Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/612

598 his keep and equipage at his disposal. At length the earl persuaded him to work for King William at Hampton Court, where, besides other things, he painted the staircase so badly that he was suspected to have done it on purpose. In the wake of Verrio came Jacques Rousseau and Charles de la Fosse, the painters of the dome of the Invalides in Paris. Some few Englishmen, too, were employed in this department of fresco-painting. Isaac Fuller, a remains of whose performance may be seen in the dome of St. Mary Abchurch, in London; John Freeman, a scene painter for the theatre; and Robert Streater, a man of superior skill, who painted the ceiling of the theatre at Oxford, and many other ceilings, besides works of other kinds, historic, and even still life.

Lely, the painter of Charles's beauties, now at Hampton Court, was a native of Germany, but had studied chiefly in Holland, where Charles is supposed to have met with him. His ladies are certainly endowed with remarkable beauty and grace, but there is a certain likeness running through them all, especially in the complexion, the tone and tint of the flesh, as well as the disposal of the drapery, which gives one the inevitable impression that they are to a great degree got up, and made rather after his peculiar model than their own real appearance. "Whether they be striking likenesses, however, they are beautiful pictures His draperies are arranged in broad folds, and he relieves his figures by a landscape background, which made Walpole say, "His nymphs trail fringes and embroidery through meadows and purling streams." The essence of Lely's painting is court artifice. It is showy, affected, and meretricious. Besides his court portraits he occasionally attempted the historic, one of the best of this kind which he executed being "Susannah and the Elders," at Burleigh House. His portraits in crayons are also preferred by some to his paintings in oil.

Lely set the fashion for portraiture in his time; no painter could hope to succeed if he did not conform to his style. Amongst a crowd of foreigners who sought to share his popularity were Henry Gascar, James Huysman, and Sunman, from the Netherlands—all excellent portrait painters. Netscher also came hither for a short time; and William Wissing, of Amsterdam, an admirable artist, succeeded Lely at his death, and was only eclipsed by the rising fame of Kneller, a German, who afterwards became king William's court painter. Of the French school was Philip Duval, a pupil of the celebrated Le Brun's.

Amongst native portrait painters may be mentioned Hayls, Michael Wright, a Scotchman, who painted the Judges for the Guildhall of London, still remaining there; but more noted for his portrait of Lacy, the actor, in three characters; Henry Anderton, a pupil of Streater's, who became very popular; John Greenhill, and Thomas Flatman, also a poet of some note.

A number of Dutch and Flemish painters of still-life were also employed in England at this period, of whom the most celebrated were Vansoon, Hoogstraten, Roestraten, and Varelst, who also attempted portrait. There was also Abraham Hondius, animal painter, and Danker, Vosterman, Griffiere, Lankrink, and the two Vandeveldes, landscape painters. The Vandeveldes were justly in high esteem; Lankrink was the painter of Lely's backgrounds.

The two great sculptors were Caius Gabriel Cibber, a native of Holstein, and Grinling Gibbons, whom Macaulay calls a Dutchman, but who, though supposed to be of Dutch extraction, was an Englishman, born in Spur Alley, London. Cibber—who was the father of Colley Cibber, afterwards poet laureate, and immortalised by Pope in the "Dunciad"—is now chiefly known by his two figures of Raging and Melancholy Madness, which adorned the principal gate of old Bethlehem Hospital, and now standing in the hall of the modern hospital, a work of real genius. He also erected the bas-reliefs on the pedestal of the London Monument, and did much work at Chatsworth.

Grinling Gibbons was found by John Evelyn in a cottage at Deptford, carving his celebrated "Stoning of St. Stephen," after Tintoretto, and by him introduced at court. He executed a marble statue of Charles II. for the area of the late Royal Exchange, and another in bronze of James II. for the privy garden at the back of Whitehall, which fixed his high merit as a sculptor; but his unrivalled genius in carving soon drew him from sculpture, and he became extensively employed at Windsor, Chatsworth, Petworth, and other great houses, in carving of flowers, feathers, foliage, and the like ornaments, which rival in wood the lightness and accuracy of nature. In the chapel at Windsor he executed abundance of carving of doves, pelicans, palm-branches, &c. At St. Paul's he did much of the foliage and festoons of the stall-work and the side aisles of the choir. At Chatsworth there are feathers in lime-wood that rival those of the living goose; and he there executed in wood a point-lace cravat of marvellous delicacy. At Southwick, in Hants, he embellished an entire gallery, and a room at Petworth, which is generally regarded as amongst his very finest performances.

Engraving at this era fell also greatly into the hands of foreigners. Loggan, Booteling, Valek, Hollar, and Vanderbank were amongst the chief; but there were two Englishmen who were not less patronised by their countrymen. Robert White was a pupil of Loggan's, and, like his master, excelled in portraits. Walpole enumerates two hundred and fifty-five works of this artist, many of them heads drawn by himself, and striking likenesses. But William Faithorne was unquestionably at the head of his profession. Faithorne in his youth fought on the royal side, and was taken by Cromwell at the siege of Basing House along with Hollar.

Hollar left England during the commonwealth, and resided at Antwerp, where he executed his great portraits from Leonardo da Vinci, Holbein, and other great masters. On the restoration he returned to England, and did the plates in Dugdale's "Monasticon," "History of St. Paul's," and "Scenery of Warwickshire," for Thoroton's "Nottinghamshire;" and he made drawings of the town and fortress of Tangier for Charles, which he engraved, some of these drawings still remaining in the British Museum. Faithorne in the meantime took refuge in France, and there studied under Nanteuil, and acquired a force, freedom, richness, and delicacy in portrait engraving which was unequalled in his own time, and scarcely surpassed in ours. He drew also in crayons.

The art of mezzo-tint was introduced at this period by prince Rupert, who was long supposed to have invented it; this, however, has since then been doubted; but its