To the same class as Wynant belong Cuyp and Rosa di Tivoli. The pictures of the latter are a little over-laden, and his sheep look somewhat too knowingly at the spectator. But Cuyp makes one reaUy long; to taste the cool grass he gives his sheep, and truly, it is a piece of good fortune for the St. Petersburg cows that they do not understand painted grass ; they would no longer be able to chew their Ingrian moss, for mere vexation and envy. The celebrated cow of Potter, which ought at most to be called notorious, might be a little more decorous, and would certainly gain by it in our eyes. She is as misesthetic as the Ganymede carried off by Jupiter's eagle, and the Httle drinking Bacchus at Dresden. It is inconceivable how she should owe her place in the Hermitage to a lady.
There are here so many battle-pieces by Wouvermann, that one cannot but be astonished at the fertihty of this warhke genius : every where the victorious wliite horse — every where the wild bandit physiognomy of the soldiers of the thirty years' war ; the poor tormented peasants, the scattered poultry, the burning cottages, the plundered herds, the ruined w^orks of peace. The pictures of Wouvermann are all so ahke, that if he had not painted so well, he would have said all he had to say in one picture. Moreover, it remains uncertain whether by his plundering soldiers, who all sit so easily and gracefully on horseback that they make one long to enlist under them, and whether, by the poor ragged peasants, who with their dishevelled hair and tattered garments rather excite our laughter than our pity, Wouvermann meant to render a service to Mars or to Ceres ; or whether he only meant to facihtate the studies of the historian by so faithfully depicting the horrors of war.
From Wouvermann's wild soldiers let us take shelter in Rembrandt's reverend heads of old men, sages, and scribes, of which there is here the greatest collection that is perhaps to be found any where. A very instructive parallel may be drawn between Rembrandt's old men and Denner's. What grandeur, what pithiness, what clearness of spirit in one ! What softness and feebleness in the other ! Denner's old men are w^orthy old people, but they have lost their memory, mumble unintelligible words in a feeble voice, and sit in furs and dressing-gowns behind the stove over their coffee. Those of Rembrandt have led an active life — ^have retained, even in their eightieth year, reason, power, and clearness of comprehension ; they are men, viri consulares, gray-headed chiefs, prophetic seers, experienced lawgivers, hoary emperors. The most celebrated picture of Rembrandt here, is the " Taking down from the Cross," a powerful, striking picture, which fills every spectator -with pain and sadness.
At the further end of Rembrandt's hall we embark on the waves of Vernet's pencil. There are also many pictures here of Horse Vernet's. He visited Russia, and wall scarcely have foimd a country in Europe where he could better study the nature of that noble animal. Russia possesses all possible varieties, from the wild rough-coated steeds of Siberia to tlie tamest and most thoroughly -broken parade and coach-horses ; tlie liaHwild horses of the steppe, the slender fiery Cossack horses, the small poorlooking but spirited horses of Poland and Lithuania, and the agile and unwearied natives of the Crimea and the Caucasus.
In the apartment where Vernet's billows were heaving, several parrots were chattering and screaming. We fancied they must have been relics of Catherine's aviaries, and hoped to catch some echo from that vanished time ; but we learnt to our sorrow, that the last of Catherine's parrots had died the year before last. Pity that there was none to repeat the last words of tlie imperial pupil. All is green in this apartment ; greeu waves, greeu parrots, green malachite vases.
Nowhere are more splendid specimens of these vases to be seen than here : indeed, the whole imperial dwelling is sparkling with precious stones, pillars of jasper, cornices of porphyry, figures of lapis lazuli, and other wonders of the mine.