after this Portrait was finished, was at work in the palace, the King, as usual, went privately to his apartment to fee him paint; when observing the figure of Pareja, and taking it for the real person, he exclaimed with surprize, « What! are you still here? have you not

your dispatches? and why are you not gone?" But soon perceiving his mistake, he turn'd to Velasquez (who modeftly doubted the reality of the deception) and faid, " I protest to you it deceived me.” For this story, fuch as it is, I am indebted to the author whom I have quoted in the preceding Note. The celebrated Murillo, whofe pictures are much better known in England than those of his master, was a difciple of Velasqueż.

Thy care the foft, the rich Murillo form'd.] Don Bartolome Eftevan Murillo was born in the neighbourhood of Seville, in 1613. His first mafter was Juan de Caftillo; but he foon fettled in Madrid, under the protection of Velasquez, who contributed to his improvement in the moft generous manner. The Spaniards boast that Murillo became a great Painter, without ever travelling out of Spain. He is faid to have refused the offer of an establishment in England from Charles the Second, and to have pleaded his age as an excuse for not quitting his own country; where he died, and was buried with great marks of honour, in 1685.

No mean biftorian to record their praife.] George Vafari, to whom we are indebted for a most valuable history of Italian Painters, was born at Arezzo in Tuscany, 1511.-Though the fame of the author feems to have eclipsed that of the artist, he rose to confiderable eminence as a painter, and has left us a particular and entertaining account of himfelf and his pictures in the close of his great work—it is introduced

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duced with an apology, in which he speaks of his own talents, and extreme paffion for his art, in the most modest and engaging manner.-His generous defire of doing juftice to the merit of others is moft happily rewarded in the following Elogy, by the great Thu

anus :

"Ob excellentiam artis, quam hiftoria accurate & eleganter fcripta illuftravit, Georgius Vafarius meruit, ut inter viros ingenio & literis præftantes accenferetur. Is Aretii in Etruria natus, pictor & architectus nostra ætate præftantiffimus, diu magno Etruriæ Duci Cosmo, omnium liberalium artium, inter quas pictura et architectura ut referrentur obtinuit, fautori eximio navavit ; editis paffim ingenii fui ad stupendum omnium fpectaculum monumentis, et tandem hoc anno climacterico fuo v kalend. Quintil. vivis exemptus eft ; exinde ficuti teftamento caverat, Florentia ubi deceffit, Aretium in patriam tranflatus ; quo loco in principali fecundum fedem Epifcopalem templo in facello ab ipfo juxta fumptuofo et admirando artificio exftructo fepultus.

Thuanus fub ann. 1574

NOTE XXVII.

VERSE 342.

On ber pure Style fee mild Bologna claim.] The French author quoted above, under the article Caracci, not only speaks with the greatest warmth of the obligation, which Painting owes to Lodovico Caracci, for having raised it from that ftate of corruption, into which it had fallen in all the schools of Italy; but at the fame time points out also the various manierists who had chiefly contributed to its debasement.

The ftyle introduced by Lodovico is recommended by that excellent judge Sir Joshua Reynolds (See Difcourfe 1769) as better fuited to grave and dignified subjects than the richer brilliancy of Titian.

NOTE XXVIII.

VERSE 345.

Titian's golden rays.] This expreffion is borrowed from the close of that elegant fentence of modern Latin, which the author

of Fitzofborne's Letters has fo justly commended, "Aureo Titiani radio, qui per totam tabulam glifcens eam verè fuam denunciat." See his excellent letter on Metaphors, p. 50.

NOTE XXIX. VERSE 353.

And Raphael's Grace muft yield to Rembrandt's Force.] Rembrant Van Bhyn-Pryn, born near Leyden 1606, died at Amfterdam 1674, or, accord

ing to fome accounts, 1668. The numerous works of this great master, both with the engraver and pencil, have rendered him univerfally known. His fingular studies, and the pride which he seems to have taken in the natural force of his genius, appear strongly marked in the two following paffages of his French Biographer.

"Les murs de fon attelier couverts de vieux habits, de piques, et d'armures extraordinaires, etoient toutes fes etudes, ainfi qu'une armoire pleine d'etoffes anciennes, & d'autres chofes pareilles qu'il avoit coutume d'appeller fes antiques.-Rembrant, qui fe glorifioit de n'avoir jamais vu l'Italie, le dit un jour que Vandick l'etoit venu vifiter à Amfterdam: & qui lui repondit, " Je le vois bien." Rembrant naturellement brufque reprit : Qui es tu pour me parler de la forte ?"Vandick repondit; " Monfieur, je fuis Vandick, pour vous fervir.”Abrégé de la Vie des plus fameux Peintres, Tom. III. p. 113.

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NOTE XXX.

VERSE 356.

Yet, Holland, thy unwearied labours raife.] There is no article of tafte, on which different writers have run more warmly into the oppofite extremes of admiration and contempt, than in estimating the painters of Holland. Those who are enchanted by the fublime conceptions of the Roman school, are too apt precipitately to condemn every effort of the Dutch pencil as a contemptible performance; while thofe, who are fatisfied with minute and faithful delineations.

of

;

of nature, find abfolute perfection in the very pictures, which are treated by others with the most fupercilious neglect. But found and impartial judgment feems equally to difclaim this hafty cenfure, and this inordinate praise; and ranking the most eminent Dutch artists below the great Italian mafters, yet allows them confiderable and peculiar merit.-A French author fays, I think not unhappily, of the Dutch painters, that they are "Dans la peinture, ce que le comique & le plaifant font dans la poefie." In defign their fort is certainly humour, and they have frequently carried it to great perfection.

NOTE XXXI. VERSE 380.

Proud of the praise by Rubens' pencil won.] Sir Peter Paul Rubens, who is happily ftyled by Mr. Walpole, "The Popular Painter," was born at Cologne 1577, and died of the gout at Antwerp 1640. The history of his life furnishes a most striking incentive to the young painter's ambition.-The many accomplishments which he poffeft, the infinitude of works which he produced, the reputation and esteem, the various honours and ample fortune which he fo justly acquired, prefent to the mind an animating idea of what may be expected from a happy cultivation of talents in a course of conftant and fpirited application. Though he visited the court of Charles the First in the publick character of an ambassador, it does not appear how long he refided here;-Mr. Walpole conjectures about a year. His pictures in the ceiling at Whitehall were not painted in England; which perhaps is the reafon he has been at the pains of finishing them fo neatly, that they will bear the nearest inspection; for he must have well known how greatly the reputation of any work depends on its first happy impreffion on the publick, and concluded his pictures would be viewed by the king and court instantly on their arrival, and that the critics would not be candid enough to delay their remarks on them till they were elevated to their intended

tended height. This noble work was falling into decay, from which ftate it has been lately rescued by that excellent artist Mr. Cipriani, to whose care it has been moft judiciously committed to be cleaned and repaired.—Rubens received for this work £.3000.

NOTE XXXII. VERSE 388.

Her foft Vandyke, while graceful portraits please.] Sir Anthony Vandyke, the celebrated scholar of Rubens, died of the fame diforder which proved fatal to his master, and at a much earlier period of life. He was born at Antwerp 1598, expired in Black Fryars 1641, and was buried in St. Paul's, near the tomb of John of Gaunt. On his firft vifit to England he received no encouragement from the Court, but Charles, becoming foon afterwards acquainted with his merit, fent him an invitation to return. Vandyke embraced the offer with joy; and the king, who fhewed him, by frequent fittings, the most flattering marks of esteem, conferred on him the honour of knighthood in 1632, rewarding him alfo with the grant of an annuity of £.200 for life.

From Flanders first the fecret power fhe caught.] The Low Countries, though little celebrated for inventive genius, have given to mankind the two fignal difcoveries, which have imparted, as it were, a new vital spirit both to Literature and to Painting. This honour however has been brought into queftion-Germany made a strong, but unfuccessful effort to rob Holland of the glory which she derives from the first invention of Printing: and Painting in oil (it has been faid) was known in Italy before the time of John Van Eyck, or John of Bruges, as he is commonly called; to whom that dif.overy is generally afcribed, about the year 1410. -But Vafari, in his Life of Antonello da Meffina, relates very particularly the circumstances.

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