which one colour
is set off by another; and, doubtless, you will acknowledge a certain
truth in the flesh tints: but all this while you are led away from the
subject, draw no conclusion from it as a whole, and are induced to
examine a detail which, however coloured with skill, and powerfully
executed, is vulgar and disgusting. A mere trifle more of gross
vulgarity would turn it into caricature, and you would think, that
Rubens had been a successfully laborious satirist upon the narrative
of the Roman historian. I confess that, but for its technical merits,
which are lost upon most of the visitors of the Gallery, the picture
would give me no pleasure whatever, nay, much disgust, as altogether
derogatory to the dignity of art.

I purposely pass by his allegorical pictures as mere furniture for
walls, not being subjects of sentiment; nor should I very much care if
his "Peace and War" were in the sorry condition which has been wrongly
given to it.

Examine then the Judgment of Paris. Here is a subject most favourable
for him. It shows glaringly the defect of his manner. Admit that his
flesh tints are most natural, that they are beautiful; has he not
sacrificed too much to make them so? All, excepting these nude
figures, is monotonous, has no relation by any tint to the figures, or
to any idea of sentiment such a subject may be supposed to convey. The
single excellence lies in the flesh-colouring of the three goddesses.
But when I use the word excellence, I do not mean to say that in this
respect he surpasses any other painter, as I will presently show. Now,
there is a peculiarity in Rubens' method, and which strictly belongs
to his colouring, from which arises what may be not improperly
designated flimsiness, that is, the leaving too much of the first
getting in of his picture, the first transparent sketchy brown. If in
some respect this gives force to the more solid parts, by the contrast
of the transparent with the opaque, yet is it rather a flashy force,
in which the means become too visible; an entire _substance_ is
wanted; we come too immediately to the bare ground of the canvass. And
this first colouring being a mere brown, not deserving the name of
colour, as it is not the real colour of the objects upon which it is
disposed, is in entire disagreement with the studied truth to nature
in the other parts. There is every reason to believe that Rubens,
after his return from Italy, was aware of this, by his partially