Henry's suggestion, Hans Holbein accompanied the Earl of Arundel to England; and the talent of that eminent artist was employed in perpetuating the grace and loveliness of English beauties, and in consigning to posterity the features of those celebrated personages whose talents and achievements added lustre to the court and honour to the country for which they were exerted. The works of Holbein in England were numerous; but few of them survived the furious zeal of the early Reformers and the fanaticism and avarice of the Puritans. The original drawings which he made of the distinguished personages of Henry's court are, however, still preserved in the royal collection, of which they form an interesting portion; they are executed in chalk, on tinted paper, with little attempt at light and shadow, and are characterised by a vigour and freedom of execution which his pictures do not always possess. The painter enjoyed a pension of two hundred florins. from the court, and continued to exercise his profession with indefatigable assiduity, till the plague put an end to his career in 1554, twenty-two years before the death of Titian, by the same disease. Still it does not appear that native talent was excited to display itself; and no British painter came forward to share the fortune or to rival the merit of Holbein. A better taste for the art had, however, been manifested: our churches began to assume some appearance of Catholic magnificence; and the introduction of the works of Italian genius would probably have given the stimulus which was wanting to English artists, had it not been so suddenly and so seriously checked by the memorable change in the national religion. The effects of the mistaken zeal of the early Reformers continued to operate more or less upon the taste of the nation, till the reign of Charles I., when the appearance of Rubens and Vandyke in this country opened new prospects to British art.* Charles was fond of art and literature, and took pride in encouraging them: he soon amassed a fine collection of the works of foreign artists, and extended his patronage to native talent wherever it could be found. The royal collection, as we have already * Sir Antonio More flourished in this interval, and stood high in the favour of Philip, who bestowed upon him a chain of gold for his portrait of Queen Mary, and a pension of four hundred a year as painter to the King. More followed Philip into Spain, and lived there in much splendour, till the consideration in which he was held by his royal master drew upon him the displeasure of the Inquisition he accordingly retired from the country, and attached himself to the Duke of Alva, who caused him to be appointed receiver of the revenue of West Flanders, a post so lucrative, that he is said to have given up painting on obtaining it. : Towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, Hilliard and the elder Oliver began to distinguish themselves. The works of the latter, as well as those of the younger Oliver, who flourished in the succeeding reign, are miniatures, and possess considerable merit. Under James appeared Mytens, a native of the Hague; who was much encouraged, and subsequently pensioned, by that monarch. He was at first employed in portraiture; but afterwards made small copies of the works of the Italian masters, which he executed with great ability. In the reign of Elizabeth, Frederigo Zucchero was also much employed in England. stated, originated with Henry VIII.; it appears to have contained in his time one hundred and fifty pieces, including miniatures; and, considering the state of public taste at that period, the foreign wars in which Henry engaged, and his contest with the church of Rome, it must be owned that he did much for the art. Charles I. added greatly to this collection; and we find that the contents of his noble gallery at Whitehall amounted to 460 pictures, from the pencils of thirty-seven different artists. Among these were eleven by Holbein, eleven by Correggio, sixteen by Giulio Romano, ten by Mytens, seven by Parmeggiano, nine by Raphael, seven by Rubens, three by Rembrandt, seven by Tintoret, twenty-eight by Titian, sixteen by Vandyke, four by Paul Veronese, and two by Leonardo da Vinci. The gallery soon became a place of general attraction, and the king himself was oftener found there than in his private apartments. The nobles were proud of imitating the example of their monarch; and purchased largely, wherever opportunities presented themselves. The Duke of Buckingham persuaded Rubens to sell him his own private collection, consisting of thirteen pictures by the hand of that accomplished artist, of nineteen by Titian, thirteen by Paul Veronese, seventeen by Tintoret, three by Leonardo da Vinci, and three by Raphael. The king's brother, Prince Henry, shared the taste of his royal kinsman; and the Earl of Arundel formed a noble collection of works of art, consisting principally, however, of sculpture. Costly presents, such as those which had been offered by foreign nations to Elizabeth and James, of which the richness of the materials constituted the only value, were no longer thought in character with the taste of the English court, and the choicest works of art were now substituted in lieu of them. The Cain and Abel of John di Bologna, and Titian's Venus del Pardo, were presented by the King of Spain; and other states sent presents of a similar nature. Charles employed skilful painters to copy what he could not purchase, and obtained the Cartoons of Raphael through the interposition of Rubens, and the collection of the Duke of Mantua, consisting of eighty-two pictures, chiefly by Giulio Romano, Titian, and Correggio, through the medium of the Duke of Buckingham. He wrote a letter with his own hand, inviting Albano to England, and though it failed of success, yet the merit of the attempt is due to him, and the wish to improve English art by the introduction of foreign artists into the country. Accident, however, effected what kingly influence was unable to accomplish; and British talent must indeed have been inert, when the genius of Rubens could not rouse it. This great painter was despatched to the English monarch, ostensibly in his professional capacity, but charged, at the same time, with a private mission from the court of Spain; he was welcomed with honour, and induced to employ his vigorous and brilliant pencil in embellishing the Banqueting-Room at Whitehall with a representation of the apotheosis of King James; which was not however painted on the spot, but sent over in a finished state. Rubens staid, unfortunately, but one year in England; yet his works were not without their effect on the taste of the nation, though they failed in calling forth the powers of British artists. A second stimulus was given by the arrival of Vandyke, with more success, yet without any proportionate result; and of this we had nearly been deprived by a fortuitous concurrence of circumstances. The reported liberality of the English monarch and his court induced Vandyke to make a journey to England: he arrived in London, in the year 1632, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, but found his reception so little satisfactory that he returned, after a short stay, to the Continent. The king was soon made acquainted with the value of the prize which he had lost, and employed Sir Kenelm Digby, with success, to prevail upon him to renew his visit. Vandyke was appointed one of the royal painters, and soon gave sufficient evidence of his abilities to establish his fame and his fortune. He painted several splendid portraits of Charles, and the lovely Henrietta still lives in his works in all her native grace and dignity. The exertions of the artist were not without their reward; he was honoured with the distinction of knighthood, and a pension of two hundred a year was assigned him, in those days, an ample allowance.* Scotland, at this period, produced an artist of considerable merit, occasionally distinguished as the Scottish Vandyke. George |