John, representing in its three compartments: firstly,
the "Decollation of St. John Baptist"; secondly, the "Mystic Marriage of
St. Catherine to the Infant Saviour"; and thirdly, the "Vision of St.
John Evangelist in Patmos." I shall not attempt any description; I
assure you that the perfection of character and even drawing, the
astounding finish, the glory of colour, and, above all, the pure
religious sentiment and ecstatic poetry of these works is not to be
conceived or described. Even in seeing them the mind is at first
bewildered by such godlike completeness; and only after some while has
elapsed can at all analyse the causes of its awe and admiration; and
then finds these feelings so much increased by analysis that the last
impression left is mainly one of utter shame at its own inferiority.

Van Eyck's picture at the Gallery may give you some idea of the style
adopted by Memling in these great pictures; but the effect of light and
colour is much less poetical in Van Eyck's; partly owing to _his_ being
a more sober subject and an interior, but partly also, I believe, to the
intrinsic superiority of Memling's intellect. In the background of the
first compartment there is a landscape more perfect in the abstract
lofty feeling of nature than anything I have ever seen. The visions of
the third compartment are wonderfully mystic and poetical.

_Rossetti._

CCXVII

VAN DYCK

Van Dyck completed Rubens by adding to his achievement portraits
absolutely worthy of his master's brush, better than Rubens' own. He
created in his own country an art which was original, and consequently
he has his share in the creation of a new art. Besides this he did yet
more: he begot a whole school in a foreign country, the English
school--Reynolds, Lawrence, Gainsborough, and I would add to them nearly
all the genre painters who are faithful to the English tradition, and
the most powerful landscape painters issue directly from Van Dyck, and
indirectly from Rubens through Van Dyck. These are high claims. And so
posterity, always just in its instincts, gives Van Dyck a place apart
between the men of the first and those of the second rank. The world has
never decided the exact precedence which ought to be his in the
procession of the masters, and since his death, as during his life, he
seems to have held the privilege of being placed near the throne and of
making a stately figure there.

_Fromentin._

SPANISH PAINTING

CCXVII