s, or sitters. The nobility of Venice were, at the time
of Titian, men of long descent, dignified, and holding high rank in
a city at that time the emporium of the merchandize of the East, and
distributors of rich manufactures to the whole of civilized Europe;
hence that "senatorial dignity" which characterises his works, and
the style and richness of costume so necessary to grandeur, and the
historical air in his portraits. His sitters also possessed countenance
and figure well calculated to engender and support the noblest character
of painting. The sitters of Reynolds, notwithstanding the pomatumed
pyramids of the female hair, or the stiff, formal curls of the male,
which set every attempt to beautify the features at defiance, either
by extension of the forms or harmonizing the several parts of the
countenance, (serious obstacles to pictorial beauty,) were still in
possession of that bland and fascinating look which distinguishes people
of high breeding. In contrast with these we have to array the models of
Rembrandt's painting-room--fat burgomasters, florid in complexion and
common in feature; Jews and attornies; shipbuilders, and hard
harsh-featured master mechanics. Independent of the models themselves,
there is a congenial feeling created in the artist who associates with
and has to represent them; we imperceptibly imbibe the manners of those
we are in contact with, either advantageously or injuriously. From these
few remarks we may perceive that the dignified attitude, the broad
general tone of the countenance, though deep, yet rendered bright
and luminous by the jetty blackness of the hair and beard, were all
conducive to the creation of the style of Titian--a style that swallows
up the varieties of minute tints in a general breadth. So in Reynolds,
the absence of everything strong in expression or harsh in colour gave
a refinement to the heads of his men, and a beauty to the faces of his
females; and to this treatment all his sitters were subjected--so that
even those heads, however deficient in the originals, came off his
easel ladies and gentlemen. A subdued delicacy of expression and
colour removes them from the common look of familiar life. Now, on
the contrary, the very character and colour of Rembrandt's heads
are pronounced with the strong stamp of flesh and blood--an exact
representation of nature in an unsophisticated state. His handling, his
manner of leaving the various tints, and the marking of minut