GEORGE JAMESONE (1586--1644), the son of an Aberdeen architect, is styled by Cunningham "the Scottish Van Dyck." He studied abroad under Rubens, in the company of Van Dyck, and in 1628 commenced a prosperous career in Scotland. He painted the portrait of Charles I., in 1633, when the King visited that country. Jamesone also painted historic pictures, landscapes, and subjects from the Bible. During the contest of the King with his Parliament, the arts could not but languish. Some of the great collectors fled to the Continent, where more than one of them existed by the sale of portable works of art, such as medals. The Parliament ordered the furniture of the royal palaces and the contents of the picture galleries to be sold by auction, and the proceeds to be applied to the expenses of the war in Ireland and the North. By an order of the House of Commons, 1645, all such pictures and statues at York House as bore the image of the Virgin Mary were to be forthwith destroyed as gendering superstition. Although art, as represented in England at this time, had been devoted to any but religious purposes--and many of its manifestations were grossly indecent and infamous, or, at best, shocking to unaccustomed eyes--these orders were not obeyed universally. Many pictures were bought by foreign princes, some by Cavaliers, others by the Puritans, among whom Colonel Hutchinson was an extensive purchaser. Cromwell, on becoming Protector, stopped all the sales of royal paintings and property. To him we owe the preservation of Raphael's cartoons. They were valued by the Commissioners at L300 and ordered to be sold, but Cromwell stopped the sale. In the reign of Charles II., these cartoons would have been lost to England; the King had offered to sell them to Barillon, minister of Louis XIV., and it was only by Lord Danby's means that the sale was prevented. Cromwell employed as his portrait painter-- [Illustration: OLIVER CROMWELL. _By_ SIR PETER LELY. _In the Pitti Palace, Florence._] ROBERT WALKER, who died in 1658. The Protector insisted upon having the warts and pimples on his face faithfully portrayed, and gave strict injunctions both to Walker and Sir Peter Lely not to flatter him. One of Walker's portraits of _Cromwell_ is at Warwick Castle. Some capital examples of his skill are in the National Portrait Gallery. The Restoration was not favourable to design. Charles II. had neither taste for art, nor money to encourage painters. The unbridled license of the Court defiled the studio as it did the stage; and the most popular pictures were the portraits of the rakes and wantons who clustered round the King.