T

SIR PETER LELY.

HIS eminent painter was born at Soest, in Westphalia, in 1617, where his father, a captain of infantry, was in garri. son. His family name was Vander Faes, but his father acquired the name of Lely, on account of his being lodged at a house of which the front was ornamented with a lily. Finding that his son's disposition led him rather to the cultivation of art than the pursuit of arms, he placed him under the care of Peter Grebber, at Haerlem, where he did not remain more than two years, when his master acknowledged that his instruction could no longer be useful to him; and when he was little more than twenty years of age, he had acquired a considerable reputation as a painter of landscapes and portraits. On the death of Vandyck, in 1640, he determined to visit England, where he arrived the following year. He first painted landscapes, with historical figures; but, on seeing the works of Vandyck, and finding that portraitpainting was more encouraged than any other branch of the art, he devoted himself entirely to it, in which he imitated the style of his illustrious predecessor, and soon surpassed all his contemporaries. On the arrival of William Prince of Orange, in 1643, when he came to England to be united to the Princess Mary, Lely was, under his auspices, introduced to the notice of Charles I., whose portrait he painted, and those of William and the princess. The tragical events which followed, though generally fatal to the arts, did not occasion Lely to leave England. He remained to paint the rising as well as the setting sun. It is related, on the authority of Captain Winde, who assured the Duke of Buckingham of the fact, that Cromwell sat to him, and, whilst he was painting his portrait, said to him, with his characteristic bluntness, "Mr. Lely, I desire you will use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all, but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay you a farthing for it."

At the Restoration, Lely's business and reputation increased. He was in great favour with Charles II., who appointed him his principal painter, and conferred on him the order of knighthood. It would be in vain to attempt a recapitulation of the works of this master. They are generally portraits to the knees, and a great majority of them of ladies. Of his historical pictures, few are known, the following are mentioned by Lord Orford :-" At Windsor is a Magdalen, with a sleeping Venus; the Duke of Devonshire has the story of Jupiter and Europa; Lord Pomfret had that of Cimon and Iphigenia; and at Burleigh, is Susanna and the Elders."

Compared with the portraits of Vandyck, those of Lely will be found deficient in the simplicity of his design, and in the purity of his colouring. If those of the former are occasionally tame, they are always natural, and his draperies are properly and tastefully thrown. Lely endeavoured to supply

the want of taste with ideal finery, and there is something of affectation in the airs of his heads, and in the capricious arrangement of his habiliments. It must, however, be allowed, that his female portraits are sometimes more beautiful than those of Vandyck; but in those of men he is every way his inferior.

Sir Peter Lely died in 1680, aged sixty-three, and was buried in Covent Garden, where there is a monument, with his bust, by Gibbon, and a Latin epitaph by Thomas Flaxman.

THE DEATH OF SOCRATES.
(Painted by David.)

HISTORY presents us with few names of equal celebrity with that of Socrates, the Athenian, the son of Sophroniscus. Neither the mediocrity of his fortune, the perverseness of his wife, nor the odious accusations of Aristophanes, who, with much effrontery, exposed him to the laughter of the populace, by exhibiting him on the stage, could ruffle his temper, or disturb the serenity of his mind. Beloved for his virtues, and admired for his talents, by a few illustrious disciples, such as Alcibiades, Plato, Xenophon, &c., whom he greatly esteemed, he enjoyed a degree of happiness which nothing appeared able to destroy. But having confounded the vanity of the Sophists, and the fallacy of their doctrines, he was accused of corrupting the Athenian youth, and of ridiculing the many gods whom the Grecians worshipped; and such was the envy, or the ignorance of his judges, that they condemned him to drink hemlock.

He was scarcely buried, when the Athenians repented of the punishment they had inflicted, and put his accusers to death; but this tradition, which would, in some sort, cover their disgrace, is combatted by many plausible arguments, which would be foreign to our purpose to discuss.

Of the several pictures of M. David, this is to be considered as having the most contributed to the reputation which he enjoys among French critics. It is conspicuous for those striking features of the art which characterize the talent of that distinguished painter. Noble and simple in composition, pure and correct in design, combining the majesty of the antique with the accuracy of nature, while it exhibits figures profoundly imagined, and expressions of the greatest interest. But, though its various beauties attracted general notice, during its exhibition in Paris, in 1787, it was particularly admired for the masterly stroke of genius displayed in the principal figure. Socrates, having spoken to his disciples of the immortality of the soul, while absorbed in reflections so consolatory and sublime, extends his hand towards the bowl, as in complete distraction of mind, without touching it. The figure of the person who is ordered to see this iniquitous judgment performed, is no less ably drawn. Penetrated with the ascendnncy of virtue, he can only fulfil the dreadful mandate, by withdrawing his eyes from the glorious victim. And so correspondent is the execution with the grandeur of the subject, that we cannot convey to our readers a more incontestible proof of the merit of M. David, than by saying, that in this branch of the art the death of Socrates may vie with the happiest efforts of his pencil.