Note 13 — WILSON’S LANDSCAPES, AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION

The faces of N. Poussin want expression, as his figures want grace; but the landscape part of his historical compositions was never surpassed. In his plague of Athens the buildings seem stiff with horror. His Giants seated on the tops of their fabled mountains, and playing on their Pan’s pipes are as natural and familiar as ‘silly shepherds sitting in a row.’ The finest of his landscapes is his picture of the Deluge. The sun is just seen wan and drooping in his course, the sky is bowed down with a weight of waters, and heaven and earth seem commingling.