Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/92

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TOUR THROUGH

sufficient excellence to secure it an honourable place in this apartment, though expressly against the spirit of the institution. It bears a great resemblance to the ingenious exhibitions at Hanover-square.

The most striking pieces in the third chamber, are four paintings of dead game, by Hondekoeter, and one by Wenix. The pictures of the former enjoy a deserved reputation, but the colouring of Wenix is more brilliant. The plumage of his dead pheasant is a perfect imitation of that beautiful bird, nor are his animals less to be praised for their exquisite correctness. A quack vending his medicines, by Jan Steen, and a surgeon's shop, by J. M. Sorg, are two comic pieces of great humour, and good execution.

The cieling of the fourth apartment is painted by Lairesse, an artist of whom the Dutch nation has reason to be proud; and four stories from Ovid, by the same hand, ornament as many compartments of the room. T. M. Torquatus putting his son to death, by F. Bol: the decapitated trunk