personage, of whose face we see little, but his action is mild, and his demeanour reverential toward Jesus Christ. (Is it Joseph of Arimathea? or some other incipient Christian? There is room to suppose either). He is arrayed in rich crimson drapery; wears a sword; and a feathered and jewelled turban; and groups advantageously with a bearded and placidlooking aged man, whose face, seen in profile, is only subservient to the principal light in the picture, and whose broad and flat-crowned headdress, is in picturesque apposition to the surrounding objects.

Beyond him, and beneath the high altar, is a subordinate painted episode: an original thought on the part of the painter; which, though placed in obscurity, should not be overlooked. It is a cripple on crutches; and who, perhaps, is blind as well as lame. He seems disposed to advance toward the Saviour, eager with the hope of miraculous remedy, but a woman, in her prudence, restrains him-either because she respectfully fears to be intrusive; or, because she desires first to hear the pardon of the frail one.

The character of the adultress is not elevated. Nobody expects elevation of character from Rembrandt. He triumphs in spite of his want of it. But elevation here is not called for (it rather is proscribed): and therefore here, is not, as is usual in the pictures of Rembrandt, a defect effective. But, neither is the character mean, or destitute of beauty (as we frequently see in the works of this painter); and, in expression, the woman is so truly penitent, that it imparts a pathos to the whole performance which is intensely touching. She hopes, but hardly dares to hope. The more benevolent of the bystanders

are all under the evident influence of sympathetic feeling, of which the spectator cannot but participate. Christ has already made the inquiry, "Hath any man condemned thee?" She seems to be answering, with affecting contrition, "No man, Lord!" -This is the point of time selected by the artist. The reply is suspended; but anticipated. We know what it was, and are satisfied. The "Mind hath her content," quite " absolute."

The rest of the by-standers are, for the most part, opulent Hebrews (Rabbinical Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, into which the Jewish public was at that time separable), and to whom the rich dresses of this artist's cabinet are not ill suited in truth, some of the wealthy Hebrew merchants of the cities which ennoble the banks of the Rhine and of the Scheldt, are known to have worn such in the days of Rembrandt. On the white dress of the humble and contrite transgressor, and on the subservient pavement, the light falls broadly and effectively, forming together a mass of sufficient splendour to attract and fix and gratify attention, while by its opposition it deepens the solemnity of the overshadowed parts of the composition. "It is a light shining in darkness," and is dextrously led off from the broad central mass, and distributed in smaller portions, chiefly on the heads of the principal figures, while it glances on the steel corslet of the Roman soldier, and other glittering, but minor, accessories. The reader should not omit to notice that the hands of all the figures are painted with a remarkable degree of care.

All beyond Jesus Christ, Jachin and Boaz, and the distant Hebrew devotees, are "long drawn aisles," and deep recesses of profound gloom.-Not

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black, but intensely obscure; from which dun obscurity, the ruby reds, the solemn purple browns, and the white, of the nearer group, come forth with the mild lustre of well arranged precious stones; with here and there a diamond spark; but exhibited unostentatiously, and not in the garish sun-light. For just keeping; unobtrusive richness; and careful finish, where all appearance of care is involved in its own mysteries-the work is quite transcendental!

There is about this design, so much of the general character of our Saviour's system of ethics-so much (if the expression may be permitted) of the tone of Christianity that it seems more like a painted epitome of the New Testament, than any other picture that at present occurs to us. It is radiant with mercy and redemption: it seems tacitly to say, "Do as you would be done unto." "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;" and as thou forgivest, thy trespasses shall be forgiven.

This picture is probably unique with regard to the degree of elaborate finish bestowed on it by the artist. It was (as we have before intimated) painted for Rembrandt's friend and patron, the Burgomaster Six, and has since remained with his descendants till the advances of the victorious French armies toward Holland, and the known avidity with which their officers sought after the finest works of Art, induced the Six family to consign this easily portable production, for sale to England. It was accordingly put up to auction by the elder Christie, at his rooms in Pall Mall; but the biddings not rising higher than four thousand five hundred guineas, it was bought in at that sum, and afterward disposed of for the same to Mr. Angerstein, by private contract.

SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST, PREACHING.

FRANCISCO MOLA.

WITH too little reflection (at least in our opinion), it has been asserted of Francisco Mola, that "he weakened the interest of his pictures, by the introduction of figures upon so considerable a scale as to excite a doubt which is principal, the actors or the scene. Such doubts are not legitimate. We regard the expression of them (if they do anywhere exist) as no better than the vile conventional attempts of unphilosophical critics, who, perhaps without knowing it— would repress originality, or ignorantly compel it to conform to such critical circumscriptions as would abate its vigour. But, in fact, such doubts do not obtain with the public; and for "weakened," in the above passage, we should probably read strengthened "the interest of his pictures."

Of the numerous visitors of the last Royal Academy Exhibition who looked at the picture of Sir Walter Scott in the Rhymer's Glen, I must be permitted to doubt whether any thought the worse of the glen on account of the poet's presence there; or the worse of the portrait on account of this locality. Why then should we listen to critics who would disparage Francisco Mola on this account?-When a painter is versed only in one branch of his art, the expedient of palliating his incompetency of talent in the other, by a sacrifice of the figures to the landscape, or the landscape to the figures, may shelter him: but this should be no precedent, or example; nor engender

reproach for Francisco, who could paint both well; and who was, unhappily for the lovers of Art, cut short in his illustrious career by an endemic fever; probably before he had fully developed his powers, or vindicated his claims as the inventor of a more perfect union between landscape and figures, than had yet appeared since the revival of Art in Europe.

The preacher of repentance is here seated on a rocky bank or knoll, overshadowed by a clump of trees of mature growth, of good forms, and which constitute a broad mass of obscurity, contributing greatly to the effect of the whole: his auditors are not numerous, consisting of not more than four or five persons, but these are so introduced that more are suggested, and may easily be imagined, on the left hand, beyond the boundary of the picture-for the frame (as we scarcely need say) is always to be regarded as an aperture through which a certain portion of nature is supposed to be seen.

The nearest figure is a well-dressed woman, attentive to the word, beyond whom is a turbaned Pharisee, apparently of some rank in society. The others, it may be, are intended for Levites: but all seem listening earnestly to the novel, but divine, doctrines. We

e say Levites, because, in the Gospel of St. John the Evangelist, we read that the Jews sent certain Pharisees and Levites into the desert, to hear the avowals of the Baptist, and to inquire of him who he was?

The wild figure of St. John is central, principal, animated by the zeal that is an appropriate concomitant of his divine mission, and finely contrasted, in costume, to the social habiliments of those with whom