Unknown (Early German: 15th century).

Sir Martin Conway says of the Lyversberg Passion what is equally applicable to this picture, and indeed to most of the German art of the same period (cf. e.g. 1049). "The Passion, as conceived by this painter, was a scene for the display of brutality rather than the exhibition of heroism. The enduring Christ is not the subject of the pictures, but the torturing villains that surround him. The figure of Christ does not dominate the rest; the vile element seems always victorious" (Early Flemish Artists, p. 202).

1088. THE CRUCIFIXION.

Unknown (German School: 16th century).

An altar-piece in three compartments. On the side panels are two figures, probably the donor and his wife, kneeling.

1089. MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ST. ELIZABETH.

Unknown (Early Flemish: 15th century).

1090. PAN AND SYRINX.

François Boucher (French: 1704-1770).

Boucher, "the Anacreon of Painting," was the typical painter-decorator of the Louis-quinze period. He painted (as Mr. Dobson sings in Old World Idylls)—

Rose-water Raphael,—en couleur de rose,
The crowned Caprice, whose sceptre, nowise sainted,
Swayed the light realm of ballets and bon-mots;
Ruled the dim boudoir's demi-jour, or drove
Pink-ribboned flocks through some pink-flowered grove.

Made of his work a kind of languid Maying,
Filled with false gods and muses misbegot;—
A Versailles Eden of cosmetic youth,
Wherein most things went naked, save the Truth.

Boucher is represented by no less than 21 canvases at Hertford House, some of them of considerable historical interest. For Boucher owed much to the favour of Madame de Pompadour, who purchased in 1753 the two fine pictures of "Sunrise" and "Sunset" now at Hertford House. In the same collection are the idyllic and erotic subjects with which Boucher decorated the boudoir at the Hôtel de l'Arsenal in which the Pompadour was wont to receive her royal lover. He also painted several portraits of the all-powerful favourite, whom he instructed in the art of etching; one of these portraits is also at Hertford House. Boucher was the son of a designer for embroideries. He spent some years in Rome, but returned to Paris untouched by the great works he had seen. He suited his art to the taste of the time, and had his reward in reaping considerable wealth by his productions, which, including drawings for the engravers, he poured forth in thousands. In 1755 he became inspector of the Gobelins, an appointment which he resigned in 1765 on becoming first painter to the king. Sir Joshua Reynolds describes a visit to Boucher, whom he found "at work on a very large picture without drawings or models of any kind." Sir Joshua allows, however, to some of his earlier works, "grace and beauty and good skill in composition." His easy execution and often dainty colour are also admired. He was the idol of his day, but his meretricious art was the subject of very pungent criticism from the not very austere Diderot.[211]