. The art of the Louvre, containing a brief history of the palace and of its collection of paintings, as well as descriptions and criticism of many of the principal pictures and their artists. could most easily graspand copy. Consequently this series of paintings, great asit is in parts, is, as a whole, an exhibition of Rubenssart at its most depraved state. Flamboyantly gorgeous,meretriciously ornate, vulgarly brilliant in colour, andequally vulgar in form, they display even worse taste intheir conglomeration of the mythologic, the sacred andthe historic. The introduction of pagan deities and
. The art of the Louvre, containing a brief history of the palace and of its collection of paintings, as well as descriptions and criticism of many of the principal pictures and their artists. could most easily graspand copy. Consequently this series of paintings, great asit is in parts, is, as a whole, an exhibition of Rubenssart at its most depraved state. Flamboyantly gorgeous,meretriciously ornate, vulgarly brilliant in colour, andequally vulgar in form, they display even worse taste intheir conglomeration of the mythologic, the sacred andthe historic. The introduction of pagan deities and nudenymphs, Loves and naiads holding trains, rowing boats,observing marriage ceremonies of prince and princessaccurately arrayed in full court costume of the time ofLouis XIII. is certainly a degradation of the veryprinciples of art. And yet it remains true, that, con-sidering the limitations under which the decorationswere made, the execrable taste of the time, and especiallyMarie de* Medicis demand for a magnificence commen-surate with her own exalted ideas of her position, con-sidering, in fact, what it was which Rubens attemptedto do it must be acknowledged that they are more than. Salle Dan Dpcfe an& ©alette IRubens 179 successful. They are truly extraordinary in the gorgeous-ness as a whole and in the unity of their great diversity. Of the entire series the best are, The Birth of LouisXIII., where the queen is shown in the purity and beautyof first motherhood with a tenderness and penetrationthat possibly may have been wasted on this Italiansovereign; The Landing of the Queen at Marseilleswhere objection can scarcely be made to the naiads whohave drawn her boat to shore, for they are three of themost exquisite creations of the painters mythologicbrush; The Happiness of the Regency, which waspainted after Rubens reached Paris to superintend theplacing of the others of the series, and is thus morenearly by his own hand. It is one of his charming impro-visations, dashed of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubject, booksubjectpainting
