Art Criticism

Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)

FIRST bring me Raffael, who alone hath seen

In all her purity heaven’s virgin queen,

Alone hath felt true beauty; bring me then

Titian, ennobler of the noblest men;

And next the sweet Correggio, nor chastise

His little Cupids for those wicked eyes.

I want not Rubens’s pink puffy bloom,

Nor Rembrandt’s glimmer in a dusty room.

With those, and Poussin’s nymph-frequented woods,

His templed heights and long-drawn solitudes,

I am content, yet fain would look abroad

On one warm sunset of Ausonian Claude.