has still lefs encouragement. Sepulchral deco- rations are almoft difufed; and though the rage for portraits is at its highest tide both in pictures and prints, bufts and ftatues are ne- ver demanded. We feem to wish no longer duration to the monuments of our expence, than the inhabitants of Peru and Ruffia, CONTENTS ANECDOTES OF PAINTING, &c. CHAP. I.. Painters in the Reign of King GEORGE I. W E are now arrived at the period in which the arts were funk to the lowest ebb in Britain. From the ftiffness introduced by Holbein and the Flemish masters, who not only laboured under the timidity of the new art, but who faw nothing but the ftarch and unpliant habits of the times, we were fallen into a loose, and, if I may use the word, a diffolute kind of paintVOL. IV. A ing, ing, which was not lefs barbarous than the oppofite extreme, and yet had not the merit of representing even the dreffes of the age. Sir Godfrey Kneller still lived, but only in name, which he prostituted by fuffering the moft wretched daubings of hired substitutes to pass for his works, while at most he gave himself the trouble of taking the likeness of the person who fat to him. His bold and free manner was the fole admiration of his fucceffors, who thought they had caught his style, when they neglected drawing, proba bility, and finishing. Kneller had exaggerated the curls of full-bottomed wigs, and the tiaras of ribbands, lace, and hair, till he had ftruck out a graceful kind of unnatural grandeur; but the fucceeding modes were ftill lefs favourable to picturefque imagination. The habits of the time were fhrunk to awkward coats and waistcoats for the men; and for the women, to tight-laced gowns, round hoops, and half a dozen fqueezed |