These are to be found in works of all ages. Thus we have Verrio’s
Periwigged Spectators of Christ Healing the Sick; Abraham about to shoot
Isaac with a pistol; Rubens’ Queen-mother, Cardinals, and Mercury;
Velvet Brussels; Ethiopian King in a surplice, boots, and spurs; Belin’s
Virgin and Child listening to a Violin; the Marriage of Christ with St.
Catherine of Siena, with King David playing the Harp; Albert Durer’s
flounced-petticoated Angel driving Adam and Eve from Paradise; Cigoli’s
Simeon at the Circumcision, with “spectacles on nose;” the Virgin Mary
helping herself to a cup of coffee from a chased coffee-pot; N.
Poussin’s Rebecca at the Well, with Grecian architecture in the
back-ground; Paul Veronese’s Benedictine Father and Swiss Soldiers; the
_red_ Lobsters in the Sea listening to the Preaching of St. Anthony of
Padua; St. Jerome, with a clock by his side; and Poussin’s Deluge, with
boats. In our time, West, the President of the Royal Academy, has
represented Paris in a Roman instead of a Phrygian dress; and Wilkie has
painted Oysters in the Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Gazette of the
Battle of Waterloo--in June!