Identifier: rhineitssceneryh00hunt (find matches)
Title: The Rhine; its scenery and historical and legendary associations
Year: 1845 (1840s)
Authors: Hunt, Frederick Knight, 1814-1854. (from old catalog)
Subjects: Legends
Publisher: London, J. How
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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Text Appearing Before Image:
perhaps by the suggestions of Oliver Goldsmith,
who had previously passed on foot and
in great poverty through Flanders. To
this part of his career the poet
refers in the opening lines ofthe Traveller : —
" Alone, unfriended, melancholy, slow,
Or by the lazy Scheldt, or wand'ring Po. "
The works of men of genius
alone, where great faults are
united with great beau-
ties, afford proper matter
for criticism. Genius is
always eccentric, bold,
and daring; which, at
the same time that it
commands attention, is
sure to provoke criticism.
It is the regular, cold,
and timid composer who
escapes unseen, and de-
serves no praise.
" The elevated situa-
tion on which Rubens
stands in the esteem of
the world is alone a suf-
ficient reason for some
examination of his pre-
tensions. His fame is ex-
tended over a great part
of the Continent without
a rival; and it may be
justly said that he has
enriched his country, not
in a figurative sense
alone, by the great ex-
amples of art which he
left, but by what some
would think a more solid
advantage, — the wealth
arising from the con-
Text Appearing After Image:

RUBENS. 13

course of strangers whom his works continually invite to Antwerp. ****** Having now
seen his greatest compositions, where he has more means of displaying those parts of his art in
which he particularly excelled, my estimation of his genius is, of course, raised. It is only in
large compositions that his powers seem to have room to expand themselves. They really increase
in proportion to the size of the canvass on which they are to be displayed. His superiority is not
seen in easel pictures, nor even in detached parts of his greater works ; which are seldom eminently
beautiful. It does not lie in an attitude, or in any peculiar expression, but in the general effect,
— in the genius which pervades and illuminates the whole.
" The works of Rubens have that peculiar property always attendant on genius,—to attract
attention, and enforce admiration in spite of all their faults. It is owing to this fascinating
power that the performances of those painters with which he is surrounded, though they have

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