Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/102

 GELLilK development of bis French servant's capacity in a new sphere of art; from a cook he became a painter, and Sand- rart first taught him to sketch from nature. Claude adopted an original style. His subjects were chosen from the banks of the Tiber, and the neigh- Ijouring hills and woodlands of Rome, or from the wild expanse of the Cam- pagna; but foliage, architecture, and water were his favourite subjects. His landscapes are, however, not strictly copied from nature; they are rather composed from various picturesque materials put together according to his own fancy. The architectiure which he introduces is extremely fanciful, it has a classical character, but it is the Italian renaistance, not Roman art, that was his model. Sometimes we see ruins, sometimes perfect buildings, of at least great pretensions and some splendour. His rendering of water is somewhat hard, and his rivers are like the Tiber, opaque; his atmo- spheres, however, are brilliant and etherial; his chief excellence is, perhaps, his aerial perspective and general management of light. His colouring shows no great excellence; his greens are sometimes cold, blue, and excessive in quantity, resembling more the West of England than Cen- tral Italy. In his later works, the blue tone disappears, and gives place to a more genial warmth of colour, and a cheerful sunny light. The Doria and Sciarra Palaces at Rome contain some of his most finished works. Notwith- standing Claude's great age and suc- cess, Baldinucci informs us that his property at his death did not exceed in value 10,000 scudi. Frequent co- pies and imitations were made of his pictures, and are said even during his lifetime to have, been sold as originals. To obviate this imposition, he collected in a book the sketches of his pictures, ' which he carefully preserved, or draw- ings' executed from them, and he named this collection the Book of Truth (Li- bro di Veritii). It is now in the pos- session of the Duke of Devonshire, it consists of 200 drawings, and on the backs of some of them are written the dates of the completion of the pictures, and the names of the purchasers. The collection was engraved for Boydell, by Earlom, imder the tide of " Liber Veri- tatis" 1777. Robert Dumesnil, in the Peintre Graveur Fran^ais, describes 42 etchings by Claude : he rarely put the same signature to his works, but he generally used the Italian form of his name, Claudio. His best pictures be- long to about the period 1645. The figures in them were painted chiefly by F. Lauri, Borguignon, or by A. Both. England is richer than any other coun- try in the examples of this painter, who has long been a special favourite with English collectors. The National and private galleries in England contain some of Claude's finest works. Works, Rome, the Doria and Sciarra Palaces, the Mill ; the Sacrifice at Del- phi ; and other master-pieces. Naples, Stu€U Gallery, the Sea of Diana. Vi- enna, Esterhazy Gallery. Munich Gal- lery. Dresden Gallery. Petersburg, the Hermitage ; the Seasons. Berlin Gal- lery. Louvre, the Roman Forum, and fifteen others. London, National Gal- lery, the Embarkation of St. Ursula ; the Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon ; Cephalus and Procris ; Isaac and Rebec- ca; and six others (nine of this collection are engraved in the " Liber VeritaiU ") : Bridgewater Collection, Morning and Evening; and two others: Grosvenor Gallery, Morning and Evening; the Sermon on the Mount; the Golden Calf; the Rise and the Decline of the Roman Empire ; and two others. Holk- ham, several specimens. Longford Castle, Morning and Evening ; the Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire: Dulwich College, Embarkation of St.