256 REVIEWS AND PAMPHLETS ON ART

to diminish the just recommendation of his wares to the passers-by.

6. Eminently deficient in works representative of the earliest and purest tendencies of art,¹ our National Gallery nevertheless affords a characteristic and sufficient series of examples of the practice of the various schools of painting, after oil had been finally substituted for the less manageable glutinous vehicles which, under the general name of tempera, were principally employed in the production of easel pictures up to the middle of the fifteenth century. If the reader were to make the circuit of this collection for the purpose of determining which picture represented with least disputable fidelity the first intention of its painter, and united in its modes of execution the highest reach of achievement with the strongest assurance of durability, we believe that-after hesitating long over hypothetical degrees of blackened shadow and yellowed light, of lost outline and buried detail, of chilled lustre, dimmed transparency, altered colour, and weakened force-he would finally pause before a small picture on panel, representing two quaintly dressed figures in a dimly lighted room-dependent for its interest little on expression, and less on treatment-but eminently remarkable for reality of substance, vacuity of space, and vigour of quiet colour; nor less for an elaborate finish, united with energetic freshness, which seem to show that time has been much concerned in its production, and has had no power over its fate.²

7. We do not say that the total force of the material is exhibited in this picture, or even that it in any degree possesses the lusciousness and fulness which are among the chief charms of oil-painting; but that upon the whole it would be selected as uniting imperishable firmness with exquisite

¹ [The date of this review must be remembered-1848. In following years the collection received constant accessions illustrative of the art of “the primitives”: see above, Introduction, p. lix.]

² [No 186: “Portraits of Jan Arnolfini and his Wife,” by Jan Van Eyck. For Ruskin’s frequent references to Van Eyck, see General Index. The picture was bought for the Gallery in 1842-the first purchase made under Eastlake’s keepership (see below, p. 405).]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]