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304 THE PORTEAITS OF JOHN KNOX. ' ing, and by the mediums used, which produced a
- certain circular cracking througliout the picture,
' peculiar only to the paintings of that period. Its
- being a little over the size of nature suggests that it
' was done after a smaller picture, as it is not probable
- that, had it been done from life, or from a life-sized
- head, the artist would have got into those propor-
- tions ; and most of the portraits by Porbus (as also
' by Holbein, Albrecht Diirer, the contemporary and ' previous masters) are a little under life-size, as the 'sitter would appear to the painter at a certain ' distance.
- The Somerville Picture at first reminded me more
' of Porbus than of any other painter of that time,
- although I did not then know whether Porbus had
' ever been in England, as judging by the fact that he ' painted Knox's contemporary George Buchanan, wo
- may now fairly suppose was the case. Last autumn
' at Briiges, Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp, I carefully ' examined no less than forty portraits by Francis ' Porbus, le vieux. There are two pictures at Bruges
- in each of which are sixteen portrait heads, carefully
- painted and well preserved, somewhat smaller than
