him the honour of knighthood. From the departure of this artist, who executed a work which will reflect lasting honour on Britain, the art of engraving again relapsed into its former obscurity, till towards the middle of this (18th) century, when it was revived afresh by the introduction of other foreigners, together with the successful endeavours of several ingenious natives of these kingdoms."

THE SCHOOLS OF PAINTING.

A School, in the fine arts, denominates a certain class of artists, who have made it their particular study to imitate the productions of some great master.

The school of Florence is remarkable for greatness, and a grandeur of design, bordering on the gigantic. The art of painting was revived in Florence about the year 1240, by Cimabue, who transplanted the few remaining vestiges of the art from a Greek artist to his own country. The works of Cimabue, though in the ordinary style, received the applause of his fellow-citizens, and in a short time the art of painting became so considerable in Florence, that the academy of St. Luke was founded, in which, however, no painters were educated until the year 1350. Andrew Castagna was the first Florentine artist who painted in oil. Michael Angelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, contemporary painters, were esteemed the glory of the Florentine school. M. Angelo surpassed Leonardo in grandeur, while Leonardo was superior to him in the finer parts of the art. Leonardo, full of sensibility, was fond of expressing the sweet affections of the soul; but M. Angelo, not born to experience the softer passions, sought only to strike the imagination with terror, by the boldness and force of his conceptions. Michael Angelo was placed at the head of the school to which he belonged, and died in the year 1563, aged 89.

The school of Rome was formed by Grecian artists, who came from their own country to settle with the Romans. By them the art was handed down to the moderns, who derived all their knowledge from studying the Greek models.

This school is celebrated for grandeur of style, exquisite form, and beautiful expression. In the year 1483, Raphael Sanzio di Urbino was at the head of the Roman school. He excelled in representing philosophers, saints, virgins, and apostles. Although he had studied the works of Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he avoided servilely imitating them. He adopted a medium between the exquisite pathos of Leonardo, and the fire of Angelo, and never advanced a step beyond the modesty of nature. This painter died at the early age of thirty-seven years. It is a very remarkable coincidence, that Raphael was born on a Good Friday, and died on a Good Friday! The celebrated Cartoons would alone immortalize him. They will be noticed by and bye.

The Venetian school was founded by Giorgione and Titian, scholars of Giovanni Bellini, who had studied the works of Domenichino. A beautiful mixture of colours was the grand object of the Venetians in their painting. Titian, or Tiziano Vecelli, having never studied the ancients, supplied the deficiencies in his education by servilely copying the objects of nature, by which practice he obtained a perfect knowledge of colouring-a knowledge never acquired by the artists of the Florentine and Roman schools. This painter was born in the year 1480, and died in 1576.

The Lombard school was founded by Antonio Allegri, more generally known by the name of Corregio. The characteristics of this school are a beautiful combination of colours, an elegant taste for design, and a charming mellowness of pencil.

The Caracci, Lodovico, Augustin, and Annibale, formed what is usually termed the second Lombard school. They established an academy at Bologna, called l'Academia deglia Desiderosi, in which was taught drawing, perspective, and anatomy. Lectures were also given in the various branches of the art, which were regularly delivered, until Annibale received an invitation from Cardinal Farnese to paint at Rome. The paintings of the Caracci, from the resemblance of their manner, are very often confounded together; it ought, however, to be mentioned, that competent judges of painting may easily discover the different styles adopted by the three painters.

The French school has been so fluctuating, that it is almost difficult to ascertain who was its principal founder. Miniature painting was nourished in France at a very remote period, and the French artists in this branch of the art, were held in high estimation by the Italians. Painting languished in France after the death of Francis I., until the reign of Louis XIII., at which time it was revived by James Blanchard, who had been educated in the Venetian school. But Blanchard, though a good painter, had no hand in forming the French school. Poussin was a careful and correct imitator of nature; but he educated no pupils, and consequently did not found the French school. To the abilities of Vouet, perhaps, the French are indebted for the first formation of their school; but afterwards were still more indebted to the brilliant talents of Le Brun, who was the fashionable painter of the age in which he lived. Excepting Le Brun, Eustace la Sueur, Poussin, and Claude Lorraine, the French artists possessed little to recommend their works, in which inelegance and a certain stiffness of expression might invariably be found. The Count de Caylus reformed the bad taste of his countrymen, by directing their attention to the models of Greece and Rome.

It is needless to inform the intelligent reader, that the French capital is adorned with those invaluable works of art, which for

merly created so much emulation at Florence, Rome, Turin, and Naples. A similar collection is now formed in this country, The National Gallery, which will in time, we hope, eclipse even that of our French neighbours.

Germany has not had the honour of forming a regular school of painting. Mengs, Deitrich, Albert Durer, and Holbein, were Germans, and the most celebrated artists that country has produced. A few solitary artists, however, will not form a school.

The Flemish school is remarkable for great brilliancy of colouring, a nobleness of conception, and the magic of the chiaro obscuro. Oil painting was discovered, or at least practised, first in Flanders, by John Van Eyck, who died in 1441, aged seventy-one. Peter Paul Rubens was unquestionably the founder of the Flemish school. This person was not only an admirable painter; he was endowed with many excellent qualities, and esteemed a skilful politician. He was ambassador from the Spanish king to Charles I., from whom he received the honour of knighthood. Rubens equally excelled in painting historical subjects, portraits, fruit, flowers, landscapes, and animals. The historical pictures of this master do not possess that sweetness of expression so prevalent in the works of Raphael; his principal merit lay in colouring, though he never equalled the productions of Titian. Sir P. P. Rubens was born at Antwerp in the year 1577, and died in 1640.

The Dutch school may be considered as distinct from all others. The divine expression of Raphael, and the fire of Michael Angelo, are entirely disregarded by the Dutch, who have adopted a manner of painting practised alone within the precincts of their own country. Their favourite subjects are the vulgar games of the rudest peasantry, boors drinking and smoking, faithful representations of smiths' workshops, with all the minutia to be found therein, and the depredations of banditti. If we view one of these subjects, painted by Teniers the younger, we may be sure to find it a perfect chef d'œuvre. This artist possessed very prolific talents, and was beyond doubt the best painter of the manners of the peasantry in the Low Countries. Lucas de Leyden, who lived in the fifteenth century, is generally considered as the patriarch of the Dutch school. Van Been, Vander Hilst, Cornelius Poelemburg, Rembrandt, John de Laer, Van Ostade, Gerard Douw, Metzu, Meris, Cuyp, Wouvermans, Berghem, Vandervelde, and Van Huysum, were educated in the Dutch school, and have produced most admirable specimens of the art of painting.

The English school did not exist until the Royal Academy in London was established in 1766. We had, however, many excellent painters long before that period, whose productions rank with those of the great Italian masters. Holbein, though a German, executed most of his celebrated works in this country. He was much encouraged by Henry VIII., and painted portraits of

most of the English nobility. He died at his house in Whitehall, in the year 1554, and was buried with much solemnity. In the reign of James I., Cornelius Jansens arrived in England from Holland, and painted the king and nobility; but his talents being soon after eclipsed by Vandyke, he returned to his own country. Sir Anthony Vandyke received the first rudiments of the art from Vanbalen of Antwerp; but afterwards became the pupil of Rubens, under whose excellent guidance he made such rapid progress in the art, that a portrait he painted of his master's wife, even at that period, is ranked among the best of his productions. Leaving Rubens, he made the tour of Italy, and at his return to Antwerp, was invited to England by Charles I., by whom he was knighted. He married the beautiful daughter of Lord Ruthven, Earl of Gowrie. Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great founder of the English school, was born at Plymton, near Plymouth, on the 16th of July, 1723, and was the pupil of Hudson. In the year 1750, he went to Rome, where he remained two years prosecuting his studies. At his return to his own country, he received that patronage which was due to his extraordinary talents. Sir Joshua died in London, at the age of sixty-nine, and was buried in St. Paul's cathedral with great funeral pomp.

THE CARTOONS.

These celebrated paintings are so called from the Italian word cartone, a kind of pasteboard on which they are painted. While Raphael was in the employ of Leo the Tenth, his holiness employed this distinguished painter to make designs of the Acts of the Apostles, for the purpose of having them copied on tapestry. As soon as these tapestries were completed, the Cartoons remained neglected at Brussels, till they were purchased by Rubens for Charles the First of England, and in a dilapidated state (for they had been cut to pieces to facilitate the work of the weavers) they were brought to England. In the reign of William the Third, the pieces were put together in a most careful manner, and a gallery was built at Hampton Court for their reception, where, after one or two removes, they are now finally deposited.

SIGN PAINTING.

Sign Painting is of very ancient date, and, by some, is supposed to have its origin prior to any other painting. Many of the first masters were sign painters, for instance Ribera, or Il Spagnoletto,* was a sign painter, and in Cumberland's life of him we are told, that a Cardinal, one day passing in his coach, observed a tattered figure employed in painting a board, affixed to the outside of one of the ordinary houses in the streets of Rome. *The little Spaniard.

The youth and wretchedness of the spectacle engaged his pity, and the singular attention with which he pursued his work attracted his curiosity. It was Il Spagnoletto, in the act of earning his bread, of which his appearance made it evident he was absolutely in want.

He then proceeds to state, that the Cardinal, after some preliminary conversation, took him home in his coach, and ordered him apartments in his palace, where he pursued those studies that rendered him afterwards so eminent.

Signs and sign painting were first introduced into England in the reign of Edward the Third, from France. London afterwards became famous for its signs, every shopkeeper or dealer having one; indeed, extravagant sums were laid out on this then requisite decoration. They were not then affixed to the house, but were placed on posts, or hung thereon on hinges, on the edge of the footpath.

"Old London's signs did creek, creek, creek,

For every gust of wind did make them speake."

We are told, that in the reign of Richard the Second, a lord mayor of London imported not "cashmeres and laces," but women, from Flanders, and kept stew-houses, where the dainty and squeamish were to deal in this kind of merchandise; and further, that Henry the Seventh also granted his licence to twelve bordillos or stews, having signs painted on their walls, to distinguish them and invite the passenger.

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE CHANDOS PORTRAIT OF SHAKSPEARE.

It was first in the possession of Sir William Davenant, who died insolvent, and afterwards of John Owen, his principal creditor. After his death, Betterton, the actor, bought it. Betterton made no will, and died very indigent; he had a large collection of portraits of actors, which were bought at the sale of his goods by Bullfinch the printseller, who sold them to one Mr. Sykes. The portrait of Shakspeare was purchased by Mrs. Barry, the actress, who sold it afterwards, for forty guineas, to Mr. R. Kech. Mr. Nicol of Colney Hatch, Middlesex, marrying the heiress of the Kech family, this picture devolved to him. By the marriage of the Duke of Chandos with the daughter of Mr. Nicol, it became his Grace's property, and by the marriage of the Duke of Buckingham into the Chandos family, for some time it adorned the collection at Stowe. And at the sale of the Stowe collection it was purchased by the Earl of Ellesmere, who kindly permitted it to be engraved by Mr. Cousens for the Shakspeare Society. A History of this interesting Picture is in course of preparation by that able and indefatigable Shakspearian scholar, Mr. J. Payne Collier.