Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/599

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

In France. 569 the Embarkation of S. Ursula, and another marine piece, a Seaport at Sunset, with palaces in the foreground, a wonder- ful masterpiece ; and eight landscapes with figures, repre- senting Hagar in the Desert ; David in the Cave of Adullam ; the Death of Procris ; Narcissus falling in love with his own image — an exquisite work — and four others. Many of Claude's pictures are in private cabinets, especially in England, where the great landscape painter was at one time much admired. The Duke of Westminster possesses as many as the museums of France or Madrid. Two pendents in this collection are the largest pictures known by Claude. The subject of one is the Worship of the Golden Calf, that of the other, the Sermon on the Mount. Both have all the luxury and splendour of Italian scenery ; — no language can describe the brilliancy of the sky, the beauty of the earth, the scientific aerial perspective, the happy contrast of light and shadow, the majesty of the whole, in short, everything that can delight the eye. " Claude Lorrain," wrote Goethe, "knew the material world thoroughly, even to the slightest detail, and he used it as a means of expressing the world in his own soul." A series of sketches which Claude made for his pictures are preserved in a book which he called Lilro di Verita ; these are now in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. They were engraved by Earlom. Valentin [miscalled Mo'ise Valentin, a misreading of Mosu,

  • . e. Monsieur] (1600 — 1634) was born at Coulommiers en

Brie. He attended the school of Simon Vouet for some years, and then went to Italy, where he was a friend of Poussin and Claude. A rival of Bibera in the imita- tion of the turbulent Caravaggio, Valentin deserted entirely the traditions of French art, and only belongs to the French