LETTER XVIII.

Artists of England established at Rome.

Thorwaldson. · His House, and his Studio.. Statue of the Duke of Wellington. - Gibson's opinion upon it. Statue of Lord Byron by Thorwaldson.

Said to be left in the London Docks. Works of Gibson. His Hunter. Mr. Wyatt's Spring. The best of modern Italian Pictures are Copies. Of modern Originals, Chevalier de Schmid at Florence, and Mr. Buchmer, Mr. Swinton, and Mr. Williams, at Rome, exhibit the best Specimens.

Rome, December, 1841.

I HAVE had the great pleasure of making the acquaintance of several of our distinguished artists who are settled here, and I have seen nothing that has pleased me better than the tone in which these gentlemen are received every where, and that which appears so delightfully to pervade their own peculiar circle, by which I mean to include all artists deserving the name, let them be of what nation they may. I have occasionally seen at home symptoms of very pleasing attachment and intimacy between individuals pursuing the same line of study but there it seems more the result of accidental association, which might have chanced to be the same, had one of the parties been a sculptor or a painter, and the other a lawyer.. .... or any thing

SUPERIORITY OF ENGLISH ARTISTS.

305 else. But what I allude to here is different. No person of common observation can circulate among the studios of Rome without perceiving a feeling of general and common interest, that seems to bind all artists together in one band. It is not only the cordiality of their intercourse, but the true and unmistakeable interest which each one appears to take in the labours of the rest, that makes them thus seem one "band of brothers." And it is easy, too, to trace the source of this, which lies in the true and genuine love of art. I said to one of the band, who in his own studio was talking to me with great enthusiasm of different objects that I should find in others. . . . "How you all of you seem to know what all the rest are about!".... "Know!" he replied laughing - "Why there is not a single figure modelled in Rome upon which we do not all sit in judgment.”

It is impossible for an English person to make a tour through the studios of Rome (or, as Mrs. Starke would more correctly call them, the studj) without being very deeply gratified by the superiority of the English artists. There are many admirable works going on among all nations, and of course the Italians themselves are not behind hand; but I believe it will be generally allowed on all sides that both Gibson and Wyatt are decidedly in the van. I had the pleasure of being introduced to the venerable Thorwaldsen at one of the Duke of Torlonia's parties, and went afterwards with a party of English

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friends who were well acquainted with him, to pay him a visit. The multitude of noble works produced during the long life of this truly great artist, have rendered his name so decidedly the first among modern sculptors, that it is quite superfluous to name the rank he holds, but neither at his residence nor in his studio are many of his marbles to be found. The world has been too long aware of the value of his chisel to permit his retaining its products near him. Why has not wealthy England more of his great master-pieces? . . . . At his residence we found a few casts most of them were miniature sketches of some of his lesser works. But the walls of his rooms, of which we saw three or four, were entirely covered with paintings of the Roman artists of the day, to whom he is an affectionate friend and patron. In some of these there was a good deal of merit, but I confess I thought the great majority abominable. A sketch by Lawrence of the head of the Pope whose portrait made so much noise among us shone out among them all, like Jupiter among the lesser stars. most interesting picture there was a portrait of Thorwaldsen himself, by Vernet. It is an admirable likeness, and will I hope be well engraved; for it catches with great skill the sort of earnest expression of the eye, which I never saw where there was not genius at work within, and which must have been infinitely more difficult to catch now, that the light of the organ has faded, than when it shone

The

forth, as I am sure it must have done, in days of yore. The head is still a fine one, but it must have been magnificent.

I was told by Count Hawkes le Grice, a gentleman who seems particularly well acquainted with art and artists, that the early days of Thorwaldsen were obscured by great difficulties, and that it was an Englishman who had the glory of first opening to him the path he has since trod so nobly. The yet unknown sculptor had brought himself to Rome

not without difficulty, and had moulded a figure of Jason, his first great work, which, notwithstanding its excellence, led to no success; and in despair the young Swede broke it, and turned his steps away from unpropitious Rome. It chanced that Mr. Thomas Hope, so well known for the discriminating taste that could trace beauty wherever it was to be found, whether in a stool or a statue, arrived immediately after his departure, and saw the abandoned fragments of the Jason.... It chanced, too, that some accident occurred en route to Thorwaldsen, which obliged him to retrace his steps to Rome... The man of taste and the man of art met, the dismembered limbs of the Jason were re-united, and a statue in marble ordered to be chiseled forthwith after the ill-used model. . . . The order was executed, and the result is known to all the civilised world. From that period the sun of Thorwaldsen's fame continued steadily to

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THORWALDSEN'S STUDIO.

rise towards its zenith, and it will keep its altitude as long as marble lasts.

• ...

After visiting the great man, we visited his works, that is to say, we went to his studio, and there saw casts from some of his finest groups and a few charming things in relievo . . . in which branch of art no modern can be compared to him. But the mere locale of Thorwaldsen's studio is now sufficient to give name and fame to many charming things which issue thence, in the formation of which his eye alone, and not his hand has aided. His chief workman is an Italian, who appears already to have reached middle age, with no greater renown than that of being a very clever workman; but this man not only models the subjects of a considerable portion of the smaller medallions in relievo which issue from Thorwaldsen's studio, but composes them likewise, and that in a manner which interested me exceedingly. At the time we paid our visit, a very large order was under hand for a series of medallions in white marble, to decorate some of the princely structures which the Torlonia family are erecting. . . . The subjects are all classical, and furnished to this very ordinary-looking artificer by the much-thumbed pages of a little pocket Ovid, which was stuck open upon the slate whereon he worked his clay.... exactly as a model would be if he were copying. The grace and spirit of the little groups thus composed is equal to the apparent facility with which they are produced, and I never