Very interesting little pictures, as characteristic of the entire want of poetry in Teniers' art. Compare Mantegna's version of Summer and Autumn (1125), or recall Botticelli's lovely vision of Spring at Florence, and one sees in a moment the difference in art between poetical imagination and vulgarity. To Teniers, Spring—"the sweet spring, the year's pleasant king"—is only a man carrying a flower-pot. Summer—"all the sweet season of summertide"—suggests nothing but a man holding a wheat-sheaf. Autumn—"season of mists and mellow fruitfulness"—brings him only a first glass of wine; and Winter—"white winter, rough nurse, that rocks the dead cold year"—only a second. These pictures (which are painted on copper), were once in the possession of Prince Talleyrand, and Sir Robert Peel bought them in 1823 for £189.
861. A COUNTRY SCENE.
Teniers (Flemish: 1610-1694). See 154.
The man with the barrow is a portrait of Teniers' gardener.
862. THE SURPRISE.
Teniers (Flemish: 1610-1694). See 154.
Hardly an instance in which "vice itself loses half its evil by losing all its grossness." It is a very vulgar intrigue. The husband courts without passion; the maid-servant "stoops to folly" without grace; the wife surprises the lovers without dignity.
863. THE RICH MAN IN HELL.
Teniers (Flemish: 1610-1694). See 154.