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vernment-oratory and poetry-and then ask ourselves, how much we are inferior to Italy or any other nation? What country in Europe, for example, can produce any specimens of eloquence to be compared with the orations of Burke, Fox, Pitt and Sheridan? what bar or bench can rival the judicial exhibitions of Dunning, Mansfield, Erskine, or Ellenborough? what dramas or epics are fitted to eclipse the glories of Shakespeare, Spencer and of Milton? These are the imperishable monuments of freedom, identified almost with the very physical existence of the old, and with that of a large portion of the new world.

But farther, we hold that mere patronage will never create absolute excellence in the Fine Arts. Nor do we believe that all the Leo's and Medici's of Italy would have ever elicited the genius of Raffaelle, Buonarotti, Correggio, Da Vinci, Dominichino, or the Carracci, but for the monuments of the free-born genius of ancient Rome, with which the minds of these great artists grew up in close and intimate familiarity. These men only caught, reflected from the ruins of ancient greatness and art, a portion of that diviner mind, the impress of which these monuments still bore, and employed in adorning superstition, or enwreathing with flowers the fetters of despotism, that art which they had learned amidst the relics of ancient greatness and renown; thus, by a strange retribution, enshrining in the drapery wrought out by the lofty and original genius of antiquity, the foul and odious forms of a dark and remorseless superstition.

But, after all, is the state of the Fine Arts in our own country so very deplorable as some fastidious travelled cognoscenti and virtuosi would pretend? If Italy has at present her

Canova, have not we our Chantrey? and if we can produce nothing to equal the inimitable bas-reliefs of Thorwaldson, has not Rome borrowed him of Denmark? Have not the portraits of our own Lawrence met with unqualified admiration even in Rome itself? And who but an arrant driveller would pretend to undervalue the genius of Wilkie or Allan ? We hold that, at this moment, the Fine Arts are in a more promising state in Britain than in any other country in the world. By the munificence and taste of our nobility and gentry, the want of models can no longer be complained of. The works of the great Italian, Spanish, French, and Flemish Masters have been purchased at whatever price, and freely and liberally exhibited to public admiration, and to form and direct the public taste. Indigenous genius has been sought out, fostered, patronised, and rewarded. A general love of the arts has increased, is increasing, and cannot be diminished. Hence the augmenting number of the candidates for fame which every year's exhibition brings forward; and hence the presage that we draw of the future ascendancy of this great country in the Fine Arts,—an ascendancy which, in the arts that minister to national wealth, comfort, and happiness, she already incontestably enjoys. But we must leave these speculations, and descend to the less pleasing, but more useful task of recording facts.

In the April of this year, an exhibition of the works of the ancient masters took place at Edinburgh. This was the commencement of a new era, and ought to be hailed with delight and exultation by every lover of art. Among the pictures exhibited, a very general preference appeared to be given to those of Claude Lorraine, than which none show a

finer mind, or represent the beau ideal in greater perfection. Next in the scale of merit was placed the Fortune of Guido, a duplicate of the celebrated. picture by the same master in the Vatican. The Vatican Fortune, however, is more delicately coloured, and exhibits a greater warmth of tint than the picture in this exhibition; but in other respects the two pictures are nearly equal in merit. The Land Storm by Poussin is a very grand composition, and seems to have been rated very highly by all those who had not seen his Deluge, perhaps the chef d'œuvre of that great master, the classical purity of whose forms, unrivalled as it confessedly is, he always renders subordinate to the story of the picture, in telling which he never had, and we believe never will have any equal. This remark will be perfectly intelligible to all those who have seen the great masterpiece to which we have just alluded.

Of the works of Hobbema, so little known in this country, this exhibition contained two, the very counterparts of those of Claude Lorraine, who threw so exquisite a glow over every object he represented. He lived on the skirts of an old forest, and his best pictures are a delineation of the different combinations which its aged forms exhibited. The vigour of his drawing cannot, however, be surpassed, and, in some measure, atones for the cold and lowering atmosphere with which he delights to invest his subjects. Two pictures by Velasquez, the greatest ornament of the Spanish School, were also in this collection, the portrait of the Pope, and a Cavalier on horseback. Some defect in the position of the legs of the noble animal on which the cavalier is mounted, was pretty generally remarked by those conversant in the different attitudes and positions of

the horse. The Sea Storm by Vernet was considered one of the sublimest pieces of that celebrated master. Its materials are taken from Italian scenery, the round tower on the left hand being the Tower of Cecilia Metella near Rome, and the cliffs beyond it, the rocks of Terracino. This picture is decidedly su perior to the Storm Piece by the same author in the Louvre. The cabinet picture of the Madona and Child by Correggio was also greatly admired, even by those who were most conversant with the other works of that great artist. It exhibits all his delicacy and softness of shading; while the countenance of the infant displays that heavenly sweetness of expression which so peculiarly characterises his productions.

These were the most remarkable works exhibited on this occasion; and we regret that the necessity of compression forbids us to dwell at greater length on the excellencies of this delightful collection, than which the Continent could boast of but few, either of greater extent, or more distinguished merit: in landscapes, in particular, it would be difficult in the same compass to find its equal.

Sig. Raffaelli has succeeded in forming at Milan a considerable es tablishment for executing works in Mosaic, especially on a large scale: at present this establishment is occupied in executing a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's famous picture of the Last Supper. This Mosaic will cost 24,000 ducats: it is unquestionably one of the largest of its kind; since it measures 30 feet in length, by 15 feet in height. It is for the Emperor of Austria.-Mosaic is a kind of work in which, by means of small pieces of glass, figures and representations of all kinds are produced. It is the most tedious of operations, but has the advantage of

being indestructible by the air, or by ordinary accidents. It was much practised by the ancients; and some of their Mosaics, more than two thousand years old, yet remain in good condition.

In the course of the season Mr Allan produced a picture, the subject of which is the celebration of Mr James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd's Birth-day; and which displays his usual felicity in the disposition of his lights, and the grouping of his figures. The picture is intended as a good-humoured quiz of certain individuals composing a club of some notoriety, called the Edinburgh Dilettanti Society.

The

The magnificent collection of pictures, which formed the Cabinet of the late M. Burtin at Brussels, has been brought to the hammer. Death of Abel, esteemed the masterpiece of Guido, the fine Murillos, and other celebrated pictures, which have for some time been exhibited by M. Snyeis of Antwerp, have been purchased by Government, or rather taken at a valuation, to liquidate a public debt, the proprietor being a defaulter in his capacity of tax-gatherer. The magical portrait of Rubens, called the Chapeau de Paille, which has long been in the possession of a private family at Antwerp, has been lately sold for a large sum to a descendant of the painter. This is the picture said to have been purchased for the Duke of Wellington at Aix-la-Chapelle. The magnificent Altar-piece, The taking down from the Cross, and other celebrated works of Rubens, now restored to the Cathedral of Antwerp, have been copied by Reinagle, an English artist, and the copies are much admired even in presence of the originals.

The Exhibition of the Works of the modern Flemish Artists displayed

considerable talent, particularly some fine groups of cattle by De Kay, (in landscape,) in the manner of Cuyp. There were also some excellent portraits by Naviz, a pupil of David, and by the Chevalier Ode vaire, and Olls, who have studied at Rome.

Three beautiful Frescoes of Dominichino have been removed, by an Italian artist, from the damp wall of the Palace Farnese, where they must have speedily perished, and placed upon canvas. Thus saved from slow, but inevitable destruction, they will prove interesting examples of the peculiar powers and advantages of this branch of art.

At the July Exhibition of the Fine Arts in Florence, were displayed the Casts of the Marbles which Lord Elgin brought from the Temple of Minerva, at Athens, (the Parthenon), and which now form the principal ornament of the National Museum of Britain. These casts are a present from the Prince Regent; in return for which, some of the finest statues in the celebrated Gallery at Florence are to be modelled and sent to his Royal Highness. Among them is the celebrated groupe of Niobe and her Children. The above valuable and advantageous exchanges in the Fine Arts have taken place in consequence of the suggestions of the British Envoy, his Excellency Lord Burghersh.

None of the modern discoveries of Grecian Sculpture can be considered as more important or interesting, than that of the Statues, which adorned the east and west pediments of the Temple of Jupiter Panhellenios, in the Island of Ægina. The only two which are of equal consideration, the discovery of the Niobe and her Children, in Rome, in 1583, and more recently, of The Muses, in the Villa Hadriana, occurred at pe

riods more favourable to the study and practice of the Fine Arts. Recently after their exhumation, they passed into the hands of Thorwaldson, the Danish sculptor at Rome, who was employed by the Prince Royal of Bavaria, their present possessor, in uniting the broken fragments, and restoring the few parts of them that were deficient; a task which that eminent artist performed with admirable skill and sagacity. The discovery of these precious relics of antiquity was, in a great measure, owing to the taste and enterprise of a British subject, C. R. Cockerell, Esq., who recomposed the groups as they were successively excavated, in such a manner as to give the highest satisfaction to the most eminent artists at Rome.

Various conjectures have been offered as to the subject of the compositions intended to be represented by the sculptures of these pediments, the statues having a marked distinction of character, as of well-known personages: nothing satisfactory has yet been suggested. The actions of the acidæ, the tutular deities of the Eginetans, offer nothing explanatory, although a resemblance may be traced to Homer's description of the combat between Hector and Ajax over the dead body of Patroclus *. Some light may perhaps be thrown upon this subject by a close examination of Greek Vases,

• The description alluded to is as follows:

on many of which we find Minerva represented as present at an heroic combat, encouraging the warriors, and often precisely in the position and attitude in which she appears on the pediment of the Panhellenion of Ægina. As Minerva presides in both the groups which decorate this temple, some have supposed that the Panhellenion was dedicated to that Goddess; but it should be considered that, as the emanation and symbol of the wisdom and power of Jupiter, Minerva was appropriately placed in the exterior of the edifice, within which the more sacred statue of the King of gods and men received the homage and worship of the Æginetans.

In the temple of Egina, we have a very remarkable and ancient example of the Grecian practice of painting their sculpture; for the style and execution of the colours found on the statues and ornaments of the Panhellenion prove that they must be coeval with the original construction. In order to relieve the statues, the tympanum of the pedi ment was of a clear light blue; and large portions of the colour were seen on the fragments as they were raised from the ground. The moulding both under and above the cornice was also painted; the leaf was red and white, and the superior moulding of the cornice painted in encaustic. The colours being on

Αψ δ ̓ ἐπὶ Πατρόκλῳ τέτατο κρατερὴ ὑσμίνη,
Αργαλέη, πολυδακρυς· ἔγειρε δὲ νεῖκος ̓Αθήνη,
Οὐρανόθεν καταβᾶσα· προῆκε γὰρ εὐρυοπα Ζεὺς
Ορνύμεναι Δαναούς· δὴ γὰρ νόος ετράπετ' αὐτοῦ.

Il, xvii. 543.

Colonel Leake is inclined to think that these beautiful lines indicate the exact moment of the struggle chosen by the Sculptor of the pediments of the Panhellenion. He also remarks that the xvμidis observed on all the figures on the spectator's left hand, together with the absence of those articles of Grecian dress in the other division of the work, seem to prove that the subject is taken from the war of Troy. The detail of the sculpture seems strongly to support the opinion of the gallant Colonel.

marble had long disappeared, but the relief, in which the part so covered was found, indicated very perfectly its outline.

In considering a custom which appears so extraordinary to us, it must be recollected, that although the Greek buildings were grand in conception, their scale of dimension was small, and that, therefore, they required a greater nicety and delicacy in the execution. The colours served as the means of distinguishing the several parts, and of heightening the effect by variety, so as to relieve what might be otherwise inanimate and monotonous. To paint white marble, or other stone exposed to the action of the atmosphere, appears very extraordinary to us; but it ought not to be forgotten, that, in Greece, the mildness of the climate and the purity of the atmosphere rendered works of finished execution infinitely more durable than in our northern climate, and admitted consequent refinement of sculpture and painting, of which we can have but little idea. The inhabitants of northern latitudes are, therefore, obliged to lavish upon their interior apartments those luxuries of ornamental art, which the ancients, who passed a great portion of their time in the open air, in their fine climate, bestowed upon the exterior of their temples and public edifices.

The British Gallery this year contained one hundred and fifty-six pictures of every description, among which were specimens of the most distinguished Italian, Flemish, and French Schools. The liberality of the Prince Regent contributed some of the finest Gaspar Poussins in existence, besides productions of Titian, Claude, Rubens, Vandyke, Parmegiano, Del Sarto, Tintoretto, Holbein, and the splendid Cartoon of the Sacrifice, besides some fine Cuyps,

VOL. XII. PART II.

Rembrandts, Potters, &c. &c. The Duke of Wellington has contributed some excellent Flemish drolls, and masterpieces of Snyders, together with two examples of Platza, painter unknown to us. The Earl of Carlisle is the donor of many interesting pictures; the Earl of Darnley of some grand Salvators; the Marquis of Bute of an incomparable Hobbema, &c.; the Right Honourable Charles Long of Teniers' Misers, &c.; and Viscount Ranelagh a delicious Cuyp.

The Fifteenth Exhibition of Paintings in oil and water colours, at Spring-gardens, displayed much talent in both the branches of the art to which the exhibition is devoted. Among those particularly remarked were some fine landscapes by Stark, Miss H. Gouldsmith, Prout, Deane, Linnell, T. Fielding, Varley, C. Fielding, Robson, &c. The miniatures were numerous, and many of them well executed. Among the watercolour pictures in the historical style was Falstaff acting the King, from the first part of Henry IV.' by Richter; which, both in conception and execution, possesses very considerable merit.

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We have not room for more than a bare enumeration of the most striking pictures in this Annual Exhibition of the talent of British Artists, at the Royal Academy. These were a Portrait of Chantrey, by Rae. burn Theatrical Portraits, by G. Clint; View of Rotterdam, by Calcott; Entrance of the Meuse, a masterly sky, by Turner; Lending a Bite, a humorous little thing, by Mulready; The Penny Wedding, one of Wilkie's best painted and most characteristic compositions ; The Stolen Kiss, from Guarini, Pastor Fido, West; Portraits of three Messrs Lyell, a charming picture, Phillips; An Interior and Designs for Boccacio, exquisitely done, by Stot

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