Of the pictures in this room nearly all the more important are the
works of three masters--Claude and the two Poussins. It is of them,
therefore, that a few general remarks will here be made. It should be
noticed in the first place how very different this French School of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is from the French School of
to-day. The latter school is distinguished for its technical skill,
which makes Paris the chief centre of art teaching in the world, but,
also, and still more markedly, for its "excessive realism and gross
sensuality." "A few years ago," adds Professor Middleton, "a gold
medal was won at the Paris _Salon_ by a 'naturalist' picture--a real
masterpiece of technical skill. It represented Job as an emaciated old
man covered with ulcers, carefully studied in the Paris hospitals for
skin diseases." There could not be a greater contrast than between such
art as that and the "ideal" landscapes of Claude, the Bacchanalian
scenes of Poussin, or the soft girl-faces of Greuze.
Confining ourselves now to Claude and the Poussins--with whom, however,
the contemporary works of Salvator Rosa (in Room XIII.) should be
studied, we note that in spite of considerable differences between
them they agree in marking a great advance in the art of landscape
painting. The old conventionalism has now altogether disappeared; there
is an attempt to paint nature as she really is. There are effects of
nature, too,--not shown in any earlier pictures, and here painted for
the first time,--graceful effects of foliage, smooth surface of water,
diffusion of yellow sunlight. In some of these effects Claude has
never been surpassed; but when his pictures are more closely examined,
they are often found to be untrue to the forms of nature. Trees are
not branched, nor rocks formed, nor mountains grouped as Claude and
Poussin represent. Their conception of landscape, and especially of
its relation to human life, is governed by the "classical ideal,"
to which as far as possible they made their pictures approach. This
"classical" landscape is "the representation of (1) perfectly trained
and civilised human life; (2) associated with perfect natural scenery,
and (3) with decorative spiritual powers. (1) There are no signs in
it of humiliating labour or abasing misfortune. Classical persons
must be trained in all the polite arts, and, because their health is
to be perfect, chiefly in the open air. Hence the architecture around
them must be of the most finished kind, the rough country and ground
being subdued by frequent and happy humanity. (2) Such personages
and buildings must be associated with natural scenery, uninjured by
storms or inclemency of climate (such injury implying interruption
of the open air life); and it must be scenery conducing to pleasure,
not to material service; all cornfields, orchards, olive-yards, and
such-like being under the management of slaves, and the superior
beings having nothing to do with them; but passing their lives under
avenues of scented and otherwise delightful trees--under picturesque
rocks and by clear fountains. It is curious, as marking the classical
spirit, that a sailing vessel is hardly admissible, but a galley
with oars is admissible, because the rowers may be conceived as
absolute slaves. (3) The spiritual powers in classical scenery must
be decorative; ornamental gods, not governing gods; otherwise they
could not be subjected to the principles of taste, but would demand
reverence. In order, therefore, as far as possible, without taking
away their supernatural power, to destroy their dignity ... those only
are introduced who are the lords of lascivious pleasures. For the
appearance of any great god would at once destroy the whole theory of
classical life; therefore Pan, Bacchus, and the Satyrs, with Venus
and the Nymphs, are the principal spiritual powers of the classical
landscape" (abridged from _Modern Painters_, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. v. §§
1-8).
It may be interesting to point out how entirely this ideal accords with
the prevailing taste and literature of their time. The painting of
Claude and Salvator precisely corresponds to what is called "_pastoral_
poetry, that is to say, poetry written in praise of the country, by
men who lived in coffee-houses and on the Mall[36]-- ... the class
of poetry in which a farmer's girl is spoken of as a 'nymph,' and a
farmer's boy as a 'swain,' and in which, throughout, a ridiculous
and unnatural refinement is supposed to exist in rural life, merely
because the poet himself has neither had the courage to endure its
hardships, nor the wit to conceive its realities.... Examine the
novels of Smollett, Fielding, and Sterne, the comedies of Molière,
and the writings of Johnson and Addison, and I do not think you will
find a single expression of true delight in sublime nature in any one
of them. Perhaps Sterne's _Sentimental Journey_, in its total absence
of sentiment on any subject but humanity ... is the most striking
instance; ... and if you compare with this negation of feeling on one
side, the interludes of Molière, in which shepherds and shepherdesses
are introduced in court dress, you will have a very accurate conception
of the general spirit of the age.[37] It was in such a state of
society that the landscape of Claude, Gaspar Poussin, and Salvator Rosa
attained its reputation. It is the complete expression on canvas of the
spirit of the time" (Edinburgh _Lectures on Architecture and Painting_,
pp. 163-167). The reputation thus gained survived unimpaired almost
into the present century, until Wordsworth in poetry and Turner in
painting led the return to nature, and the modern school of landscape
arose.
It is, however, the art of Constable to which direct influence
must be attributed in the foundation of the modern school of
landscape--_paysage intime_--in France (see Vol. II., pp. 93-4). Of
this school, wholly unrepresented until lately in our National Gallery,
a few examples--characteristic, if not very important--may now be seen
in Room XVII. (see Nos. 2058, 2135, etc.).
--> _We have now concluded our survey of the Foreign Schools. The
western doors in Room XVII. lead down a side staircase into the
entrance Hall, and thus form an exit from the Gallery. On the
staircases leading to the Hall and thence down to the basement, some
foreign pictures are now placed. The visitor who wishes to see the
British School should return into Room XVI. and thence proceed into
the East Vestibule, where a few portraits by British masters are hung.
Descending the steps and ascending those opposite, the visitor will
come into the West Vestibule, which leads to the rooms of the British
School--XVIII., XIX., XX., and XXI. Finally, at the east end of the
Gallery, we reach Room XXII., devoted to the Turner Collection. For
remarks on the British School see Volume II. From the Entrance Hall,
the visitor reaches the West Basement, and by corresponding stairs on
the other side the East Basement. In the Basement Rooms are collections
of copies from Old Masters and the Turner Water Colours. For notes on
the former, see end of this volume; for the Turners, see Volume II._
[Illustration]