Among the treasures, which it contains, it is now high time to enter and to look about us.  Yet what am I attempting?—­to be your cicerone ... in every apartment, covered with canvas or pannel, upon which colours of all hues, are seen from the bottom to the top of the palace!?  It cannot be.  My account, therefore, is necessarily a mere sketch.  RUBENS, if any artist, seems here to “rule and reign without control!” Two large rooms are filled with his productions; besides several other pictures, by the same hand, which are placed in different apartments.  Here it is that you see verified the truth of Sir Joshua’s remark upon that wonderful artist:  namely, that his genius seems to expand with the size of his canvas.  His pencil absolutely riots here—­in the most luxuriant manner—­whether in the majesty of an altarpiece, in the gaiety of a festive scene [145], or in the sobriety of portrait-painting.  His Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier—­of the former class—­each seventeen feet high, by nearly thirteen wide—­are stupendous productions ... in more senses than one.  The latter is, indeed, in my humble judgment, the most marvellous specimen of the powers of the painter which I have ever seen... and you must remember that both England and France are not without some of his most celebrated productions—­which I have frequently examined.

In the old German School, the series is almost countless:  and of the greatest possible degree of interest and curiosity.  Here are to be seen Wohlgemuths, Albert Durers, both the Holbeins, Lucas Cranachs, Ambergaus, and Burgmairs of all sizes and degrees of merit.  Among these ancient specimens—­which are placed in curious order, in the very upper suite of apartments, and of which the back-grounds of several, in one solid coat of gilt, lighten up the room like a golden sunset—­you must not fail to pay particular attention to a singularly curious old subject—­representing the Life, Miracles, and Passion of our Saviour, in a series of one hundred and fifty-eight pictures—­of which the largest is nearly three feet square, and every other about fifteen inches by ten.  These subjects are painted upon eighty-six small pieces of wood; of which seventy-two are contained in six folding cabinets, each cabinet holding twelve subjects.  In regard to Teniers, Gerard Dow, Mieris, Wouvermann, and Cuyp ... you must look at home for more exquisite specimens.  This collection contains, in the whole, not fewer than FIFTEEN HUNDRED PAINTINGS:  of which the greater portion consists of pictures of very large dimensions.  I could have lived here for a month; but could only move along with the hurried step, and yet more hurrying eye, of an ordinary visitor[146].