d Rembrandt possessed this
quality in a very high degree. In the infancy of the arts, when
practised by rude nations, we find harsh and bright colours predominate
in a very strong scale--in fact, the brighter the more effective on the
uneducated eye; and it is only when the arts advance towards perfection
that a subdued tone of colour is demanded as most compatible with
refinement. Colour, both as an imitative quality, and also as an adjunct
towards assisting the character of his subject, seems always to have
been uppermost in Rembrandt's mind. His drawing, it is true, is open to
censure, but his colour will stand the most searching investigation, and
will always appear more transcendent the more it is examined. Reynolds,
in his Journey through Holland, mentions a picture by Rembrandt, in
the collection of the Prince of Orange--"a study of a Susanna, for the
picture by Rembrandt which is in my possession: it is nearly the same
action, except that she is here sitting. This is the third study I
have seen for this figure--I have one myself, and the third was in the
possession of the late Mr. Blackwood. In the drawing which he made for
this picture, which I have, she is likewise sitting; in the picture,
she is on her legs, but leaning forward. It appears extraordinary that
Rembrandt should have taken so much pains, and have made at last so
very ugly and ill-favoured a figure; but his attention was principally
directed to the colouring and effect, in which it must be acknowledged
he has attained the highest degree of excellence." The small picture
in the National Gallery is a study of the same figure. Colour was the
ruling principle with Rembrandt, the Alpha and Omega, in the same way
that Richard Wilson designated the three qualifications for landscape
painting, as contained in one--viz., _breadth_. The tones of colour with
which Rembrandt clothed his subjects are always in the highest degree
appropriate and conducive to the sentiment, whether within the "solemn
temples," or the personification of some great supernatural event. As
most of his historical subjects are from Sacred Writ, he never loses
sight of those qualities which take them out of the page of every-day
occurrences. I shall mention two, though one is sufficient for a
master-key to them all. In the picture of "The Adoration of the Magi
and Kings," in the Queen's Collection, the solemnity is carried to the
utmost extent, like the mysterious leaf of a sybil's book;