gradually disposing of her rich merchandise and her treasures of Art, when these pictures were offered to, and were purchased by Mr. Herbert, together with the fine allegory from the same powerfully versatile pencil, of which we have already treated. Mr. Herbert consigned them to Mr. Buchanan, by whom they were resold in England. The late Lady Beaumont, observing that Sir George was much charmed with the present landscape, and having recently come into the possession of a certain independent property, purchased the picture for fifteen hundred guineas, and presented it to her husband; probably after the rainbow scene had been disposed of to Mr. Champernowne. But those two landscapes ought never to have been separated: and it were now a worthy enterprise to bring them again together, and reposit them both in the National Picture Gallery. They ought never to have been separatedbecause, when a great artist paints companion pictures, the two constitute by their appositions, and

by the light and intelligence which they mutually reflect, but one whole; and those whom genius hath thus joined, no man should put asunder.

When we contemplate the lofty flight in landscape painting, to which Rubens sprang, from the quaintlycurled trees and clouds of Wolgemuth, Durer, and De Vos, these fine pictures form a memorable era in the history of landscape. Their having been painted at Genoa, though purely Flemish scenes, is a remarkable fact. If they were so painted, with the view of showing the Genoese friends and patrons of the artist, how Flanders differed from Italy, this circumstance may serve in some measure to account for the elaborate solicitude with which he has planted his foreground with such flowering shrubs as are indigenous to the Low countries. But another remarkable fact is, that they were also painted soon after Rubens had for the first time beheld the vigorous and intelligent details and the rich colours of the landscapes of Titian; when he had probably resolved to assert, by his pencil, his own claims to originality; while emulative feelings were strong upon him; and while, with a kindred genius who had preceded him, he was mentally responding" I too am a painter.” This laudable emulative feeling, which it is not difficult for sympathetic minds to trace—is obvious, as well in the historical works which he produced at this period of his life, as in the landscapes before us; for at this time he imitated in his histories the splendid colouring of Paul Veronese; had extracted beauty from the peachy blooms of Baroccio; and in the Champernowne landscape a rainbow is introduced, peasantry are dressed in powerful reds, and other imposing colours; and various domestic fowl, affording scope for the display of the most vivid

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