In looking over some collections of old pictures, it is surprising what
extraordinary [Transcriber's Note: The original text reads
'anachornisms'] anachronisms, blunders, and absurdities are often
discoverable.
In the gallery of the convent of Jesuits at Lisbon, there is a picture
representing Adam in paradise, dressed in blue breeches with silver
buckles, and Eve with a striped petticoat. In the distance appears a
procession of Capuchin monks bearing the cross.
In a country church in Holland there is a painting representing the
sacrifice of Isaac, in which the painter has depicted Abraham with a
blunderbus in his hand, ready to shoot his son. A similar edifice in
Spain has a picture of the same incident, in which the patriarch is
armed with a pistol.
At Windsor there is a painting by Antonio Verrio, in which the artist
has introduced the portraits of himself, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and May,
the surveyor of the works of that period, all in long periwigs, as
spectators of Christ healing the sick.
A painter of Toledo, having to represent the three wise men of the
East coming to worship on the nativity of Christ, depicted three
Arabian or Indian kings, two of them white and one black, and all
of them in the posture of kneeling. The position of the legs of each
figure not being very distinct, he inadvertently painted three black
feet for the negro king, and three also between the two white kings;
and he did not discover his error until the picture was hung up in the
cathedral.
In another picture of the Adoration of the Magi, which was in the
Houghton Hall collection, the painter, Brughel, had introduced a
multitude of little figures, finished off with true Dutch exactitude,
but one was accoutred in boots and spurs, and another was handing in,
as a present, a little model of a Dutch ship.
The same collection contained a painting of the stoning of Stephen,
the martyr, by Le Soeur, in which the saint was attired in the habit of
a Roman Catholic priest at high mass.
A picture by Rubens, in the Luxembourg, represents the Virgin Mary
in council, with two cardinals and the god Mercury assisting in her
deliberations.