No. XI
These rampant Lions, bear the name of Rubens as their author. Sir John Sebright, we believe, has the original picture. It would neither deteriorate from its intrinsic merit as a work of art, nor from its nominal value (we suspect), should it turn out to be from the pencil of Snyders; or a performance of Rubens and Snyders in conjunction. They not unfrequently painted on the same canvas; but the high reputation and rank of Rubens, has in some measure absorbed that of his coadjutor, except among first-rate connoisseurs—whereas, in all that relates to the details of Nature, Snyders was the superior painter of animals: and our reasons for thinking that he had at least a hand in this picture of the rampant Lions, are, 1st, The superior attention which is here paid to the details of Nature. 2ndly, That the action of the nearest of the two Lions, is precisely that of the same animal, in Snyders’ very capital picture from the fable of the Lion liberated by the Mouse, now in the Cabinet of Thomas Franklin, Esq. 3rdly, That the study in oil of a dead Lion, in the collection of G. Watson Taylor, Esq. also believed to be from the hand of Snyders, bears internal evidence of being painted, not only from Nature, but from the very same individual Lion, with the above. They are all portraits of the same animal. It appears as if Snyders, having obtained possession of a dead Lion, after making the study now belonging to Mr. Taylor, had put him in this rampant attitude, and painted from him as long as he lasted. But perhaps Rubens and Snyders did this in concert: for on the other hand may be recollected a masterly sketch in oil of the heads only of these rampant Lions, which was exhibited at the British Gallery two seasons ago, bearing the name of Rubens. If this name was written by Rubens himself, the probability is as above stated, that both artists painted at the same time from the same model. On this point we do but sum up such evidence as is before us, leaving the verdict to the reader.
We believe that this subject also, has passed through the medium of an Etching by Bloteling, for it differs in some minor respects from the picture in the gallery of Sir John Sebright. It however affords further illustration of the theory of expression laid down by Mr. Bell, while it embodies the Scriptural idea of a “ramping and roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour.”
We have mentioned above, our having been disposed, on a certain occasion of visiting a public menagerie, to pat and stroke a Royal Tiger as he lay in his den with his nose toward the spectator, and whose looks, though certainly far from angelic, we could almost have called amiable: yet this is very far from being the character of the Tiger. To stroke, or pat, or touch them in any way, however, no person should ever venture, except their keepers; even the tame Tigers, that are sometimes brought up almost without animal food by the mendicant priests of Hindostan, are strictly prohibited from being touched—“under the utmost rigours of religious anathema,” says Col. Williamson, who relates a circumstance of his having visited a Faukeer who kept a Tiger of this kind in the wilds of Colgong.
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