FAMILIAR TREATISE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 F I ISX' ARTS, 
 
 PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND MUSIC. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 PUBLISHED BY WAITT & DOW. 
 1833. 
 
INTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND 
 THIRTY-THREE, BY JAMES WAITT, IN THE CLERK's OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT 
 COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The design of the Publishers of this work is to fur- 
 nish a familiar and entertaining account of the Fine 
 Arts, Painting, Sculpture and Music, for young read- 
 ers, and for the use of Schools in the United States. 
 It embraces the History of the Arts from the earliest 
 ages, with Sketches of the Lives of celebrated Mas- 
 ters, notices of their best productions, and remarks 
 upon the peculiar style of each. It contains descrip- 
 tions of the several schools of Painting and Sculpture, 
 and observations upon the National Music of different 
 countries, as Italy, Scotland, Germany, etc. It also 
 points out the principles and rules of the Fine Arts, 
 and will enable the pupil, after he has read the work, 
 to think and speak with discrimination and propriety 
 
4 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 upon the subjects of Painting, Sculpture and Music. 
 As there is no work of this kind in existence, and as 
 the subject is of importance to the cause of Educa- 
 tion, it is hoped that the undertaking may meet with 
 the patronage of a liberal public. 
 
V 
 
 CONTENTS- 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Painting. In Babylon; Egypt; Greece. Artists of 
 
 Sicyon and Corinth. Second and third era of Painting in Greece, 
 with anecdotes of the artists who floi:\rished in those periods 9 
 
 CHAPTER n. Progress of Painting in Greece. Fourth era. Apel- 
 les. Notices of his works, and anecdotes. Other artists. Liberty 
 and the arts expire together in Greece IG 
 
 CHAPTER HI. Painting in Italy. Greek artists at Romo. Dark 
 ages. Cimabue. Giotto. Academy of St. Luke. Leonardo da 
 Vinci. His career and death 21 
 
 CHAPTER IV. Pietro Perugino. Michael Angelo Buonarotti. 
 Florentine School. Anecdotes of Michael Angelo. His death 27 
 
 CHAPTER V. Raphael Sanzio. Notices of his works. His style. 
 His death. Roman School. Of the Venetian School. Giovanni. 
 Bellino. Giorgone 31 
 
 CHAPTER VI. Notices of Titian. Corregio. The Lombard School. 
 Decline of Painting. Julio Romano. Parmegiano. Pellegrino Ti- 
 baldi. Tintoretto. His daughter. Paul Veronese. Andrea del Sar^ 
 to. Anecdotes of these artists, and notices of their style 38 
 
 CHAPTER VII. Bolognese School. The Caracci. Their styles. 
 Anecdotes. Poussin. Domenichino. Guido Reni. Albani. Guer- 
 cino. Caravaggio. Rapid decline of the arts. Carlo Dolci. Sal- 
 vator Rosa i.46 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. Of the German, Flemish and Dutch Schools. Al- 
 bert Durer. Characteristics of these Schools, with anecdotes and 
 notices of their most eminent masters. The Spanish School 52 
 
6 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. French painters. Cousin. Blanchard. Nicholas 
 
 Poussin. Some account of his life. His return to Italy. His death. 
 Le Brun. Le Sueur. 60 
 
 CHAPTER X. Claude liorraine. Account of his life and works. French 
 painters of the eighteenth century. Vernet. David. His works. 
 Napoleon..' • 65 
 
 CHAPTER XI. First attempts at Painting in E igland. Illuminated 
 Missiles. Of Tapestry. Allegorical painting. Hans Holbein. His 
 style. His Life. Other English painters. Rubens visits England. 
 Vandyke. Destruction of the Royal Galleries 71 
 
 CHAPTER XII. Influence of the Restoration. Lely. Kneller. 
 Anecdotes of these artists. Foreign painters. Notice of Hogarth 
 and his works • 78 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. Wilson. His studies, poverty, death and fame. 
 Reynolds. His studies in Rome. Return to London. Rising rep- 
 utation. His wealth. Anecdotes. Remarks on his portraits 84 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. Gainsborough. Anecdotes of his life. His com- 
 positions. Barre, the historical painter. His works. Anecdote. 
 Character of Barre « • » 91 
 
 CHAPTER XV. Blake. His singular character and productions. 
 Other English artists. Fuseli. He goes to Rome. His Paintings. 
 The Shakespeare and Milton Galleries. Anecdotes of Fuseli, and 
 remarks on his works. Sir Thomas Lawrence. Present state of the 
 art in England. Sir Henry Raeburn. Of American art 96 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. Different classes of painting. Of Perspective. Of 
 
 Invention. Science. Remarks upon various paintings 105 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. Of Symmetry or design. Of drapery. Of Color- 
 ing. Chief Masters of that art. Of the expression of the passions. 
 Of Costume. Different methods of painting now in use 112 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Sculpture. Its antiquity. Three eras of sculpture in 
 Egypt. Of the other Eastern nations 123 
 
 CHAPTER II. Sculpture in Greece. Doedalus. Etrurian sculpture. 
 Of the Ionian and Chian Schools, That of Magna Graecia 130 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 7 
 
 CHAPTER III. Phidias and his contemporaries. The works of Phid- 
 ias. His banishment and death 141 
 
 CHAPTER IV. Third style of sculpture in Greece. Praxiteles. 
 His chief works. Lysippus. Successors of these sculptors. Fall of 
 the arts in Greece 147 
 
 CHAPTER V. Divisions of Sculpture in Italy. The art in Etruria. 
 At Rome. Superiority of Grecian sculpture 152 
 
 CHAPTER VI. Effects upon the art caused by the irruptions of the 
 
 barbarians. The arts revive in Italy. Chief masters of the fourteenth 
 
 century. State of the art during the two succeeding centuries. Flor- 
 ence in the sixteenth century. Michael Angelo. His contempora- 
 ries and pupils 156 
 
 CHAPTER VII. Bernini. Contemporary artists. The first French 
 sculptors. Succeeding artists. Of^ Spanish sculpture. Of German 
 sculpture. Of Canova. Of Thorwaldsen. Present state of the art 
 in Italy 163 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. Arts in Britain. Roman antiquities there. Efforts 
 in sculpture till tlie reign of Henry VIII. Grinling Gibbons. Cibber 
 and his works. Roubilliac. His works. Joseph Wilton 171 
 
 CHAPTER IX. Of Banks and his Chief works. Joseph Nollekins. 
 Remarks on his works and style. Joseph Banks. Anecdote. His 
 style -.'^A70 
 
 CHAPTER X. Of Mrs. Damer. Her chief works. Anecdotes. 
 Flax nan. His compositions. Anecdotes. Remarks on English 
 sculpture 187 
 
 CHAPTER XI. Science of sculpture. The Elgin marbles. Of style. 
 Coloring statues. Works of Phidias. Proportion. Drapery 195 
 
 CHAPTER XII. Manner of performing different styles of sculpture. 
 Forming the models. Sculpture in wood, stone, marble 201 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Music. Its antiquity proved by reference to scripture. 
 Egyptian music. Modern Hebrew music. Invention of various in- 
 struments. Musical contests. The Muses. Bacchus. Pan. The 
 Syrens 207 
 
 CHAPTER II. Music in the primitive ages. Musical demi-gods. Of 
 the first Bards. Their successors. Archilochus. Tyrtoeus. Ter- 
 
S CONTENTS. 
 
 pr.nder. Other Grecian musicians. Flute players. Trumpet play- 
 er 217 
 
 CHAPTER III. Ancient and modern Greek Music. The different 
 modes. Rhythm. Authors on music. Of Roman music 227 
 
 CHAPTER IV. Music in churches. First organ known in France. 
 Music cultivated by the monks. Guido Aretinus. Time. Fashion in 
 harmony and melody. 231 
 
 CHAPTER V. The Troubadours. Instruments in use among them. 
 They fall into disrepute. French music in the fourteenth century. 
 Italian music in the middle ages. Music of the Cambro Britons. 
 The Welsh Bards. Music in England in the fourteenth century. In 
 Germany. Changes in music. Spanish and Flemish composers. 
 Music in England till the Reformation 237 
 
 CHAPTER VT. Of melody. Of consonance. Remarks on national 
 music 24G 
 
 CFTAPTER VII. Music of the sixteenth century. Music in England 
 of the seventeenth century. Eminent tlnglish composers. I\-usicin 
 Italy, Germany and France, in the seventeenth century. English 
 composers for the church after Purcell 251 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. Mysteries and Oratorios in Italy. Opera. Buffe. 
 Cantatas. Musical dramas in England. Handel. Mrs. Robinson. 
 The opera in England. Music in France after Lulli. Music in Ger- 
 many. Of Mozart and other eminent composers of Germany 263 
 
 CHAPTER IX. Music in Italy in the eighteenth century. In Ven- 
 ice. Musical dramas at Naples. Italian music in the nineteenth 
 century. Rossini and Weber. Celebrated female singers. Of Sig- 
 nora Pasta. Of Paganini 272 
 
PAINTING, 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 Definition of Painting — Remark of Annibal Caracci — Pleasure to be de- 
 rived from Painting — Difficulty of tracing its progress — Earliest painting 
 upon record at Babylon — Of the Egyptian paintings — Painting trans- 
 planted into Greece — Artists of Sicyon and Corinth — Of Bularchus — 
 Anarchy fatal to the Arts in Greece — It revives there — Second era of paint- 
 ing in Greece — Of Paneenus— Of Polygnotus of Thasos — Of Apollo- 
 dorus — Birth of Zeuxis — Third Era of painting in Greece — His painting 
 of Juno — Contemporary Artists — Contest between Zeuxis and Parrhasius 
 — Vanity of both these Artists — The Emperor Tiberius purchases one of 
 the works of Parrhasius — Of Timanthes — His most celebrated works. 
 
 Painting is the art of imitating the appearances of natural 
 objects, by means of colors spread over a surface. At first, this 
 art was employed merely to supply the deficiencies of writing, and 
 to give a more lively representation of facts than mere words 
 were capable of conveying. Thus for instance, we have seldom 
 a just idea of the face or person of one whom we have never 
 seen, even although we have had a frequent and accurate descrip- 
 tion of both. A portrait of the individual will instantly give us 
 this idea, and should it represent a living person, will enable us 
 to recognize him with ease. 
 
 An artist named Agostino Caracci, discoursing one day in com- 
 pany upon the celebrated statue of the liaocoon, entered into a 
 minute description of its beauties. At length he observed that 
 2 
 
10 
 
 his brother Annibal never spoke, and reproached him for not ap^ 
 pearing to take an interest in so masterly a work. Annibal took 
 a piece of charcoal, and turning to the wall, drew a spirited out- 
 line of the statue ; thus taking the most effectual way of convey- 
 ing to the audience a correct idea of the original. * The poet/ 
 said he, ' paints with words ; but the painter speaks with works.' 
 
 All that is most valuable in the universe is brought before our 
 eyes by painting ; the heroic deeds of ancient times, as well as 
 the facts with which we are more conversant ; and distant objects^ 
 as well as those which we daily see. The portrait of the her©^ 
 whose memory is sacred to us, 
 
 ^ And the pale smile of Beauties in the grave ; 
 The charms of other days, in starlight gleams 
 Glimmer on high ; their buried locks still wave 
 Along the canvass ; their eyes glance like dreams 
 On ours.' — 
 
 It would be an interesting task to trace the progressive steps^ 
 of painting, to mark its improvement from the first rude attempt 
 of the untutored savage, to the high state of refinement which it 
 attained under the most celebrated masters. But much of its 
 history is involved in obscurity. Like every other human inven- 
 tion, it probably owed its origin to chance. In mere indolence 
 of thought, or by accident, the first trace of form may have been 
 made in the sand. A shadow on the wall may have suggested 
 the idea ; and the desire of imitation so congenial to the human 
 mind, induced mankind to improve upon it. 
 
 The earliest actual account which we have of the existence of 
 painting is in the reign of Ninus and Semiramis, King and Queen 
 of Assyria ; about two thousand years before the Christian iEra. 
 We are told by Diodorus Siculus, that Semiramis, having thrown 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 11 
 
 abridge over the Euphrates at Babylon, built a castle at each end 
 of it, and enclosed them by three high walls, with towers upon 
 them, made of brick, painted and burnt. 
 
 He tells us, furthermore, that upon these burnt bricks Semira- 
 mis was represented on horseback, throwing her dart at a pan- 
 ther, and near her Ninus striking a lion to the earth with his 
 spear. 
 
 But Egypt was decidedly the birthplace, or, at least, the very 
 earliest home of the arts and sciences. The Egyptian artists, 
 however, seldom if ever attempted more than a mere outline of 
 the object, as seen in profile, such as may be obtained by its shad- 
 ow. To this rude draught they applied colors, simply and with- 
 out mixture or blending, also without any attempt at producing 
 the effects of light or shade. 
 
 Of the Egyptian paintings a few remain to the present era, but 
 their date is uncertain. Two of them were seen at Thebes in 
 Egypt by Bruce, who refers them to the time of Sesostris, about 
 seven hundred years before the Christian era. He remarks, that 
 they might be compared with good sign-paintings of his day. 
 
 From Egypt the arts were transplanted to Greece, where the cli- 
 mate, the government, and the religion, were all in favor of their 
 rapid improvement. Yet great as were the advantages possessed 
 by the Greeks, we are not to suppose that nature deviated from 
 her laws in their favor. * Greek art had her infancy; but the 
 Graces rocked the cradle, and Love taught her to speak.' It 
 would seem that the Greeks were very little advanced in the art 
 of painting, at the time of the Trojan war. Homer never uses 
 any words to signify painters or painting, which renders it proba- 
 ble that this art, as it afterwards existed, was not understood at 
 that period. 
 
12 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 About 776 years B. C, the artists of Sicyon and Corinth hegm 
 to signalize themselves, by essays which excited universal aston-^ 
 ishment by their novelty. It is equally uncertain and immate^ 
 rial, at which of these cities the art of painting was first cultiva- 
 ted. * If ever legend deserved our belief,' says Fuseli, ' the am- 
 orous tale of the Corinthian maid, who traced the shade of her 
 departing lover by the secret lamp, appeals to our sympathy to 
 grant W 
 
 Pliny mentions the name of Saurias, as one who practised in the 
 earliest stage of the art, and of his drawing the figure of ahorse. 
 Mention is also made of Cleanthes of Corinth — of Ardices, like- 
 wise of that city — of Philocles an Egyptian — also of Telephanes 
 of Sicyon, who is said to have advanced to the monographic style ; 
 tjiat is to say, who first thought of making lines within a simple 
 outline. 
 
 But Pliny mentions these, and several other artists, without af- 
 fixing any date to the period of their existence. The first impor- 
 tant fact in the history of painting is the following. About the 
 16th Olympiad, that is, 700 years before the Christian era, Can- 
 daules, king of Lydia, purchased a picture from a Grecian artist 
 named Bularchus. For this picture, which represented the Bat- 
 tle of Magnetes, the painter received its weight in gold. 
 
 Concerning the immediate successor of Bularchus, we are left 
 in ignorance. It is, however, probable, that the confusion result- 
 ing from civil commotion and foreign wars, prevented the cultiva- 
 tion of an art, which requires the fostering aid of science, of pat- 
 ronage, and above all of national security. 
 
 But Xerxes was expelled from Greece. The arts began to re- 
 vive. Genius raised her drooping head, and again we are enabled 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 13 
 
 to trace the steps of Painting, which, like her sister arts, has ap- 
 peared and disappeared according to the revolution of ages. 
 
 To the time of Phidias, painting continued to improve, but 
 very slowly, and by no means in the same proportion as sculp- 
 ture. The genius of that illustrious master extended to all the 
 arts. He originally commenced his career as a painter, and is 
 said to have been the instructer of his brother Panaenus, who adorn- 
 ed with his paintings the walls of the Poicile portico at Athens. 
 
 We may then select this as the second era of painting in Greece ; 
 five centuries before Christ. Prizes were established at this pe- 
 riod both at Delphos and Corinth for its encouragement. Polyg- 
 notus of Thasos then first succeeded, in what Aristotle calls * the 
 conception of undescribed being.' 
 
 One of his most famous paintings adorned the Lesche or pub- 
 lic hall at Delphi. It represented Ulysses consulting the spirit of 
 Tiresias in hell. Lucian and Pliny mention Polygnotus in terms 
 of high commendation. Pliny observes that he first adorned the 
 heads of his females with veils and bandeaus, robed them in light 
 drapery, gently opened the lips, gave a glimpse of the teeth, and 
 lessened the former monotony of the face. 
 
 Improvement was now carried forward in Greece, until Apollo- 
 dorus, an Athenian, invented or perfected the knowledge of light 
 and shade. He was the immediate precursor of Zeuxis, and is 
 considered by Plutarch as having opened the gates by which that 
 artist entered. 
 
 With Zeuxis commenced the third era of painting in Greece. 
 He was born 400 years B. C. in the 8oth Olympiad. His birth 
 place was Heraclea in Macedonia. He first introduced simplicity of 
 composition, and is said to have regarded the poetic unity of char- 
 
14 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 acter adopted by Homer in the description of his heroes, as his 
 model. 
 
 We are told, that, having acquired considerable riches by the 
 sale of his pictures, he at length gave them away ; saying, he did 
 not know how to name a price sufficient for their value. Before 
 commencing a picture of Juno for her temple at Agrigentum, he 
 assembled the most beautiful women in the city, and from them 
 selected five whom he most admired. He then chose the finest 
 or most noble feature of each, and from this combination produ- 
 ced a picture which at that period was unrivalled. The con- 
 temporaries of Zeuxis were Timanthes, Androcides, Eupompus, 
 and Parrhasius. 
 
 The latter however is the only one who may be considered as 
 his rival ; and it is difficult to say which merited the palm. It 
 appears that they both claimed it with equal self-sufficiency. To 
 decide the controversy, they agreed that each should paint a pic- 
 ture, upon the respective merits of which the public should de- 
 cide. 
 
 Zeuxis painted some grapes, and so naturally, that when the 
 picture was exhibited, the birds came to peck at them. Parrha- 
 sius then produced his picture. ' Come,' said Zeuxis, ' draw 
 that curtain, that we may judge of your performance.' The cur- 
 tain was the painting itself Zeuxis acknowledged himself sur- 
 passed. * For,' said he, * I only deceived the birds, but Parrha- 
 sius has deceived even me.' 
 
 Zeuxis, some lime after, painted a boy carrying a basket of grapes, 
 and seeing the birds come and peck at them, acknowledged, that 
 if the grapes were well painted, the boy was not so, otherwise the 
 birds would have been afraid of him. It is said that his last work 
 
PAINTING, 
 
 15 
 
 was the portrait of an old woman, with which he was so much 
 amused, that he laughed till he died. 
 
 Parrhasius was born at Ephesus ; and seems to have excelled 
 his celebrated rival in the proportion and symmetry of his figures. 
 As his genius was great, so were his pride and ostentation. He 
 spoke with contempt of all other painters, and of himself as 
 having brought the art to perfection. We are also told that he 
 had much enthusiasm in his profession, and was always heard to 
 sing when at work. 
 
 The vanity of Zeuxis led him to have his name embroidered 
 in gold upon the border of his robe when he attended the Olym- 
 pic games. That of Parrhasius induced him to wear a purple 
 robe and a golden garland. His staff was turned round with ten- 
 drils of gold ; and his sandals were fastened with golden straps. 
 He often declared that he was descei^ded from Apollo, and that 
 Hercules used to visit him at night, while he was painting Apol- 
 lo's picture. 
 
 The Emperor Tiberius was so delighted with a picture of his, 
 representing a priest of Cybele, that he purchased it for G0,000 
 sesterces ; that is, nearly five hundred pounds sterling. 
 
 Timanthes was a painter of that period, renowned for the vig- 
 or of his imagination. The place of his birth is uncertain, but his 
 most celebrated work was the Sacrifice of Iphigenia. After rep- 
 resenting in the features of Ulysses, Calchas, Ajax, and Menc- 
 laus, the different degrees of grief likely to be felt by each, he 
 painted Agamemnon, the father of Iphigenia, with his face hid 
 in his cloak, leaving to the imagination of the spectators the in- 
 tensity of parental sorrow. 
 
16 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 At another time, having painted a sleeping Cyclops, in order 
 to convey an idea of his gigantic size, he added a group of sat- 
 yrs, measuring the monster^s thumb with a thyrsus. 
 
 ■ . - \ 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Progress of painting in Greece — Of Euphranor and Eupompus — Of Pamphil- 
 us the master of Apelles — Birth of Apellee — Fourth era of painting in 
 Greece — Apelles born at a fortunate period — His excellence as an artist 
 -His character as a man — His generous conduct with regard to Proto- 
 genes — Friendly contest with that artist — Apelles patronised by Alexan- 
 der the Great — Some notice of the works of Apelles — Anecdotes concern- 
 ing him — Aristides of Thebes his contemporary — His mo&t celebrated 
 works — Of the other artists of that period — Demetrius Poliorcetes sacks 
 the town of Rhodes, and spares the works of Protogenes — J.iberty and 
 the Arts expire together in Greece. 
 
 Painting now continued to advance with a rapid pace. Na- 
 ture was her guide, and to develope her various charms, the ob- 
 ject of the artists. Euphranor was equally celebrated in painting 
 as in statuary ; and the names of Eupompus and Pamphilus hold 
 a distinguished place in the annals of Grecian arts. Pamphil- 
 us especially had the glory of being the master of Apelles, with 
 whose name commences the fourth and last epoch of painting in 
 Greece, about the conclusion of the fourth century before Christ. 
 
 Apelles was born at Cos, in the Archipelago, in the ] 12th 
 Olympiad, about 328 years B. C. This extraordinary man ap- 
 pears to have been endowed with a more perfect combination of 
 talents and virtues, than has perhaps ever, before or since, fallen 
 to the lot of any individual. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 17 
 
 He had besides the peculiar good fortune of being born at a 
 period, when Greece was in its highest state of cultivation. 
 Apelles united in his own style all the scattered excellencies 
 which had distinguished his predecessors, and thus attained per- 
 fection ; as Zeuxis, from a combination of all that was most 
 beautiful and graceful, produced his Juno. 
 
 Not only as an artist is he extolled above all others; but 
 equally as a man, for his gentleness and generosity. Grace of 
 conception and refinement of taste distinguished the works of 
 Apelles; and to these were added an energy and life in the 
 execution, and a completeness of finish, which had never been 
 effected before his time. His generous behavior, with regard 
 to his rival Protogenes, has been often recorded. Being highly 
 delighted with a picture painted by that artist, whom he only 
 knew by reputation, he sailed to Rhodes on purpose to visit him. 
 There, finding him neglected and in poverty, he purchased some 
 of his works, and declared that he intended to sell them as his 
 own. 
 
 The Rhodians, awakened to a sense of their injustice by the 
 conduct of Apelles, raised Protogenes from his humble situation 
 to rank and fortune. It is recorded, that, when he first arrived 
 at the house of Protogenes, he found only an old woman there, 
 who asked his name. For an answer, Apelles took out his pen- 
 cil, and traced upon a canvass, a line or circle of extreme deli- 
 cacy. When Protogenes returned and found what had occurred, 
 he declared with admiration, that no one but Apelles could have 
 been his visiter. 
 
 Then, taking another color, he drew an outline still more 
 correct and delicate. Apelles, on returning, found himself 
 
18 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 surpassed, and laid on a third color with so much skill and 
 delicacy, that Protogenes confessed himself vanquished. The 
 tablets, representing this friendly contest, were preserved at Rome 
 in the time of Pliny. 
 
 Beloved, honored, and employed by Alexander the Great, 
 Apelles had the happiness of enjoying that renown to which he 
 was so justly entitled, and which envy so often denies to men of 
 genius during their life time. Alexander treated him with the 
 familiarity of a friend, and even issued an edict, ordaining that 
 no other person should presume to paint his likeness. 
 
 The paintings of Apelles were numerous, but the most cele- 
 brated of his productions was his Venus rising from the sea. 
 This picture, being taken to Rome, was dedicated by Augustus 
 in the temple of Julius Caesar. The perfect outline of the god- 
 dess, the evanescent gradation of the tints; the purity, force and 
 brilliancy of the conception, render the Venus of Apelles the 
 most splendid achievement of ancient art. 
 
 His painting of * Alexander launching Thunder,' in the temple 
 of Diana at Ephesus, has been greatly extolled for its effect, and 
 the boldness of its relief It was a rule of Apelles never to pass 
 a day without using his pencil; from whence came the proverb, 
 Nulla dies sine linea, — no day without a line. 
 
 One of his pupils showed him a performance, and observed 
 that he had done it it a very short time. ' I can easily believe it,* 
 said Apelles, ' and only wonder, that, in the same space of time, 
 you have not painted many more such.' 
 
 Another pamter. showed him a portrait of Helen, richly adorn- 
 ed with jewels. * I perceive young man,' said Apelles, * that 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 19 
 
 since you could not make her handsome, you at least resolved to 
 make her rich.' 
 
 One day, a shoemaker took the liberty of criticising a sandal 
 painted by Apelles, who immediately altered it. The shoema- 
 ker, passing by the next day, felt proud to see that his criticism 
 had been attended to, and ventured to pass his censure on the 
 figure itself ; upon which Apelles came forward, and told him that 
 his judgment went no higher than a sandal, which remark after- 
 wards passed into a proverb. 
 
 Aristides of Thebes was a contemporary of Apelles. His was 
 the power of impressing form with soul, of representing those 
 impassioned actions of the body, which result from violent emo- 
 tions of the mind. So effective was the earnestness of a suppli- 
 ant pourtrayed by him, that the voice, as we are told, seemed to 
 escape from the picture. 
 
 Timanthes drew the line which separates terror from an ex- 
 cess of horror ; Aristides marked the boundaries which divide 
 it from disgust. His famous picture of the wounded and dying 
 mother, shuddering lest her starving infant should suck her blood, 
 was one of his most celebrated performances. The expression 
 of the principal figure, still alive, though mortally wounded, help- 
 less, beautiful, and forgetting herself in anguish for her child, 
 has excited a commiseration, and produced an effect never since 
 equalled, although the same subject has been frequently handled 
 by succeeding artists. 
 
 When Alexander the Great sacked the town of Thebes, he 
 caused this painting to be removed to his native town of Pella. 
 At this time there were many other painters in Greece, renown- 
 
20 PAINTING. 
 
 ed for their respective excellencies ; Esclepiodorus for the sym- 
 metry of his figures, Protogenes for exquisite skill in execution 
 and finish, Nicias, Nicomarchus and others, through whose exer- 
 tions painting arrived at its utmost perfection in Greece. 
 
 When Demetrius Poliorcetes besieged Rhodes, and might have 
 taken it by assault on that part of the town where Protogenes re- 
 sided, he forbore, lest he should injure any of his works. Such 
 anecdotes are valuable, as showing the softening influence of the 
 arts at all periods, and upon the most savage natures. A con- 
 queror, stopped in the midst of his career by the beauty of a 
 painting, reminds us of the legend, of the lion crouching before 
 the eye of innocence. 
 
 But Greece, weakened by luxury and domestic dissension, was 
 subdued by the more warlike Romans. With her liberties, her 
 energies expired. The spirit which animated her arts was re- 
 moved, and they fell to rise no more. Thus all sublunary things 
 have within them the seeds of their own destruction. The acme 
 of excellence once reached, their further progress in existence 
 can only be retrograde. 
 
 Greece, once the cradle of the arts, is now their tomb ; the 
 mighty sepulchre of the unforgotten dead, from whose ashes no 
 Soaring genius has arisen ; 
 
 * 'T is Greece, but living Greece no more.' 
 
PAINTING, 
 
 81 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Earliest notice of Painting in Italy — Of Fabius — Of Pacuvius — Greek ar- 
 tists emigrate to Rome — The Romans hold the art in contempt — Etruria 
 the birth-place of the arts in Italy — Augustus removes * the Alexander Vic- 
 torious ' to Rome — Irruptions of the Goths — Dark ages — Birth of Cima- 
 bue — His most famous works — He discovers the principle of perspective 
 — Birth of Giotto — His principal excellence — The Academy of St. Luke's 
 founded by Jacopo — Cassentino and others — Massaccio--Mantegna— Luca 
 Giordano — Birth of Leonardo da Vinci — His wonderful genius — Oil-paint- 
 ing discovered — Mona Lisa — Leonardo's Last Judgment — He is made 
 Directory of the Academy at Milan— Dies at Paris in the arms of Fran- 
 cis I. 
 
 It is probable that painting was practised in Italy at a very ear- 
 ly period. Little however is known of its actual progress there. 
 Pliny indeed says, that in his time there were paintings existing 
 at Ardea, which were executed before the foundation of Rome. 
 But the earliest satisfactory account of the practise of the art in 
 Italy, is in the year 450 of the city, that is, 303 years before the 
 Christian Era ; when Pabius, a noble patrician, painted the temple 
 of Salus. He and his family thence obtained the surname of 
 Pictor. 
 
 It is not impossible that Fabius had travelled in Greece. Per- 
 haps he might even have been acquainted with Apelles ; and might 
 have seen him employed upon those works which rendered his 
 name immortal. There was then a lapse of 150 years, during 
 which we only hear of Pacuvius, a poet, who amused his declining 
 years in painting the temple of Hercules. 
 
 Although about this time Greek paintings were introduced in- 
 to Rome, it appears that the conquerors were too much occupied 
 with schemes of aggrandizement and military fame, to devote 
 much of their attention to the arts. 
 
22 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 After the reduction of Greece to the Roman power, Rome be- 
 came the emporium of honor, employment, and consequent profit 
 to artists. The plunder brought from Greece astonished the com- 
 paratively uncultivated inhabitants of Italy ; and the principal 
 painters and sculptors of that period were Greeks, who had de- 
 serted their own country in hopes of emolument. 
 
 Etruria is generally considered as the birth-place of the arts in 
 Italy ; but the Etruscan vases, which have been an object of cu- 
 riosity to antiquaries, were merely covered with hieroglyphics, 
 like those of Egypt. It still remains a doubt whether Etruria or 
 Calabria was the parental abode of the arts ; but it is certain, that 
 for some time the warlike Romans held the practice of painting 
 in contempt, and regarded the Greek artists as slaves, who exerted 
 themselves for the amusement of their masters. 
 
 Augustus first discovered the use which a monarch might make 
 of painting ; and caused two pictures, painted by Apelles, repre- 
 senting Alexander Victorious, to be carried to Rome, and placed 
 in the forum. Claudius afterwards caused the heads of both 
 these pictures to be cut out, and the portrait of Augustus placed 
 in their stead. But the Roman emperors appear to have found 
 little native talent capable of conveying their images to posterity 
 in a worthy manner. 
 
 At length the irruptions of the northern nations put an end to 
 both Grecian and Roman efforts. During what are emphatical- 
 ly termed the dark ages, the light of science was extinguished ; 
 or if the Greek monks, in the silence and seclusion of their con* 
 vents, cherished a few glimmering sparks with which to cheer 
 their solitude, still it was not till the beginning of the fourteenth 
 century, that learning and the arts again dawned upon Europe* 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 23 
 
 The first name worthy of record in the annals of Italian paint- 
 ing, is that of Cimabue. He was a native of Florence, and was 
 born of a noble family. He geems to have been incited to emu- 
 lation by seeing the paintings of some Grecian artists who were 
 established at Florence. His first attempt was a picture of the 
 Virgin, for the church of Our Lady at Florence. When it was 
 finished, it excited so much enthusiasm, that it was carried in 
 procession with the sound of trumpets, to the place of fts destina- 
 tion. 
 
 Encouraged by this applause, Cimabue pursued his studies with 
 ardor. He died at the age of seventy years, A. D. 1300. The 
 principle perspective was now discovered — that is, the manner 
 of representing objects as they appear at different distances or 
 heights. Painting in oils was unknown in the time of Cimabue. 
 According to the custom of the times, he painted in fresco, or in 
 distemper. 
 
 Giotto was his pupil. He was born at a village near Florence, 
 and first threw off the trammels of the art as it was then prac- 
 tised. He is said to have been originally a shepherd ; but his 
 abilities procured him the patronage of Pope Benedict IX. 
 This prelate sent for him to Rome, and employed him in decorat- 
 ing the church of St Peter's. The principal benefit which paint- 
 ing derived from Giotto, was, that he returned to nature for the 
 actions and expressions of his figures. 
 
 The skill of this ingenious artist excited the emulation of his 
 contemporaries. Fourteen years after his death, his pupil, Jacopo 
 Cassentino, and nine other painters, founded the Academy of St. 
 Luke's in Florence. One hundred and fifty years after its foun- 
 dation, this academy produced three of the greatest artists that the 
 
84 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 world has ever known ; Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo 
 Buonarotti, and Raphael. 
 
 After the death of Giotto, Masaccio, Mantegna, and Luca 
 Signorelli, successively upheld the glories of the revived art. The 
 latter in particular seems to have been the first who regarded na- 
 ture with a discriminating eye ; who balanced light and shade, and 
 decided upon the motion of the objects. By understanding the 
 principles bf prospective, he first laid the feet of upright figures flat 
 upon the ground, and foreshortened his heads and figures with 
 truth and effect. 
 
 Even Raphael did not scruple, eighty years afterwards, to stu- 
 dy, and sometimes to adopt his actions ; and it has been suppos- 
 ed that Michael Angelo in his Last Judgement, imitated in some 
 measure the Lunetta, which was painted by Luca in the church 
 of the Madonna at Orvieto. 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci was born at Florence in 1445. The genius 
 of this wonderful man broke forth with a splendor which distan- 
 ced all former excellence — ' made up of the elements that consti- 
 tute the essence of genius, favored by education and circum- 
 tances — all eye, all ear, all grasp ; painter, poet, sculptor, anato- 
 mist, architect, engineer, chemist, machinist, musician, man of 
 science, and sometimes empiric, he laid hold of every beauty in 
 the enchanted circle, but without exclusive attachment to one, 
 dismissed in her turn each.' 
 
 Leonardo grasped at all ; and succeeded in everything he un- 
 dertook. Whatever he painted, came from his hand elevated 
 and adorned. But he wanted perseverance, and wasted much of 
 his time in experiment ; otherwise it is probable that he would 
 have carried painting to the highest point of perfection. 
 
25 
 
 tte introduced the principles of chiaro-scuro, and depth of tone 
 and coloring. Chiaro-scuro is the art of placing and proportion- 
 ing light and shade in such a manner, as to produce a pleasing 
 effect, independently of any other circumstance connected with 
 the picture. The pictures were thus relieved from the tame- 
 ness of mere imitation. Michael Angelo in design, Corregio in 
 finish and chiaro-scuro, and Rubens in composition, are all 
 indebted to Da Vinci for much of their perfection. 
 
 He was the pupil of Andrea Verrochio, a painter of some 
 eminence at Florence. About this time, the use of oil was 
 adopted in painting. This important discovery is attributed to 
 John Van Eyck, of Brussels; and although this opinion is often 
 disputed, it is certain that he was at least the first who used oils 
 essentially and effectually. 
 
 It was observed by Vanmander, that the discovery made as 
 much noise in the world as that of gunpowder had done near a 
 century before. At the same time, notwithstanding the brillian- 
 cy of color and effect produced by tlie use of oil, it in no way 
 aided the more material objects, viz. beauty of design, and 
 purity of expression. 
 
 The paintings of Leonardo are dispersed throughout Europe. 
 His well-known portrait of Mona Lisa, in purity of drawing, and 
 simple sweetness of expression, has an equal only in the works 
 of Raphael. 
 
 The Last Supper, which he painted for the refectory of the 
 Dominicans at Milan, is a performance of exquisite beauty. 
 The dignity and propriety of expression, and the correctness of 
 drawing exhibited in this picture, have perhaps never been 
 surpassed. The grave attitude of the principal figure, the loose 
 3 
 
26 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 and free posture of the arms, and the air of grandeur and tran* 
 quillity which distinguish it, are well contrasted with the uneasy 
 and vehement agitation of the apostles, and show in a very 
 striking manner one of the chief excellences of Leonardo; — 
 that of giving to everything its suitable character, so as to mark 
 a proper distinction between the objects. 
 
 We are told that he had left the head of Judas unfinished, 
 being unable to find a suitable model for the treacherous disciple ; 
 when the prior of the convent came to importune him on the 
 subject, being impatient to see the piece completed ; upon 
 which, the painter drew the head of the prior himself, and put it 
 upon the shoulders of Judas. 
 
 The Duke of Milan made Leonardo director of an Academy 
 of Painting which he had erected in that city. When Francis 
 the First took Milan, Leonardo retired to Florence, where he 
 found the reputation of Michael Angelo at its height. 
 
 He afterwards left Italy, and went to Paris, where he was 
 well received by Francis the First. In the last sickness of Leo- 
 nardo, that monarch went to visit him. The painter attempted 
 to rise from his couch to thank him for this mark of kindness. 
 The monarch embraced him, and assisted him to lie down 
 again. At that moment, Leonardo became speechless, and 
 expired in the arms of Francis, in the seventy-fifth year of his 
 age, A. D. 1520, 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 •27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of Pietro Perugino, the tutor of Rapliael — Style of his Painting— His char- 
 acter — Birth of Michael Angelo Buonarotti — Patronized by Lorenzo de 
 Medici — Considered the founder of the Florentine iSchool — Meaning of 
 the term School in Painting — Characteristics of the Florentine School — 
 Manner of Michael Angelo — Receives an order to paint the Sistine 
 Chapel — Difficulties which he encounters and overcomes — Description 
 of Michael Angelo's Last Judgment — Further notice of his style — 
 Anecdote concerning him — His death at Ferrara — Is re-interred at 
 Florence — His tomb. 
 
 Pietro Perugino, the tutor of Raphael, and the fellow schol- 
 ar of Leonardo da Vinci, was born at Peruggia, of poor parents. 
 For some time, he received instruction from a painter of that 
 town, who taught him very little, and used him very ill. 
 
 As soon as he was able to procure his own living, he went to 
 Florence, and placed himself under the care of Andrea Verro. 
 chio, where he met with Leonardo da Vinci. 
 
 Perugino was celebrated for the graceful air of his heads, 
 especially of his females. He principally employed himself in 
 adorning convents and churches. He was married to a very 
 beautiful woman, whom he passionately loved ; and in all his 
 pictures of the Virgin Mary we trace her resemblance. 
 
 He is said to have been covetous and distrustful ; and to have 
 carried a box containing his gold, wherever he went. Perhaps 
 we may find some apology for him when we recollect the poverty 
 in which he was born, and the hard labor by which he earned 
 his money. We are told that being robbed of his treasure, the 
 loss so affected his spirits, that he died in the seventy-eighth 
 year of his age, A. D. 1524. 
 
 Michael Angelo Buonarotti was the son of Ludovico Buona- 
 3* 
 
28 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 rotti Simoni, of the ancient family of the Counts of Cafiosa 
 He was born in the year 1474^ in the castle of Chiusi, in the 
 territory of Arezzo in Tuscany. ^ 
 
 Under the protection of Lorenzo de Medici, surnamed the 
 Magnificent, he erected an Academy of Painting and Sculpture 
 at Florence, and is considered the head or founder of the Floren- 
 tine School. 
 
 A school, in the fine arts, means a class of artists who have 
 learned their profession from a certain master, either by study- 
 ing his works, or by receiving instructions from him; and 
 who, consequently, discover more or less of his manner, either 
 from the desire of imitation, or from a habit of adopting his 
 principles. 
 
 The Florentine School is remarkable for greatness — for a 
 certain dark severity — for an expression of strength, which per- 
 % haps excludes grace — and for a character of design approaching 
 to the gigantic. The Tuscan artists,, satisfied with commanding 
 our admiration, seem to have considered the art of pleasing as 
 beneath their notice. Michael Angelo delighted in the great 
 and in the terrible. In boldness of conception, and grandeur^ 
 he surpassed Leonardo; but in sweetness and gentleness^ 
 Leonardo was superior to him. 
 
 * He did not possess,' says Sir Joshua Reynolds, ^ so many 
 delightful parts of the art as Raphael ; but those which he had 
 acquired, were of a more sublime nature. He saw in painting 
 little more than what might be attained by sculpture ; and he 
 confined it to exactness of form and the expression of the 
 muscles.' As painter, sculptor, and architect, Michael Angela 
 attempted and succeeded in uniting magnificence of plan with 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 29 
 
 the utmost simplicity and breadth. His line is uniformly grand. 
 His infants bear a promise of greatness, his men are a race of 
 giants, and his women are Junos. Even deformity comes from 
 his hands impressed with dignity. When freedom was banished 
 from Florence, Michael Angelo retired to Ferrara. He had 
 until then devoted himself almost solely to the study of sculpture 
 and of architecture. Of painting, as a separate science, he was 
 comparatively ignorant. In this state of knowledge, he received 
 an order from the Pope to complete the painting in the Sistine 
 Chapel at Rome. He was then unacquainted with the mechan- 
 ical process of fresco ; but his was not a spirit to be subdued 
 by obstacle or daunted by difficulty. 
 
 Rising in the strength of his unconquerable genius, he resolved 
 to depend entirely upon his own resources. He went to Rome, 
 and shut himself up in the Chapel, with his own hands prepar- 
 ing the materials for his labor. After many trials and failures, 
 after beholding his first piece moulder, and mildew almost before 
 his eyes; he at length triumphed, and achieved, in a course 
 of years, the most adventurous undertaking in modern art. 
 
 The sublimity of design, and grandeur of invention, with 
 which the series of paintings in the Sistine Chapel are planned 
 and executed, almost approaches to the miraculous. His picture 
 of the Last Judgment, painted thirty years afterwards, is the 
 greatest work of modern genius. It contains upwards of three 
 hundred figures, many of which are larger than life. 
 
 He represents the Supreme Being at the moment of giving 
 forth the awful sentence, * Go, ye accursed, into everlasting fire.* 
 No mercy is expressed in the divine countenance. All is dark, 
 terrible and sublime. Thunder and lightnings surround Him. 
 
so 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 The human forms seem agitated by every gradation of feeling. 
 They are drawn in every variety of position ; and over the 
 whole is diffused an ease/ a science, a magic power ; which 
 constrains us to gaze with wonder — with admiration — perhaps 
 even with terror — yet scarcely with interest or sympathy. 
 
 In the works of Buonarotti all is action. Repose itself does 
 not seem at rest. Every form, every muscle, every attitude is 
 displayed and exerted to the utmost. He sports with difficulty ; 
 yet sometimes sacrifices simplicity and feeling in the exhibition 
 of his strength. Each giant limb of his awful and gloomy 
 shapes seems in movement ; and the whole effect is mighty and 
 overpowering. 
 
 Michael Angelo loved solitude; and used to say that 'Paint- 
 ing was jealous, and required the whole man to herself Being 
 asked why he did not marry ; ' Painting,* said he, * is my 
 wife, and my works are my children.' He obtained the friend- 
 ship and esteem of all the sovereign princes of his time, and 
 the admiration of succeeding ages. He died at Rome ; aged 
 90, A. D. 1564. Cosmo de Medici ordered his body to be 
 secretly unburied, and brought to Florence. Here he was 
 reinterred in- the church of Santa Croce, where magnificent 
 obsequies were performed for him. His tomb is still to be seen 
 there; a marble monument, adorned with three figures — Paint- 
 ing, Sculpture, and Architecture, all by his own hand. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 31 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Birth of Raphael Sanzio — He leaves his native place — Goes to Sienna — 
 Paints the cartoons in the library tliere — Goes to Florence — Visits 
 Rome — Paints the walls of the Vatican — His exquisite taste — Three 
 styles of Raphael — Notice of his works — Chief charm of his style— His 
 * Dispute on the Sacrament ' — His * Heliodorus ' — Difference between 
 his manner and that of Michael Angelo — His death — Personal appear 
 ance of Rapliael — He is regarded as the founder of tlie Roman School— 
 Of tlie Venetian Painters — Style of the Venetian School — Titian con- 
 sidered tlie founder of tliat school — Of Giovanni and Gentile Bellino— • 
 Mahomet H. invites Gentile Bellino to Constantinople — He paints the 
 Decollation — Anecdote of Mahomet II. — Bellino leaves Constantino 
 pie — Dignities bestowed on him — His death — Birth of Giorgione— 
 Titian excites his jealousy — Style of Giorgione — His death. 
 
 As AFTER gazing on a fierce and lurid sunset, the eye lests 
 with complacency on the mild radiance of the pure and silver 
 moon, so do we turn from the lonely and terrible grandeur of tho 
 * mighty Florentine/ to the gentler and more natural beauties of 
 Raphael Sanzio — the father of dramatic painting, and the 
 founder of the Roman School. 
 
 Raphael was born at Urbino, on Good Friday, in the year 
 1483. His father was an ordinary painter, and Pietro Perugino 
 was his master. He soon discovered tliat the perfection of 
 painting was not confined to the capacity of Perugino, and 
 therefore went to Sienna, in hopes of finding some method of 
 improving or advancing himself 
 
 His friend Pinturrichio found employment for him in mak- 
 ing the cartoons for the pictures of the library : but he had 
 scarce commenced this occupation, when, aroused by the report.^ 
 which reached him, concerning the excellence of da Vinci's and 
 Michael Angelo's works, he resolved to go to Florence. 
 
32 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 Here he diligently studied the manner of these illustrious 
 masters, and, comparing it with that of Perugino, soon discover- 
 ed wherein consisted the faults and deficiencies of the latter. 
 Raphael afterwards went to Rome, where he was employed by 
 Pope Julius the Second, in adorning the walls of the Vatican, 
 lie commenced by painting the School of Athens, the Dispute of 
 the Holy Sacrament, and the other pieces which are in the 
 chamber of the Apostolic Signature. 
 
 There is perhaps no feature of the mind, from the gentlest 
 emotion to the most fervid burst of passion, which has been left 
 unobserved by Raphael. We stand with awe before Michael 
 Angelo; w^e tremble at the height to which he elevates us. 
 We embrace Raphael, and follow him wherever he leads us. 
 
 Less elevated, less vigorous than Buonarotti, but more insinu- 
 ating, more pressing on our hearts, he commands at all times our 
 warmest sympathies. Of his inestimable productions there re- 
 main to us various easel pictures in oil, cartoons, and frescoes; 
 exhibiting three different manners. 
 
 The first style is dry, little, tedious — though not without truth 
 and high finish. This was derived from his master Perugino. 
 The second manner is an intermediate step, — an attempt to 
 escape from a minuteness unsuited to his own fervor, and to the 
 dignity of the art. The third manner is solely and exclusively 
 his own ; neither derived nor inherited ; full, harmonious, sweet, 
 and flowing ; possessing such an union of natural grace and 
 antique correctness, as we meet only in the creations of Rapha- 
 el's pencil. 
 
 In the space of only twelve years, (for he united exquisite 
 finish with wonderful expedition,) he completed the frescoes of 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 33 
 
 the Vatican and the Tarnesina, consisting of many hundred 
 figures. He designed the cartoons,* and produced those exqui- 
 site paintings in oil, which have chiefly spread his fame through- 
 out Europe. Of these the most wonderful, though perhaps not 
 the most perfect, is The Transfiguration. We also look at it with 
 a peculiar interest, as being the last of his productions. His 
 death happened a few days after. 
 
 The principal charm in the style of Raphael is, that, while he 
 gives to nature all that grace and fancy can bestow, he leaves 
 her nature still. In the mild and simple beauty of his Ma- 
 donna, we view the absence of all rude and evil passions — we 
 gaze on that meek countenance, expressive of all a mother's 
 tenderness, and every pure and holy remembrance rushes upon 
 our heart. 
 
 In the deep meaning of the mild full eye, in the holy expres- 
 sion, the spotless form of the divine child, we acknowledge the 
 nearest approach ever made by genius to our unbreathed con- 
 ceptions of an infant Saviour. 
 
 In his splendid painting of the Dispute on the Sacrament, we 
 see his genius struggling to force her way from the shackles of 
 bad habit. The upper part is in the style of Pcrugino, though 
 dignified and enlarged ; the lower is his own. Every feature, 
 limb, motion ; the draperies, the lights and shades of the lower 
 part, are toned and varied by character. We see the florid 
 bloom of youth tinged with the glow of eagerness — the stern 
 
 * Cartoons are composed of several sheets of paper of a middling: thick- 
 ness, pasted upon one another. W hen a wall is to be painted in fresco, 
 the painter has the fitrures first traced on these cartoons : he then places 
 them against the wall, and traces i);e figures on the plaster, by passing a 
 steel point over the tracks in the cai toons, or by pricking them. 
 
34 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 and vigorous tint of manhood, and the sickly hue of cloistered 
 meditation — the brown and sun-tinged hermit, and the pale 
 decrepid elder, contrast with each other — and over all is diffused 
 a serene and solemn light, keeping down the whole action and 
 color of the picture. 
 
 The same wonderful power is observable in his astonishing 
 picture of the Heliodorus. It represents every variety of charac- 
 ter — the angelic — the devout — the violent — the brutal — the help- 
 less — the delicate. And while this whirlwind of passion 
 agitates the fore-ground, and we see the flash of steel and iron 
 armour, — mingled with draperies of indigo, glowing crimson, 
 and deep black, yet the entire scene is pervaded by a tone of 
 repose. A warm gleam issues from the back ground of the 
 sanctuary ; a dark hue of golden brown, which moderates and 
 tempers the whole. 
 
 The style of Raphael has justly been characterized as the 
 dramatic, that of Michael Angelo as the epic, of painting. 
 The whole range of art and poetry never has produced more 
 magnificent creations than those half-divine beings embodied 
 by the pencil of Michael Angelo. There he reigns unapproach- 
 ed and alone. But when the interest is to be derived from 
 human forms, he fails. His line can never want grandeur ; 
 but grandeur usurps the place of feeling. 
 
 Human affection mingles in every touch of Raphael. His 
 attitudes are noble, expressive and unaffected. In grandeur of 
 invention, he was surpassed by Buonarotti ; Titian excelled 
 him in coloring, and Corregio in gradation of tone ; but in 
 composition, grace, expression, and the power of telling a 
 story, he has never been equalled. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 35 
 
 He died on Good Friday, on which day he was also born, 
 aged 3G, A. D. 1520. In private life Raphael was universally 
 beloved. In many of his groups, he has transmitted his own 
 likeness to us. In the deep blue eye, the mild and almost femi- 
 nine softness of expression, and the long fair hair which shades 
 his countenance, we can trace the same graceful and natural 
 harmony which distinguishes his works. 
 
 We are told that the emulation which existed between him 
 and Michael Angelo sometimes degenerated into jealousy. Yet 
 each had his own independent sphere : and neither in the 
 Roman or Florentine School, has any succeeding artist exhibit- 
 ed the genius of their respective founders. 
 
 The superior principles of painting ; viz. design and expres- 
 sion, had now arrived at perfection both at Florence and Rome. 
 In the mean time, the inferior but more alluring charm of color 
 began at Venice to add a magic to the art hitherto unknown. 
 Titian may be regarded as the founder of the Venetian school. 
 His immediate predecessors were Giovanni, Gentile Bellino, and 
 Goirgione. 
 
 The two Bellinos were the sons of Giacomo Bellino, a paint- 
 er of Venice ; who was more famous for the good education 
 which he gave to his sons, than for skill in his profession. His 
 eldest son, Gentile, painted several good pieces in design for the 
 Council Hall at Venice. Mahomet II. Emperor of the Turks, 
 celebrated in history as the conqueror of Constantinople, 
 having seen one of his pictures, wrote to the Senate, requesting 
 that Bellino might be sent to him. 
 
 The painter was well received by the Grand Signior, and 
 executed several works for his highness, which were much 
 
36 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 approved. As the Turks had a great veneration for St. John 
 the Baptist, Mahomet desired Bellino to represent the Decolla- 
 tion. When the painting was finished, Gentile brought it into 
 the presence of the Grand Signior, and requested his opinion of 
 its merits. 
 
 The Sultan remarked that the skin of the neck w^hich was 
 separated from the body v/as too high — * because,' added he, 
 * the head is no sooner cut off, than the skin of the neck shrinks 
 back.' Gentile submitted to so competent a judge ; but the 
 Sultan being desirous of giving him a striking proof of the 
 justice of his criticism, ordered the head of a slave to be 
 instantly struck off in his presence. The painter, frightened at 
 this practical demonstration, soon after invented some excuse for 
 taking leave of the illustrious critic. He was dismissed with many 
 noble presents. The Sultan put a gold chain round his neck, 
 and recommended him so strongly to the Venetian Senate, that 
 they granted him the order of St. Mark, and a considerable 
 pension for life. He died aged 80^ A. D. 1501. 
 
 His brother, Giovanni, was the instructer both of Giorgione 
 and Titian. Several of his pieces are still to be seen in Venice. 
 His last work was a Bacchanal, which he painted for Alphonso 
 I. Duke of Ferrara. His death having prevented its com- 
 pletion, Titian finished it, Giovanni Bellino died in 1512, 
 aged 90. 
 
 Giorgione, the fellow pupil of Titian was born at Castel- 
 Franco, in the Venetian States, A. D. 1478. His genius soon 
 rose superior to that of his master, and in order to improve his 
 style, he applied himself diligently to the study and meditation 
 of nature. 
 
Titian was extremely pleased with the boldness and novelty of 
 Giorgione's manner, and by imitating and improving upon it, is 
 said to have excited the jealousy of that artist so strongly that he 
 forbid him his house. 
 
 Giorgione was the first who found out the admirable effects of 
 strong lights and shadows, and made use of bold colors. It has 
 been frequently a matter of surprise to connoisseurs, by what 
 means he soared so suddenly from the low and dull coloring 
 of Bellino, to the force and brilliancy which distinguish his 
 paintings. 
 
 His landscapes are exquisite ; and although Titian greatly 
 excelled him, it is certain that Giorgione first pointed out the 
 way to the attainment of that excellence. It is even probable 
 that had the existence of Giorgione been prolonged, Titian 
 might not have been considered, as he now is, the head of the 
 Venetian School. Giorgione died in the thirty-second year of 
 his age, A. D. 1511. 
 
38 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Birth of Titian — Studies under Bellino- — His beauties and defects^ — Brillian-^ 
 cy of his coloring — Manner in which it was produced — His paintings-— 
 Four styles observable in his v/orks — Birth of Corregio — Considered the 
 founder of the Lombard School-— Sketch of his life- — His principal 
 works — The style of Corregio — His poverty— Cause of his death^ — Paint- 
 ing at its highest state of perfection — Begins to decline — Of Julio Ro- 
 mano — Faults and beauties of his works- — Of Parmegiano — His style of 
 painting — Is patronized by Clement VH — Anecdote of Parmegiano-^ 
 Pellegrino Tibaldi— Anecdote concerning him — Is patronized by Gregory 
 Xni. — Goes to Spain— Paints the Escurial — Dies at Milan — Of Tintoretto 
 — His style of painting— His enthusiasm for the art — His numerous works 
 ■ — Maria Tintoretta, his daughter — Of Paul Veronese — The beauties and 
 defects of his style— 11 is 'Marriage at Cana Difficulty of following 
 the division of the schools — Of Daniel de Volterra — His ' Descent from 
 the Cross ' — Of Andrea del Sarto — The modes of Venice and Lombardy 
 prevail. 
 
 TiziANO Vecelli, commonly called Titian, was born at Ca- 
 dore, in Friuli, a province in the Venetian territories, A. D. 1477. 
 He was of noble extraction, being descended from the ancient 
 house of Vecelli. He studied, as we have already observed, 
 under Bellino, and was first roused to emulation by the success 
 of Giorgione. 
 
 The chief defect of Titian was in composition, and poetic 
 fancy. He penetrated the very secrets of nature in all her 
 varied effects of shade and color ; but he wanted the power of 
 selecting from nature, and of correcting her defects, by his own 
 imagination. The Venetian painters were destitute of ancient 
 models by which to form their style. They copied without 
 choice the forms of nature ; but they delighted in representing 
 the variety and beauty of natural color. 
 
 In this brilliancy of tone and hue, Titian was unrivalled. 
 
39 
 
 Three principles may be remarked as distinguishing his stylci 
 In the first place, the interposing medium between the eye and 
 the object is a mellow golden light. Secondly, the splendor of hig 
 colors is effected by painting in under-tones ; not by rich tints 
 lavished on particular spots. There is a general gradation of 
 tone throughout the whole picture, by which his most glowing 
 and gorgeous lights are produced. 
 
 Then in all his shadows and under-tones there are a thou- 
 sand flickering lights and hues ; all softened and blended to- 
 gether. For this reason, though it seems apparently easy to 
 copy Titian, nothing is more difficult than to imitate at once his 
 correctness and splendor. 
 
 There are fifty pictures of Titian's to be seen at Venice, in 
 which four different styles are observable ; and nothing is more 
 encouraging to a young artist, than to trace the steps by which 
 these great masters of the art rose to excellence. 
 
 The first style is dry ; in it we trace the defects of his master 
 Bellino. The second is bold. It was copied from his rival 
 Giorgione. The third was his own. It consists of a just and 
 beautiful imitation of nature, in all her most varied shades of 
 tone and color. 
 
 The fourth manner is freer, and less labored. He practised 
 it towards the decline of life. In composition and design, the 
 painters of the Roman School surpassed Titian, but in the 
 mastery of coloring he stands without a rival. 
 
 One charm was now wanting to complete the perfection of 
 the art. This was harmony. It appeared with Antonio Allegri, 
 better known as Corregio, so called from the name of his native 
 place. This artist is considered as the founder of the Lombard 
 School. He was born in 1494, of humble parents. 
 
40 pAtmtm^ 
 
 From the bosom of poverty — without master, withotit portion^ 
 without even the most common advantages of education, hii^ 
 genius rose superior to circumstances, and broke forth with a 
 splendor which almost appeared miraculous, even in that age of 
 knowledge. 
 
 He courted no favor ^ he had seen no master-pieces either of 
 ancient or modern art, by which to form a model. He had not 
 visited Rome. The w^onders of antiquity were unknown to 
 him. But he contemplated nature. Her silent beauties spoke 
 to his heart, and inspired his pencil. We are told that the 
 fame of Raphael tempted him to go to Rome. He stood for 
 some time before the pictures of that great master. His eyes 
 Were rivetted on them, but he did not speak. At length he 
 broke silence. ' Anch 'io sono pittore,' exclaimed he ; ' I also 
 am a painter ! ' 
 
 The principal works of Corregio are the two noble cupolag 
 painted in fresco, which adorn the cathedrals of Parma ; — one 
 subject, the Assumption of the Virgin, the other, the Ascension 
 of our Saviour. His most valuable easel-painting is in the 
 Dresden gallery. It is called ' Night.' 
 
 The harmony and grace of this artist are proverbial. Hig 
 exquisite management of light and shade, his power of blending 
 light and darkness imperceptibly, was his chief beauty. ' Every- 
 thing I see,' said Annibale Caracci, on beholding these works 
 fifty years afterwards, ' astonishes me ; particularly the coloring 
 dnd beauty of the children, who live, breathe, and smile, with 
 so much sweetness and vivacity, that we are constrained to 
 Sympathize in their enjoyment.' 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 41 
 
 The harmony of Corregio did not depend upon coloring. 
 His great organ was chiaro-scuro, in which his paintings appear 
 to float, affecting us with the soft emotions of a delightful dream. 
 He has been blamed as wanting force, and as sinking occasion- 
 ally from softness to effeminacy, and from grace to monotony. 
 Yet the delicacy and sweetness of his tints, together with his 
 inimitable, grave, and perfect harmony, are qualities which dis- 
 tinguish the paintings of Corregio from those of all other 
 artists. 
 
 It is painful to be informed that the talents of this eminent 
 master never drew him out of poverty ; and that he died at 
 Parma, unrewarded, and comparatively unknown. Having 
 upon one occasion gone to Parma to receive fifty crowns, he 
 was paid in a sort of copper money, called Quadrinos. It is said 
 that overjoyed at receiving what he considered so large a sum, 
 and anxious to display his treasure to his wife, he set off on a 
 very sultry day loaded with the coin, and carried it to his own 
 residence, twelve miles from the city. The fatigue threw hira 
 into a pleurisy, which carried him off at the age of 39, 
 A. D. 1513. 
 
 We do not find that Corregio borrowed anything from the 
 works of others. His conceptions, design, and coloring, were 
 all his own. Never perhaps in the annals of genius did there exist 
 a name more truly deserving the popular epithet of hcnacn-born 
 than his. * His pencil,' says an old French author, ' ?cems 
 always to have been guided by the hand of an angel.' 
 
 The establishment of these four primitive schools, — the 
 Florentine, the Roman, the Lombard, and the Venetian, may 
 be said to embrace the golden age of painting. It might have 
 
42 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 been expected that the effect of these brilliant examples, would 
 have been the production of still greater excellence. But it 
 seems as if there were a boundary set to the exertions of man, 
 beyond which he is not permitted to pass. 
 
 Neither the patronage of the most illustrious persons, nor 
 the ambition of the most skilful artists, were found capable of 
 preventing the downfall of the arts in Italy. The reign of 
 genius was brief as it was bright. The same individual might 
 have lived during the time of all the great masters we have 
 enumerated, and might even have survived them all. He 
 might have seen the art in its infancy and manhood, and he 
 might also have witnessed its decline. 
 
 But Painting lingered in her fall, and still hovered over her 
 favorite and favored land. So bright were the clouds that ac- 
 companied the sunset of genius, as to render it difficult to be- 
 lieve that the luminary had indeed departed. Amongst those 
 who upheld the fading glories of the art, were Julio Romano, 
 Francesco Parmegiano, Pelegrino Tibaldi, and Tintoretto. 
 
 Julio Romano was the most eminent of the pupils of Raphael. 
 His views were stupendous, and his poetical ideas striking and 
 beautiful; but he wanted the judgment and delicacy of taste 
 which distinguished the works of his master. After the death 
 of Raphael, he adopted a style of his own, which, though origin- 
 al and expressive, was often wanting in truth and purity. 
 
 The manner of this artist is seen to most advantage in his 
 paintings at Mantua. ,His coloring is bad, and he seems to have 
 had but a poor conception of the principles of chiaro-scuro. 
 A fierceness in the design, and a grandeur of expression, ren- 
 der his paintings easy to be distinguished. Had his taste been 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 43 
 
 as pure, as his imagination was lofty, it is probable that he 
 would have had few competitors. As it is, his works have 
 been likened to a mighty stream, sometimes full and flowing, 
 but oftener choaked up with rubbish. 
 
 Julio died at Mantua, A. D. 1546, in the 54th year of his age. 
 A fine palace near that city, built under his direction, con- 
 tains most of his best performances. They afford strong 
 proofs of the grand conceptions, and the luxurious reveries, in 
 which his imagination seems to have constantly revelled. 
 
 Francesco Mazzuolo was born A. D. 1504, and was sur- 
 named Parmegiano, from his native town of Parma. He stu- 
 died the works both of Michael Angelo and Raphael, but chief- 
 ly of the latter. His style was easy and graceful, and his at- 
 titudes beautiful. But although he had a lively invention, his 
 understanding was neither profound nor extensive. His ge- 
 nius was somewhat superficial ; yet his works are always pleas- 
 ing. He did not sufllciently consult nature, but rather reduced 
 her to a habit of his own. This in painting is what is termed 
 manner. 
 
 He enjoyed the favor of Pope Clement VII. and, when the 
 Spaniards entered Rome, and pillaged the city, Parmegiano 
 continued his work, as though he had been in the utmost secu- 
 rity. We are told that some Spanish soldiers who entered his 
 house, were so much struck with his courage as well as with 
 his paintings, that they left him uninjured. 
 
 In his latter days, he gave himself up entirely to tlie study 
 of Chemistry, in which pursuit he wasted both his money and his 
 health. 
 
 Pelegrino Tibaldi was born at Bologna, and was the son of 
 4* 
 
44 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 a Milanese architect. Both in painting and architecture, he 
 was one of the best masters of his time. He first showed his 
 talents at Rome, but was so discouraged at the low price which 
 he received for his pictures, that he abandoned himself to des- 
 pair. We are told that upon one occasion he was found by 
 Pope Gregory XIII. lying in a field, bemoaning his hard 
 fate, and declaring his firm resolution to starve himself to death. 
 
 By the assistance of his Holiness, Pelegrino was afterwards 
 raised to great reputation. By the invitation of Philip II. 
 he went to Spain, where he directed the painting and archi- 
 tecture of the Escurial. He died at Milan, loaded with riches 
 and honor, in the seventy-first year of his age. 
 
 Giacomo Robusto, surnamed Tintoretto, because he was 
 the son of a dyer, was the pupil of Titian, and one of the 
 greatest ornaments of the Venetian school. He imitated Ti- 
 tian in brilliancy of coloring, and Michael Angelo in grandeur 
 of design. He is, even more than Titian, the founder of the 
 ornamental style. 
 
 All Venice was filled with the productions of this brilliant 
 artist. He loved his profession with enthusiasm, and seems 
 to have worked more for amusement than profit. He fre- 
 quently sacrificed propriety and correctness to vigor and free- 
 dom; yet there are paintings in which he even surpasses 
 Titian. 
 
 His despatch was wonderful; and although he passed a 
 life of constant exertion, he lived to the age of eighty-two. 
 In the school of St. Roque, at Venice, there is a crucifix paint- 
 ed by him, which is much admired. He died A. D. 1594. 
 His daughter, Maria Tintoretto was celebrated as a portrait 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 45 
 
 painter. She was one of the most accomplished women of 
 her time, and tenderly beloved by her father, whose chief 
 pleasure was in the cultivation of her talents. 
 
 Paul Veronese was born at Verona, in 1537. He was in 
 some measure the rival of Tintoretto. His coloring is fresh 
 and magnificent, but his drawing wants both taste and correct- 
 ness. He worked with ease, but not with sufficient care. In 
 St. Mark's Palace at Venice, in the high altars of the Vene- 
 tian churches, and in many of the noblemen's houses there, 
 we may still see specimens of his talents. 
 
 His chief work is the marriage of Cana, in the church of St. 
 Giorgio, at Venice. The beauty of the draperies, the har- 
 mony of the colors, and the freedom of execution which dis- 
 tinguish this picture, render it not only the finest performance 
 of Paul Veronese, but one of the most valuable works of 
 modern art. 
 
 It soon becomes difficult, indeed impossible, to follow de- 
 cidedly the division of the ancient schools. The more simple 
 style of Raphael gradually disappeared, and the design of 
 Michael Angelo prevailed. Daniel de Volterra, who surviv- 
 ed till 1566, was a decided follower of the Florentine school. 
 His famous painting, is the Descent from the Cross in the 
 church of Trinita del Monte, at Rome. 
 
 Andrea del Sarto held an intermediate style between the two 
 masters. The luxurious modes of Venice and Lombardy 
 tended, in a great measure, to extinguish the severe simplicity 
 of the other schools. 
 
46 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Eclectic, or Bolognese school founded at Bologna. — The three 
 Caraccis. — Account of their Academy. — Of Ludovico Caracci. — His 
 peculiar style. — Of Annibale Caracci. — For what his manner is dis- 
 tinguished. — Paints the Farnesian Gallery. — Of Agostino Caracci. — 
 Immediate pupils of the Caracci. — Domenichino. — His studious habits 
 and love of the art. — Anecdote concerning him. — His works. — Remark 
 of Poussin. — Death of Domenichino hastened by persecution. — Of Guido 
 Reni. — In what his chief excellence consists. — Of Albani. — Style of his 
 works. — Of Guercino. — An account of his manner.— Michael Angelo 
 Caravaggio. — His style of Painting. — Challenges a noble Italian. — 
 Becomes a knight of Malta. — His death. — Ptapid decline of the arts in 
 Italy. — Of Da Cortona and Luca Giordano. — Poussin attempts to im- 
 prove the taste of the age, — Of Carlo Dolci. — Painting in Italy termi- 
 nates with Salvator Rosa. 
 
 Towards the close of the 16th century, the progress of de- 
 cline was stayed for a time by the foundation of a new school. 
 This was the Eclectic, founded at Bologna by the three Car- 
 accis, — Ludovico, Agostino, and Annibale. Its aim was, to 
 select the beauties, correct the faults, supply the defects, and 
 avoid the extremes of all the different styles; and thus to 
 establish a perfect system. 
 
 It is generally called the Academy of the Caracci, and gave 
 rise to many artists of high name and merited celebrity. 
 Ludovico was born in 1555. He was cousin to Annibale and 
 Agostino, and being older than them, instructed them both in 
 painting. He studied the works of all the great masters at 
 Venice, Florence, and Mantua; but the manner of Corregio 
 touched him most forcibly; and he followed it ever after. 
 All the young students, who gave promise of future fame, re- 
 sorted to the Academy of the Caracci. There they received 
 lessons proportioned to their qualifications. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 47 
 
 Every body was well received by them, and the young men, 
 excited by emulation, passed whole days and nights in study. 
 Ludovico's charge was to make a collection of antique statues 
 and basso-relievos. Antony de la Tour, an anatomist, gave 
 lessons in anatomy, as far as regarded the movement of the 
 the muscles. Difficult questions were frequently proposed 
 in the Academy by painters, and other men of science, which 
 exercised the skill and judgemnt of the scholars. 
 
 Ludovico was the decided pupil of nature. He did not fol- 
 low blindly the dictates of any particular school. In the sim- 
 plicity and purity of his style he surpassed both his kinsmen, 
 and in some measure restored the art to its first and greatest 
 principles. 
 
 ' His unaffected breadth of light and shadow,' says Reynolds, 
 ^ the simplicity of his coloring, and the solemn effect of that 
 twilight which seems diffused over his pictures, appear to me 
 to correspond with grave and dignified subjects, better than the 
 artificial brilliancy and sunshine which enlighten the pictures 
 of Titian.' 
 
 Annibale was sent for by Cardinal Farnese, to paint the gal- 
 lery at Rome which bears that prelate's name. The design of 
 these paintings is perhaps loaded, notwithstanding which it is 
 difficult to condemn them. His pencil is distinguished for the 
 firmness of its touch. His style is bold, splendid, and broad. 
 Agostino excelled more in the theory, than in the practice of 
 the art. 
 
 Of the immediate pupils of the Caracci, we may first men- 
 tion Domenichino. He was born at Bologna, A. D. 1551, 
 His disposition was studious, gentle and thoughtful. He lov- 
 
48 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 ed solitude, and was remarkable for the mildness and gentle- 
 ness of his temper. When he studied with the Caracci, he la- 
 bored so hard that his fellow students used jestingly to call him 
 the Ox ; and say that he labored like that animal at the plough. 
 
 ' The Ox/ said Annibale, ' will in time make the ground so 
 fruitful, that painting itself will be fed by what it produces.' 
 His works in Rome, Naples, and the Farnesian grotto, are 
 eternal proofs of his genius. Poussin, a celebrated French paint- 
 er, used to say that, ' Raphael's Transfiguration, Daniel di 
 Volterra's Descent from the Cross, and Domenichino's St. 
 Jerome, were the three best pictures in Rome.' It is said that 
 notwithstanding the excellent disposition and universal benev- 
 olence of Domenichino, envy and persecution hastened his 
 death. He died at Naples, A. D. 1648. 
 
 This distinguished artist was by no means free from the fault 
 of the Caracci school — loaded design. Nor did he excel in the 
 grouping of his figures. Yet in expressing the passions, and 
 in the attitude of his heads, he frequently equals Raphael him- 
 self 
 
 Guido Reni was another celebrated pupil of the Caracci 
 academy. He was born at Bologna, in 1574. He was cele- 
 brated for the exquisite grace of his style, though it was some- 
 times too* artificial. His female forms are models of antique 
 beauty. He excelled in the expression of the mouth, in the 
 noble and graceful folds of the draperies, and in an air of 
 sweetness and tenderness which pervades the whole expression. 
 The most noted of his pieces is in the church of St. Gregory, 
 at Rome. Towards the decline of life, he was seized with an 
 immoderate passion for gambling, which reduced him from af» 
 fluence to poverty. He died at Bologna aged 66, A. D. 1640^ 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 49 
 
 Albani, the painter of the Loves and Graces, was Guide's con- 
 temporary. All his Cupids represent his own children, and his 
 wife, being extremely beautiful, served him as a model for all 
 his Nymphs and Venuses. His mind seems to have been filled 
 with their image, and his figures have constantly the same air 
 and likeness. 
 
 His coloring is brilliant, and his attitudes and draperies are 
 well chosen. He was a universal painter, and his landscapes are 
 more agreeable than learned. There is a want of free touches 
 in most of his compositions, which are almost all of a gay and 
 joyous nature. As few of his pictures are extant; they are 
 now valued in proportion. 
 
 Dancing Loves, smiling Graces, and sleeping iVymj)hs adorn 
 the foreground of almost all his landscapes. He died A. D. 
 1660, aged 82. 
 
 Guercino was a pupil of tlic Eclectic school, who endeavor- 
 ed to improve upon the style of Guido and Albani, by giving 
 more force to his manner. His design is grand and natural, 
 but wanting in elegance. His colors have great harmony and 
 softness, but he wants selection in his figures, which are seldom 
 noble or elevated. He died at Bologna', A. D. 1667. 
 
 Michael Angelo Caravaggio was another celebrated pupil 
 of this academy, who, by the novelty of his style, drew after 
 him almost the whole school of the Caracci. He followed his 
 models so exactly, that he imitated their defects as well as 
 their beauties. His pictures are to be met with in most of the 
 cabinets of Europe. His style of painting was strong, true, 
 and effectual; but his attitudes arc ill chosen, and his figures 
 want grace and nobleness. 
 
50 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 Having challenged an Italian, named Tomasino, the latter 
 replied that he was a knight, and would not fight with his infe- 
 rior. Caravaggio, nettled at this answer, hastened to Malta, 
 performed his vows, and received the order of knighthood as a 
 serving-brother. He then returned to Rome, with the inten- 
 tion of forcing Gioseppino to meet him; but a fever put an 
 end to his life and to the dispute at the same time, A. D. 1609. 
 
 The arts were now rapidly declining in Italy. Da Cortona 
 and Luca Giordano were painters who possessed great powers, 
 but abused them by yielding a blind obedience to the tasteless 
 suggestions of their employers. Nicholas Poussin, a French- 
 man, endeavored to stem the torrent of corrupted taste. He 
 copied from the purest sources of Grecian art. The dress, 
 the religion, the ceremonies of the ancients, were his ele- 
 ments; and his paintings seem to breathe a classic air. 
 
 The name of Carlo Dolci, the Florentine, and imitator of 
 Guido, is also one which still arrests the attention. But the 
 history of painting in Italy, at least of painting animated by 
 genius, terminated with Salvator Rosa. 
 
 The eighteenth century in Italy produced Carlo Maratti. 
 He had talent, but it was lost in mannerism and affectation. 
 He died in 1713. Garzi and Cignani after his death sustained, 
 for a short time, the expiring glory of the Roman school. 
 
 Over the living art of Italy, Camuccini, at Rome, and Ben- 
 venuti, at Florence, preside. The former is the best draughts- 
 man in Europe, but his coloring is inferior. He wants depth, 
 harmony, and force. His expression is noble, but cold. We 
 see in his paintings none of that warm gush of sentiment, 
 which rivets our attention to the works of the ancient masters. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 51 
 
 Benvenuti is a good colorist; his groups are well disposed, 
 his chiaro-scuro is forcible; but he fails in purity of drawing, 
 taste and selection. Camuccini's best work is the Departure of 
 Regulus; Benvenuti's, a scene in the recent history of Saxony. 
 There are also some good foreign painters in Rome, but, of na- 
 tive talent in that art, there is little worthy of notice. Liberty 
 and genius have declined together in Italy; and till freedom 
 is restored, it is probable that the arts will lie dormant. 
 
 * Painting, Poetry, Sculpture, and Music, are the natural off- 
 spring of the heart of man. The tongue of poetry is occasionally 
 silent, and the hand of painting sometimes stayed; but they are 
 heard and seen again in their season, like the birds and flow- 
 ers at the coming of spring. The offspring of nature, rather 
 than of necessity or accident, they can never be wholly lost, 
 even in the most disastrous changes.' 
 
52 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of the Trans- Alpine School. — Of the German, Flemish, and Dutch.— The 
 Gothic, or German style. — Manner of painting in that style. — Principal 
 masters of the Gothic style. — The German ceases to be a distinct school. 
 — Birth of Albert Durer. — His talents. — His works. — Remark of Vasari 
 concerning him. — Hubert and John Van-b^yck.— Patronized by the Duke 
 of Burgundy. — John Van-Eyck siirnamed John of Bruges. — Supposed to 
 be the inventor of oil-painting. — Their works held in high estimation by 
 the contemporary Italian artists. — Characteristics of the Dutch and Flem- 
 ish schools. — Causes of the progress of the art there. — Lucas Van Leyden. 
 — His death attributed to poison. — Artists of the Flemish school. — Ru- 
 bens the head of the Flemish school. — Some account of tiiat artist. — His 
 numerous productions. — His excellencies and defects. — Opinion of Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds concerning him. — His chief performances. — He is made 
 Ambassador to England. — Is knighted by Charles I. — Dies in Flanders. 
 — Contemporaries of Rubens. — Of Teniers. — His usual subjects and style. 
 — Vandyke ranked among tlie English painters. — Of Rembrandt. — Rem- 
 brandt head of the Dutch school. — He has been little imitated. — Peculi- 
 arity of his style. — Characteristics of the Dutch school. — The contempora- 
 ries of Rembrandt. — Of Gerard Dhow — His peculiar style. — Some account 
 of his painting-room and manner of living.— Of the Spanish school. — Of 
 Velasquez. — Murillo. — Style of the Spanish school. — Altar-Pieces of Mu- 
 rillo.— Hernandez di Nudo. — Employed by Philip II. — Anecdote con- 
 cerning Hernandez. 
 
 The Trans-Alpine schools of painting next claim our at- 
 tention. The German is usually divided into three distinct 
 schools ; the German, properly so called, the Flemish, and the 
 Dutch. These distinctions are rather local, than depending 
 upon difference of manner. Indeed, before the age of Albert 
 Durer, the only style discernible in these schools, was that 
 called the Gothic. 
 
 The Goihic pictures were usually painted upon oak-wood^ 
 sometimes covered with canvass; and always on a white ground. 
 Upon this the subject was sketched, and the whole overlaid 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 53 
 
 with gjlding. T?ie picture was then painted in water, or size- 
 color, often with much effect, and always with much nature 
 and simplicity. 
 
 The principal masters of this school were Schoen, born in 
 J420; Wohlgemuth, the instructer of Albert Durer, and Muil- 
 ler, or Kranach. He was the Burgomaster of Wittemburg, 
 and the personal friend of Luther. At the beginning of the 
 15th century, the Gothic style terminated. It was certainly 
 indigenous to Germany, and when it disappeared, the German 
 school ceased to be original or distinct. 
 
 Albert Durer was born in 147 1, at Nuremburg. He was the 
 prince of German artists, and the Da Vinci of his country. 
 He was the son of a jeweller and goldsmith, who taught him 
 engraving as well as his own trade. 
 
 Durer's talents were universal, though he soon confined 
 them entirely to painting and engraving. In both these arts 
 his works arc equally admirable. At the age of eighteen, he 
 travelled to Flanders, and from thence through Germany to 
 Venice. 
 
 On his return, he applied himself to the study of design, in 
 which he attained great excellence. His outlines have been 
 blamed for stiffness and dryness; perhaps they have a rem- 
 nant of the Gothic manner, from which he was unable to free 
 himself entirely. 
 
 But his compositions appear the result of deep study; his 
 thoughts are ingenious, and his colors brilliant. His finest 
 piece is his Melancholy. His Madonnas are also singularly 
 beautiful. He invented, or at least perfected the art of etch- 
 ing upon copper. An Italian author observes of Durer: 
 
54 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 ^ Had this excellent and exact artist, whose genius was so 
 universal, been born in Tuscany, as he was in Germany, 
 and had thus been enabled to study the beauties of antiquity, 
 he would have been the best painter in Italy, as he now is the 
 greatest genius of the Flemish school/ His contemporary, 
 the celebrated Hans Holbein, although a German, is general- 
 ly reckoned amongst the English artists. 
 
 Hubert and John Van-Eyck were brothers, natives of Maa- 
 seyck, on the Meuse, and the first painters in the Low Countries 
 whose works are worthy of notice. They studied together, and 
 were employed by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. In St. 
 John's Church at Ghent there is a celebrated picture by these 
 brothers. The subject is taken from the Revelations, and repre- 
 sents the Elders adoring the Lamb. Hubert died in 1426; 
 upon which his brother John removed to Bruges, and is fre- 
 quently called John of Bruges, in consequence. It is said that 
 he discovered the method of painting in oils; he at all events 
 brought the art of oil painting to great perfection. The paint- 
 ings of both the Van-Eycks have great reputation throughout all 
 Europe, for the softness and delicacy of their colors. 
 
 Their works excited so much attention among the Italian 
 painters, that a contemporary artist, named Antonio da Messina, 
 performed a journey into Flanders, for the purpose of gaining 
 the confidence of John Van Eyck, and discovering his secret. 
 John died at Bruges, A. D. 1441. 
 
 Fine coloring and exquisite finish distinguish the Dutch 
 and Flemish schools. This is undoubtedly owing to their 
 knowledge of oil painting at a very early period. The com- 
 mercial wealth, industry and independence of the Flemish 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 55 
 
 cities, also contributed to the rapid progress of painting 
 there. 
 
 Many of their most lucrative branches of trade — tapestry, 
 embroidery, jewelry, — depended upon, and assisted the pro- 
 gress of design. The Flemish artists had no Italian models; 
 and were thus left at liberty to follow the dictates of their own 
 genius. 
 
 Their attention was almost exclusively occupied by rich 
 coloring, and by the most minute and precise imitation of 
 natural objects. The system of religion forms considerable 
 occupation for their talents. The church called for altar 
 pieces, and many good specimens of that nature remain for 
 the inspection of the curious. 
 
 Private munificence also encouraged native talent. The 
 rich burghers and merchants adorned their houses with paint- 
 ings of the most celebrated artists, and spared no expense in 
 gratifying their taste for tlicse valuable ornaments. Lucas 
 Van Leyden, the friend and contemporary of Albert Durer, 
 was remarkable for his extreme diligence and energy in the 
 pursuit of his profession. His engravings were correct and 
 beautiful, and performed at a very early age. He is said to 
 have died by poison, administered to him by a rival painter of 
 Thisbury, A. D. 1533. 
 
 His style was superior to that of Van-Eyck, and equal to 
 that of Durcr and Holbein. In the subsequent century, the 
 characteristics of the Flemish school were carried to the 
 utmost perfection. Bril, Steenwyk, Spranger, the Brueghels, 
 and Vanheen, were remarkable for correct imitation of nature, 
 and wonderful minuteness of finish. 
 
56 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 The head of the Flemish school was Sir Peter Paul 
 Rubens, born at Antwerp in 1577; or, as some say, at Cologne. 
 This wonderful artist, whose productions are scattered over 
 the whole of Europe, was possessed of equal genius and 
 energy. He united the splendor of the Venetian school and 
 the grandeur of the Florentine, to a brilliancy of imagination 
 entirely his own. 
 
 He had less correctness than the best masters of the 
 Florentine school, less grace and pathos than those of the 
 Roman; nor was he free from the defects and imperfections of 
 the Flemish artists. 
 
 But his want of expression is hid in the richness and varie- 
 ty of his figures and grouping. His want of correctness is 
 forgotten in the lightness and elasticity of his forms, and the 
 absence of lofty interest passes unnoticed in the splendor of 
 the general effect. 
 
 Over , the whole is thrown the most gorgeous coloring, a 
 play of reflected light, with bright and harmonious hues which 
 seem to flit and change before our eyes, — reminding us of the 
 golden light that pours from the stained windows of a gothic 
 church. 
 
 To use the words of Sir Joshua Reynolds, ' such is the fas- 
 cination of his pencil, that it is only when we are removed from 
 its influence, we are willing to acknowledge any inferiority in 
 Rubens, to any other painter whatever.' 
 
 The Crucifixion, at Antwerp, is his master-piece; at the 
 desire of Mary of Medici, wife of Henry IV. he went to 
 Paris, and painted the Luxembourg galleries. They princi- 
 pally represent passages in the life of the queen. They are 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 57 
 
 usually called the Allegories 'of Mary de Medici. Some of 
 his best smaller pictures are in the Rubens Gallery in the pal- 
 ace of Frederic, at Potsdam. Rubens was made ambassador 
 to England by the Infanta Isabella. He received the order 
 of knighthood from King Charles I., with a sword and garter, 
 enriched with diamonds, to the value of twelve thousand 
 crowns. He died in Flanders, A. D. 1640, aged 62. 
 
 The contemporaries of Rubens were Caspar de Crayer, Neefs 
 and Cerard Seegers,Van Voss, independent masters. His pu- 
 pils were Snyders, Jordaens, Teniers, Vandyke. Teniers con- 
 nects the Flemish with the Dutch style, more elevated than the 
 latter, less dignified than the former. The customs, amuse- 
 ments, scenes, and character of his countrymen are repre- 
 sented by him with exquisite truth, and very great beauty. 
 
 Sir Anthony Vandyke was born at Antwerp, A. D. 1599. 
 As his principal works were performed in England under the 
 patronage of Charles I., he is generally ranked amongst the 
 English artists. 
 
 What Rubens accomplished for the Flemish school, Rem- 
 brandt did for the Dutch, — gave it an individual character. 
 The originality of his genius enriched the poverty of his sub- 
 jects. His style is bold, yet elaborately finished. His princi- 
 ples are those of the Dutch school; yet he has few imitators. 
 
 He stands alone among his countrymen, performing great 
 works among the minute laborers of cabbages, butchers' shops, 
 and greengrocers' stalls. He had a method of directing all 
 the force of the light upon one spot of his picture. Thus, a 
 dazzling but solemn mysterious brightness is diffiised over the 
 whole. 
 
 5 
 
58 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 The most comoion form receives an interest in the hands of 
 Rembrandt. The most unclassic scene has something origi- 
 nal and romantic. It is the effect which twilight produces in 
 nature; spreading an uncertain gloom over the most familiar 
 objects. Rembrandt died A. D. 1674. 
 
 Fidelity and minuteness distinguish the works of the other 
 Dutch artists; but their talents are wasted upon vulgar sub- 
 jects. They have the beauty of truth; but the sight of a cab- 
 bage leaf, or a few fish upon a board, excites little interest or 
 admiration. 
 
 Contemporary with Rembrandt, were Cuyp, Hcemskirk, 
 Mieris, Vander Velde, Bhergen, and many others. A higher 
 class were Wouvermann, Saaz, and Gerard Dhow, the most 
 careful of painters. 
 
 He was born at Leyden. He drew from nature, and always 
 looked at the original through a convex mirror. He painted 
 little figures in oil, scarce a foot high, yet as much finished as 
 if they had been as large as life. His portraits were so long 
 in finishing, that few people had patience to sit to him. The 
 wife of the Resident of Denmark sat to Gerard Dhow for her 
 portrait, and he took five days to paint her hand He asked a 
 thousand livres for each portrait. 
 
 His painting-room was open at the top, to let the light en- 
 ter^ and he lived by the side of a canal, to avoid the dust. 
 He always pounded his colors on crystal. They have great 
 freshness and transparency. He was indefatigable in labor, 
 and his imitation of nature perfect. We may admire his cor- 
 rectness, but there is little in his works to please the fancy or 
 elevate the imagination. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 59 
 
 No regular Spanish school of painting appears to have exist- 
 ed at any period. But many Spanish artists have distinguish- 
 ed themselves. Of these, the chief were Velasquez, and Mu- 
 rillo, remarkahie for his taste and the beauty of his coloring. 
 Madrid and Seville were the principal seats of the art in 
 Spain. The Spanish style holds an intermediate rank between 
 the Venetian and Flemish. Its chief beauty is truth of char- 
 acter, natural expression, and fine coloring. The design is 
 correct but not elevated. There are still many noble altar- 
 pieces of Murillo's in Spain, and some in Flanders, which are 
 much esteemed. He died in 1682, and was buried with great 
 pomp. Two knights and four nobles bore his pall. 
 
 Hernandez di Mudo was a Spanish artist, the pupil of Ti- 
 tian. He was born deaf and dumb. Philip II. employed 
 him in painting several altar-pieces in the Escurial. His 
 most famous pictures are those of the Four Evangelists, painted 
 in fresco. When he had completed that of St. John in the 
 Isle of Patmos, he was so much pleased with it, that he request- 
 ed the King to come and look at it. 
 
 His majesty, who could see no beauty in a desert rocky 
 country, declared that he came to see a pleasant piece, and 
 was by no means satisfied with the performance. The deaf 
 and dumb painter understood the King's countenance, and no 
 sooner was his back turned, than taking up the folds of his 
 cloak, he held them up to his head in the shape of asses' ears, 
 at the same time pointing to the King ; as much as to say^ 
 that he had little opinion of the royal taste. 
 5* 
 
m 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Italian artists invited to Paris — Cousin one of the earliest French paint- 
 ers — His works chiefly on glass — Blanchard his contemporary — He 
 follows the Venetian style — Is highly esteemed throughout France — 
 His principal works — Vouet, another contemporary artist — Birth of Nich- 
 olas Poussin — Some account of his life — His admiration of the ancient 
 style — The beauties of his manner — His defects — Louis XIH. invites him 
 to Paris — He is employed in the Louvre gallery — Dislikes the style of 
 painting and the manner of living in Paris — Returns to Italy — His death 
 — Louis XIV. endeavors to establish a school of native artists — Flattery 
 of the French painters — Le Brun the chief master of the French school — 
 Some account of his life — His principal works— Characteristics of his 
 style — Le Sueur his contemporary. 
 
 It is difficult to assign a decided era to the beginning of 
 painting in France. Francis I. the great patron of arts 
 and sciences among his subjects, encouraged Italian painters 
 to visit his country. Rossi and Primaticcio, having come to 
 France by his desire, were employed by him in painting the 
 chambers of the royal palace at Fontainbleau. 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci v/as the personal friend of the monarch, 
 and died in his arms. Several French painters worked under 
 the direction of these able masters. Yet for 160 years there 
 are but two names in the annals of French art, worthy of par- 
 ticular mention; Jean Cousin and Jaques Blanchard. 
 
 The former painted principally upon glass, which seems to 
 have been among the earliest methods of painting in France. 
 
 In the church of St. Gervais, in Paris, there still exist some 
 fine performances of his in that style. On the windov/s of the 
 choir he painted the martyrdom of a Saint — the story of the 
 Samaritan woman, and that of the Paralytic. 
 
 He was well received at court; and enjoyed the favor of 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 61 
 
 four kings successively: Henry IT. Francis II. Charles IX. 
 and Henry III. 
 
 Jaques Blanchard was born in Paris A. D. 1600. Having 
 paid a visit to Venice he was so charmed with the beauty of 
 Titian's paintings, that he instantly adopted the Venetian style. 
 
 The novelty, beauty, and force of his pencil, attracted the 
 attention of all Paris; and no one was supposed to be in the 
 fashion, who had not some drawing of Blanchard's in his pos- 
 session. His easel-pieces are still very common. He painted 
 two galleries in Paris; but his most famous performance was 
 his Descent of the Holy Ghost, still preserved in the church of 
 Notre Dame. 
 
 Vouet was his contemporary; and in some measure, contrib- 
 uted to introduce good taste in France. He was also the in- 
 structor of several good painters. He was however a manner- 
 ist, both in design and coloring. He died in 1641. 
 
 Nicholas Poussin was born at Andcly, in Normandy, A. D 
 1594. His family were poor, and a Poictevin nobleman hav- 
 ing taken a fancy for him, placed him under the tuition of a 
 portrait-painter named Ferdinand. He worked for some time 
 in distemper, and gave a strong promise of genius. 
 
 In the 30th year of his age he visited Rome, but having no 
 patron and no one to encourage him, found it difficult to pro- 
 cure a livelihood. However, he applied himself with the great- 
 est assiduity to the study of the ancient masters. He spent whole 
 days in wandering among the vineyards that surround Rome, 
 studying those beautiful specimens of sculpture which seem 
 like the ruins of a nobler world. There he reflected upon the 
 principles of the art, studied the beauties of nature, and 
 
62 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 sketched with his pencil, all that was likely to improve his 
 taste and strengthen his judgment. 
 
 He then made observations upon the works of Raphael and 
 Domenichino, the latter of whom he more especially admired. 
 His admiration of antiquity in some measure made him 
 insensible to the beauties of coloring. He transferred to his 
 canvass the perfections of ancient sculpture. The noble air 
 and boldness of the antique style are discernible in all his 
 works. 
 
 Yet they frequently want interest and expression. The 
 coloring is cold and sombre. They are more masculine and 
 severe, than graceful or natural. He was ignorant of chiaro- 
 scuro, one of the most essential artijices, if we may call it 
 so, of painting. 
 
 Louis Xni. though an imbecile prince, has the credit 
 of having first founded a native shool of painting. The true 
 merit however, is due to his prime minister, the Cardinal de 
 Richelieu. 
 
 By the invitation of the French Court, Poussin went to 
 Paris. He left Italy with regret, and its recollection seems 
 to have saddened him even in his native land. A pension 
 was granted him by Louis, and apartments given him in the 
 Tuilleries. 
 
 After painting various pieces of merit, he was employed in 
 representing the labors of Hercules in the Louvre gallery. 
 But the pupils of Vouet's school found fault with his style, — 
 the mediocrity of Vouet's genius was preferred to his. The 
 manner of living in Paris was also unsuitable to his tranquil 
 and retired nature. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 63 
 
 He remembered the solitary vineyards of the Campagna di 
 Roma, and, disgusted with the comparison, soon invented a 
 a plausible excuse for returning to Italy. 
 
 There he resumed his labors, and sent his pieces from Rome 
 to Paris, where they were eagerly purchased. He died in 
 1665. 
 
 Louis XIV. endeavored to complete what his predeces- 
 sor had begun, in giving to France a school of native artists. 
 He instituted academies, conferred rewards, and raised men 
 of talents to honor. But this school was composed of flatter- 
 ers, who bent their genius to the will of their sovereign. 
 
 The smile of a monarch will not call forth true and original 
 genius; nor will it often flourish in the hot-house atmosphere 
 of a court. The praises of Louis formed the chief subject of 
 the French artists in his reign. 
 
 The great master of this school was Le Brun, originally of 
 a Scotch family, of the name of Brown. He was born in 1619, 
 and was the favorite pupil of Vouet. His father was a sculp- 
 tor, who was employed in the gardens of Hotel Lcguier. He 
 used to take his son there with him, and make him copy his 
 designs. The Chancellor Leguier walking in the garden one 
 day, was struck with the facility with which young Le Brun drew 
 these designs; and, pleased with the boy's countenance, took him 
 under his protection. At the age of 15, Le Brun executed 
 two paintings, which astonished all the artists of his time. 
 The one was the portrait of his grandfather, the other repre- 
 sented Hercules slaying the horses of Diomedes. His 
 patron, the Chancellor Leguier, was so much pleased with his 
 progress, that he sent him to Italy to study. At Rome, he 
 perfected himself in the knowledge of the art. 
 
64 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 On his return, he soon perceived, that his style was supe- 
 rior to that of his contemporary artists; and he requested per- 
 mission to draw those public pieces which were likely to attract 
 attention. His best performances are the five great pictures 
 from the life of Alexander, in the ceiling of the gallery at 
 Versailles. 
 
 His paintings give proofs of a lively fancy, great dexterity, 
 and frequently noble ideas. But he is too artificial. He 
 neglects nature, and is wanting in simplicity. His colors are 
 monotonous; and their general effect is shallow. Le Sueur 
 was the contemporary of Le Brun; and in many respects his 
 superior. But fashion, which has always reigned despoti- 
 cally in France, pronounced against his merits; and the 
 paintings of his rival were always preferred to his. 
 
 It is probable, however, that had Le Sueur lived longer, he 
 would have stood in the first rank of his profession; but he 
 died at the early age of thirty-eight, A. D. 1655. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 65 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Birth of Claude Lorraine — His style of painting — Some account of his 
 early years — His want of capacity — Becomes apprentice to a pastry- 
 cook — Goes to Rome to seek employment — Is hired as a servant by 
 Agostino Tasso — Learns perspective — His manner of study — Beauty 
 of his works — Their defect — Assiduity of Claude Lorraine — His death 
 and reputation — French painters of the L'^th century — Their false 
 taste — Vernet superior to the others — Former defects of the French 
 school — Error into which it has now fallen — David the head of the 
 modern French school — His study of antique sculpture — Excellence 
 and defect of his system — Comparison between David and Poussin — 
 Principal works of David — Anecdote of Napoleon. 
 
 To this period belongs Claude Gellee, better known as Claude 
 Lorraine, from his native province, where he was born in 
 1600. To those who have seen the paintings of this celebrat- 
 ed artist, his name conjures up a host of pleasing recollec- 
 tions. 
 
 In the sweetest, as in the most brilliant effects of light; 
 from the first blush of day, to the soft glow of evening, Claude 
 is unrivalled. The liquid softness of his tones; the leaves, 
 forms, and branches of his trees, the light flickering clouds, 
 and the retiring distances; all is nature, but nature in her 
 most fascinating form. 
 
 The scenes in which he lived are brought before us, tinged 
 with the soft and mellow light in which he appears to have 
 passed his existence. Nature seems to have designed him 
 for her own painter, and in so doing, to have deprived him of 
 every other talent. 
 
 His want of capacity when at school induced his parents to 
 remove him, as unfit to learn. They bound him apprentice to 
 a pastry-cook, a profession which did not apparently require 
 
66 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 talents of the first order. But here he also failed. Happen- 
 ing to fall in with some young apprentices, who were going to 
 Rome to seek employment, he offered to accompany them. 
 When he arrived there, he found his condition by no means 
 bettered. The young pastry-cook was uncouth in his man- 
 ners; nor could he converse in any language save his provin- 
 cial tongue. No one would employ him; and notwithstanding 
 -his practical knowledge of baking pies, he was in danger of 
 starvation. 
 
 Chance or providence, conducted him in this distress to the 
 house of one Agostino Tasso, a painter, who was in want of a 
 cook; or rather of what is termed, 'a servant of all work.' 
 Whether Agostino discovered the germ of future talent in the 
 heavy countenance of the discarded apprentice, is uncertain; 
 but he hired him to cook his victuals, pound his colors, clean 
 his pallet and pencils, sweep his chamber; and in short, to do 
 all the drudgery of his house. 
 
 Afterwards, in hopes of making him serviceable in some of 
 his greatest works, Agostino endeavored to teach him the 
 rules of perspective. Claude was some time in understanding 
 the principles of the art; but when he began to have a correct 
 notion of them, his ideas enlarged. It seems as though an 
 electrical spark suddenly communicated itself to his soul; that 
 the eyes of his understanding were opened, and that he saw 
 nature herself beckoning to him, and bidding him awake and 
 contemplate her wonders. 
 
 From morning till night he wandered through the country, 
 observing the effects of light and shade, the morning dews and 
 evening vapors as they influenced the colors of the surround- 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 67 
 
 ing' objects; the causes which produced a variety of effect up- 
 on the same landscape at different periods. 
 
 He watched the effect of the setting sun; now pouring a 
 blaze of golden light over the landscape, illuminating tree and 
 tower, then gradually fading, and growing fainter as the shades 
 of evening blended softly with its expiring rays. 
 
 These effects of light became deeply impressed upon his mem- 
 ory; and in his representations of natural scenery, were faith- 
 fully exhibited. To him, landscape painting owes its interest 
 and its beauty, as a separate and dignified branch of art. 
 
 One defect is observable in the representations of this paint- 
 er. His landscapes are too frequently compositions; or what 
 is termed heroic landscape. He seems to have imagined 
 scenes even brighter, and lands even fairer than his own sun- 
 ny Italy, — the country of his adoption. 
 
 As far as regards our imagination, this style of composition 
 heightens the charm of his painting, yet reality must always 
 have a deeper interest, and must speak more forcibly to the 
 heart, than the most brilliant of ideal scenes. 
 
 Inanimate nature seems to have excited his attention more 
 than living objects. Perhaps he thought his fellow men infe- 
 rior to the beautiful world in which they lived ; and truly the 
 degenerate modern Italian seems scarce worthy of the pains 
 which nature has taken to adorn his residence. The paradise 
 remains; but they who dwell in it are fallen. 
 
 The assiduity of Claude Lorraine was remarkable. He 
 would frequently paint the same piece seven or eiglit times 
 over, before he was satisfied with his performance. He was 
 fio absorbed in his labors, that he lived in nearly perfect soli- 
 
68 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 tude. He died in an extreme old age, A. D. 1678, leaving 
 behind him an immortal reputation. 
 
 The celebrated Salvator Rosa was born at Naples, in 1614. 
 He delighted in representing nature in her wildest and sternest 
 scenes. It is said, that he spent the early part of his life 
 among a troop of banditti, and his robbers, as his detached fig- 
 ures are commonly called, are supposed to have been taken 
 from real life. Every tree, rock, or cloud that enters into the 
 compositions of Salvator, shows a boldness and elevation of 
 thought. 
 
 He was equally eminent for his battle pieces, animals, sea 
 and land storms, but his pieces are now exceedingly scarce, 
 and valued in proportion. One of his finest, representing Saul 
 and the Witch of Endor, is preserved at Versailles. He died 
 in 1673, and as his paintings are in few hands, he is more gen- 
 erally known by his prints; of which he etched a great num- 
 ber. 
 
 As the landscapes of Claude Lorraine represents nature in 
 her mildest mood, those of Salvator on the other hand, show her 
 in her moments of gloom and terror. The jutting crag, the 
 scathed tree, the desolate stronghold peopled with the wild 
 forms of the mountain bandit, these are the scenes in which the 
 imagination of Salvator revelled, and in which his genius dis- 
 played itself These are the last names of note in the history 
 of Italian painting. 
 
 The French painters of the 18th century were numerous, 
 and on the whole, superior to those of the same era in Italy. 
 Throughout all their works, however, we detect the principles 
 of the school of Louis XIII. Cases was one of the most 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 69 
 
 talented of their native artists, but his merits were overlooked 
 during his life time. Santerre studied nature, designed cor- 
 rectly and colored agreeably, but seldom rose above mediocrity. 
 
 The two Parrocels and Courtois, painted combats, chiefly 
 of horsemen. Touveult showed talents for design, and was re- 
 markable for having painted in old age with his left hand. 
 Rigaud has been called the French Rubens. But false taste 
 and pedantry disfigure all their compositions. 
 
 The Apotheosis of Henry IV., at Versailles, is a striking 
 and well-colored painting, but one of those unmeaning allego- 
 ries which are common in the performances of the French ar- 
 tists of that period. 
 
 Painting gradually sunk into contempt in the hands of in- 
 ferior artists. The name of Vernet deserves to be distinguish- 
 ed from these. He excelled in marine pieces, although his 
 coloring was too artificial. 
 
 When the terrors of the revolution began in some measure 
 to subside in France, it was thought proper to revolutionize the 
 arts. The preceding errors had consisted principally in a want 
 of dignified and correct forms. There was a pompous display 
 of figures in afljected attitudes, overloaded with draperies of 
 rich stuffs, and a constant parade of unmeaning magnificence. 
 
 Perhaps a consciousness of this perverted taste, was mingled 
 with that fervid hatred to royalty, which induced the French 
 to exterminate all these pompous works; and drove their art- 
 ists into a contrary extreme. A dry and insipid imitation of 
 the Greek style was next adopted. 
 
 The founder and representative of this modern school was 
 David, born in 1750. He soon discovered the errors into which 
 
70 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 his contemporaries had fallen ; the false glare, and feebleness 
 of their style, and its want of dignified and correct form. He 
 applied himself to the study of antique sculpture, and with 
 much success. His drawing is correct; his style of design no- 
 ble. But he did not observe, or he could not remedy another 
 error, equally glaring; the total absence of simple and natural 
 expression. His system was in part excellent, but he follow- 
 ed it too exclusively. Statuary can give little to painting be- 
 yond form and proportion. These are the essentials; but ex- 
 pression, action, and coloring, must be copied from nature; or 
 the picture will appear cold and without feeling. 
 
 Like Poussin, David lived too much for antiquity. But 
 Poussin, if he erred in this, at least represented antiquity in its 
 simplicity and perfect repose. David has not done so. He 
 has added exaggerated expression and forced attitudes. 
 
 Among his best works, are his Horatii, his Leonidas with 
 the Spartans at Thermopylfe — the Death of Socrates — the Fu- 
 neral of Patrocles — and his Coronation of Napoleon. 
 
 In portrait painting, his best performances are the numerous 
 likenesses of his imperial patron. There is one sketch of Na- 
 poleon, which was taken during his last hours of power in 
 France, and which circumstances render interesting. Napo- 
 leon had spent the preceding day, in arranging the final opera- 
 tions of the campaign, which terminated in the battle of Wa- 
 terloo. It was past midnight, when David was summoned in- 
 to his presence. * My friend,' said Napoleon, ' there are yet 
 some hours till four, when we are finally to review the de- 
 fences of the capital. In the mean time, faites voire possible^ 
 whilst I read these despatches.* 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 71 
 
 But exhausted with fatigue, the Emperor sunk to sleep. 
 The paper dropped from his hand. In this attitude David has 
 represented him. The pale and lofty forehead, the relaxed 
 expression, the care-worn features — all inspire us with a deep 
 and melancholy interest. 
 
 As one of the regicides, David was, at the restoration, 
 driven into exile. He died at Brussels, in 1825. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 First attempts at Paintinrr in England — Artists employed by Henry III. — 
 Rudeness oftlieir works — Causes of the elow progress of Paintino; in 
 the sncceedinor rei«rns — It revives witli the spirit of chivalry — Effects of 
 the civil wars upon the art — Qualifications of an Ennrlish artist— Of illu • 
 minated missiles — Of Ta[)estry — Painting begins to flourish under Henry 
 Vill. — Allegorical painting — Change caused by the Reformation — Hans 
 Holbein arrives in England — His style of Painting— His portraits — An- 
 ecdote of Holl)ein and a courti(»r — Fate of his works — His death — Paint- 
 ing encouraged by Mary of England — Of Sir Antonio More — Anecdote 
 of tliat artist and the King of Spain — Elizabeth discourages the art — Por- 
 traits of tliat Queen — Luras de Keere — His allegorical painting of Queen 
 Elizabeth — Of Hilliard and Oliver — King James encourages the art — 
 Miniature portraits much in vogue — Altar-pieces and windows painted 
 — Influence of the accession of Charles I. upon the art — Rare works 
 presented to him by foreign princes— Gallery of Whitehall — Rubens 
 the Spanish Ambassador to England — His paintings in London — Van- 
 dyke arrives in London — Honors conferred upon him — His works — Of 
 Jamesone, the Scottish painter — Dynasty of Cromwell — Destruction of 
 the royal galleries. 
 
 So little is known of the progress of painting in England 
 previous to the reign of Henry the VIII., that it is difficult to 
 trace its history up to that period, with any degree of certain- 
 
72 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 ty. For many centuries, the art was confined to mere 
 mechanical skill, and nothing like genius was observable in 
 the rude productions of the primitive artists. Henry III. 
 employed their unnurtured skill in embellishing his churches 
 and palaces, and in manufacturing saints and legends. But 
 the apostles and virgins of that era were rude, clumsy, and un- 
 graceful, their bodies ill-proportioned, and their looks rueful 
 and ungainly. 
 
 During the reigns of Edward the First and Second, painting 
 seems to have met with little encouragement. It was ill suit- 
 ed to the temper of the fierce nobles of that period, whose 
 feet were seldom out of the stirrup, and who neglected all art 
 save that which brightened their armor, and embellished their 
 warlike trappings. 
 
 In the reign of Edward III. a more refined and elegant 
 taste begun to prevail. The actions of the Black Prince 
 aroused a spirit of chivalry; a love of martial adventure, tem- 
 pered with high and romantic feeling. The art of painting 
 partook of this warlike spirit. Royal commissions for saints 
 and apostles gave way to orders for painted shields, gilded ar- 
 mor, q.nd emblazoned banners. 
 
 During the civil wars which succeeded, painting was almost 
 crushed in her cradle, though she occasionally revived dur- 
 ing the intervals of repose. The works of that period seem 
 like a blind groping after form and color. We see faces with- 
 out thought, limbs without proportion, and draperies without 
 variety. 
 
 The character of an English artist was curiously compound- 
 ed. He was at once painter, architect, sculptor, goldsmith, jew- 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 73 
 
 eller, carpenter, armourer, saddler and tailor. An order was 
 given for a picture or statue, as it was for a coat or a set of 
 chairs. Quantities of silver and gold, and precious stones 
 were employed in works of art. There were gilded kings with 
 golden crowns; gilded angels with golden halos; gilded ma- 
 donnas nursing golden children; the heaven above was gold, 
 and gold was the earth beneath. 
 
 The art of illuminating next began to be practised; that is, 
 of illustrating missals and books of chivalry and romance. 
 Some of these are beautiful. In many of the best there is a 
 vivid richness and delicacy of lines, approaching the lustre of 
 oil-painting. They represent the dress€s, ceremonies, and 
 portraits of the chief men of the times, and were richly bound, 
 and clasped with gold or silver. 
 
 The art of tapestry aided in diffusing a love of painting over 
 the island. This manufacture was subservient both to comfort 
 and splendor. The figures represented on it exhibited the 
 mixed taste of the times; a grotesque union of classical and 
 Hebrew history — of martial life and pastoral repose — of Greek 
 gods and Romish saints. As painting rose in fame, tapestry 
 «unk in estimation. At the commencement of Henry the 
 Eighth's reign, painting began to flourish. Foreign artists began 
 to appear at court, and portrait painting to be esteemed. An 
 incurable love of allegory however disfigured all the composi- 
 tions of that period, and was brought by foreign artists to Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Minerva and Venus, Juno and Jupiter, followed in the train 
 of monarchs with high-heeled boots, curled wigs and laced 
 cravats. With the Reformation came a charge which affect* 
 G 
 
74 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 ed literature and art, as well as religion. The zeal of the re- 
 formers was let loose upon the gilded saints, illuminated mis- 
 sals, and religious paintings. The works of the Italian artists 
 perished in the universal blaze. 
 
 Portraiture survived the general wreck — vanity and osten- 
 tation induced Henry VIII. to patronize Hans Holbein, and 
 to fix him in England by every mark of friendship and boun- 
 ty. In 1526 Holbein left his native town of Basle, and fixed 
 his residence in England. 
 
 His works are chiefly portraits, and distinguished, for their 
 truth and nature. He was skilful in plain fidelity of resem- 
 blance. As the object appeared to him, so he drew it on his 
 canvass. He had little imagination, or brilliancy of concep- 
 tion, though he sometimes flattered the ladies of the court, 
 added a grace, and kept a defect in the shade. 
 
 His Anne Boleyn is graceful and volatile. His King Hen- 
 ry is bluff* and joyous, with jealous eyes and an imperious brow. 
 It is said that one day while he was engaged in painting the 
 portrait of a court beauty, he was interrupted by the entrance 
 of a great nobleman. The painter, a strong powerful man, 
 and somewhat touchy in his temper, threw the intruder down 
 stairs, bolted the door, ran to the king by a private parlor, 
 fell on his knees, asked for pardon, and obtained it. 
 
 In came the angry courtier, and made his complaint. * By 
 God's splendor!' cried the king, 'you have not to do with 
 Hans, but with me. Of seven peasants I can make seven 
 lords, but I cannot make one Hans Holbein.' 
 
 Of the works of this painter, some were destroyed during 
 the civil wars; and many perished when the great palace of 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 75 
 
 Whitehall was burned. George the Fourth had in his collec- 
 tion of paintings, eighty-nine original drawings of Holbein's, 
 which are the greatest curiosity in the Royal gallery. Hol- 
 bein died of the plague in 1554. The mercantile mode of bar- 
 gaining for works of art still continued; and artists were still 
 looked upon as manufacturers; their productions esteemed by 
 their extent, and the time consumed in making them. 
 
 During the short and sanguinary reign of Mary, painting 
 maintained its place in popular estimation. Philip of Spain 
 gave Sir Antonio More a chain of gold for his portrait of that 
 Queen. More followed Philip into Spain, where he received 
 four hundred a year as painter to the King. 
 
 One day it is said that Philip having laid his hand jestingly 
 on the shoulder of the artist in presence of his courtiers, — Sir 
 Antonio who was engaged in painting, touched the royal hand 
 with a brush dipped in carmine. The courtiers stood aghast — 
 Philip surveyed his hand in awful silence, and the painter see- 
 ing his error, fell on his knees, and prayed for forgiveness. 
 
 He obtained it, but soon after retired from court. Queen 
 Elizabeth, who had no taste for what she considered uselesi 
 expense, discouraged painting and painters, though she loved 
 to see her own face on canvas. A pale Roman nose, a head 
 of hair loaded with crowns and powdered with diamonds, a 
 vast ruff, a vaster fardingale, and a bushel of pearls, are tht 
 features by which every body knows at once the picture of 
 Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Lucas de Heere, a native of Ghent, came in this reign to 
 England. Among his portraits, is one of the Queen, in a rich 
 dress, coming out of her palace; with Juno, Venus and Mi- 
 6* 
 
76 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 nerva, as her attendants; Juno drops her sceptre, Venus scat- 
 ters her roses, and Cupid flings away his arrows. The gross 
 flattery of this piece is only equalled by the poverty of the in- 
 vention. The names of Milliard and Oliver, native painters, 
 are worthy of mention at this period, as being the earliest En- 
 glish painters who have any claim to the name of artists. 
 
 In the reign of James, learning and the arts were encourag- 
 ed. Myteus, a native of the Hague settled in England at the 
 request of the king, and enjoyed a high reputation. The 
 younger Oliver made himself known by numerous portraits of 
 courtly persons. It was the mode at that period for persons 
 of rank, to wear round their neck miniatures richly set in gold 
 and diamonds. This harmless vanity encouraged that branch 
 of painting. Altar-pieces and painted windows became com- 
 mon in the episcopal churches, notwithstanding the aversion of 
 the puritans to these ornaments. 
 
 After the death of James, the influence of a king of true 
 taste, like Charles, soon became visible in the nation. The 
 foreign countries which gave necklaces and jewels to Elizabeth 
 and James, now propitiated the English court with rare works 
 of art. The States of Holland sent Titians and Tintorettos. 
 
 The King of Spain presented the Cain and Abel of John of 
 Bologna, with Titian's Venus del Pardo. Through the medi- 
 um of Rubens, Charles obtained the Cartoons of Raphael; and 
 by the negotiation of Buckingham, the collection of the Duke 
 of Mantua, containing eighty-two pictures, chiefly by Julio Ro- 
 mano, Titian and Corregio. 
 
 The gallery of Whitehall contained four hundred and sixty 
 pictures, by thirty-seven of the most illustrious masters. The 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 77 
 
 Infanta of Spain sent Rubens as her ambassador to England. 
 There he was prevailed upon to embellish the banqueting- 
 room of Whitehall with the Apotheosis of King James; a work 
 which has excited general and merited admiration. 
 
 In 1632 Vandyke arrived in London. The King bestowed 
 upon him the order of knighthood and a pension. The Queen 
 sat to him for her portrait, in the prime of her youth and loveli- 
 ness. The ladies of the court imitated her example. Of the 
 works of Vandyke there are yet more than two hundred extant 
 in England alone. Reynolds has equalled him in freedom, 
 Lawrence has surpassed him in female loveliness, but no one 
 has equalled him in the expression of manly dignity. At first 
 he imitated Rubens, under whom he studied, but afterwards 
 changed his style to one less brilliant. 
 
 George Jamesone, a Scotch painter of this era, was an artist 
 of great merit. He has been called the Scottish Vandyke ; and 
 was born at Aberdeen, in 158G. His excellence consists in 
 softness and delicacy, and in a broad and transparent style. 
 His coloring also is beautiful. 
 
 King Charles sat for his portrait to Jamesone, when he vis- 
 ited Scotland in 1633, and rewarded him with a diamond ring 
 from his own finger. Many of his portraits are still to be seen 
 in the houses of the Scottish nobility. They resemble those 
 by Vandyke so strongly, that it is difficult to distinguish them 
 from his. 
 
 \ During the dynasty of Cromwell, the fury of the parliament 
 
 was directed against the royal galleries, as filled with vain, 
 frivolous and sinful productions. A general order was given 
 for their dispersion and destruction. Some were bought by 
 
rs 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 the king of Spain. Cromwell himself was an extensive purchas- 
 er; many fell into private hands. The republicans received 
 38,000 pounds for the sale. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Influence of the Restoration upon the arts — Sir Peter Lely— His works — His 
 death — To what attributed — Sir Godfrey Kneller — His talents and popu- 
 larity — Is complimented by Dry den — England indebted to foreign artists 
 — Of architectural painting — Of Verrio, la Guerre, and Sir James Thorn- 
 hill — Birth of Hogarth — Of his early years — Anecdote of Hogarth — Toils 
 for his subsistence — Begins to obtain reputation — ^ The Rake's Progress, 
 by Hogarth — His ^ Strolling Actresses' — His ' Election ' — Death of Ho- 
 garth — Remarks upon his peculiar style of genius. 
 
 Then came the Restoration; and the character of the nation 
 seemed changed as bj magic. Dice and dance succeeded 
 prayers and sermons. Painting was dedicated to the task of 
 recording the features of the gay ladies ofthe court. Sir Peter 
 Lely was an artist well fitted for this employment. 
 
 He exercised his pencil in representing the beauties of 
 Windsor as they are called; the Dutchess of Cleveland, Lady 
 Castlemaine and her notorious companions. He also took the 
 portraits of Clarendon, Cowley, Butler^ Selden, and Otway. 
 Of his numerous works, upwards of seventy are still in the isl- 
 and, — portraits of ladies of rank or note, and of men of birth or 
 genius. 
 
 He has succeeded perfectly in handing down to us the style 
 of the courtly beauties of that day, with their rich draperies. 
 
PAINTING. 79 
 
 flowing locks, and eyes that speak nothing but a proud con- 
 sciousness of their charms. 
 
 It is said by some writers that the death of Lely was caused 
 by the arrival of Sir Godfrey Kneller. But he died suddenly, 
 and jealousy has scarce so rapid an effect. The new artist 
 was a man of talent. His works were almost exclusively por- 
 traits, and remarkable for an air of freedom and a hue of nature. 
 All the sovereigns of his time, all the noblemen of the court, 
 all the ladies of rank and beauty in England sat to Kneller 
 for their portraits. 
 
 He painted the portrait of Dryden, who repaid him by a po- 
 etic epithet filled with praise. 
 
 ^ Such are thy pictures, Kneller ! such thy skill, 
 That nature seems obedient to thy will, 
 Comes out and meets thy pencil in the draught, 
 Lives there, and wants but words to speak the thought.' 
 
 To four foreign artists, then, Holbein, Vandyke, Lely, and 
 Kneller, the English are indebted for portraits of the most 
 eminent persons who appeared in England during a long course 
 of years. In truth, force, and elegance, many of their works 
 are yet unsurpassed. 
 
 The Olivers, Jamesone, and Cooper, were native artists; 
 but miniature painters, and mere imitators of Vandyke, cannot 
 be classed among masters. 
 
 In the reigns of the Stuarts, a tasteless style of painting, call- 
 ed architectural, was much in vogue. When a new building was 
 completed, an architectural painter was set to work, toe over 
 the walls and ceilings with nymphs, representing cities, crown- 
 ed females for nations, and figures answering to the names of 
 all the virtues. 
 
80 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 Verrio, la Guerre, and Sir James Thornhill were the chief 
 professors of this barbarous style. It is plain that up to this 
 period, no British artist had arisen capable of taking the lead 
 in painting; no one who had moved the heart by his skill. To- 
 wards the end of the 17th century, however, an artist appear- 
 ed who sought for fame, — and found it, — in moral sentiment^ 
 nervous satire, and actual English life. 
 
 This was William Hogarth, born in London, on the 10th of 
 December, 1697. He was descended from a Westmoreland 
 family ; his father was the youngest of three brothers. The 
 eldest was a yeoman, in the vale of Bampton; the second, a 
 ploughman at Troutbeck; the third, Richard, the father of 
 Hogarth, was a corrector of the press in some obscure part of 
 the metropolis. 
 
 When very young, William Hogarth was bound apprentice 
 to a goldsmith. He was remarkable for his love of shows, and 
 his turn for mimickry. He soon found his profession too lim- 
 ited for his genius. His love of painting, which had early de- 
 veloped itself, induced him to look out for objects upon which 
 to exercise his pencil; and when the period of his indenture 
 was expired, he set diligently about acquiring knowledge for 
 himself 
 
 Of his first attempt at satire, we have the following account: 
 One summer Sunday, during his apprenticeship, he went to 
 Highgate with three of his companions; the weather being 
 hot, and the roads dusty, they went into a public house, and 
 called for ale. There were other customers in the house,, 
 drinking freely and talking fiercely, until they began to ex- 
 press their anger by blows. One of them, on receiving a blow 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 81 
 
 with a quart jug, looked so ludicrously rueful, that Hogarth 
 snatched out a pencil, and sketched him as he stood. It was 
 very like, and very laughahle, and contributed to the restora- 
 tion of good humor. 
 
 The first work which appeared from the hands of this artist 
 was entitled, * The Taste of the Town.' The reigning follies 
 of the day were sharply lashed — and 'the town' wa^ much 
 amused at this satirical picture of itself 
 
 Hogarth was compelled to toil for his subsistence; he also 
 supported his mother and sisters. Thus he could not always 
 choose the path in which he preferred to walk. He continued 
 to engrave arms and crests; and to make etchings on bowls 
 and tankards. The booksellers began to employ him in draw- 
 ing cuts and frontispieces for books. They bear little impress 
 of the peculiar genius which distinguishes his other perform- 
 ances. 
 
 Gradually, he succeeded in withdrawing himself from the 
 drudgery of his original profession, and in establishing a name 
 for satiric skill and dramatic Sketching. In 17.30, he married 
 the daughter of Sir James Thornhill, the architectural painter, 
 a gentleman of great importance and fame, but little real ta- 
 lent. 
 
 In |)ortrait painting, Hogarth was coarse, vigorous, and true 
 to nature. His likenesses of himself are all clever, and very 
 like. He has a short, good-humored face, full of observation 
 and sagacity. 
 
 He then commenced a style of composition in which he ac- 
 quired lasting celebrity. He painted a series of scenes, rep- 
 resenting, in a dramatic manner, the life and progress of his 
 characters. 
 
82 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 The Rake's Progress, by Hogarth, is a series of eight scenes, 
 each complete in itself, and all uniting in relating a domestic 
 history, in a way at once natural, comic, satiric and serious. 
 
 It describes the history of a young man who steps unexpect- 
 edly from poverty to fortune. He begins by despising and 
 deserting the woman whom he had engaged to marry; starts 
 on a wild career of extravagance, dissipation, and folly; is 
 beset and swindled by speculators of all kinds — parades through 
 various haunts of splendor and of guilt, till with a fortune dissi- 
 pated, a constitution ruined, blighted flame and darkened rea- 
 son, he is left raving mad in Bedlam. 
 
 Mirth and wo, humor and sadness, a brilliant rise and a dark 
 setting, all are united in these pictures. The curtain was now 
 drawn aside, and the genius of Hogarth manifested in its full 
 lustre. Fame and profit attended his steps, and he continued 
 to amaze the age by a representation of all the tollies or vices 
 that struck his fancy as fit subjects for the pencil. 
 
 His ^ Strolling Actresses ' is one of his most amusing pertbrm- 
 ances. A huge barn is fitted up like a theatre. The perform- 
 ance is to be, The Devil to Pay in Heaven, a satire of the times 
 upon the Romish faith. The dramatis personae are rehears- 
 ing their parts, and arranging their toilette. 
 
 Juno sits on an old wheelbarrow, which is shortly to form 
 her triumphal car. Night, dressed in a starry robe, is darn- 
 ing Juno's stocking. The star of evening is represented by 
 a tin mould used in making tarts. A damsel with one eye, 
 and a skewer by way of dagger, is preparing to represent the 
 Tragic Muse. 
 
 Ganymede is drinking a glass of gin, to cure his tooth-ache. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 83 
 
 Flora, looking askance at a broken looking-glass, smooths her 
 hair with a piece of candle. The amusing absurdities of the 
 performance are without end. 
 
 Hogarth was peculiarly the painter for the people. He 
 loved to contemplate their scenes of fun and festivity, and to ex- 
 pose their follies. His * Election,' and his ' Cock-Match,' give 
 a description of popular scenes in a manner which no words 
 would have been capable of conveying. The 'Election,' espe- 
 cially opened a wide field for the peculiar style of his genius. 
 
 The first scene is The Entertainment, and is laid at an inn, 
 where the table is spread, and the cellar doors thrown open. 
 Electors, barbers, cobblers, and counsellors, sit around the ta- 
 ble, and at the top, the courteous candidate, Mr. Thomas Pot- 
 ter ; into whose powdered curls, a voter is shaking the ashes 
 of his pipe, with that easy familiarity which the times warrant. 
 A corpulent justice had choaked upon oysters; a friendly bar- 
 ber restores him by opening a vein. Showers of stones, from 
 the opposite party, are making their way through the window. 
 All is fierce uproar without, and wild festivity within. 
 
 The second scene is The Canvass. Bribery and corruption 
 are hard at work. A freeholder stands in the midst of two 
 agents of the contending parties, like the balance of justice, 
 with gold in each hand, weighing their respective merits. A 
 crowd in the distance are engaged in attacking a public house. 
 
 The third scene is The Polling. The lame, tiie blind, the 
 maimed, the dying and the dead; all are carried to the hust- 
 ings. The fourth represents The Chairing of the Member. 
 He is seated on a chair, and carried on the shoulders of his con- 
 stituents, amidst riot and confusion, through the free and loyal 
 borough of Guzzledown. 
 
84 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 In 1753, Hogarth published his Analysis of Beauty; a clear 
 and clever work, composed to establish the principle that a 
 winding line is the foundation of all that is beautiful in art or 
 nature. He died in 1764, aged 67, and was buried in the 
 churchyard of Chiswick. Hogarth painted life as he saw it. 
 He gave no visions of bye-gone things. He related the oc- 
 currences of the passing day; the folly or the sin of the hour. 
 He belonged to no school of art, and was the produce of no 
 academy. All who love the dramatic pictures of actual life — 
 who are pleased with well-directed satire — all who can be amus- 
 ed by popular folly, or moved by human suffering, must ever 
 be the admirers of his original and spontaneous genius. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Birth of Wilson — His early talent for painting — He studies in Italy — Beau- 
 ty of his landscapes — Their Italian character — His merit unappreciated — 
 His extreme poverty — His death — Remark of Fuseli — The paintings of 
 Wilson highly esteemed after his death — Birth of Reynolds — His early 
 genius — Studies under Hudson — Excites the jealousy of that artist — Goes 
 to Italy — Course of his studies in Rome — His profound attention to 
 painting — Returns to London — Opposition of rival artists — His genius 
 and fame — His increasing reputation — His wealth — Change in his man- 
 ner of living — Distinguished literary men court his society — His most 
 famous paintinrrs — He is chosen President of the Royal Academy — Of 
 his discourses — Anecdote of Johnson — Anecdote of Reynolds — Visits the 
 Continental galleries — His sudden blindness — Continues his lectures — 
 Accident which happened at the academy — Death of Reynolds — Style of 
 his paintings — His numerous portraits — Estimation in which they are 
 held. 
 
 Richard Wilson was born in Montgomeryshire, in 1713. 
 His love of painting appeared early, though little encouraged 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 85 
 
 by his father, who was a clergyman of old family. He com- 
 menced by painting portraits, but having gone to Italy, he was 
 induced by the advice of Vernet, and of an Italian artist, nam- 
 ed Zuedrelli, to apply himself solely to the study of landscape. 
 
 He studied with assiduity the works of the ancient masters, 
 and compared them carefully with the works of nature. By 
 these means, he caught the hue and character of Italian scen- 
 ery, and steeped his spirit in its splendor. His landscapes 
 seem fanned with tlie pure air, and warmed with the glowing 
 suns of that classic region. Ruined temples, wooded tr ams, 
 and tranquil lakes, arc the scenes that his pencil loves to dwell 
 upon. 
 
 Wilson had a poet's feeling, and a poet's eye. He selected 
 his scenes judiciously, and represented them in all the beauty 
 and luxury of nature. But his merit was unappreciated, and 
 unrewarded. In the heart of the capital, he lived in indigence, 
 obscurity, and wretchedness. He sold his pictures to sordid 
 pawnbrokers. Pressed by the sharpness of hunger, he paint- 
 ed one piece in exchange for a pot of beer and the remains of 
 a Stilton cheese. 
 
 As his fortune declined, his temper grew peevish; and h« 
 became soured by neglect. He died in 1782, in the 6Jth year 
 of his age 
 
 ' Wilson,* said Fuscli, * observed nature in all her appear- 
 ances, and had a characteristic touch for all her forms. But 
 thou;:h in effects of dewy freshness, and silent evening lights, 
 few have equalled, and fewer excelled him; his grandeur is 
 oftener allied to terror, bustle, and convulsion, than to calm- 
 ness and tranquillity.' 
 
86 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 The envy of rivals, and the neglect of a tasteless public, 
 terminated at Wilson's death, and his landscapes begin to be 
 valued with those of Poussin, and of Claude Lorraine. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds was born at Plympton, in Devonshire, 
 July 16th, ll'2S, three months before the death of Sir Godfrey 
 Kneller. He was the son of a respectable English clergy- 
 man, of simple manners and more piety than wit. Reynolds 
 when very young, gave proofs of his future genius. At the 
 age of eight, he had a good understanding of the principles of 
 perspective, and made a drawing of Plympton School, in 
 which he showed that he had already made considerable pro- 
 gress in the rules of art. 
 
 He was placed under the care of a portrait painter of the 
 name of Hudson, a man of little skill and less talent, whose 
 jealousy he fortunately excited, since it occasioned a separa- 
 tion between them. His works during this period contain in 
 general the germ of some of his future graces; but the atti- 
 tudes are common, and have little excellence of coloring, or 
 power of expression. 
 
 At the age of twenty-three, the increasing talents of Rey- 
 nolds had secured him both fame and friends. Rome, which 
 seems like the Parnassus of painters, was frequently present 
 to his imagination. He longed to tread those classic haunts; 
 to view the glories of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, and 
 to study the great works of past ages. In 1749 he set sail for 
 Lisbon with Captain Keppel, visited that city, landed at Al^ 
 giers, sailed for Minerva, and proceeded thence to Rome, by 
 way of Leghorn. 
 
 Of the character and course of his studies in Rome, he has 
 
PAINTING. 87 
 
 left us a minute account. His opinions concerning the works 
 of the great masters are delivered in a manner equally candid, 
 clear, and accurate; as are also his first sensations on visiting 
 the Vatican; and his disappointment at the first view of Ra- 
 phael's paintings. 
 
 Few original works came from the hand of Reynolds while 
 he remained at Rome. He painted a noble portrait of himself, 
 which he left there. From Rome, he went to Bologna and 
 Genoa. He was not one of those artists, who see or think 
 they see through all the deep mysteries of conception and ex- 
 ecution at a glance. He perused and re-perused, compared 
 and considered with the anxiety of one who was resolved to 
 be counted with the foremost. 
 
 It has been observed that Reynolds admired one style, and 
 adopted another; that with all his admiration of the works of 
 antiquity; with all his enthusiasm for * the grand style' — for 
 Michael Angelo and Raphael, he dedicated his own pencil to 
 works of a totally different character. 
 
 He returned to England in 175!2, where he at first met with 
 the opposition which genius is commonly doomed to encounter. 
 The novelty of his attempts appeared an innovation upon the 
 orthodox system of portrait manufacture. ' Reynolds,' said his 
 old master Hudson, * you don't paint so well as when you left 
 England.' ' Ah! Reynolds this will never answer,' said Ellis, 
 an artist of some eminence. * Why, you don't paint in the 
 least like Sir Godfrey.' 
 
 But his contest with his fellow artists was of short duration. 
 The excellence of his portraits began to attract universal at- 
 tention. His fame spread far and wide, and the number of his 
 
88 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 commissions augmented daily. Success begot confidence in 
 his own powers. He found that in expression and coloring no 
 one could rival him. He tried bolder attitudes, and greater 
 diversity of character, and succeeded in all his attempts. 
 
 His sitting-room was filled with the opulent and the 
 distinguished of both sexes; women who wished to be trans- 
 mitted as beauties, and men who wished to appear as heroes 
 or philosophers. Riches flowed upon him. He changed his 
 style of living, purchased a house in Leicester square, built a 
 splendid gallery for the exhibition of his works; and finally 
 taxed his invention in the production of a carriage, with wheels 
 carved and gilt, and the four seasons of the year engraved on 
 its pannels. 
 
 Johnson, Percy, Goldsmith, Burke, and Garrick were his 
 constant guests. His picture of Garrick between Tragedy 
 and Comedy, has been much praised. Lady Sarah Bembury 
 sacrificing to the graces, Lady Elizabeth Keppel in the dress 
 she wore when bridesmaid to the Queen — and Lady Walde- 
 grave, one of the beauties of the day, appeared from Reynolds's 
 pencil in 1765, and have been frequently considered among 
 his best performances. 
 
 The Royal Academy was planned and proposed in 1768 by 
 Chambert, West, Cotes and Moser. Of this distinguished so- 
 ciety, Reynolds had the honor of being chosen President. The 
 King offered voluntarily to supply all deficiencies towards the 
 furtherance of their plans, by an annual allowance from his 
 private purse. He also bestowed the honor of knighthood up- 
 on the President, in order to give dignity to the Royal Acade- 
 my of Great Britain. 
 
1>AINTING. 
 
 89 
 
 Sir Joshua imposed upon himself the task of composing and 
 delivering discourses for the instruction of the students. Of 
 these he wrote iilteen, all distinguished alike for learning and 
 clearness. His manner of recitation was cold, embarrassed, 
 and sometimes unintelligible. * Your tone was so low, Sir 
 Joshua,' said a nobleman to him, * that I scarce heard a word 
 you said.' * That was to my advantage,' said the President. 
 
 It is related that he complained one day, in presence of John- 
 son, of the difficulty of finding a plate oi copper large enough 
 for historical subjects. ' What foppish obstacles are these!' — 
 said Johnson; ' here isThrale, who has a thousand-tun copper. 
 You may paint it all round if you will. 1 suppose it will serve 
 him to brew in afterwards.' 
 
 Reynolds was skilful in compliments. When he painted the 
 portiait of Mrs. Siddons, as the Tragic IVluse, he wrought his 
 ' name on the border of her robe. The actress went near to 
 examine the letters. ' Madam,' said the artist, * 1 could not 
 lose this opportunity of sending my name to posterity on the 
 hem of your garment.' 
 
 In 17 BO, the Royal Academy was removed to Somerset 
 House. Soon after, Reynolds set off on a tour among the gal- 
 leries of the Continent; visited Mecklin, Leyden, Antwerp, and 
 observed the works of Rubens and other distinguished mas- 
 ters. In the 66th year of his age, he was employing himself 
 in finishing the portrait of the Marchioness of Hertford. A 
 sudden dimness canje over his sight. He sat a few minutes in 
 mute reflection; laid down his pencil, and never lifted it more. 
 
 He continued to discourse at the Academy; and one day 
 when the room was crowded to suflbcation, and the President 
 7 
 
90 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 was first commencing his lectures, a beam in the floor gave 
 way with a loud crash. The audience rushed to the door. 
 Sir Joshua alone sat silent and unmoved. 
 
 The floor only sunk a little, and was soon supported. The 
 company resumed their seats; and the President remarked 
 that had the floor fallen in, the whole company must have been 
 killed, and the arts in Britain thrown back two hundred years 
 in consequence. 
 
 This celebrated artist died in 1792, aged 68. He was inter- 
 red in St. Paul's Cathedral, and accompained to the grave by 
 the most illustrious of the land. 
 
 The portraits of Reynolds are equally numerous and excel- 
 lent. In character and expression he has never been surpass- 
 ed. He is always equal — natural and unaffected; yet over 
 ho meanest head he sheds a halo of dignity. His men are'all 
 nobleness; his women all loveliness, and his children all sim- 
 plicity. His influence on the taste of Britain was great, and 
 will be lasting. He painted upwards of 150 historical subjects. 
 These, together with his numerous portraits, are chiefly in 
 England, where they continue to embellish the galleries or 
 apartments of the titled and opulent. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 91 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Of Gainsborough — The scenes in which he spent his boyhood — Studies un- 
 der Hayman — His love of music and painting — His marriage — Acquisi- 
 tion of fortune — Increasing celebrity — His portrait of the Royal Family 
 — Anecdote of Gainsborough — His finest compositions — Peculiar beauty 
 of his landscapes — Of his cottage children — Account of his death —Barry, 
 the historical painter — Style of his works — His first performance — His 
 introduction to Burke — Studies in London — His journey to Rome — His 
 opinion concerning Italian artists — His conduct while in Rome — Anec- 
 dote of Nollekens — Barry returns to London — His painting of Venus-Hig 
 chief compositions — His literary performance — His painting for the Aca- 
 demy—Character of Barry — His death — Some remarks upon English 
 paintings. 
 
 Gainsborough, who with Wilson laid the foundation of the 
 English school of landscapes, was a native of Sudbury, in Suf- 
 folk; and was born in 1727. The beauty of the country, where 
 his earliest days were spent, seems to have first inspired iiis 
 mind with a love of the art. 
 
 Scenes are pointed out where, in his boyish days, he would 
 sit and fill his copy-book with sketches of trees and flowers, 
 and whatever struck his fancy. No fine clump of trees, no 
 romantic glade, no cattle grazing nor flocks reposing, nor 
 peasants at their rural work, escaped his diligent pencil. 
 
 At the age of fourteen, he was sent to London, and studied 
 under Hayman, a companion of Hogarth's, In his 18th year, 
 his talcTits had acquired him a considerable reputation. He 
 passed his time between music and painting, and was passion- 
 ately attached to both. He married a Scotch lady of good 
 family, and great beauty. 
 
 Having acquired a considerable fortune at Bath by meant 
 of his talents, he removed to London, and continued his career, 
 
92 
 
 FAINTING?. 
 
 both in porfrait painting and landscape, with increasing snc- 
 cess. Sir Joshua Reynolds was then in high favor, yet in the 
 estimation of many, Gainsborough was a dangerous rival to 
 the President himself. 
 
 His family-piece of the King, Queen and three Princesses^ 
 has been much admired. The Duchess of Devonshire, then 
 tn the bloom of youth and beauty, sat to him for her portrait. 
 Her dazzling loveliness, and flashing wit took away the power 
 of his pencil and benumbed his hand. After the portrait was 
 fi'iished, he drew his wet pencil across the mouth, exclaiming 
 ^ Her grace is too hard for me,' and never would attempt it 
 again. 
 
 One of his favorite compositions was * The Woodman and 
 his Dog in the storm,' also his * Shepherd's Boy in a shower.' 
 There is something inexpressibly mournful in the expression 
 of both — a kind of rustic sublimity, new to English painting. 
 His ' Cottage Door* is particularly striking and natural. It 
 represents a youthful cottage matron with an infant in her arms^ 
 and several older children grouped round her, all standing at 
 the door of a rustic cabin. 
 
 His ' Lodge in the Wilderness' presents a beautiful picture 
 of perfect seclusion. It is shut up in a close wooded nook. 
 Glimpses of streams are seen through the branches of the trees. 
 The coloring is rich, and over all, there is a brown golden 
 color, common to the works of Gainsborough. The young 
 cottage woman is the very beau ideal of rustic loveliness. 
 
 In all the landscapes of Gainsborough, there are human fig- 
 urcjs, which inspire us with a deep and human sympathy. His 
 paintings have a natural look. They do not, like Wilson's, 
 
PAINTING, 
 
 IjTeathe an Italian air. His children run wild and free among 
 scenes and woods wilder than themselves, with a rustic grace, 
 and a native beauty, which distinguish them from the figures of 
 all other artists. When on his death-bed, he sent for Reynolds, 
 with whom he had not lived on good terms, and peace was 
 made between them. ' We are all going to heaven/ said the 
 dying artist, * and Vandyke is of the company ; ' and immedi- 
 ately expired, A. D. J 788, in the 61st year of his age. 
 
 Barry, the historical painter, was born at Cork in Ireland, in 
 1741. In his performances we see imagination and invention, 
 running riot without the control of judgment — Irish impetuosi- 
 ty exercised upon classic subjects. 
 
 When yet young and unknown, he painted his first celebra- 
 ted piece-* St. Patrick converting the King of Cash-tl,' and car« 
 ried it in his hand to Dublin. He was then utterly unfriend- 
 ed, and unknown; poor, and modestly clad. The picture was 
 exhibited and admired. The name of the painter was demand- 
 ed; and when Barry stept modestly farward, no one would be- 
 lieve him. His brow glowed, he burst into tears, and hurried 
 out of the room. The whole scene was observed by Edmund 
 Burke, who was as good hearted as he was talented. He 
 sought the young artist out, commended and befriended him. 
 
 Barry pursued his studies for a year in London; then by the 
 assistance of his friend, was enabled to perform what Reynolds 
 considered a necessary pilgrimage for every artist, — a journey 
 to Rome. In the works of Raphael and Michael Angelo he 
 saw little to interest him. The grace and simplicity of Gre- 
 cian sculpture usurped all his admiration. He preached this 
 unheard of heresy at Rome, in the midst of the whole irritable 
 tribe of artists^ both English and foreign. 
 
94 
 
 FAINTIN6?. 
 
 He spent his time in hostile bickerings with wandering vir- 
 tuosi and pedantic connoisseurs. He threw his sarcasms right 
 and left; dealt his opinions freely and unreservedly, and drew 
 upon himself the fear of some, and the hatred of all It was 
 said, that one evening, as Barry was leaving a coffee-house in 
 Rome in company with Nollekens the artist, he took the liber- 
 ty of exchanging hats with him. Barry's was edged with gold 
 lace, and Nollekens' was a very shabby plain one. Next 
 morning Nollekens, on returning the hat, begged to know the 
 cause of his exchange. * Why, to tell you the truth, my dear 
 Joey,' answered Barry, ' I fully expected assassination last 
 night, and I was to have been known by my gold-laced hat.' 
 
 Barry remained five years in Rome, and laid in a vast stock 
 of knowledge, notwithstanding the time which he consumed in 
 petty warfare. On his arrival in England, he me a^uredhim- 
 self at once by the most lovely of all Grecian productions, and 
 painted Venus rising from the sea. The picture was exquisite, 
 but excited no sympathy. Loftier minds and happier hands 
 had exhausted the subject. He next executed a fine painting 
 of Jupiter and Juno, but what were Jupiter and Juno to the 
 public of 1773 ? 
 
 His * Mercury inventing the Lyre ' is a sweet and classic pro- 
 duction. The god stands on the sea shore with the shell of a 
 tortoise in his hand, listening to the sound which one of its ex- 
 tended fibres has emitted to the touch of his finger. Finding 
 that his painting failed in inspiring the English nation with a 
 love of historical painting, he published a work, which may be 
 considered as the first literary production of the Royal Acad- 
 emy. It was entitled * Inquiry into the Real and Imaginary 
 Obstructions to the Progress of Art in England.' 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 95 
 
 He then determined to offer his pencil to the Society of Arts; 
 and applied for permission to adorn their great room with a 
 series of historical paintings, all from his own hand, and whol- 
 ly at his own expense. When he made this magnificent offer, 
 he had but sixteen shillings in his pocket. After seven years 
 of hard struggles, during which he had scarcely means to pro- 
 cure the common necessaries of life, he accomplished his pur- 
 pose. 
 
 He was one of those ardent and generous spirits, whom the 
 narrow-minded and the sordid reproach as idle dreamers and 
 enthusiasts. His passion for the art amounted nearly to mad- 
 ness. He literally hungered and thirsted for its sake; and 
 from boyhood to the tomb devoted all his faculties to establish 
 a school of painting, which, avoiding all common and fannliar 
 subjects, should embody one that was dignified and sublime. 
 He wanted the gift of persuasion, and a graceful conciliating 
 spirit. Yet such a man has with all his faults a deep and 
 lasting claim to our admiration. He died in 1806, of fever 
 and pleurisy. 
 
 Many other names of minor reputation might be mentioned 
 who painted historical subjects, but to no extent. This branch 
 of art, but for the labors of the late Sir Benjamin West, woulJ 
 have been without a representative in England. When Eng- 
 lish artists have forsaken English nature, or have attempted to 
 unite classical allegory with heroic landscape, they have fail- 
 ed in this d( l ^htful branch. 
 
96 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Of Blake — His wild and sincrular character — Imagines himself visited by 
 spirits — Anecdote of his taking" the portrait of Lot — His scriptural pieces 
 — His poverty and cheerfulness — His death — State of the art at this pe- 
 riod — Of Morland — Bird — Opie— Birth of Fuseli— His introduction to Sir 
 J. Reynolds — Reynolds' opinions of his drawinors — Fuseli goes to Rome 
 — His enthusiasm for the art, and above all for Michael Angelo's works — 
 His return to England — His painting of ' the Nightmare' — Paints the 
 Shakspeare Gallery — Sources from whence he drew his ideas — Paints 
 the Milton Gallery — Anecdote of Fuseli — Obtains the professorship of 
 painting — His lectures — Becomes keeper of the Royal Academy — His 
 eccentric character — Anecdotes concerning him — Style of his works — 
 Remarks on their beauties and defects — Of Sir Thomas Lawrence — His 
 talents — Remark of Fuseli concerning him — John Martin — Present state 
 of the art in England — Comparison between British and foreign artists — 
 Of Sir Henry Raeburn — Faults and excellence of his style — Of American 
 Art. 
 
 The name of Blake, at once painter and poet, must not be 
 forgotten; a man whose fancy over-mastered his reason, who 
 seemed to live in a world of spirits, and dreamed himself out 
 of the sympathies of actual life. He was by nature a poet, a 
 visionary, and an enthusiast. He imagined himself under 
 spiritual influences: he saw the forms and heard the voices of 
 the worthies of other days. His works are beautiful, but ob- 
 scure and mystic. 
 
 He believed himself visited by visionary forms, and drew 
 them as they appeared to him. A gentleman calling on him 
 one evening, found him sitting drawing a portrait with a face 
 expressive of deep anxiety and interest. The artist looked up 
 and drew — yet no living soul was visible. * Disturb me not !' 
 said he in a whisper. ' I have one sitting to me.' ' Sitting to 
 you!* exclaimed the astonished visitor, 'where is he, and 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 97 
 
 what is he? I see no one.' * But / see him, Sir!' answered 
 Blake, haughtily, * there he is, his name is Lot. You may 
 read of him in scripture. He is sitting for his portrait.' 
 
 Even while indulging in these wild fancies, he drew and en- 
 graved the noblest of all his productions, ' The Inventions,* 
 for the Book of Job. In representing these scriptural narra- 
 tives he excelled. But the waywardness of his fancy, and 
 his peculiar style were ill adapted for popularity. He was re- 
 duced to a miserable garret and a crust of bread, and bore his 
 poverty cheerfully, supported through all his distresses by the 
 unchanging affection of his wife, and by his own singular and 
 lofty imagination, which carried his thoughts above all sublu- 
 nary matters. He died in 1828, leaving behind him many no- 
 ble and original productions. 
 
 The conclusion of the 18th century also produced other 
 names worthy of record in the annals of English art. Mor- 
 land, an original and clever painter of rustic and familiar scenes, 
 but whose life was a melancholy career of vice and folly ; 
 Bird, who excelled in natural and touching representations 
 of homely and social things; and Opie, the self-taught artist, 
 celebrated not only for his own genius, but as being the hus- 
 band of one of the most talented women of the age. 
 
 Fuseli, though a Grerman by birth, being born at Zurich in 
 1741, may be classed among the British artists, as having en- 
 riched their language by his compositions, and adorned their 
 metropolis by his paintings. 
 
 While yet hesitating between painting and literature, he 
 was introduced to Sir Joshua Reynolds, and showed him seve- 
 ral of his drawings. * Young man,' exclaimed the President, 
 
98 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 * were I the author of these drawings, and were offered ten 
 thousand a year not to practise as an artist, I would reject the 
 offer with contempt/ 
 
 This opinion decided the destiny of Fuseli. With unbounded 
 enthusiasm, great learning, and a vivid imagination he set off 
 for Rome. 
 
 He was accompanied by Armstrong, the poet, his friend and 
 counsellor. It was a story which in after days Fuseli loved to 
 repeat, how he lay on his back, day after day, and week after 
 week, musing on the splendid ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; on 
 the unattainable grandeur of Michael Angelo. He imagined 
 that he drank in the spirit of the sublime artist, and that by 
 studying in the Sistine Chapel, the very mantle of inspiration 
 was suspended over him. 
 
 Fuseli seldom thought with sober feelings either upon art 
 or literature. He poured out his admiration in words which 
 invested his subject with hues of heavenly brightness; but his 
 sarcasm cut like a two-edged sword, and his irony was keen 
 and bitter. He had little sympathy with gentleness and re- 
 pose. He shunned Coreggio and Raphael, and dwelt upon 
 the vigorous and startling productions of the Florentine. 
 
 He even affected the dress, and assumed the manners of 
 Buonarotti, and when walking in a reverie, would occasional- 
 ly call out * Michael Angelo!' 
 
 In 1779 he returned to England, and commenced his pro- 
 fessional career. There he found Reynolds at the height of 
 his reputation ; Wilson and Gainsborough at the head of land- 
 scape painting; and Barry and West engrossing between them 
 the wide empire of religious and historic composition. There 
 was nothing left for Fuseli but the poetical. 
 
PAINTINO, 
 
 99 
 
 The first work which displayed his genius in England was 
 his famous painting of the ' Nightmare.' His next undertak- 
 ing was one worthy of the highest genius, ' The Shakspeare 
 Gallery.' The Tempest, the Midsummer Night's Dream, 
 King Lear, and Hamlet suggested the best of his eight pic- 
 tures from Shakspeare. That from Hamlet is strangely wild 
 and solemn. The ghost is represented as a sad and majes- 
 tic shape, lofty and godlike. 
 
 Dante's Inferno supplied him with his Francesca and Paolo ; 
 Virgil with Dido, and from Sophocles he took the idea of his 
 iEdipus. They were all marked by poetic freedom of thought, 
 and more than poetic extravagance of action. In 1790 he com- 
 menced the Milton Gallery of paintings. He completed it in 
 ten years. It consisted of forty-seven pictures from Milton's 
 works. Of these paintings, that which is most admired by 
 connoisseurs, is The Lazar-House. That which is the fa- 
 vorite with the multitude is the rising of Satan at the touch of 
 Ithuriel's Spear. 
 
 With all modern attempts to embody Scripture, Fuseli was 
 difiicult to please. When Northcote exhibited his Judgment of 
 Solomon, Fuseli looked at it with a sarcastic smirk on his face; 
 'How do you like it?' — inquired Northcote. 'Much — very 
 much,' said Fuseli, ironically — ' the action suits the word. 
 Solomon holds out his fingers like a pair of open scissors at 
 the child, and says, Cut it." I like it much.' 
 
 In 1799, the professorship of painting was bestowed upon 
 Fuseli. During his professorship, he delivered nine lectures 
 upon the art of painting, of which only six are printed. The 
 crowds who v c ut to hear him were great, and their cheers ve- 
 
100 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 hement. The learning, observation, and feeling, exhibited in 
 these disquisitions astonish us at every page, and there is an 
 original power in his diction, such as no man has before or 
 since exhibited in a language not his own. 
 
 On the death of Wilton, the sculptor, Fuseli became Keep- 
 er of the Royal Academy. Notwithstanding his satire and 
 severity, he was liked by the young students. When his an- 
 ger became tempestuous he would exclaim, 'By Jupiter! There 
 is more genius in the claw of one of Michael Angelo's eagles, 
 than in all your heads put together! 
 
 ' Here, Sir' — said a student one day, holding up a drawing; 
 ' I finished it without using a crumb of bread.' * Buy a two- 
 penny loaf, Sir, and rub it out,' said Fuseli. 
 
 ' 1 hope I don't intrude,' said a person who came to speak 
 to him, 'You do intrude,' said Fuseli in a surly tone. ' Do 
 I?' said the visitor; 'Then I'll call to-morrow.' 'No, Sir, 
 don't come to-morrow, for then you would intrude a second 
 time.' 
 
 The main wish of Fuseli both in writing and painting, was to 
 startle and astonish. He liked to be called Fuseli the daring 
 and imaginative, the illustrator of Milton and Shakspeare, the 
 rival of Michael Angelo. It cannot be denied that a certain 
 air of extravagance is visible in most of his works. A com- 
 mon mind perceives these defects at once, and ranks him with 
 the wild and unsober; a poetic mind does not permit these 
 blemishes to hide the splendor of his conceptions. 
 
 His coloring was as original as his design. It was a kind of 
 supernatural hue, harmonizing with his works. 
 
 He died at Putney Hill, the seat of the Countess of Guild- 
 ford, on the 16th of April, 1825, in the 84th year of his age. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 101 
 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence, the late President of the Royal 
 Academy, was, during his successful career, the first artist 
 in Europe. His female heads are remarkable for exquisite 
 loveliness, and perfect finish. Fuseli has observed: * The 
 works of Sir Joshua Reynolds are unequal, many of them in- 
 different, though some cannot be surpassed; but, on the other 
 hand, even the most inferior picture from the hand of Sir Thom- 
 as Lawrence, is excellent.' This artist was born at Bristol in 
 1769, and at a very early age exhibited proofs of his talent for 
 painting. He is said to have sketched portraits with success 
 in his fifth year. In 1782 his father removed to Bath, where 
 the son was much employed in taking portraits in Crayon; and, 
 having made a fine copy from Raphael, of the Transfiguration, 
 he received from the Society of Arts the compliment of their 
 silver palette. For six years he was the sole support of his 
 father and a large family. In 1787 the family removed to 
 London, and Lawrence was admitted a student of the Royal 
 Academy. 
 
 His success was now very rapid and brilliant. 1792, he was 
 made painter to the king, and was soon considered the first 
 portrait painter of the time in England. In 1815, he was 
 knighted by the Prince Regent, who employed him to take the 
 likenesses of the sovereigns, and the most distinguished per- 
 sons of their suite. He was the successor of West as presi- 
 dent of the Royal Academy, and held this oflTice till his sudden 
 death, in 1830. 
 
 His portraits are striking likenesses, and display freedom 
 and boldness, but his later ones are charged with n.annerism, 
 and with a want of accurate drawing. For the last twenty 
 
102 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 years of his life, his income was from £10,000 to £20,000; but 
 he died poor, in consequence of his desire to possess the most 
 remarkable and costly specimens of art. The personal ap- 
 pearance of Sir Thomas Lawrence was striking and agreea- 
 ble, though his restless manner betrayed an unquiet spirit. 
 
 The celebrated living artist, John Martin, was born in 
 1789, at Haydon-bridgc on the Tyne. He was first inspired 
 with a love for the art, by seeing some drawings made by his 
 brother, which he immediately copied and surpassed. After 
 struggling with a variety of difficulties, he went to London and 
 their obtained patronage. 
 
 His first successful picture was * Sadak in search of the Wa- 
 ters of oblivion.' This was followed by Adam and Eve in 
 Paradise, Joshua, the Destruction of Babylon, Belshazzar's 
 Feast, and the Destruction of Herculaneum. He has since 
 executed a magnificent picture of the Fall of Nineveh, and 
 another representing the Deluge. All his pictures have been 
 engraved by himself 
 
 In 1830, engravings of his Belshazzar, Joshua, and the Del- 
 uge, were presented by the French Academy to the King of 
 France, who ordered a medal to be struck and sent to the ar- 
 tist, as a token of his esteem. The genius of Mr. Martin leads 
 him to subjects of a vast, terrible, obscure and supernatural 
 character. His style is gorgeous and sublime, but he is de- 
 ficient in drawing and finish of coloring. His soul is full of 
 poetry, but he wants some of the excellences of the artist. 
 
 Coarse and undetailed, though talented execution has over- 
 spread every department of the British school. Compared with 
 foreign arts, its distinctive character is strongly marked. The 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 103 
 
 continental artist exhibits in his works a striking uniformity of 
 style. He studies to detail, but fails in general effect. Hia 
 labors consist of dry, meagre, disjointed particulars, better 
 drawn, and more carefully finished than the works of the Brit- 
 ish artist, but failing in the bold and powerful effect of the 
 English style. 
 
 The English artist paints more to the mind; the French and 
 Italian to the eye. The former, endeavors to represent the 
 universal harmony of nature. The second scrutinizes her 
 separate parts, and carefully represents the causes of her gen- 
 eral effects. 
 
 The great defect in the practice of English art is imperfec- 
 tion in the details. In portraiture especially, this is observa- 
 ble, and on this account, British female portraits are, gen- 
 erally speaking, decided failures. In male portraits, the sub- 
 ject being bolder, this defect is less visible, but the errors are 
 the same. Large masses of dark shade, conceal the absence 
 of all that should be present, and the effect is forcible, rather 
 than natural. 
 
 The portraits of Sir Henry Raeburn, the representative of 
 painting in Scotland, afford the most wonderful proof how far 
 detail mrfy be sacrificed, and general effect maintained. 
 
 In producing strong effect without regard to the means, 
 Raeburn has succeeded beyond the generality of painters, but 
 in blending delicate markings, and grand contours into one 
 harmonious whole, he has failed. 
 
 If pictures are to be viewed on the walls of a gallery, and 
 at a distance, his portraits will have a noble effect; but if we 
 love to trace the shades of feeling, and the lines of thought, 
 
104 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 then does not only Raeburn, but the great majority of the Eng- 
 lish school, rest far behind. 
 
 In the United States, painting seems to have flourished more 
 successfully, than any other branch of the fine arts. Copley 
 and West belong rather to the history of English art. Gilbert 
 Stuart, was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1755. Soon 
 after coming of age, he went to England, and became the pu- 
 pil of Mr. West. He soon rose to eminence as a portrait 
 painter, and obtained a high reputation both in England and 
 Ireland. In 1794, he returned to his native country, chiefly 
 residing in Philadelphia and Washington, in the practice of 
 his profession, till about the year 1801, when he removed to 
 Boston. Here he remained till his death, in 1828. Mr. Stuart 
 was not only one of the first painters of his time, but was also 
 an extraordinary man, out of his profession. 
 
 The names of Copley, West, and Stuart, among the dead, 
 and of Allston, Leslie, Newton, among the living, will be re- 
 membered as those of the first Americans distinguished in the 
 higher orders of their profession. To these we may add, 
 Trumbull, Sully, Doughty, Morse, Peale, Harding, Fisher, 
 and many others, who have not yet won a foreign reputation, 
 but for whom the land of their birth is the land of th^r fame. 
 
5PAINTING. 
 
 105 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 iEnumeration of the different classes of Painting. — Some knowledge of the 
 rules of Painting necessary, in order to understand the beauties or faults 
 of a picture. — In what the excellence of a painting may consist. — Of 
 Perspective. — Of Invention. — Raphael's excellence in that branch of 
 painting. — His * St. Paulas Lystra.' — The 'Fallen Angels' of Rubens. 
 — Further remarks upon Invention. — Science allowed to painters. — Error 
 of Bernini. — Of Disposition. — Raphael's skill in Disposition. — Le Brun's 
 'Tent of Darius.'— Imtoret's * Paradise.' — Remarks upon *The Marriage 
 of Cana.' 
 
 As all objects in nature may be imitated by the pencil, the 
 masters of this art have applied themselves to different sub- 
 jects, each one as his talents, his taste, or his opportunities 
 «iay have led him. From this have arisen the following 
 classes. 
 
 1st. History-painting; which represents the principal ob- 
 jects in history, sacred or profane, real or fabulous. This may 
 be considered the highest style of painting; Raphael, Guido, 
 Rubens, &c. excelled in historical representation. 
 
 2d. Rural History; this is a pleasing and graceful style of 
 painting ; though inferior to the former. It represents see les 
 connected with a country life — the manners and occupat/ons 
 of the inhabitants of villages and hamlets. Teniers, and 
 Breughel excelled in it. 
 
 3d. Portrait-painting, an admirable branch of the art, and 
 one which has engaged the attention of the greatest masters of 
 all ages, such as Apelles, Guido, Vandyke, Rembrandt, 
 Kneller. 
 
 4th. Grotesque histories. These may represent nocturnal 
 8 
 
106 
 
 meetings of witches; the tricks of mountebanks, &c. Tehier^ 
 and Breughel showed much talent for this sort of painting. 
 
 5th. Battle-pieces, in which Wouvermans has acquired 
 much celebrity. 
 
 6th. Landscape-painting, which includes every object that 
 the country presents; and may be divided into two classes, 
 the heroic, and the pastoral, or rural. 
 
 In the heroic style, art and nature are blended together. 
 The buildings introduced in the landscape are temples, pyra- 
 mids, altars, or ancient places of burial. Into these compo-^ 
 sitions, figures are introduced suitable to the scenery; some 
 ancient story, or fabulous legend. Thus Poussin, who excel- 
 led in the heroic style, represents Apollo driving his chariot 
 out of the sea, to intimate the rising of the sun ; or a nymph 
 with an urn on her head, as the genius of a river. 
 
 This style is an agreeable illusion, when handled by an artist 
 of a discriminating genius. But if the painter has not talent 
 enough to throw a sublime and antique air over the whole, he 
 is often in danger of becoming ridiculous. 
 
 7th. The rural or pastoral style represents nature in all her infi- 
 nite variety. The figures should harmonize with the scenery; 
 whether it be wild and mountainous, or soft and verdant. 
 
 8th. Sea-pieces, in which are represented the ocean, rivers, 
 tod harbors ; and the vessels, boats and barges with which 
 they are covered ; sometimes in a calm, sometimes with a 
 fresh breeze, and at other timea in a storm. The two Van- 
 derveldes, and many others, have acquired great reputation in 
 the class. 
 
 9th. Night-pieces, where the objects are illumined either 
 
J»AlNTmG. 
 
 107 
 
 by the rays of the moon, or the light of a candle or torch, or 
 by the flames of a conflagration. 
 
 lOlh. Fruit and flower-painting, a pleasing branch of the 
 art, which has been frequently carried to such perfection, as 
 to rival nature herself There are also pieces which represent 
 living animals, and birds of all kinds, in which Vandervelde 
 was very successful; culinary pieces, representing all kinds 
 of provisions, dead animals, &c. an inferior style, — pieces of 
 architecture, in which the Italians excel greatly — such as 
 sea-ports, streets and public places, pieces representing in- 
 struments of music, or furniture, a very trifling branch 
 of the art; imitations of bas-reliefs; and hunting-pieces 
 which require a peculiar talent, as they unite the paint- 
 ing of men, horses, dogs, and games, to that of landscapes. 
 
 Of these different classes, history-painting, landscape and 
 portrait are the three highest branches. 
 
 To understand the beauties, and appreciate the merits of 
 ihese different kinds of painting, it is necessary to have some 
 knowledge of the rules of the art. An untutored savage may 
 be struck with admiration at the sight of Raphael's Fornarina, 
 or Michael Angelo's Last Judgment. A child may be amus- 
 ed by the contortions or false attitudes of an unskilful perform- 
 ance. But neither of them will be able to give any just idea 
 of the causes in which consist either the beauty of the one, or 
 the deformity of the other. 
 
 The excellence of a painting may arise f om a variety of 
 circumstances— from the correctness of thf perspective, the, 
 happy disposition of the figures, the beauty of the design, the 
 richness of the coloring, or the arrangemeot of the draperies. 
 
108 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 Perspective is called by Da Vinci the reins and rudder of 
 painting. It teaches us how to represent objects as they ap- 
 pear in nature, at different heights or different distances. It 
 shows in what proportion the parts fly from, and lessen upon, 
 the eye ; how figures are to to be arranged upon a plain sur- 
 face, and fore-shortened. A strict observance of the laws of 
 perspective is so necessary, that a single deviation from them 
 has frequently entirely spoilt the finest of Guide's paintings. 
 
 Whenever we hear a story related, we form a picture in our 
 own mind of the action and expression of the persons employ- 
 ed. The power of representing this mental picture on canvass 
 is what is called Invention in a painter. Poetry and painting 
 have been justly called sister arts; but they have one remark- 
 able difference between them. 
 
 The poet in representing his story, relates what has already 
 happened, prepares that which is still to come, and so proceeds, 
 step by step, through all the circumstances of the action. But 
 the painter cannot avail himself of the succession of time and 
 place. He depends upon one single moment. The fortunate 
 choice of this moment shows the painter's skill in invention. 
 
 For example, in Raphael's famous painting of St. Paul at 
 Xystra, he has seized a moment of the utmost interest, by which 
 he has been enabled to bring as many circumstances before 
 the eyes of the spectator, as could have been accomplished by 
 the most elaborate poetical description. 
 
 The cripple stands in front of the piece. He is just restor- 
 ed to the use of his limbs by the Apostle. His eyes are yet 
 beaming with gratitude; while he excites the surrounding mul- 
 titude to participate in his joy, and to join him in doing rever- 
 ence to his benefactor. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 Around the cripple, are various figures, examining, his limbs 
 restored to their proper shape, and attesting by their gestures, 
 full of astonishment, the reality of the miracle. 
 
 A picture of the Fallen Angels, by Rubens, which is in the 
 Dusseldorf Gallery, is wonderful for the brilliancy of the in- 
 vention displayed in it. The Fallen Angels are tumbling one 
 over the other, ' with hideous ruin and combustion, down to 
 bottomless perdition.' In their attitudes, the painter has giv- 
 en loose to the most capricious imagination, yet without devi- 
 ating from the utmost correctness of drawing and propriety of 
 taste. This painting is pronounced, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
 to be one of the greatest efforts of genius that the art has ever 
 produced. 
 
 As the great end of painting is to strike the imagination, so 
 it is the general idea which a painting gives us that constitutes 
 its real excellence. The figures must have a ground whereon 
 to stand; they must be clothed. There must be a back-ground ; 
 there must be light and shadow; but none of these ought to ap- 
 pear to have taken up the attention of the artist. 
 
 The principal grace and effect of a picture depends upon the 
 skill with which the artist adjusts the back-ground, the drape- 
 ry, and the masses of light; yet this art must be so much con- 
 cealed, that even a judicious eye shall not at first view per- 
 ceive the marks of his subordinate assiduity. 
 
 In Invention, an artist must frequently deviate from vulgar 
 and strict historical truth, in order to pursue the grandeur of 
 his design. Thus in the Cartoons of Raphael, he bestows up- 
 on the Apostles, as much dignity as the human form is capable 
 of receiving; yet we are expressly told in Scripture that such 
 
110 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 was not their appearance; and of St. Paul in particular that 
 his bodily presence was mean. Alexander the Great was of 
 low stature; Agesilaus was little and lame. These defects 
 ought not to appear in paintings of which they are the heroes. 
 There is license permitted in this style of painting, as in po- 
 etry. 
 
 Bernini, an excellent sculptor, has fallen into error in this 
 respect, which spoils one of his best works. In representing 
 David throwing the stone at Goliah, in order to give him an ex- 
 pression of energy, he has made him biting his under-lip; thus 
 taking away all appearance of dignity from his hero, and giv" 
 ing him a natural but a vulgar expression. 
 
 Disposition may be considered as a branch of invention, and 
 consists in placing the objects which the mind has imagined in 
 suitable and natural situations. A painter therefore ought 
 • equally to avoid the dry style of the ancients, who marshalled 
 their figures side by side, like so many couples in a proces- 
 sion, and the tumultuous grouping of the moderns, when the 
 figures are frequently jumbled together, as if the^ had met to 
 fight. 
 
 In this branch, Raphael chose the happy medium which is 
 difilicult of attainment. The principal figure in a picture 
 should be distinguishable from the rest at the first glance of 
 the eye. This may be accomplished by the painter in differ- 
 ent ways; either by the conspicuous situation of the principal 
 figure; or by the attention of the inferior figures being direct- 
 ed towards it. 
 
 It is not necessary that the principal light should fall on the 
 principal figure, or that it should be placed in the niiddle of 
 
PAINTING 
 
 111 
 
 the picture. Thus in Le Brun's admirable painting of The 
 Tent of Darius, although Alexander does not stand in the 
 middle of the picture, he is immediately distinguished from the 
 res^, because the eyes of all the other figures are directed 
 towards him. 
 
 On the other hand, Tintoret, in his famous painting of 
 Paradise, which covers one side of the council-chamber at 
 Venice, has disposed his figures so badly, that the eye, having 
 nothing on which to repose, is fatigued by the confused heap 
 of figures which seem to swarm without order or method. 
 
 In the great composition of Paul Veronese, the Marriage ^ 
 at Cana, there are nearly a hundred figures as large as life; 
 yet the eye is neither distracted nor confused. The objects, 
 whether consisting of lights, shadows, or figures, are disposed 
 in large masses, and groups properly varied and contrasted. 
 
 By the help of perspective, the groups are parted at proper 
 distances. The light is supported by sufficient shadow; a 
 certain proportion of ground is allotted to a certain quantity 
 of action; and the whole is conducted with as much appar- 
 ent facility as if it were a small picture immediately under the 
 eye. 
 
112 
 
 PAINTINe. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Of Symmetry or Design. — Models of study for design. — Remark of 
 Michael Anorclo.— Of Drapery. — Best masters in that branch of the art. — 
 Rules for draping a figure correctly. — Of Coloring.— The general effect 
 which coloring produces. — Two modes of coloring. — Different manners of 
 the Italian painters in coloring. — Of the Venetian artists. — Of Titian as 
 separated from the others. — Coloring of the Dutch painters. — Remark of 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds. — Knowledge necessary for producing the desired 
 effect in coloring. — Chief masters in that branch. — Rubens' painting 
 of the Assumption. — Rubens' ^ Crucifixion. ' — Gradual progress of an 
 artist in comprehending the manner of producing natural effects by 
 colors. — Of the Expression of the Passions. — Of the chief masters in that 
 branch of the art. — Remarks on Raphael's Cartoon of St. Paul preach- 
 ing. — Errors of the Venetian painters in regard to Expression. — Of Paul 
 Veronese. — Remarks on Raphael's 'School of Athens.' — Of Costume. 
 * Tragic Muse' of Sir Joshua Reynolds. — Enumeration of the different 
 methods of painting now in practice. 
 
 In Symmetry, which is a necessary study for all painters, 
 the Greek sculptors distinguished themselves, and have never 
 been surpassed by any modern artist. From the Apollo Bel- 
 videre, the Venus de Medicis and the Antinous more know- 
 ledge of symmetry and proportion may be derived, than from 
 volumes written on the subject. A picture which is ill de- 
 signed, that is, in which the rules of symmetry are not observ- 
 ed, can never be highly esteemed by a good judge, however 
 splendid the coloring. Thus Michael Angelo on viewing one 
 of the finest performances of the Venetian school, exclaimed, 
 * What a pity it is, that this man did not set out by studying 
 design ! ' 
 
 Figures are generally clothed in drapery. The flowing of 
 the folds ought not to conceal the elegance of the figure in 
 a painting. Some artists are apt to manage the drapery so ill. 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 113 
 
 that the garments appear like heaps of clothing, winded up 
 and gathered together. 
 
 The best masters in this branch are Paul Veronese, 
 Andrea del Sarto, Rubens, and above all, Guido Reni. The 
 flow of their drapery is soft and gentle; their gold, silk, and 
 woollen stuffs are distinguishable from each other by the 
 quality of their several lustres, by the peculiar light and shade 
 belonging to each; but above all, by the form and flow of their 
 folds. 
 
 To drape a figure well, it is necessary that the folds be 
 large, and few in number; because large folds produce great 
 masses of light and shadow. But should the kind of stuff 
 require small folds, they should be so arranged that a great 
 number of them shall produce the effect of one large fold. 
 
 The movement of the body causes the formation of the fold* 
 of the drapery. Therefore^ drapery contributes to the life, 
 character and expression of the figures, announcing their 
 more lively or tranquil movement. Raphael attained the high- 
 est perfection in this branch of the art. 
 
 With respect to coloring, though it certainly may be con- 
 sidered a more mechanical part of painting, it also has its 
 rules. In order to give to a painting a general air^of gran- 
 deur, which should strike at the first view, a quietness and 
 simplicity should reign over the whole work. To this, a 
 breadth of uniform and simple color, will very much con- 
 tribute. 
 
 Grandeur of effect is produced in two different ways. The 
 one is by reducing the colors to little more than chiaro-scuro. 
 
114 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 This was frequently the practice of the Bolognese schools: 
 the other is, by making the colors very distinct and forcible, 
 as in the Roman and Florentine schools. The latter are more 
 g. and than harmonious; * as martial music, which is intended 
 to rouse the nobler passions, has its effect from the sudden 
 and strongly marked transitions from one note to another, 
 which that style of music requires, whilst in that which is in- 
 tended to move the feelings, the notes imperceptibly melt into 
 one another.' 
 
 The coloring of the Venetian painters, however splendid, 
 was too brilliant and even too harmonious for the solidity and 
 simplicity of an heroic subject. Their object was to dazzle, 
 and in this they perfectly succeeded; but the opinion of 
 Michael Angelo himself was that ' they were too much engross- 
 ed by the study of colors, and neglected the ideal beauty of 
 form.' 
 
 In censuring the Venetian painters, however, most great 
 judges make an exception in favor of Titian, whose portraits 
 have a nobleness and dignity about them, which is not to be 
 met with in the other masters of the same school. 
 
 The Dutch painters are remarkable for their skill in color- 
 ing. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds compares the pictures of Rubens to a 
 nosegay of flowers, where all the colors are bright, clear, and 
 transparent. 
 
 Two points are necessary in coloring; exactness of tints^ 
 and the art of setting them off. The first is acquired by prac- 
 tice. A tint which, near, appears disjoined and of one color, 
 has probably a different eflfect when viewed at a distance. Id 
 
PAINTING. 115 
 
 order to show off these tints, it is necessary to know what 
 effect one color will produce when contrasted with another. 
 
 Titian, Rubens, Vandyke, and Rembrandt excelled in their 
 perfect knowledge of all the varied and natural effects of col- 
 oring. 
 
 In Rubens' fine painting of the Assumption, he has failed in 
 the coloring of the Virgin, the principal figure in the picture. 
 Instead of representing her in the usual drapery of blue and 
 red, she is dressed in a color b.etween blue and gray, heightened 
 with white. The white glory round her head, united with this, 
 gives a complete deadness to that part of the picture. Again, 
 in Rubens' celebrated Crucifixion, the coloring is managed 
 with wonderful skill. The strongest light falls on the body of 
 Christ — of which the coloring is remarkably clear and bright. 
 The brown complexion of the thieves, who stand near the 
 cross, is in strong opposition to this figure, and produces an 
 excellent effect. The outer drapery of the Virgin is dark blue; 
 the inner a dark purple. The St. John is in dark strong red. 
 The head and hands of the Virgin have the light thrown upon 
 them. 
 
 In the first rude attempt of an artist to imitate nature, he 
 would make the whole mass of one color. This was done by 
 the oldest painters. In a short time, he would observe that 
 there are a variety of tints, not only in the object itself, but in 
 the changes produced by the gradual decline of light and 
 shadow. To imitate, these, he would immediately introduce a 
 variety of distinct colors. 
 
 But again experience must convince him that in doing this, 
 he has not yet learnt the most important point. He must 
 
116 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 next find out that variety of color is not sufficient, and that 
 however varied his tints, the whole must be blended together 
 with a union and simplicity such as shall produce the general 
 effect of nature. When he understands this, and can put it in 
 practice, he will become a good colorist. 
 
 Without expression, the finest works must appear lifeless 
 and inanimate. A painter may be able to delineate the most 
 exquisite forms — to compose them well together — to drape 
 them with grace and propriety — to throw over all, the magic 
 of the most brilliant coloring. This is not sufficient. He 
 must also know how to clothe his figures with grief, with joy, 
 with fear, with anger. 
 
 He must write on their faces what they think and feel. He 
 must give them life and speech. In this consists the chief 
 power of painting. Here it was that Domenichino and Pous- 
 sin showed the wonders of the art, as in the St. Jerome of the 
 one, and the Death of Germanicus of the other ;^and here it 
 was that Raphael rose superior to then! all. 
 
 In his Cartoon of St. Paul preaching, Sergius Paulus is 
 represented with his eyes shut. In the work of an ordinary 
 painter, we might have mistaken this attitude for sleeping. 
 But in the work of Raphael, the eyes are closed with such ve- 
 hemence, that it is easy to see that the whole soul is awake — 
 the mind agitated — the thoughts perplexed in the extreme. 
 
 The Venetians, who placed their glory in coloring and imi- 
 tating the rich dress of the various personages who were con- 
 stantly crowding the commercial streets, failed in the expres- 
 sion of the passions. They aimed at charming the senses. 
 They failed in captivating the understanding. For instance 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 117 
 
 in the famous Marriage Feast at Cana, by Paul Veronese, 
 there is a total want of suitable expression in the various fig- 
 ures. 
 
 The water has just been converted into wine. A woman, 
 dressed in red, points out her gown to the bridegroom, perhaps 
 meaning that the miraculous wine is the same color. But in 
 the mean time, not one of the company, either by gesture or ex- 
 pression, betrays the least sign of wonder or concern at so ex- 
 traordinary a miracle. They continue to eat, and drink, and 
 make merry. 
 
 In Raphael's School of Athens in the Vatican, among other 
 parts of the work are four boys attending on a mathematician, 
 who, stooping to the ground with his compasses in his hand, is 
 giving them the demonstration of a theorem. 
 
 One of the boys, thinking within himself, keeps back, with 
 all the appearance of profound attention to the reasoning of his 
 master. He is collecting his thoughts, and endeavoring to fol- 
 fow the argument. Another, by his lively and speaking atti- 
 tude, shows that his apprehension is quicker. A third has al- 
 ready seized the conclusion, and is endeavoring to beat it into 
 the fourth, who stands motionless, with op€n arms, a staring 
 countenance, and an unspeakable air of stupidity, which render 
 it probable that he will never be able to make anything of it. 
 
 Wilh regard to costume, a painter should endeavor to choose 
 the road between two extremes. He should neither despise 
 beauty on the one hand, nor probability on the other. Sir 
 
 Joshua Reynolds recommends that a certain antique air should 
 be preserved, even in the dress ot a modern lady; because the 
 
 idea of ancient simplicity coriesponds with our ideas of digni- 
 
118 
 
 l»AtN1:'lNG. 
 
 ty, which the familiarity of a modern dress does by tto meatus 
 convey. 
 
 Yet, if a painter mixes the antique with the modern, he will 
 destroy the illusion of the scene. Sir Joshua Reynolds him- 
 self has fallen into an error in this particular. He has repre- 
 sented Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, sitting in an arm* 
 chair, which is supported by clouds — Tragedy and Comedy 
 hover over her. Mrs. Siddons wears a modern dress. 
 
 The incongruity of this is evident. If this is a picture of 
 the Tragic Muse, she should not wear a modern dress. If it 
 is a portrait of Mrs. Siddons, she should not be supported by 
 the clouds* 
 
 One rule may be laid down, however, with regard to costume 
 in painting. The more simple the drapery, the less caprici- 
 ous in form, whimsical and complicated, the more noble will 
 the figure appear. 
 
 The different methods of painting now in practice are, 
 
 1. Painting in Oil; which is preferable to all other methods, 
 as it is more susceptible of all sorts of expressions, of more pet- 
 feet gradations of colors, and is at the same time more durable. 
 
 2. Painting in Fresco; which is by drawing with colors dilu- 
 ted with water, on a wall newly plastered, and with which they 
 so incorporate, that they perish only with the stucco itself* 
 This is principally used on ceilings. 
 
 3. Painting with Water-colors; that is, with colors mixed 
 with water and gum, or paste, &c. 
 
 4. Mosaic Painting. It is composed of a great number of 
 small pieces of marble of different colors, joined together with 
 stucco. The works of this kind are made principally at Rome^ 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 119 
 
 where this art has been carried so far as to resemble the paint" 
 ings of the greatest masters. 
 
 5. Miniature Painting, which differs from the preceding, aa 
 it represents objects in the least discernable magnitudes. 
 
 6. Painting in Crayons; for which purpose, colors either 
 simple or compound are mixed with gum, and made into a kind 
 of hard paste like chalk, with which they draw on paper or 
 parchment. 
 
 7. Painting on Enamel ; which is done on copper or gold, 
 with mineral colors that are dried by fire, and become very 
 durable. The paintings on the porcelain of China or Europe ; 
 on Delphic ware, &c. are so many sorts of enamel. 
 
 8. Painting on Glass; such as the windows of churches, &c« 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 9 
 
 i 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Definition of Sculpture. — Its antiquity. — Of Egyptian sculpture. — Divided 
 into tlireo eras. — Different classes of Kiryptian sculpture. — Of the moat 
 celebrated colossal statues. — Causes of the slow pro<rress of sculpture in 
 Eirypt. — Of the posture, attitude, &n. of the colossal firrures. — Groups of 
 the natural size. — Basso-relievos and hierofrlyphics. — Second era of sculp- 
 ture in Kgypt. — Statues belon^in<r to that era. — Third era of EiTyptian 
 sculpture. — Labor of the Kjryptian artisls. — (ieneral character of their 
 works. — Of the other Kastern nations. — Style of the Hindoo sculpture. — 
 Of the Chinese and Persian sculpture. — I'alacc of Persepolis. — Remarks 
 upon Eastern sculpture. 
 
 Sculpture is the art of carving wood, or hewing stone, mar- 
 ble, &c. into images. It is in all probability, the most ancient 
 of the imitative arts. To represent an external form by its 
 actual proportion or magnitude, seems indeed the plainest and 
 simptest mode of imitation. Regarding its origin, many theo- 
 ries have been proposed, and much written by various ingeni- 
 ous authors, each asserting the praise of invention, for some 
 favorite people. 
 
 The antiquity of sculpture may be proved by reference to 
 the Bible. In the book of E.xodus we are told of Laban's ter- 
 aphim, or images, and of the golden calf made by Aaron and 
 9* 
 
124 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 the Israelites, which they worshipped during the absence of 
 Moses on the Mount. We are also told of the statues of the 
 cherubim, which extended their wings over the ark of the cov- 
 enant. But even of the glories of Solomon's Temple nothing 
 remains but description; and the only specimens of Jewish art 
 which can novv be produced, are the piece of money called a 
 shekel, bearing a cup on one side, and an almond branch on 
 the other — the candlestick with seven branches, and the table 
 of shew-bread, on a bas-relief under the arch of Titus. 
 
 We read of the magnificent golden Jupiter in the Temple 
 of Jupiter Belus, in Babylon; and of the statue of Hercules, 
 in Tyre; but of these we can only judge by a comparison 
 with Egyptian art, concerning which we have copious infor- 
 mation and abundant examples. Herodotus tells us that the 
 Egyptians erected the first altars and temples to the gods, and 
 first carved the figures of animals on stone. 
 
 The history of Egyptian sculpture, therefore, fiirst claims 
 our attention; since its authentic monuments carry us up to a 
 very early date; and also tend to unite the scattered lights 
 which doubtful tradition throws over the less perfect remains 
 of Asiatic ingenuity. Sculpture in Egypt may be divided 
 into three eras. The first may be considered as the era of 
 original, or native sculpture; the second, that of mixed, or 
 Greco-Egyptian sculpture; and the third, the era of imitative 
 sculpture. 
 
 The first descends from unknown antiquity, to the invasion 
 of Cambyses. The two remaining eras extend downwards 
 through the successive dominion of the Greeks and Romans. 
 That almost the whole of the Egyptian sculpture was en-ploy- 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 125 
 
 ed for sacred purposes, we have not only the testimony of 
 ancient authors, but the evidence of the stupendous works 
 which still remain, vestiges of ancient grandeur which yet 
 exist on their native site; and numerous specimens in the 
 various cabinets of Europe. 
 
 These remains may be classed under three divisions; 
 Colossal statues, groups or single figures about the natural 
 size, and hieroglyphical or historical relievos. Four kinds of 
 materials were employed by the Egyptian sculptors; one soft, 
 a species of sandstone; the second, a calcareous rock out of 
 which the tombs with their sculptures were hewn; the third, 
 basalt, or trap, of various shades, from black to dark grey, of 
 which the smaller statues were usually composed; and fourth- 
 ly, granite of a warm reddish hue, with large crystals of feldspar, 
 or sometimes, though rarely, of a dark red ground, with black 
 specks; as in the magnificent head, supposed to bo that of 
 Memnon, in the British Museum. 
 
 The Colossal figures were always made of granite. Hero- 
 dotus tells us of two of these stupendous statues; one placed 
 before the temple of Vulcan at Memphis, the other in the city 
 of Sais, by King Amasis, each of which was seventy-five fe^t 
 long. 
 
 Th^ Colossal Sphynx, near the great Pyramid, rises twen- 
 ty-five feet, though nearly buried up to the throat in sand. 
 There is a clenched hand in red granite in the British Mu- 
 seum, which belonged to a statue sixty-five feet high. 
 
 The enormous works of Egypt have struck every traveller 
 who has visited them with wonder and awe. Compared with 
 these; gigantic productions, the works of modern art seem the 
 
136 
 
 SCKLPTUREv 
 
 labors of pigmies rather than of men. Twenty-two colossal 
 statues are still to be seen in the stupendous palace of Car- 
 nac, in Egyptian Thebes, The front of this palace was 420 
 feet long, and its depth nearly three quarters of a mile. Its 
 approach was by four paved roads, bordered on each side by 
 figures of animals. In one avenue, ninety lions, in another 
 sphynxes, in another rams, and in the fourth, lions, with 
 hawks' head^. This building communicated with the magnifi- 
 cent tomb of Memnon, before which stood his statue, fifty- 
 eight feet high. 
 
 Of these mighty labors, some are hewn from the living rock^ 
 and left adhering to the natural bed, such as the sphynx, near 
 the pyramids of Ghizeh, and various statues on the rocks of the 
 Thebaid, which look like the shadows of mighty giants. Others 
 again were built — first reared, with square blocks, and then 
 hewn into shape. But the greater part were composed of one 
 enormous block, raised in the granite quarries of Upper 
 Egypt, and transported to their destination by the waters of 
 the Nile. 
 
 Two circumstances obstructed the progress of the art in 
 Egypt. In the first place, the persons of the Egyptians were 
 devoid of elegance and symmetry; consequently, they had not 
 like the Greeks, standards of proportion by which to model 
 their taste; and secondly, they were restricted by the tyranny 
 of their laws, to the principles and practice of their forefathers. 
 The Egyptian statues stand equally poised on both legs, hav- 
 ing one foot advanced, and the arms either hanging straight 
 down on each side, or if one arm is raised, it is at a right 
 angle across the body. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 Some of the statues are in a sitting posture; others are 
 kneeling, but the position of the hands seldom varies. The 
 attitudes are simple, the faces rather flat ; the brows, eyelids, 
 and mouths, formed of simple curves, slightly, but sharply 
 marked, and with little expression. The draperies are in 
 many instances without folds. When the dimensions are 
 beyond nature, the head is always large out of proportion. 
 This probably proceeded from a mistaken principle, — a desire 
 to render the features more conspicuous at a distance. 
 
 The eye was frequently of a difl^erent material from the rest 
 of the statue, and composed of some precious stone, or metal. 
 The valuable diamond of the late Empress of Russia, the 
 largest and most splendid hitherto known, is confidently 
 asserted to have formed one of the eyes of the famous statue 
 of Schenrgham, in the temple of Brama. 
 
 Although in these statues there is little ease or grace, yet 
 they are invested with a majestic repose, a grand and solemn 
 tranquillity, which strikes the beholder with awe and admira- 
 tion. Occasionally there are approaches to truth and nature, 
 with an unaffected and placid expression, which the best 
 judges, both ancient and modern have considered highly 
 worthy of praise. 
 
 The groups of figures and statues of the natural size which 
 adorn the tombs of the Theban Kings, Elephantis, El Mar- 
 look, &Lc., are the productions of artists of very diflerent periods 
 of Egyptian history. Yet with regard to execution, they are 
 all nearly on an equality. Certain prescriptive rules are ob- 
 served in all, and every one seems copied from a fixed model 
 of imitation. Generally speaking, the workmanship is inferior 
 
m 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 tp that of the colossal figures. The forms of the female face 
 have much the same outline and unvaried character that we see 
 In some of the early Greek statues. 
 
 In many of the Egyptian buildings, the whole of the exterior 
 is covered with basso-relievos, which clearly demonstrate 
 their total want of anatomical, mechanical, and geometrical 
 science, as far as regards either painting or sculpture. There 
 are indeed relievos consisting of a few figures, sepulchral 
 ones, for instance, which often display much beauty and char- 
 acter. But in their historical relievos, which covered the 
 walls of the temples, and which are crowded with figures in 
 action, with processions, battles, sieges, &c., all is feebleness 
 and confusion. The limbs are without joints; proportion and 
 perspective seem alike disregarded. The king or the hero is 
 represented as three times larger than all the other figures. 
 Thus their attempts at historical representation were greatly 
 inferior to their single statues. 
 
 Great praise has indeed been bestowed by competent 
 judges on the Egyptian hieroglyphics; but this must be under- 
 stood as referring solely to the workmanship. These labors, 
 the records of early superstition and primitive history, were 
 of different kinds. The first in use were called anoglyphics. 
 In these the objects were represented by a simple outline, 
 cut to the depth of several inches. The most obvious improve- 
 ment was to round the angles, and relieve the figures upon 
 themselves. The third was to elevate the contour, by reduc- 
 ing the surface both within and without. The fourth was to 
 remove the ground entirely, leaving the figures in proper 
 relief This is the true relievo, and in the ancient arts of 
 Egypt was unknown, or at least unpractised. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 129 
 
 We now come to the second era of Fgyptain sculpture. 
 When the Ptolemies, the successorsof Alexander the Great, be- 
 came kings of Egypt; when Grecian animation began to enliven 
 their mysterious monuments, and Grecian beauty to refine 
 their standard of proportions, attitude, character, and dress; 
 then, the three great divinities, Isis, Osiris, and Oris, were 
 clothed in the Macedonian costume, and new divinities appear- 
 ed amongst them in Grecian forms The term mixed art has 
 been adopted to mark the successive changes which the influ- 
 ence of the Grecian and Persian conquests produced upon 
 Egyptian sculpture. But the Persian influence was of a neg- 
 ative nature. The Persian conquerors prohibited the exercise 
 of sculpture — and destroyed the ancient monuments; for neith- 
 er temples nor altars were permitted in their religion. 
 
 For some time after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander, 
 the original style of sculpture was retained ; and though im- 
 provements were introduced, the style remained essentially 
 Egyptian. The majestic ranges of temples, palaces, and ci- 
 ties which bordered the Nile, were used as quarries for the 
 building of Alexandria; and that splendid trophy of Grecian 
 power was adorned with monuments of native art. 
 
 In the Capitol at Rome, and in the Villa Albani, are three 
 figures which are supposed by Winckelmann to belong to the 
 second era; freer attitude is observable in these ficrures than in 
 the productions of the first era. The form has greater ele- 
 gance and the arms hang more freely. 
 
 Tlie Roman dominion tinally introduced greater variety in 
 the style of Egyptian sculpture. Copies of the ancient forma 
 were multiplied, with an occasional improvement in elegance. 
 
130 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 But it was not till the reign of the Emperor Hadrian that the 
 third, or imitative era, commenced. 
 
 The works which he commanded in Egypt were modelled 
 after the ancient forms. The materials were brought from 
 Egyptian quarries; but the sculptors were Greeks or Italians, 
 and the Grecian character of design is visible in every speci- 
 men of that era which still remains to us. 
 
 The general conclusion is, that there is but one period of 
 real Egyptian sculpture, and that is terminated with the succes- 
 sion of the Ptolemies. 
 
 The Egyptian statues were polished with great care. Even 
 those on the summit of an obelisk, which could only be view- 
 ed at a distance, were finished with as much labor as if they 
 had admitted a close inspection. It is impossible to view 
 these works without admiring the indefatigable patience of the 
 artists. 
 
 Of the methods employed to work the unyielding materials 
 of which their statues were composed, it is difficult to give 
 any decided opinion. On their porphyry, granite, and basalt, 
 modern tools can hardly make any impression. Yet the forms 
 are highly finished, and the angles are sharp and unbroken. 
 It would appear that the effect has been produced by unwea- 
 ried patience and labor, rather than by rapid, or dexterous 
 management. The style of the native Egyptian sculpture is, 
 simplicity in the extreme, and a magnitude in their colossal 
 works, which is awful; but the simplicity is so excessive, that 
 one face, and one set of forms, is observable in all their works. 
 Their animals are superior to their human statues; the object 
 of their art was to deliver symbolically an historical fact, a 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 131 
 
 precept of philosophy, or a divine mystery. Life, sentiment, 
 or spiritual beauty is never to be met with in these representa- 
 tions. 
 
 Yet Egypt may be considered as the cradle of the art, from 
 whence the first principles of improvement descended to the 
 Western world; and from whence the Eastern world derived its 
 entire knowledge. Of the other Eastern nations, the myste- 
 rious monuments of Hindu sculpture, alone seem to equal in 
 antiquity those of the Egyptians. The stupendous temples of 
 Ellora, Elephantis, and other parts of India, are adorned 
 throughout with mythological sculpture. They represent al- 
 legorical personages, various attributes of divine power, some- 
 times in single statues, and sometimes in groups of figures. 
 
 In simplicity, it strongly resembles the sculpture of Egypt 
 It has also the same sober, massive, and unpretending cliarac- 
 ter. But in science, and likeness to nature, it is inferior; as 
 also in the beauty of the countenance, and in the proportion 
 of the figure. There are, however, some smaller Hindu 
 works of bronze and ivory, remarkable for great finish and 
 delicacy; and the Hindu religion has furnished various poet- 
 ical and extraordinary compositions which are more elegant 
 and singular than any thing which we have seen in the pub- 
 lished antiquities of Egypt. 
 
 There are many who maintain the superior antiquity of In- 
 dian art over all others: this opinion appears exceedingly 
 doubtful. Chinese sculpture has also been supposed to re- 
 semble the Egyptian; but their labors are much more trifiing 
 and covered with ornament than those of either Egypt or In- 
 dia. Of Peruvian architecture there remains but one statclj 
 
132 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 ruin, Petsepolis, the * palace of a thousand columns;' the 
 residence of the Persian monarchs, and the wonder of ancient 
 Asia. Forty of its columns still exist, ascended by mag- 
 i^ificent flights of steps, and approached by gateways and 
 fragments of walls, covered with basso-relievos, representing 
 the military power, pomp, triumphs, and sacrifices of the Per- 
 sian monarchs. These relievos have some resemblance to 
 the style of the Egyptian basso-relievos in the palace of Thebes; 
 but it is observable that all the Eastern sculpture which still 
 exists, though bearing a general resemblance to that of Egypt, 
 is neither simple nor uniform in design. The lines are broken 
 into compartments, the ornaments are complicated, and a labor- 
 ed taste seems to have arisen upon the severe and simple con- 
 ceptions of the primitive style. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Introduction of sculpture into Greece — Its principal seats — Contempora- 
 ries of Daedalus — Lite and works of that artist — Remarks upon Etrurian 
 sculpture— Pupils of Daidalus — Characteristics of the scuJpture of that 
 period in Greece — Of the Ionian and Ciiian schools — Chief masters of 
 these schools — Their principal works — Characteristics of the art as it in- 
 creased in progress — Of Dipoeniis and Scyllus — Of sculpture in Magna 
 Grecia — Of the native artists in these colonies — Of Anthemius and 
 Bupaius — Of the predecessors of Phidias — Their chief wprks — State of 
 the art at that period. 
 
 AccoRDixG to ancient history, the Greeks did not emerge 
 from barbarism, till long after the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and 
 Indians had arrived at a considerable degree of civilization. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 133 
 
 The Pheniciaiis and Egyptians introduced amongst them the 
 religion, letters and arts of their parent countries. If the 
 Greeks derived the rudiments of the art from foreign nations, 
 it must redound much to their honor that in a few centuries 
 they carried them to such perfection, as entirely to echpse the 
 fame of their masters. 
 
 When Cambyses the Persian conquered Egypt, tlie arts 
 there had been in a progressive state of improvement from be- 
 fore the time of Moses — a period of about one thousand years. 
 In Greece the arts rose to hi^h perfection in nine hundred 
 years; that is, from their rudest beginnings before the time of 
 Daedalus, to the reign of Alexander the Great. 
 
 We are told that twelve gods were worshipped in Arcadia 
 under the forms of rude stones. The eyes of the prmiitive 
 statues were nearly shut, and the arms attached to the sides. 
 Such indeed was the state of the art in Greece, about twelve 
 centuries before Christ. 
 
 Sicyon, Egina, Corinth, and Athens were the first seats of 
 commerce and of sculpture. From the school of Sicyun ma- 
 ny of the most celebrated masters have issued. Its founda- 
 tion is attributed to Dibutades, a potter, who is said to have in- 
 vented the art of modelling. Sicyon has been styled the 
 ' Mother of the Arts.' The earliest sculptor of Egina whom 
 we read of, was Smilis. His statue of Juno is considered by 
 Pliny to be the most ancient image of that goddess; and it is 
 said that his works were distinguished for a gravity and severe 
 grandeur, which may still be remarked in the noble marbles 
 which formerly adorned the temple of Jupiter in that island. 
 
 About 1234 years before the Christian era, a sculptor ap- 
 
134 SCULPTURE. 
 
 peared, whose praise was sung by poets, and recorded by his^ 
 torians; and whose works were long admired and preserved. 
 This was Daedalus, the Athenian contemporary with Theseus, 
 king, of Athens; scarcely inferiorj.in fame and adventures, to 
 that renowned hero. 
 
 In the account which we have of his works, fable is mingled 
 with reality. Daedalus- was born of a royal race. He was 
 the friend and sometimes the adversary of kings. In his life- 
 time his works were held in high esteem, and after his death, 
 a chapel was erected by the Egyptians to his memory. 
 Among his labors were the fine portico which adorns the tem- 
 ple of Vulcan at Memphis, and the Cretan Labyrinth^ which 
 was a copy of a hundredth part of the Egyptian Labyrinth. 
 His wooden Hercules was also very celebrated; and he made 
 a figure which moved like life by means of quicksilver contain- 
 ed in it. Homer in his Iliad, mentions the chorus of Ariad- 
 ine, a group of youths and damsels dancing hand in hand. 
 This was sculptured by Daedalus in white stone. In the Brit- 
 ish Museum are several small bronze figures of Hercules, gen- 
 erally supposed to be copies of the wooden statue by Daedalus; 
 His style was remarkable for a rude attempt at bold action^ — 
 traits of savage nature in the face and figure, little science, 
 but strong feeling. * The works of Daedalus,' says Pausanius, 
 ' are indeed rude, and uncomely in aspect, but yet they have 
 something as of diviuity in their appearance.' 
 
 There are many persons who suppose that sculpture was 
 introduced by Daedalus into Etruria or Tuscany, before the 
 seige of Troy — -and that the Etrurians carried the art to per- 
 fection at an earlier period than the Greeks. The style of 
 
SCULI»TUR15. 
 
 135 
 
 4h6 Etruscan artists was harsh and overcharged, a fault from 
 which Michael Angelo himself was not free. 
 
 Among the monuments of Etrurian art which still exist, two 
 different styles have been observed. In the first, the attitude 
 is too stiff, the figure too slender, and the formation of the 
 head devoid of beauty. The eyes are flat and looking as- 
 kance. These are the defects of an art in a state of infancy, 
 and these errors may be seen in the first statues of the Goths, 
 as well as in those of the Florentines. 
 
 The second style was probably introduced about the time of 
 Phidias, when sculpture had attained perfection in Greece. 
 But to describe the second Etruscan style is almost the same 
 as to describe the style of Michael Angelo, and his numerous 
 imitators. 
 
 It is by tracing the progress of sculpture in Greece, that we 
 trace the history of the art itself; and although the birth-place 
 of Daedalus has been disputed, we may consider him as the 
 first of the Greek sculptors, and the inventor of a new and im- 
 proved style, 1234 years before the Christian era. His con- 
 temporaries were Dibutades and Smilis. To him Athens owed 
 the introduction of something like a school of sculpture. In 
 these primitive schools, however, many centuries necessarily 
 elapsed, before a sculpture could be considered as a regular 
 art. Their founders and pupils were little more than ingeni- 
 ous mechanics, who practised carving amongst other avoca- 
 tions. 
 
 Endoeus, the pupil of Dnedalus, made a statue of Minerva, 
 which was preserved in the Acropolis of Athens; and from 
 which it is supposed that the heads of Minerva, on the earlj 
 
136 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Athenian coins, were copied. Epeus and Icmulous also 
 flourished about the same period; the former immortalized as 
 the fabricator of the famous Trojan horse, the latter praised in 
 the Odyssey, as having sculptured the throne of Penelope. 
 These, with many others of less fame, contributed to keep 
 alive the knowledge of sculpture during the heroic ages of 
 Greece. 
 
 Daedalus and Endoeus formed their statues of wood. Metal 
 was also used for various purposes of sculpture in Greece. In 
 these early times, the rude efforts of the sculptors were intend^ 
 ed to represent heroes and divinities only. Jupiter, Neptune, 
 and several heroic characters have the same face, figure, and 
 action, as the Hercules of Daedalus — the same narrow eyes, 
 thin lips, and pointed chin. Their only distinctions were, 
 that Jupiter held a thunderbolt, Neptune a trident, and Her- 
 cules a palm-branch. These figures are still to be seen on 
 many ancient vases, small bronzes, and coins of Athens and 
 Paestum. 
 
 The female divinities were clothed in draperies divided in- 
 to fe,w perpendicular iolds; their attitudes the same as those 
 of the male deities. The hair of both male and female statue^ 
 was arranged with great care, collected in a club behind, and 
 sometimes entirely curled. 
 
 Besides the continental school of Greece, the Ionian school 
 flourished in those delightful islands which lie along the coast 
 of Asia Minor, and chiefiy in Samos and Chios. Rhoecus wa« 
 a native of Samos, who lived 777 years B. C. He was a sculp- 
 tor in brass, and obtained great celebrity. Telecles and The- 
 odoras, his son and grandaon, were also celebrated sculptors. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 137 
 
 Their works in ivory, wood and metal were extant in the age 
 of Pausanias. 
 
 The Chian school claims the merit of having first introduced 
 the material to which sculpture owes its perfection; viz. mar- 
 ble. Malas, the founder of this school, is said to have the mer- 
 it of this invention. He flourished 649 years before Christ. 
 His followers were very illustrious, and owed much of their 
 superiority to the facility of procuring the beautiful marbles 
 of their native islands. 
 
 These sculptors left their art in the commercial cities of 
 Greece, where protection and encouragement enabled them 
 to pursue their labors with profit and security. It is supposed 
 that statues made of bronze were also first introduced by the 
 artists of Chios. 
 
 About 776 years B. C, Dipoenus and Scyllis, pupils of the 
 Sicyon school, were celebrated for their marble statues. Their 
 works in Parian marble were admired in the time of Pliny, aod 
 were afterwards held in peculiar veneration. 
 
 Their compositions retain much of the ancient manner; of 
 which the characteristics were, energy, but harshness of de- 
 sign, animation without gracefulness, and a violence of ex- 
 pression which deprived the whole figure of beauty. 
 
 Elaborate finishing was soon afterwards carried to excess; 
 undulating locks, and spiral knots of hair like shells. The 
 drapery was wrought with the most elaborate care, while the 
 tasteless and barbarous character of the face and limbs re- 
 mained the same. 
 
 There are several colossal heads, now in the British muse- 
 um, which are supposed to be the works of Dipcenus and Scyl- 
 10 
 
138 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 lus. These, though freer from the faults of the ancient style 
 than most of the productions of that period, afford an admira* 
 ble illustration of the style of ancient Grecian art. 
 
 In Magna Grecia also, sculpture was gradually advancing 
 in taste and excellence, its chief seats were at Rhegium and 
 Crotona in Italy, and in Sicily, Syracuse, and Agrigentum. 
 Dionysius of Rhegium was the first who composed a statue of 
 Homer. It was of bronze, and from it were taken numerous 
 portraits of the father of verse, which are mentioned by Pliny 
 as being common in his time. Of these there still remain two 
 exquisite examples. Five centuries and a half before the 
 Christian era, sculpture was practised with success through- 
 out Greece and her colonies. The school of Sicyon contin- 
 ued to send forth the most numerous and the greatest artists. 
 Of these the principal were Learchus, a native of Rhegium; 
 Tecteus and Angelion, who erected the colossal statue of 
 Apollo at Delos; and Perillus of Agrigentum, who cast the 
 famous bull of Phalaris. 
 
 . In the year 517 B. C. Anthemus and Bupalus, the two Chian 
 brothers, sons of Anthermis, introduced great improvements in 
 the art of marble sculpture. Greece and Asia strove to possess 
 their works, many of which were afterwards carried to Rome 
 by Augustus. On some of their statues was inscribed the fol- 
 lowina verse: 'The sons of Anthermis will render thee, O 
 Chios, more renowned than thy vines have yet done.' From 
 this period to the battle of Marathon, sculpture improved 
 throughout Greece. At Athens, Pisistratus laid the founda- 
 tion of a new school, which produced the greatest masters of 
 the art. Under his protection, the most esteemed artists of all 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 139 
 
 descriptions were assembled; Eucharis famous for his warriors 
 in armor; Gallon, for his bronze statues; and Caliimachus. 
 who introduced a lightness and elegance in his figures hither- 
 to unattained. 
 
 The Barbarini Palace yet possesses a splendid antique, rep- 
 resenting the two Muses, the work of Canachus and Aristo- 
 cles, artists of Sicyon, belonging to this period. 
 
 B. C. 490, was the victory of Marathon, which destroyed 
 the Persian power, and gave a beginning to the Grecian, or 
 third great monarchy of the world. From this date, to the 
 government of Pericles, intervenes a period, the brightest per- 
 haps, in moral grandeur, in the annals of Grecian history. 
 
 The sculptors who then flourished were the immediate pre- 
 decessors, and some the contemporaries of Phidias. Calamis 
 was renowned for his horses, Critias for his statues of Har- 
 modus and Aristogiton — Onatas for his admirable statue of 
 Gelon, King of Syracuse; and Glancias for an iconic figure of 
 Theogines, of Thasos. But Pythagoras, a native of Rhegium, 
 surpassed all his predecessors. Some of his works exhibited 
 deeper sentiment and truer feeling than had yet appeared in 
 any work of statuary. 
 
 His chief works were his statues of Euthymus and Astylas, 
 conquerors in the Olympic games; and his statue of Philocte- 
 tes, remarkable for justness of proportion, and delicacy of 
 style. 
 
 Myron was a native of Eleutherae, and exercised his profes- 
 sion chiefly at Athens. The decline of his life corresponds 
 with the earliest labors of Phidias. He thus unites the first 
 and second ages of Grecian sculpture ; and in many of his 
 10* 
 
140 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 works combined the greatest beauty of style, with the remain- 
 ing harshness and defects of the primitive manner. 
 
 His chief works were in bronze; his most colossal, in wood. 
 No original of his has descended to us, but his famous Discob*' 
 olus is preserved to us in many antique copies. His composi^ 
 tions were distinguished for energy, science, and truth. His 
 statues of Bacchus, Erichtheus, and Apollo, executed by 
 order of the state, were the admiration of Athens. 
 
 His representations of animals were admirable, and thirty- 
 six are still extant, composed in praise of his famous heifer. In 
 representing the mere external form, Myron carried the art of 
 sculpture to perfection; but, in touching the heart, or raising 
 the imagination, his genius failed. 
 
 The Grecian sculptors had now, however, discovered, that 
 to render a work of art beautiful as a whole, the parts and 
 proportions must correspond with the general character. This 
 at least was ^n admirable ground-work for the sublimity and 
 refined taste of the beautiful, which distinguished the next 
 era. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 141 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Birth of Phidias — Great men who flourished at the same period — His 
 works divided into three classes — Description of his Olympian Jupiter 
 — Of his Minerva — Admiration excited by these works — Of his statues in 
 marble and bronze — Improvements introduced by Phidias — Description 
 of the temple of Minerva — Scholars of Phidias, with some account of 
 their works — Contemporary artists — His banishment and death— Re- 
 marks upon the style of Phidias. 
 
 Phidias was born at Athens, in the seventy-second Olym- 
 piad, 490 years before the Christian era. He was the son of 
 Charmidas, an Athenian citizen, and studied under the sculp- 
 tor Eladas. He flourished at the same period with the phi- 
 losophers, Socrates, Plato, and Anaxagoras; with the statesmen 
 and commanders, Pericles Miltiades, Cimon, Themistocles and 
 Xenophon; and with the tragic poets, iEschylus, Euripides, and 
 Sophocles. No period could be more favorable to produce 
 the display, and to encourage the growth of genius. 
 
 The numerous works of Phidias belong to three distinct 
 classes: toreutic, or statues of mixed materials, chiefly ivory; 
 statues of bronze, and figures in marble. Besides these, which 
 include his chief performances, he also practised in wood, 
 plaster, clay, and labored in minute carving. 
 
 He excelled in all these difterent styles. His grand under- 
 takings were executed with sublimity and force; and his mi- 
 nute labors with truth and simplicity 
 
 To the first divison belong his Olympian Jupiter, and the 
 Minerva of the Parthenon. The former, which has excited 
 the wonder and praise of succeeding ages, was placed in the 
 Temple at Elis. It represented Jupiter sitting on a splendid 
 
142 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 throne, carved with exquisite skill. In his right hand he held 
 a sceptre, in his left he extended victory to the Olympian Con* 
 querors. His head is crowned with olive, and his pallium 
 decorated with birds, beasts, and flowers. 
 
 The four corners of the throne were dancing Victories, each 
 supported by a sphinx, tearing a Theban youth. At the back 
 of the throne, were the three Hours, or Seasons, and the three 
 Graces. On the pannels and base were represented various 
 stories of the heroic ages; and on the pedestal, an assembly of 
 the gods, the sun and moon in their cars, and the birth of Ve- 
 nus. The height of the work was six:ty feet. The statue was 
 of ivory, enriched with golden ornaments and precious stones, 
 and has with justice been esteemed one of the seven wonders 
 of the world. 
 
 His Minerva was forty feet high, composed of gold and ivo- 
 ry, and fully equal to h*:s Jupiter in beauty of workmanship 
 and richness of material. The goddess was represented in an 
 erect attitude, and clothed in a flowing tunic. In one hand she 
 held a spear, and upon her hdad was a casque. On the ground 
 was her buckler, exquisitely carved; the concave side repre- 
 senting the war of the giants; and the conve^x a conflict with 
 the Amazons. Among the Athenian combatants was a portrait 
 of Phidias himself, and his patron, Pericles. 
 
 On the golden sandals was sculptured the battle of the Cen- 
 taurs, praised by historians as a perfect gem of minute art. 
 
 So much were these works admired, that they were regard- 
 ed as having added majesty to religion itself; and it was es- 
 teemed a misfortune to die without having beheld them; yet 
 Phidias himself disapproved of the mixed eflTect produced by 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 143 
 
 the combination of different substances; and powerful as the 
 impression was of these colossal statues, rising in all their 
 magnitude amid the dim light of the ancient temple, yet the 
 effect produced was altogether different from the solemn re- 
 pose — the simple majesty of expression, in which the true sub- 
 limity of sculpture consists. 
 
 Of the bronze and marble statues of Phidias, the most cele- 
 brated were his Venus, placed by the Romans in the temple 
 of Octavia; and two Minervas, one at Lemnos, and the other 
 in the Acropolis. The last was of such lofty proportions, that 
 her crest and helmet might be discerned above the battlements 
 of the citadel at a distance of twenty-five miles; a land-mark 
 to the Athenian mariner, as he rounded the promontory of 
 Sunium. 
 
 The character of the ancient figures was stiff and meagre, 
 with poor drapery, resembling geometrical lines. The supe- 
 rior genius of Phidias gave a grandeur to his compositions, a 
 grace to his groups, a softness to the Hesii, and flow to the 
 drapery, unknown to his predecessors. 
 
 The temple of Minerva in ihe Acropolis was built by Icti- 
 nus and Callicrates, under the direction of Phidias, and form- 
 ed a worthy shrine for the magnificent statue of the goddess. 
 The two pediments of the teinplc were each eighty-eight feet 
 long, filled with groups and statues from eight to nine feet 
 high. The subject of the western pediment related to the 
 birth of the goddess, and her introduction to the gods; that of 
 the eastern to the dispute between Neptune and Minerva for 
 the patronage of Athens. 
 
 A frieze of 330 feet, round the wall of the temple under the 
 
144 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 portico, was decorated with the procession of the Grecii».K. 
 States in honor of Minerva, in chariots and on horseback, 
 bearing offerings and presenting the sacred veil, while the 
 gods upon their thrones were assembled in solemn state to 
 witness the ceremony. 
 
 Specimens of the metopes and basso-relievos under the porti- 
 co astonish us by their grandeur, to which the utmost simplici- 
 ty and elegance are united; and it is fortunate for the arts in 
 Britain, that they possess various undoubted originals of Phi- 
 dias, which will for ever supply a criterion by which to esti- 
 mate all that is beautiful and great in the art.* 
 
 Of the scholars of Phidias were Alcamenes, celebrated for 
 his Venus Aphrodite, to which Phidias is said to have given 
 the last touches, and Agoracritus of Paros. Among his con- 
 temporaries, Polycletus, the second of his name, has been 
 thought by some to equal the great Athenian in majesty. His 
 most celebrated performances were the statues of two youths, 
 
 * Some have supposed that the famous statue of the Apollo Belvidere^ 
 which now adorns the Vatican, was copied from an Apollo by Phidias — but 
 others regard it as the work of Calamis, an Athenian statuary. Sublime in 
 beauty, and terrible in anger, this wonderful statue excites the admiration 
 at once of the ignorant and of the learned. 
 
 * Or view the Lord of the unerring bow, 
 The God of life, and poesy, and light — 
 The sun in human limbs arrayed, and brow, 
 All radiant from his triumph in the fight ; 
 The shaft hath just been shot, the arrow bright 
 With an immortal's vengeance ; in his eye 
 And nostril beautiful disdain, and mioht. 
 And majesty, flash their full lightnings by. 
 Developing in that one glance the Deity.' 
 
 This poetical description is equally correct and beautiful. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 145 
 
 the Diodumenes and the Doryphorus, so called from their ac- 
 tion of binding the head with a fillet, and bearing a spear. 
 The latter statue was a model of perfect proportion, which ev- 
 ery succeeding artist, even Lysippus, considered as his stand- 
 ard. 
 
 Ctesiphon also was an artist who disputed with Phidias him- 
 self the public prize of merit for a statue of Ephesian Diana; 
 and he has been frequently considered, though probably with- 
 out foundation, as the sculptor of the finest specimen of art 
 now in existence — the Dying Gladiator. No ancient statue 
 has discovered so profound a knowledge of the internal struc- 
 ture of the human frame as this. 
 
 Among other emulators of Phidias, we hear of Critias, Nes- 
 tocles, and Hegias; also of Agelades, Gallon, Phragmon, 
 Gorgias, Lacon, and Scopas. These sculptors were employ- 
 ed on the temples of Minerva and Theseus, and in the relievos 
 which remain to us it would probably be easy to trace some 
 of the artists, by a rosrmblance to others of their known 
 works. 
 
 Envy drove Phidias into banishment, and, after his death, 
 which took place some time before that of his patron, the his- 
 tory of art is carried forward through the most stormy and un- 
 settled period of Grecian annals. With Phidias himself, the sub- 
 lime style perfected by him seems almost to have expired. 
 The art did not decline, but beauty and grace began to be 
 preferred to the more heroic and masculine style of his works. 
 
 The style of Phidias, therefore, as forming an era of itself, 
 deserves a peculiar examination. In the marbles of the Brit- 
 ish Museum, which formerly adorned the Parthenon, we may 
 
146 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 trace his practice, and behold his wonderful conceptions. 
 Grandeur is the prevailing principle; but it is the grandeur of 
 simplicity and nature. There is no parade or ostentation, 
 but an ease and grace which make us forget, as we gaze upon 
 them, that time and labor have been employed in their forma- 
 tion. 
 
 The ancients compared the effects produced by the works 
 of Phidias, to those of the eloquence of their greatest orators; 
 in which the whole soul was borne along in one engrossing 
 feeling. But Demosthenes was stern and severe ; Phidias 
 sweet and gracious, even while energetic. 
 
 To use the language of the ancients in speaking of him, he 
 united the three great characteristics of truth, grandeur, and 
 refinement. His practice was scrupulous in detail, yet won- 
 derful for its majesty, gravity, breadth, and magnificence. 
 His handling was rapid, broad, and firm, yet never departing 
 from minute correctness. 
 
 In this happy union of nature and imagination, of lofty sen- 
 timent and simple truth, Phidias stands without a rival among 
 the masters of the ancient world.^ 
 
 * In speaking of the ancient statues, the famous antique Torso must not 
 be forgotten, though it is quite uncertain to what period it refers. It is 
 the fragment of a statue, supposed to have been that of the Hercules Far- 
 nese, of which nothing remains but the trunk, as the name imports. It 
 has excited the admiration of connoisseurs, and the disputes of antiquaries. 
 * Who,' says Sir Joshua Reynolds, ' ever looked at the Torso without feel- 
 ing a warmth of enthusiasm, as from the highest efforts of poetry ? A 
 mind elevated to the contemplation of excellence perceives in this defaced 
 and shattered fragment, the traces of superlative genius, the relics of a 
 work on which succeeding ages can only gaze with inadequate admira- 
 tion V 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 147 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Progress of sculpture in Greece — Its third style — Masters who flourished in 
 the interveninfT period — Their most celehtated works — Birth of Praxi- 
 teles — The Venus of Cnidos— Style of Praxiteles— His chief works — 
 Birth of I.ysippus — His principal compositions — The Venetian Horses — 
 State of the art at the death of Alexander the Great — Artists who flour- 
 ished after Lysippus and Praxiteles — The CoIosbus of Rhodes — The Lao- 
 coon— Fall of the arts in Greece. 
 
 Sculpture had now advanced progressively, from a style of 
 simple and severe majesty, to one of more studied elegance 
 and softer character. This change had already commenced in 
 the life-time of Phidias, and was developed by those artists 
 who flourished at the commencement of the Macedonian Em- 
 pire. 
 
 The third style is termed the era of the Beautiful. It com- 
 menced with Lysippus and Praxiteles; but between these two 
 divisions of Greek sculpture, the Grand and the Beautiful, sev- 
 eral artists worthy of notice formed a kind of intermediate 
 chain. 
 
 The names of nearly fifty sculptors of this intervening peri- 
 od, have been handed down to us by Pausanias, Strabo and 
 Pliny. Among these, Naucydes was the author of that beau- 
 tiful figure, holding a discus, and measuring the distance in 
 his own mind, of which various antique copies remain; and 
 which is remarkable for its fine position, sweet variety of con- 
 tour, and unaffected expression. 
 
 Scopas, the author of the famous group of Niobe, was born 
 370 years before Christ; and was the most eminent artist of 
 his time. His Niobe is now in the Florentine gallery. The 
 
148 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 sentiment expressed in her countenance, is the sublimity of 
 maternal affection. She exposes her own life, to shield her 
 child from the celestial arrow. The separate statues of Ni- 
 che's children, are remarkable for the same heroic beauty 
 which distinguishes the countenance of their mother; — but 
 mingled with fear and agony. 
 
 Scopas was also the sculptor of Venus, now in the British 
 museum. Grvice, softness, and truth, were the characteris- 
 tics of his style. 
 
 Leocharis, Bryaxis, and Timotheus, were contemporary ar- 
 tists, and assisted in the erection of the tomb of Mausolus, 
 which was built under the direction of Scopas. 
 
 Ctesilas was famous for his wounded man, in whom life 
 still remained. It is probable that this statue is the same as 
 the Dying Gladiator. 
 
 Praxiteles was born in the 104th Olympiad, 364 years B. C. 
 He was a native of Magna Grecia, but of what town, is uncer- 
 tain. He is celebrated for many works — but he is immortal- 
 ized as being the sculptor of the Venus of Cnidos; which 
 offered the first idea of the famous Venus de Medicis. 
 
 The temple, in which this celebrated statue was placed, was 
 entirely open; because, from every point of view, the statue 
 was equally admirable. Many sailed to Cnidos for the purpose 
 of viewing it. 
 
 This Venus was still in Gnidos, during the reign of the em- 
 peror Arcadius, 400 years after Christ. The Venus de Medi- 
 cis, which adorns the Florentine gallery, has furnished matter 
 of dispute to the learned; but from the Venus of Praxiteles, 
 
 c 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 149 
 
 was certainly taken the idea of that perfect statue, which ' en- 
 chants the world;' 
 
 * The unruffled mirror of the loveliest dream, 
 
 ' That ever left the sky on the deep soul to beam.' 
 
 Praxiteles was the first, perhaps the sole, master who attain- 
 ed the true ideal in female beauty — the perfect union of femi- 
 nine grace, with the dignity of intellectual expression. His 
 Venus of Cos was the perfection of a draped statue. 
 
 Among his other known works, were his Satyr, Cupid, 
 Apollo, the lizard-killer, and Bacchus leaning on a fawn. These 
 still remain, either in originals or repetitions. 
 
 Praxiteles succeeded in uniting softness with force, ele- 
 gance and refinement with purity and simplicity — and external 
 beauty of form with the colder but loftier charm of expression 
 emanating from the mind. 
 
 Lysippus, the contemporary and rival of Praxiteles, was 
 born at Sicyon, in the 114lh Olympiad. He was originally a 
 tinker or brazier, but the consciousness of genius, raised him 
 out of this low sphere, and he applied himself to study under 
 the painter Eupompus. 
 
 The chief works of this great master, were in bronzr. His 
 Tarentine Jupiter, sixty feet high, was equal in magniiude to 
 any undertaking in the ancient world; and twenty-one eques- 
 trian statues of Alexander's body-guard, who fell at titc Gra- 
 nicus, must have been a work of extraordinary labor. 
 
 But he was not only famous in great works; he produced 
 others of the most delicate and beautiful description. Exqui- 
 site finish, a faithful imitation of nature, and a perfect knowl- 
 
150 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 edge of symmetry, distinguished his works. Alexander the 
 Great held him in such high estimation, that he forbade any 
 one else to cast his statue, upon pain of death. x\nd centuries 
 afterwards, an insurrection of the Roman p(jople, which made 
 the tyrant Tiberius tremble in his palace, was caused by the 
 removal of one of the statues of Lysippus, from the public 
 baths. 
 
 Of the six hundred and ten works attributed to Lysippus, 
 not one survives. 
 
 The famous Venetian horses, which formerly stood on the 
 Place Carousel in Paris, and have since been restored to St. 
 Mark's, have been attributed to Lysippus; but on doubtful 
 testimony. They are besides wholly unworthy of his reputa- 
 tion. 
 
 With the death of Alexander, the arts declined in Greece, 
 but it was a brilliant and a long decline, and extended through 
 nearly two hundred years, from the dismemberment of the 
 Macedonian empire, till Greece became a Roman province. 
 
 To this period, belong many of the antique marbles, now re- 
 maining. The names of Cephissodorus, the son of Praxiteles, 
 and of his pupils, and those of Lysippus, Tauriscus, Eubolas, 
 Pamphilus, Polyceutas, and Agasias, are celebrated in the 
 annals of Greek sculpture. The famous work of Agasias was 
 his heroic statue, of the Fighting Gladiator. The famous Co- 
 lossus of Rhodes is supposed to have been the work of Chares,, 
 a pupil of Lysippus. It was a brazen statue of Apollo, or the 
 sun, placed across the entrance of the harbor, its feet placed 
 upon two rocks, so that the Rhodian vessels could pass undier 
 its legs. It was seventy cubits high, or one hundred English 
 
SCULI>TURE. 
 
 151 
 
 feet. Few persons could embrace its thumb. Sixty years af- 
 ter its construction this monstei of art was laid low by an 
 earthquake, which broke it off at the knees. When the Sara- 
 cens conquered Rhodes, A. D. 684, it was beaten to pieces, 
 and sold to a Jew merchant, who loaded above nine hundred 
 camels, with its spoils. Some authors believe that Chares 
 commenced the statue, but that Laches, his fellow countryman, 
 finished it after a labor of twelve years, and placed it upon its 
 pedestal. It was ranked among the seven wonders of the 
 world. 
 
 After this, the labors of the artists seem to have been chief- 
 ly confined to copies of the works of the older masters; or to 
 marble repetitions of the ancient bronzes. One bright inter- 
 val arose in Greece, upon the declaration of freedom to their 
 states by the Romans. 
 
 For thirty years after this period, sculpture was cultivated 
 with success by Anthcus, Callistratus, Polyclcs, Apollodorus, 
 and many other great masters. The famous group of the Lao- 
 coon, is supposed to have been the work of Apollodorus, Athe- 
 nodorus, and Agesander of Rhodes. 
 
 The agony of the father and his sons; the children's appeal 
 to the father, and the father's to the gods, is pathetic in the 
 extreme. The convulsed rise of the youngest child from the 
 ground produces an electrit^al effect. 
 
 ' Or, turning to the Vatican. 2:0 see 
 
 Laocoon's torture dignifying pain — 
 
 A father's love and mortal's agony 
 
 With an immortal patience blending — vain 
 
 The struggle ; vain, against the coiling strain 
 
 And gripe, and deepening of the dragon's grasp, 
 
152 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 The old man's clench ; the long envenom'd chain 
 Rivets the living links,— the enormous asp 
 Enforces pang on pang, and stifles gasp on gasp.' 
 
 But the Achaean League was dissolved; the independence of 
 Greece terminated, and the knell of freedom and the arts re- 
 sounded throug^h her land. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Two divisions of sculpture in Italy — Remains of Etruscan sculpture- 
 Etruscan medals, geins, and vases — Fall of the art in Etruria — Of sculp- 
 ture at Rome — Plunder of the Grecian cities — Anecdote of a Roman Gen- 
 eral — State of the art till the reign of Hadrian — New style introduced in 
 Rome — Close of the annals of aacient art — Remarks on the superiority 
 of Grecian sculpture', and its causes. 
 
 The history of sculpture in Italy may be divided into two dis- 
 tinct classes; the Etruscan and the Roman. Of the former 
 we have already spoken, as having attained an equal if not a 
 prior degree of excellence, as compared with Greece. 
 
 The remains of Etruscan sculpture are not numerous, and 
 of these the authenticity of some is doubtful. They consist of 
 medals and coins; statues of bronze and marble; relievos; 
 sculptuied gems; engraved bronze; and paintings. 
 
 The coins and medals are the most numerous and beautiful. 
 They are all cast of a compound metal. Of the statues, it is 
 difficult to decide whether they are Greek or Etruscan. En- 
 graving upon gems was brought there to great perfection at 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 153 
 
 ^Sin early period. Of this minute but beautiful art, the oldest 
 specimen now extant represents five of the seven chiefs who 
 fought against Thebos. Of these the workmanship is i ude ; but 
 there are other Etruscan gems, called scarabei, from their re- 
 semblance to the shape of a beetle, which are exquisite per- 
 formances. 
 
 The most curious and most numerous remains of Etruscan 
 art are their engraved bronzes, called patera, which were 
 small vessels used in sacrificing, circular, and with a ha/udle. 
 It was after the Etrurian territory was reduced to the limits of 
 Etruria Proper, that the national arts flourished there; and 
 that their national style was formed. But the Romans inva- 
 ded their tranquillity. Etruria sunk beneath their rude des- 
 potism, and 480 years after the building of Rome the Etruscan 
 school ceased to exist. 
 
 Sculpture was never cultivated in Rome as a native acquire- 
 ment. For a long period of years, the victorious and warlike 
 Romans possessed only sufficient knowledge to value the ge- 
 nius of others. From Volsinium alone they carried off two 
 thousand statues, and from Rhodes three thousand. Marcellus 
 plundered Syracuse of her numerous works of art, as trophies 
 of his victorious arms. 
 
 Rome was enriched with the plunder of Greece, and we are 
 told that Cato opposed the introduction of Greek statuary, fear- 
 ing lest its divine forms would expose to ridicule the rude and 
 uncouth Roman deities. When Corinth was sacked of her 
 treasures, the inhabitants offered a large sum for a picture of 
 Bacchus which the Roman soldiers had converted into a table. 
 The Roman general instantly suspected that the picture must 
 11 
 
154 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 contain gold, from the value which they set upon it, and 
 delivered it to a messenger, ordering him to carry it safely to 
 Rome, under penalty of being obliged to paint one equally 
 good. Thus the republican taste was pretty much in keeping 
 with the state of the art at Kome, characterized by TibuUus, 
 when he says, 
 
 ^ In paltry temple stood the wooden god.' 
 
 During the latter period of the commonwealth, Sylla, Pom- 
 pey, and Caesar attempted in succession to encourage the art 
 in Rome. But they only succeeded in collecting in their capi- 
 tal numerous Grecian sculptors, who employed their talents 
 in immortalizing the features of their conquerors. 
 
 The sculptors of the Augustan age are all Greek, and chief- 
 ly Athenian. The most eminent were Pasiteles, Arcesilaus, 
 Zopirus, and Evander.* From Augustus to Trajan, a period of 
 140 years, the principles and practice of the Greeks continued 
 to be observed. The arches raised to Titus, Trajan, Marcus 
 Aurelius, Severus, and Constantine, were all executed by 
 Greek artists. 
 
 They breathe the spirit of the people they commemorate. 
 The figures consist of mobs of Romans in armor, bearing down 
 scattered Germans, Dacians, and Sarmatians — soldiers felling 
 timber, binding captives and slaughtering without mercy. 
 The whole are vulgar in the conception, and savage in senti- 
 ment. 
 
 In the reign of Hadrian, a new style of sculpture was intro- 
 duced, which may be properly considered Roman. It is char- 
 It is probable that the beautiful group of Cupid and Psyche was the 
 work of an artist of this period. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 155 
 
 acterized by minute finish; the labor of the hand, with little 
 invention of the mind. Over all, there is an air of studied and 
 affected refinement, with no expression of nature or character. 
 
 From the reign of the Antonines, to that of Constantino, 
 sculpture in Italy declined rapidly; and after Constantine, the 
 annals of ancient art may be considered as closed. 
 
 Yet Grecian geuius never wholly slumbered. In the midst 
 of every disadvantage, conquered and enslaved, they still con- 
 tinued to exercise the art of design. Even till the taking of 
 Constantinople by the Turks, in the fifteenth century, they 
 employed themselves in small works of great elegance and 
 beauty. 
 
 Their manifest superiority over all other nations, in the art 
 of sculpture, may be attributed to a variety of causes. The 
 influence of climate on personal beauty is universally ac- 
 knowledged. In the mild and genial temperature of Greece, 
 the human form possessed, in perfection, all the symmetry of 
 muscular strength, and all the delicacy of female beauty. 
 
 Models were before the eye of the sculptor, worthy to rep- 
 resent his brightest idea of divinity. No tyrannical laws, as 
 among the Egyptians, impeded the progress of the arts. 
 
 Sculptors were held in high estimation; whereas amongst 
 the Romans, the ait was long considered a mere mechanical 
 profession, and a fitting employment for slaves. Among the 
 Greeks, an artist might be a legislator, a statesman, or a com- 
 mander of armies. The greatest sages of Greece rewarded 
 the productions of art in their general assembly, and the sculp- 
 tor who had executed a work with ability and taste, was confi- 
 dent of obtaining immortality. 
 II* 
 
156 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Effects upon the art, caused by the irruptions of the barbarians — The arts 
 begin to revive in Italy — Western Europe derived its knowledge of 
 Sculpture from the Greeks — Preserved by them during- the dark ages — 
 Cathedral of Pisa — Of Nicolas Pisano— Andrea Tafi — Chief masters in 
 the 14th century — Donatelio the Florentine — Some account of his works 
 — Progress of Sculpture in the IGth century — Chief artists of that period 
 — Remarks upon the state of the art, and its characteristics during the 
 .14th and 15th centuries — Florence in the 16th century — First works of 
 Michael Angelo — Character of his Sculpture — llis most celebrated com- 
 positions — His cotemporaries and pupils — Of Torrigiano — Benvenuto 
 Cellini — State of the art at the close of the 16th century. 
 
 From the fifth to the tenth century of the Christian era, the 
 irruptions of the barbarians into the provinces of the Roman 
 empire, spread universal devastation. The works of ancient 
 genius were buried under the ruins of temples and palaces; 
 and the finest monuments of architecture were converted into 
 fortresses. 
 
 It was not till the dawn of liberty, in the republican cities of 
 Italy, that the arts began to emerge from darkness. Venice, 
 Genoa, and Pisa were the first to enrich their countries by 
 commerce; and the Venetians, in the building and decoration 
 of St. Mark's, first began to emulate the style of Grecian 
 sculpture. 
 
 Schools of painting, sculpture, and architecture, were form- 
 ed in Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; and the tal- 
 ents produced in them were employed in the cause of reli- 
 gion. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the art of sculpture was de- 
 rived by western Europe from the Greeks. Even during the 
 reigns of those emperors, by whom the Christians were most 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 157 
 
 cruelly persecuted, when obliged to worship their God in the 
 silence and darknesss of sepulchral chambers, they adorned 
 these retreats with portraits and subjects from scripture. And 
 when Constantino and his successors built the Santa Sophia, 
 and the church of the Apostles at Constantinople, they were 
 adorned with Grecian mosaics and statues. 
 
 There still remain, in the libraries of the Emperor of Austria 
 and the King of France, Greek works of great beauty, execu- 
 ted during the middle ages. In the eleventh century, the 
 splendid church of Pisa was built by a Greek artist. It 
 has received the honor of being allowed to have taken the 
 lead in the restoration of art. Its cathedral, baptistery, fall- 
 ing tower, and cemetery, present a scene of architectural mag- 
 nificence, which is not to be equalled in the world. 
 
 Before the close of the 13th century, sculpture began to be 
 practised by native artists in Pisa and the neighboring cities 
 of Etruria. The founder of this primitive school was Nico- 
 lo Pisano. The works of this master, and those of his schol- 
 ars, are still to be seen in their native city. 
 
 His grandson, Andrea Tafi, a Florentine, was the cotempo- 
 rary of Cimabue. He studied under the Grecian artists, who 
 were decorating the interior of the church of St. Mark's at 
 Venice, and afterwards went to Florence to exercise his art. 
 There, in conjunction with Apollonius, a Grecian painter, he 
 executed the mosaics in St. John's Baptistery at Florence. 
 
 In 1350, the first ^Academy of Design was established at 
 Florence; and before the close of the century, sculpture was 
 successfully practised throughout Italy. Among the artists of 
 Pisa, John Pisano, the son of Nicolo, was one of the chief 
 
158 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 masters of his time. His statues of the Virgin and Child are 
 highly celebrated. Both he and his father improved their 
 taste by the study of the antique basso-relievos in the Campo 
 Santo. 
 
 The compositions of John and Nicolas Pisano are simple 
 and intelligible, and their female figures have much elegance 
 of movement and drapery. Andrea Ugolino Pisano, from the 
 school of these sculptors, designed and executed in bronze 
 the oldest gate of the Baptistery in Florence. The compart- 
 ments represent the life of St. John. His compositions have 
 a gothic and simple grandeur. He died in 1345. 
 
 The next distinguished restorer of sculpture was Donatello, 
 the Florentine, born in 1383. At the age of twenty he was al- 
 ready eminent in his profession; and many of his works might 
 stand a comparison with the best productions of ancient 
 Greece. 
 
 In the Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral of Florence, 
 there is an alto-relievo of his, representing two singing boys; 
 a production of extraordinary beauty. In the Florence galle- 
 ry is a bronze statue by Donatello, supposed to be a Mercury, 
 of which the delicate proportion are scarcely excelled by the 
 best works of antiquity. His marble statue of St. George is 
 simple and energetic. He stands upright, his hands resting 
 on his shield before him. Michael Angelo, after admiring 
 this statue for some time in silence, suddenly exclaimed, 
 ' March.' 
 
 It was also to a statue of Donatello's representing St. Mark, 
 that the same great master addressed the emphatic words,. 
 * Marco, perch^ non mi parli ?' Donatello died in 1466, at 
 the advanced age of eighty-three. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 159 
 
 The fifteenth century to which Donatello belonged, was a 
 splendid era in the progress of the arts. Brunellcschi was 
 the author of a Crucifixion, wliich represents the suffering 
 Saviour in a manner which the coldest eye cannot regard 
 with indifference. 
 
 Lorenzo Ghiberti has immortalized his name by the bronze 
 gates of the Baptistery of St. John. He occupied forty years 
 in this work. The subjects are upon pannels in relievo, and 
 taken from historical passages in scripture. Michael Angelo 
 declared that they were worthy to be the Gates of Paradise. 
 
 Among other distinguished sculptors of that period, were 
 Jacomo della Quercia, who died in 1418 ; Nicolo di Banco, 
 in 1421 ; Luca della Robbia, in 1442; also Francisco di Val- 
 danbrind, and Simon dvi Colle, Tuscans. 
 
 The pupils of Donatello were numerous, and include most 
 of the chief masters of the latter part of the 15th century. 
 The art did not languish in their hands, yet they did not add 
 greatly to the value of modern sculpture. Andrea del Ver- 
 rochio, who lived towards the close of the century, is chiefly 
 known as being the master of Pietro Perugino and Leonardo 
 da Vinci. 
 
 The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries may be termed the 
 infancy of modern sculpture. With the fifteenth its manhood 
 begins; and at the close of that period it had in some respects 
 attained its full vigor. 
 
 The first era is distinguished by a character of truth and 
 simplicity, which begin from the time of Nicolo Pisano. A 
 certain degree of restraint is observable in these early labors, 
 but they are simple and unpretending, with much sweetness 
 and depth of feeling in the expression. 
 
160 
 
 SCULPTURE.. 
 
 In the succeeding century, the style becomes more eleva- 
 ted, though equally simple and true. The execution is bold, 
 without departing from nature. 
 
 At the beginning of the sixteenth century a spirit of refine- 
 ment, and a love of elegance pervaded Italy. Florence in- 
 deed, from her peculiar advantages, soon distanced all rivalry. 
 Her schools were open to all, and her enlightened patrons^ 
 the family of the Medici were as yet but merchants, or simple 
 citizens. 
 
 The era has been compared to that of Pericles, and Micha- 
 el Angelo was the Phidias of the country which he adorned 
 with his labors.^ Michael Angelo commenced his career as an 
 artist, by various works of sculpture; a Sleeping Cupid, a Bac- 
 chus and young Fawn, the Colossal David, and a group of a 
 sitting Madonna, bearing the dead Christ on her knees. 
 
 The character of Michael Angelo's sculpture has frequent- 
 ly been criticised as deviating from the simple purity of Gre- 
 cian art; but his style is lofty and original. Force, fire, and 
 enthusiasm animate every limb of his figures. They do not 
 exhibit that simplicity and repose which is considered essential 
 to the beauty of the art. The attitudes are frequently con- 
 strained, the proportions exaggerated, the forms unnatural, 
 and seeming to possess a superhuman energy. 
 
 These works startle and astonish, but do not delight us. 
 Still they are entitled to the first place among the productions 
 of modern sculpture. The tombs of the Medici exhibit his 
 style, with all its faults and its wonders. The pensive sitting 
 
 * For an account of Michael Angelo's Life, we refer to the History of 
 Painting. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 161 
 
 figure of Lorenzo de Medici is freer from the former than 
 most of his other works. His recumbent statues of Daybreak 
 and Night, in the same chapel, are mysterious and grand, and 
 worthy of the painter of the Last Judgment. 
 
 The Moses, of Michael Angelo, on the tomb of Julius 
 II. at Rome, is a matchless performance. Its prototype 
 is to be found neither in art nor nature. We behold an awful 
 and commanding being, who strikes us with wonder, but fails 
 to inspire us with interest. It is one of the best proofs of the 
 singular imagination of this extraordinary artist. 
 
 Torrigiano was a cotemporary of Michael Angelo, to whom 
 the English are indebted for the monument of Henry VII. 
 in Westminster Abbey, finished in 1510. Michael Angelo 
 bore all his life the mark of a severe blow on the nose given 
 him by this sculptor, in return for a sarcastic remark made by 
 him on Torrigiano's drawing, when they were both young 
 men, studying in the church of the Carmelites. 
 
 Benvenuto Cellini, in his own Life, gives an account of Tor- 
 rigiano. He describes him as a handsome man, with an ungov- 
 ernable temper, and the air of a bravo, continually talking of 
 his feats among the hears of Englhhmen, with whom he had re- 
 sided. 
 
 His death happened in 15'22, and in a melancholy manner. 
 Having gone to Spain, he was employed b) the Duked'Arcas, 
 to execute a Madonna and infant Christ in marble. When the 
 group was finished, the Duke sent two lackeys loaded with 
 money to defray the purchase, and to bring home the work. 
 When the bags were opened, they were found to contain noth- 
 ing but brass maravedis, amounting only to the small sum of 
 thirty ducats. The disappointment so enraged Torrigiano, 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 that he took his mallet, broke the image in pieces, and dismiss- 
 ed the lackeys with their load of farthings. The grandee, 
 enraged at the insult, impeached him before the Inquisition 
 as an infidel and a heretic. He was condemned to lose his 
 life by torture; and to avoid the horrors of the execution, he 
 starved himself to death in prison. 
 
 Among the cotemporaries of Michael Angelo, were Baccio 
 Bandinelli, born at Florence in 1487, an eminent sculptor, but 
 who is accused of having destroyed, from jealousy, the cartoons 
 of Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci; Sansovino, who 
 presided with celebrity over the art at Venice, and various 
 others of considerable eminence. 
 
 Raphael di Monte Lupo was his favorite pupil and assistant ; 
 ^nd Danti his closest imitator. John of Bologna, a Frenchman 
 by birth, was his most eminent scholar, and famous for the 
 grace and delicacy of his ' Venus coming from the Bath.' 
 
 Benvenuto Cellini was born at Florence in 1500, and died 
 in 1570. He was a painter, goldsmith and sculptor. His 
 group of Perseus and and Medusa is highly esteemed. 
 
 Propertia Rossi is one of the few female names that we meet 
 with among the sculptors of this period. She was famous for 
 her bust of Count Guido, and two marble angels in the church 
 of St. Petronia. She died in 1530. 
 
 At the close of the sixteenth century, the genius and prin- 
 ciples of Michael Angelo extended their influence over the 
 whole of Europe, though beyond the confines of Italy, the art 
 had made little progress. 
 
 Even there, for the last thirty years, the art had been on the 
 decline, and the seventeenth century opened with few favora- 
 ble presages for sculpture. 
 
aCDLPTORE. 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Of Bernini — His st_yle — Cotemporary artists — Gonelli — Rusconi — Zumbo — 
 Transalpine sculpture — Ot the first Frenoh sculptors — Pilon — John of 
 Bologna — Girardon nnd Pu^et — Their different styles and chief works 
 Succeeding artists — Of Spanish sculpture — Of Berruguese, Fernandez 
 and others — of German sculpture — Chief artists in Germany — Present 
 state of the art there — Of Canova — His life and works — Beauties and de- 
 fect of his style — Of Thorwaldsen — Some account of his works and style 
 — Present state of the art in Italy. 
 
 A CROWD of undistinguished names followed the dissolution 
 of the great Tuscan school. And the first great master who 
 appeared after this era, struck into a new path, still more full 
 of error than his predecessors. Bernini was born at Naples 
 in 1598. His powers of execution were wonderful, but his style 
 was in general affected and unmeaning. He considered the 
 ancient simplicity, poverty and meanness. The compositions 
 of Michael Angelo more forcible, but too severe. He there- 
 fore tried to introduce a third style, in pursuit of which he 
 carried the art still farther from all that is simple and true in 
 nature. 
 
 His object was to produce effect, by startling attitude, forc- 
 eel expression, and voluminous drapery. His Apollo and Daph- 
 ne are his best works, which are very numerous. Bernini 
 died in 1680. Among his contemporaries were Algard and 
 Fiammingo, both sculptors of merit. Gonnelli, surnamed the 
 blind man of Cambassi (the name of his native town in Tusca- 
 ny) executed several figures in terra cottn after losing his sight 
 at the early age of twenty. His statue of Cosmo, First Grand 
 Duke of Tuscany, was made after he was blind. 
 
164 
 
 SCUI/PTURC. 
 
 Camillo Rusconi, born at Milan, 1658, was the next sculptor 
 of eminence after Bernini. H« followed the principles of that 
 artist, but his talents were inferior, and in his hands the art de- 
 clined still more rapidly. Zumbo was another Italian artist, who 
 executed his statues in colored wax. His celebrated work is La 
 Corruzione, executed for the Grand Duke of Tuscany. 
 
 It consists of five figures, exhibiting a dying man and four 
 decayed corpses. They are shocking from their truth and cor- 
 rectness. Zumbo died in 1701. 
 
 During the time that has elapsed. Transalpine sculpture is 
 scarcely worthy of notice. The first eminent French sculptor 
 appears to have been Jean Goujon, who in 1550 completed 
 the celebrated Fountain of the Nymphs. Jean Cousin, his 
 cotemporary, executed several works which have much delica- 
 cy and grace, but little strength or correctness. 
 
 The works of John Pilon were more remarkable for energy 
 than for simplicity and truth. Towards the conclusion of this 
 century, John of Bologna introduced the principles of Michael 
 Angelo into France. He is generally reckoned an Italian 
 sculptor, though born at Douay. 
 
 His Jupiter Pluvius was a colossal statue, so large that with- 
 in the head is a capacious pigeon-house, and in the hollow of the 
 trunk a grotto adorned with shells and fountains. He died in 
 1608. His numerous pupils continued his style throughout 
 France, until the reign of Louis XIV. 
 
 Of this school, two artists, Girardon and Puget, claim to be 
 the head. The former was an artist of great merit. He 
 was born at Troyes in Champagne in 1630. His manner 
 of design with a degree of hardness is yet noble, and though 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 165 
 
 Cold, more correct than that of his cotemporaries. The mau- 
 soleum of Richelieu, in the church of the Sorbonne at Paris, 
 and his equestrian statue of Louis XIV., are his two first works. 
 
 Puget, though very opposite to Girardon in style, was 
 the favorite of his countrymen, who are fond of comparing 
 him with Michael Angelo. He was born at Marseilles in 
 1662, and in his fiery, energetic manner, is not dissimilar to the 
 great Florentine master; but his expression is studied, his 
 science inaccurate, and his forms want both grace and noble- 
 ness. 
 
 His best works are the statue of Milo, placed in the Park 
 at Versailles; his Alexander before Diogenes; and his last 
 work, which was left unfinished and is now at Marseilles, rep- 
 resenting the plague of Milan. He died in 1694. 
 
 The succeeding artists followed his style more generally 
 than that of Girardon. The names of Le Gros, Theodon, 
 Le Pemtre, Desgardins, Coyseveux, Vancleve, the two 
 Coustous and Bouchardon, are among the most distinguished 
 of those artists who flourished in France at the close of 
 the seventeenth, and during the early part of the eighteenth 
 century. The French sculptors of the present day are more 
 distinguished for science, than either for feeling or invention. 
 Their works have the correct symmetry and proportions of the 
 Grecian statues, without possessing either their sentiment or 
 expression. 
 
 With regard to Spanish art, Bermudez, the historian, enu- 
 merates a splendid list of native sculptors from the com- 
 mencement of the sixteenth century. But in this he has 
 shown too much national partiality, and has ranked as mas- 
 
166 
 
 ters those whose names are little known, except as having 
 contributed to adorn the churches of Spaih. 
 
 Berruguete, a pupil of Michael Angelo, appears to have 
 founded the first regular school in that country, of which Paul 
 de Cespides was the chief ornament. This eminent man was 
 born at Cordova, and was admirable for the elegance and pu- 
 rity of his drawing, as well as for the noble air of his figures. 
 
 Fernandez, at the beginning of the 17th century, followed in 
 the style of Michael Angelo, and embellished Valladolid and 
 other cities with his works. Pujol of Catalonia was admirable 
 for his draperies; Montaguez, for his expressive and natural 
 attitudes. 
 
 In the 18th century we hear of Salvador, surnamed the Ro- 
 man, who died in 1776, and among a crowd of inferior names, 
 of Philip di Castro, who contributed greatly to the improve- 
 ment of sculpture in Spain. He died in 1775. 
 
 Before the 17th century, we hear little worthy of notice in 
 German sculpture. Germany is even now more celebrated 
 for good writers on the philosophy of the art, than for artists 
 who practised it. Still the genius of the nation seems highly 
 favorable to its progress there; though at present, it lan- 
 guishes for want of encouragement. 
 
 RauchmuUer and Messerschmidt were artists of eminence at 
 Vienna. Schluter, of Hamburg, practised the manner of 
 Michael Angelo. Leygebe, who died in 1683, was famous for 
 his little equestrian statues formed out of ingots of iron. There 
 were other German artists of note living at the commence- 
 ment of the present century — among these, Nahl, Sonnens- 
 chein, and Ohnmacht; with the two Shadofs, the younger of 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 167 
 
 whom is celebrated for his exquisite and simple statue of the 
 Spinning Girl. It is probable that sculpture will flourish in 
 Germany, if the artists will adhere more to nature and simpli- 
 city, and avoid that striving for striking effect which has dis- 
 figured their best productions. 
 
 We have already observed the rapid decline of sculpture in 
 Italy, in the hands of those artists who followed the false taste 
 of Bernini, with a genius inferior to their master. Before the 
 middle of the 18th century, truth, feeling, and beauty had 
 disappeared from the labors of the sculptor. 
 
 It was in the midst of this corruption of taste, that the ge- 
 nius of Canova, appearing the brighter from the universal 
 darkness that surrounded it, rose superior to every obstacle, 
 and arrested the attention of Modern Europe. This distin- 
 guished artist, equally respectable for talents and virtues^ was 
 born in 1757, in Possagno, in the Venetian territory. 
 
 In liis youth he followed the humble occupation of a stone- 
 cutter. At the age of fourteen he went to Venice, where, 
 through the benevolence of the fathers of a convent, he was 
 enabled to set up a work-shop. After a hard struggle with 
 poverty, which lasted for fifteen years, he produced his first 
 great work, the monument of Ganganelli, in St. Peter's ; a 
 wonderful performance for its vigor and correctness; and yet 
 more for its departure from the false taste of the age. 
 
 A series of two hundred compositions followed this noble 
 production; works which adorn Europe, and might have Ibrm- 
 ed the labors of a generation. They may be divided into 
 three classes; heroic subjects; compositions of softness and 
 grace ;, and monumental erections and relievos. 
 
188 
 
 SCtJLi»tUR^. 
 
 Some have denied his superiority in the first of these depart- 
 ments. They have considered him as excelling in the beau- 
 tiful, rather than in the grand; yet in many of his groups and 
 single statues, he has attained the loftiest aims of sculpture. 
 His Perseus is remarkable for manly and vigorous beauty of 
 form. His Pugilists is one of the most classical of modern 
 art. His Theseus, Hercules, Ajax, and Hector with many 
 other statues belonging to the heroic style, are all remarkable 
 for their boldness yet delicacy of execution, as well as for 
 their learned design. 
 
 In the second class, however, are the most beautiful compo- 
 sitions of Canova. His Venus recumbent, his Nymph, and 
 Cxipid, are exquisite specimens of beauty and grace. But 
 his female forms want dignity, and when the Venus de Medi- 
 ci is compared with the Venus of Canova, we are forcibly 
 struck with the superiority of the former. 
 
 Canova's Venus stands in the centre of the boudoir of the 
 Pitti Palace at Florence, which is brilliantly illuminated, and 
 lined with mirrors, to reflect her figure in ail directions. Her 
 attitude is constrained, and wanting in the grace and simpli- 
 city which distinguish her Grecian prototype. 
 
 In his monumental works, Canova displays all the excel- 
 lence of his genius. Of his architectural works, adorned with 
 colossal figures, the most magnificent specimens are the tombs 
 of the Popes at Rome, of Alfieri at Florence, and of the Arch- 
 duchess Maria Christina, at Vienna. 
 
 His tablets in relievo are eminently beautiful, and his grand 
 relievo of the O'Hara family mourning over the funeral couch 
 of the deceased wife and daughter, equal anything in the 
 whole compass of the art. 
 
SCULPTUftE> 
 
 169 
 
 The only defect of Canova is a meagreness, and want of 
 vigor in his female statues. His great perfection consists in 
 his having discovered the happy medium between the un- 
 moved serenity of the antique statues, and the marked and 
 striking attitudes of Michael Angelo's figures. 
 
 But it is not in himself and in his works alone, that Canova 
 should be viewed. It is in reference to the age in which 
 he lived, and the state of degradation in which he found the 
 art. Wher| we recollect this, and the elevated condition in 
 which he left it, we must agree that no other artist has con- 
 tributed so eminently to the progress of sculpture. Canova 
 died in 1823; and there was scarcely an Italian, however 
 elevated or mean his station, whether among the noble of the 
 land, who were his companions, or the learned who admired 
 his works, or the poor to whom he was a generous patron, 
 who did not mourn his death as a personal affliction. 
 
 Thorwaldsen the Dane now occupies public notice, as the 
 chief master of the modern school. This distinguished 
 artist was born at Copenhagen, in 1771. His designs are 
 remarkable for their freshness and originality, guided by the 
 purest taste. His genius is forcible, but it is perhaps more 
 striking from its peculiarity than from its real excellence. 
 
 His works are the creations of a fancy seeking for effect in 
 singular combinations, rather than in general principles. 
 His works are remarkable for simplicity and imposing expres- 
 sion, but his simplicity is sometimes without grace, and his 
 severity without refinement. 
 
 Yet there are compositions of Thorwaldsen's which it is 
 difficult to criticise ; such for example as his two exquisite 
 12 
 
170 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 pieces of Night and Aurora, his Venus Victrix, which ap^ 
 proaches the Venus de Medicis more than any modern stat- 
 ue, — his simple and natural representation of a Shepherd, — or 
 his Triumph of Alexander, one of the grandest compositions 
 in the world. 
 
 His ideas are singular; and his powers of fancy frequently 
 surpass those of execution. As an individual artist, he is 
 worthy of the eminent station which he holds in Europe ; but 
 Thorwaldsen will have little influence upon the state of the 
 arts. He stands alone, depending upon the powers of his 
 original genius, — but he has no imitators. 
 
 The artists in Italy almost universally copy the style of 
 Canova; but with more of the failing to which his works in- 
 clined, — elaborate grace. And it may be generally remarked, 
 that the imitators of a great master, in their desire of modell- 
 ing themselves upon his style, exaggerate his defects, and 
 turn that which before was only on the verge of error, into a 
 positive blemish. 
 
SCUL1*TURE. 
 
 171 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 15f!ect of the Roman (>onquest upon the Arts in Britain— Statue of King 
 Cadwallo — Roman Antiquities in Britain — State of Sculpture at the 
 period of the Saxon Conquest— Of the Crusades — Chief work of Statuary 
 from that period till the reign of Homy the VIII. — Birth of Grinling 
 Gibbons — Account of his life and various work - , with the state of Archi- 
 tecture at that period — Of Caius Gabriel Gibber— His style of sculp- 
 ture — His statuary at Cliatsworth — His fig-ures of Madness and Melan- 
 choly — Of Louis Francis Roubilliac — His statue of Handel, and other 
 works — His monument to Mrs. Niorhtingale — His style of sculpture — 
 His character and death— Joseph Wilton — His life and works. 
 
 AMO^^G the ancient Britons who lived in huts, and dressed in 
 skins, little progress in the art of sculpture could be expected. 
 Some rude coins have been handed down to us, wliich they 
 had probably copied from Tyrian or Carthaginian models, as 
 they had a commercial intercourse with these countries. 
 
 When the Romans conquered the island, the natives imi- 
 tated their conquerors by building temples, baths, and many 
 other magnificent structures, adorned with statues, groups, 
 and various sculptures. Two bronze lieads of INIinerva and 
 Diana found at Bath, are specimens of British sculpture dur- 
 ing the Roman dominion. 
 
 For 200 years after the departure of the Romans, the 
 Britons continued to cast great works in bronze. An old 
 English author tells us that * King Cadwallo being buried in 
 St. Martin's church, his image ,^reat and terrible, triumphant- 
 ly riding on horseback, artificially cast in brass, was placed 
 on the western gate of the city, to the further fear and terror 
 of the Saxons.' This statue was probably more barbarous 
 and terrible than truly great; for when Cadwallo died in 677. 
 12* 
 
172 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 the Goths, Franks, and other barbarians, had nearly extin- 
 guished the liberal arts in Europe. 
 
 Of the Roman altars and tablets, found in Britain, the 
 workmanship is extremely rude. They are carved in native 
 stone. Most of the mosaics represent Bacchus, or, Orpheus 
 playing on a lyre. Fragments of cups have been found in 
 England, adorned with basso-relievos, beautifully modelled, 
 of Mercury, Apollo, Venus, and other heathen deities. 
 
 The Saxons destroyed the works of Roman grandeur in 
 Britain; and erected clumsy imitations of the Roman build- 
 ings which they had ruined. Immediately after the Norman 
 conquest, figures of the deceased were carved in bas-relief, 
 on their grave-stones. Examples of these may be seen in the 
 cloisters of Westminster Abbey, and in the statues of St. 
 Oswald and Bishop Wulstan in Worcester Cathedral. 
 
 When the Crusaders returned from the Holy War, they 
 began to decorate the architecture with rich foliage, and to 
 introduce statues against the columns. Specimens of these 
 may be seen in Rochester Cathedral. 
 
 In 1242, Bishop Jocelyne rebuilt the cathedral of Wells, 
 adorned with alto-relievos of the Creation, the Deluge, &c.; 
 statues of kings, queens, and saints — and representations of 
 the Last Judgment, with groups of angels and apostles attend- 
 ing upon our Saviour. ^ 
 
 The statues are ill designed, and deficient in principle, 
 and much of the sculpture is rude and severe; yet in many 
 parts there is a beautiful simplicity, sentiment and grace, 
 greatly surpassing more modern productions. Nicolo Pisano, 
 he restorer of Italian sculpture, was exercising the art in Italy 
 at the period during which this great work was executed. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 173 
 
 Edward I. raised magnificent stone crosses to the memory 
 of his queen, Eleanor. Three of them still remain, in Eng- 
 land, and the statues have much grace and delicacy. They 
 partake of the character of Pisano's school, and were probably 
 executed by some of his scholars. 
 
 In the reign of Edward III., painting, sculpture, and 
 architecture, were greatly encouraged. The profusion of 
 historical sculpture, and rich foliage, which adorn the cathe- 
 drals of York and Gloucester, exhibit beautiful specimens of 
 the art at that period. 
 
 The monuments of Aylmer de Valence, and Edmund Crouch- 
 back in Westminster Abbey, are also splendid examples of 
 English art. The solemn repose of the principal statue, sur- 
 rounded by light arches, pinnacles, and spires, ornamented 
 with rich and profuse foliage; the delicacy of thought in the 
 group of angels bearing the soul to heaven, the tender con- 
 cern expressed in the statues ranged round the basement, for- 
 cibly arrest our attention, and elevate our thoughts to higher 
 scenes. 
 
 But the greatest display of sculpture, left by former ages, 
 for admiration, is the Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey, 
 built by Henry VII., to receive his tomb. The number of 
 statues without and within this chapel, formerly amounted to 
 three thousand. Torrigiano, an Italian sculptor, assisted ia 
 the formation of the tomb, but the statues are native produc- 
 tions. 
 
 In 1538, Henry VIII. issued an edict for the destruc- 
 tion of images; and in 1541, in the reign of Edward VI., 
 an order to this effect was still more strictly enforced. Yet, 
 
174 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 during the abasement of native art, many eminent sculptors 
 prevented its total decline, and among these, the name of 
 Stone may be particularly mentioned. 
 
 The first name of eminence in British sculpture, is that of 
 Grinling Gibbons, born about 1652, — it is supposed in Holland, 
 of English parents. Among the first specimens of his works 
 in London, were the capitals, cornices, and eagles, of Dorset- 
 garden Theatre. 
 
 Chance having brought him acquainted with John Evelyn, 
 he was introduced by that accomplished writer to king Charles 
 I., who gave the artist a place in the Board of Works, and 
 employed him in ornamenting his palaces, and also in the 
 chapel at Windsor, where the simplicity of the foliage executed 
 by Gibbons, has been much admired. 
 
 In those days, the walls and projections of houses were 
 everywhere ornamented with rich architecture, borders and 
 entablatures of flowers, leaves, and fruit, mingled with figures 
 of angels, birds, and beasts. All was rich and indiscriminate 
 profusion, and the sober and severe decoration of the Greek 
 temples was entirely forgotten. 
 
 The pedestal of king Charles' statue at Charing Cross, 
 carved by Gibbons, is considered admirable for the beauty of 
 its proportions, and the boldness of the touch. Among his 
 other works, were a magnificent tomb for Viscount Camden, 
 ornamented with figures of him and his lady, and bas-reliefs of 
 their children. 
 
 But his chief excellence lay in ornamental carving, rather 
 than in sculpture. The most exquisite specimens of his talents 
 are at Chalsworth, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, where 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 175 
 
 the birds seem endued with life, and the flowers appear to spring 
 beneath the eye. 
 
 Walpole observes that * ther^ is no instance of a man before 
 Gibbons, who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of 
 flowers, and chained together the various productions of the 
 elements, with a free disorder natural to each species.' 
 
 In 1714, Gibbons was appointed Master Carver in Wood, 
 to George I., and died on the third of August, 1721. 
 
 Caius Gabriel Gibber, the forerunner of a more poetical 
 style of sculpture, was the son of the cabinet-maker of the king 
 of Denmark. He was born at Hensberg in Holstein, in 1630. 
 He early discovered such talent for sculpture, that the king of 
 Denmark enabled him to pursue his studies in Rome. Hav- 
 ing gone to London, a short time before the Revolution, he 
 worked for some time under Stone, the sculptor. His residence 
 at Rome had inspired him with a classic taste, and having set 
 up as sculptor for himself, he employed himself in the execu- 
 tion of allegorical statues. 
 
 Chatsworth was adorned with these productions, and amidst 
 the natural beauties of that magnificent residence were plen- 
 tifully scattered the deities and demi-gods of Gibber, all cut in 
 freestone. The climate of England was not very favorable to 
 this taste. Venus and the graces, bare-footed nymphs, and 
 goddesses in light drapery, must have looked sadly forlorn and 
 out of place, when the wind howled over the leafless branches, 
 and the ground was covered with snow. Few of these works 
 now remain, excepting those which are attached to the build- 
 ing. 
 
 The works on which Gibber's claim to original genius entire- 
 
176 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 iy depend, are his far-famed figures of Madness and Melan- 
 choly, carved for the entrance to Bedlam. 
 
 They who see these wonderful figures for the first time are 
 entirely overpowered by admiration and awe. They represent 
 melancholy and madness in a manner at once poetical and ter- 
 rible. They were carved in Portland stone, and are now re- 
 moved to the new madhouse in St. George's Fields. Gibber 
 died in 1700, aged seventy. 
 
 Louis Francis Roubilliac, though a Frenchman by birth, 
 is known to the world through his English works alone, and 
 is therefore ranked among the British sculptors. He was 
 born at Lions, in 1695, and came to London in 1720. 
 
 There he at first worked as journeyman to an engraver, of 
 the name of Garter. He happened one evening on his return 
 from Vauxhall to pick up a pocket-book, containing a consid- 
 erable number of bank-notes. He immediately made in- 
 quiries as to the owner, who proved to be Sir Edward Wal- 
 pole, and who was so pleased with his integrity, that he 
 became his firm patron through life. The first statue that 
 can with certainty be attributed to Roubilliac, is a statue of 
 Handel. He has exhibited that eminent composer in a state 
 of rapturous meditation, when the music has fully wakened up 
 bis soul. 
 
 Every feature of his face is convulsed with delight. His 
 very clothes seem infected with his agitation. His waistcoat 
 is half unbuttoned, his hair in disorder. There is a pleasing 
 air of life and reality about the figure, even while it oflTends 
 against severe taste. 
 
 The figure of Eloquence in his monument to the memory of 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 177 
 
 John, Duke of Argyle, drew forth a warm tribute of praise 
 from Canova. The sculpture of the monument has been 
 blamed for being too vigorous and active, and as sinning in 
 this respect against the ancient taste. 
 
 The most celebrated of his numerous works is the monu- 
 ment of Mrs. Nightingale, in Westminster Abbey. Mrs. 
 Nightingah) was of a noble family, young, beautiful and 
 beloved. She died in the bloom of youth, deeply lamented 
 by her husband. The design of the sculptor, in represent- 
 ing these circumstances, was at once striking and strange. 
 No one probably has ever looked on the scene unmoved. 
 
 The dying woman lies on her couch, near which her hus- 
 band stands. Death appears at an iron door, aiming a dart 
 against his victim. The husband raises his arm to ward off 
 the blow. This union of shadow and substance is an error 
 and the figure of Death is ill imagined; yet the monument 
 is a noble performance. The right arm and hand of the 
 dying figure are considered the perfection of fine workman- 
 ship. 
 
 Life seems slowly receding from her tapering fingers, and 
 the eyeless sockets of Death seem flashing with a malignant 
 joy. In all the works of Roubilliac there is a visible careful- 
 ness of finish, which has been much praised, but little followed. 
 He spared no labor on his works, and if they are wanting in 
 sedate and tranquil beauty, they have much elegance of 
 Action. If nature and simplicity are sometimes sacrificed, 
 still there is much poetic energy. 
 
 He was a singular man, and constantly occupied with 
 thoughts of his profession. If he happened to be in company 
 
178 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 with a lady whose hands were beautiful, or whose ear was 
 well shaped, he has been known to astonish her by starting 
 up with the exclamation, ' Madam, I must have your hand.' 
 * Madam, I shall have your ear! ' 
 
 Roubilliac died on the sixteenth of January, 1762, and was 
 attended to the grave by Hogarth and Reynolds, 
 
 Joseph Wilton, born in London in 1722, was a sculptor of 
 little original merit, yet who rose to greater reputation than 
 many men of superior talents. He was the first British 
 sculptor who went through a regular course of academic 
 study. His father, who was a plasterer, seeing his strong 
 inclination for sculpture, placed him under the tuition of an 
 artist of Brabant, named Laurent Delvaux. Some years after, 
 the young Wilton removed to Rome, where he gained the 
 Jubilee Gold Medal of the Roman Academy, given by Pope 
 Benedict XIV. 
 
 Having spent e-ight years in Italy, where he made many 
 copies af the antique statues, he returned to London, where 
 he was patronized by the Duke of Richmond, and employed 
 in directing the Richmond Gallery. For many centuries^ 
 sculpture had been strangely united with other professions; 
 and charges for carvin<T statues were mixed with tailors' bills 
 and goldsmiths accounts. Wilton, among his other avocations, 
 was appointed State Coach Carver to King George III. 
 
 His first public work was his monument of General Wolfe, 
 in Westminster Abbey, which is crowded with a confused 
 multitude of figures and emblems. There is little of original 
 thought in the composition; which is only remarkable for a 
 bas-relief of great beauty, representing the march of the 
 British troops from the river bank to the heights of Abraham. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 179 
 
 His most pleasing works were his copies of antique statues, 
 and among his best busts, were those of Chesterfield, Chatham, 
 and Cromwell. He acquired a large fortune, kept a splendid 
 house, and lived ostentatiously. 
 
 He is recorded as having been a tall, portly, and handsome 
 man; an agreeable companion, and a warm fuend. But as a 
 sculptor, he scarcely deserved the celebrity he attained in his 
 life-time. His groups arc confused mobs; his faces want dig- 
 nity, and his attitudes, repose. He died in 1803. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of Banks — His style of sculpture — His chief works — Joseph Nollekins — 
 An account of his life and chief works — His monuments, groups, statues, 
 and busts — His last visit to the academy — His death — Some remarks on 
 his style — Of Joseph Banks — His first works — Anecdote concerning him 
 — His statues of Johnson and Howard— Character of his style — Its mer- 
 its and defects. 
 
 TnoMAs Banks was an artist, who devoted his whole life to 
 the study of works of a poetic order, who embodied splendid 
 images of Grecian fable, and whose aims were uniformly lofly 
 and heroic. He was born in 1735. 
 
 He went to Rome in 177-2, at a period when that city over- 
 flowed with English, both artists, and gentlemen of taste and 
 fortune. The most distinguished of these was Gavin Hamil- 
 ton, a Scottish painter, who had for many years stood at the 
 head of art and taste in Rome, and who assisted the young 
 sculptor both with his advice and friendship. 
 
180 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Banks devoted himself to the study of Grecian sculpture, 
 and, after practising for seven years in Rome, returned to 
 London, where his classic taste was not sufficiently appreciat- 
 ed. He therefore went to Russia, where he was patronized 
 by the Empress Catharine; but the subjects on which she em 
 ployed him did not suit his talents or taste, and he finally set 
 sail again for his native land. 
 
 His first, and one of his noblest works, was the mourning 
 Achilles. It excited universal admiration. The sculptor 
 was proud of this noble work, and proceeded to remove it to 
 the exhibition at Somerset-House. The wagon which carried 
 it was overturned, and the statue shivered into a hundred 
 pieces. He bore this misfortune with much equanimity, and 
 as it was in plaster of Paris, succeeded in re-uniting the 
 broken pieces. 
 
 One of his most beautiful compositions was his monument 
 to the only daughter of Sir Brooke Boothby. She was six 
 years of age, and is represented lying asleep on a low couch. 
 Her cheek reclines on a pillow, her little fevered hands 
 gently rest on each other. The delicate feet are carelessly 
 folded together, and the whole appearance is as if the child 
 had just turned, in the tossing of illness, to seek a cooler placQ 
 of rest. 
 
 This touching work excited a great sensation at Somerset- 
 House. Among hundreds who crowded to view it, the Queen 
 and the Princesses stood looking at it, till they were affected 
 to tears. 
 
 Among all his noble works, none spread his fame wider 
 than this simple composition. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 181 
 
 His Andromache lamenting with her maidens over the 
 body of Hector, his Venus rising from the sea, and a Venus 
 bearing Eneas wounded from the battle, are all splendid 
 works. Banks earnestly desired to introduce a more poetic 
 style into the national monuments of England, — to do for Bri- 
 tain what the sculptors of old did for Greece. But the 
 English have less imagination than the Greeks. The Hea- 
 then religion, however beautiful, must to the moderns appear 
 absurd. 
 
 Allegorical figures seldom possess much interest; and still 
 less when mingled with reality. The idea of Victory crowning 
 a Navy Captain has a ludicrous effect; and the features of ^ 
 British sailor placed upon an antique bust, seem equally in- 
 congruous. In his monument to Sir Eyre Coote, there is a 
 figure representing a Mahratta captive, sitting bound beside a 
 heap of Asiatic armor. This figure is praised by artists for 
 its fine anatomy, and by every one for its expression. 
 
 Banks died in 1805, in the seventieth year of his age. 
 Perhaps had he turned from the poetry of Greece to that of 
 England, from the pages of Homer to those of Shakspeare, 
 his works would have been more popular; but it was the state 
 of the age and not the fault of the artist, that he aspired in 
 vain to be the classic sculptor of his nation. 
 
 Joseph NoUekins was born in 1737, in Dean Street, Lon- 
 don. At the age of twenty-two he received a premium from 
 the Society of Arts for a group of figures in clay; and another 
 aoon after for the model of a Dancing Fawn. In 1760, he 
 proceeded to Italy to pursue his studies, whcjre he was patron- 
 ised by men of taste and wealth, and especially by Lord 
 Yarborpugh, an enlightened and liberal nobleman. 
 
!82 
 
 SCULPTDRB. 
 
 After ten years of profitable study in Rome, he returned to 
 London, where he formed a private studio for himself, a shop 
 for assistants, and a gallery for models. He was admitted a 
 member of the Academy in 1771; soon after he had present- 
 ed that society with a fine cast from the Torso. He was an 
 eccentric character, and was remarkable for strange fits of 
 saving and sordidness. 
 
 He modelled the bust of his majesty, George III., and 
 amused his royal sitter with his quaint and familiar manner. 
 He also made a good bust of Doctor Johnson. Among his 
 groups and statues, were those of Bacchus, Venus taking 
 off her sandal, Venus chiding Cupid, and Cupid and Psyche. 
 But his busts were better than his antique statues, for which 
 he wanted loftiness of soul, and grandeur of idea. 
 
 His studio was a fashionable lounge for all the wit, beauty, 
 and rank in London ; and he amused his female sitters by his 
 simple bustling manners and blunt compliments, which how- 
 ever were sometimes very skilful. ' Look for a minute the 
 other way;' said he to a lady with a squint; 'for then I 
 shall get rid of that slight shyness in your eye, which though 
 not unusual in life, is ungraceful in art.' 
 
 Various stories are related of the frugality and domestic 
 economy of Nollekens and his wife, a woman of a contracted 
 mind, and whose furious jealousy of her husband occasioned 
 many disputes in their household. During a period of ten 
 years, Nollekens exhibited sixteen busts, five statues, and 
 four groups. The love of the nation at this period for bust 
 sculpture was excessive. 
 
 In the year 1808, Nollekens executed above fifty, and 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 m 
 
 among others, his celebrated heads of Pitt and Fox, and that 
 of the Prince of Wales, which has much simplicity and ele- 
 gance. 
 
 His best monumental group is that of Mrs. Howard, of 
 Corby Castle, who is represented dying with Religion by her 
 side, and a beautiful infant lying near her. 
 
 His Venus anointing herself, is deficient in original thought, 
 and propriety of action; though the workmanship of the 
 statue is fine. The Queen of Love is dropping incense on her 
 hair from a bottle, and looking aside. Every one who sees 
 this statue observes this last defect; and, that in pouring out 
 liquid, her eye should have aided her hand. 
 
 From 1810 to 1816, he modelled his last and most valuable 
 busts; those of the Duke of York, Lord Castlereagh, Lord 
 Erskine, Lord Liverpool, Canning, and several other distin- 
 guished persons. When Lord Castlereagh was sitting for his 
 bust, he threw some coals on the fire one very cold day, when 
 the sculptor had gone to fetch his materials. *Oh! my 
 Lord,' exclaimed Mrs. Nollekins, * I don't know what Mr. 
 NoUekins will say!' — 'Tell him, my good lady, to put them 
 into my bill; ' said the Premier. 
 
 In 1819, he paid his last visit to the Royal Academy. He 
 was carried up stairs in a kind of sedan, accompanied by his 
 friend Chantrey. He made some remarks on the paintings, at 
 his departure gave a guinea to the persons who helped him 
 into his coach, and bade farewell to the Academy forever. 
 He was then eighty-two years old. 
 
 He died in 1823, leav ng behind him a fortune of two hun- 
 dred thousand pounds, which had excited the speculation and 
 
184 
 
 ■CULPTURE. 
 
 procured him the interested attentions of numerous legacy- 
 hunters, whom his will disappointed. After various pecuniary 
 bequests to all his humble associates, he left the residue of 
 his vast fortune to his friends, Francis Palmer, and Douce, a 
 well-known antiquarian. 
 
 The chief excellence of the busts of Nollekins was their 
 truth and simplicity; their chief defect, want of dignity and sen- 
 timent. His utter ignorance of classic lore was a great disad- 
 vantage to his poetic sculptures. He could fashion a form 
 coldly and mechanically correct; but he wanted the high 
 genius which can breathe a divine air into the inanimate mar*- 
 ble. 
 
 His clay sketches present every variety of attitude and 
 emotion; but they want fancy, and are for the most part com- 
 mon-place and hackneyed. 
 
 John Bacon, born in 1740, was another eminent sculptor, 
 who infused more good English sense into his works than any 
 preceding artist. One of his first compositions which attract- 
 ed public notice, was a colossal head of Ossian. In 1769, he 
 had the honor of receiving from Reynolds the first gold medal 
 for sculpture ever given by the Royal Academy. 
 
 The subject is ^neas bearing Anchises from the burning 
 of Troy. His next famous work was his statue of Mars. It 
 was correct in outline, accurate in proportion, but wanting in 
 heroic sentiment and lofty expression. He was afterwards 
 introduced by Archbishop Maskham to George III., and 
 employed in modelling the royal bust. The King was not 
 only pleased with his skill, but with his modesty and simplici- 
 ty, and became his firm patron in after life. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 185 
 
 His monument for the illustrious Chatham, excited the 
 admiration of all London. It represents the statesman stand- 
 ing high in the centre; while Commerce and Manufactures 
 under his protection pour plenty from the four quarters of the 
 world into the lap of Britannia. The figures have been blam- 
 ed as being too full of action, and too affectedly picturesque; 
 but the whole has an imposing eflect. It is of this monument, 
 that Cowper speaks, when he says: 
 
 * Bacon there 
 Gives more than female beauty to a stone, 
 And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips; 
 Nor does the chisel occupy alone 
 The powers of sculpture, but the style as much.' 
 
 He was much criticised by his professional brethren for his 
 ignorance of the antique style. To rebuke their sarcasms, he 
 modelled a head of Jupiter Tonans, gave it a time-worn look, 
 and upon producing it among the connoisseurs, had the satis- 
 faction of hearing them inquire with one voice from what 
 temple it had been brought. 
 
 * The boasted antique,' said he * is to be found in nature. 
 It was but the result of poetry acting upon the actual form 
 and mind of men.' In all that he did there was a plain mean- 
 ing, and a sentiment which lay on the surface. 
 
 In 1780, the reputation of Bacon had spread over the island; 
 his works had found their way into cathedrals, collections, 
 and galleries. Orders poured upon him from all quarters; 
 and he received innumerable lucrative commissions for monu- 
 ments, groups, and statues. 
 
 When his colossal statue of the River Thames was exhibit- 
 13 
 
186 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 ed in Somerset-House, the royal family went to see it, 
 ' Why did you make so frightful a figure?' said Queen Char- 
 lotte, turning to the sculptor. 
 
 ' Art,' replied the artist with a bow, ' cannot always effect 
 what is ever within the reach of nature, — a union of beauty and 
 majesty.' 
 
 Bacon was a pious man; much occupied with religion, and 
 author of several works on religious subjects. He also wrote 
 disquisitions on sculpture, but amidst all his other occupations, 
 continued to labor arduously in his profession. Among his 
 best works are his statues of Johnson and Howard, in St. 
 Paul's Church. The statue of Johnson represents the learn- 
 ed man in an attitude of profound thought, with a serious, 
 surly aspect, well suiting his character. 
 
 The drapery of the robe in which he is clothed, is well 
 arranged; the whole is simple and dignified. Howard is 
 represented trampling upon chains and fetters, with a key in 
 one hand, and a plan for the improvement of jails and hospitals 
 in the other. His face is full of benevolence, and he seems 
 to be descending into a dungeon on an errand of mercy. 
 
 But in general, the genius displayed by Bacon was not of a 
 high order. He had little imagination, though a good deal of 
 external grace. He was always neat, skilful and elaborate 
 in the workmanship of his statues. But his original education 
 seems to have fettered his mind, and he had no other resource 
 but in personifying the virtues or talents of the person whom 
 ho was d sired to commemorate. If the deceased were a poet, 
 Poetry was seen bending over his urn; if a navy commander, 
 Britannia shaking a thunderbolt over the ocean was his sym- 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 187 
 
 bol; if an honest statesman, Truth is seen trampling upon False- 
 hood, or Honor presenting him with the order of the Garter. 
 
 But when he had known familiarly the person whose statue 
 he was commissioned to make, he threw off this hackneyed 
 taste; brought the original before his mind, and seldom failed 
 in his attempt to embody the image with truth and sim- 
 plicity. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Of Mrs. Darner — romplimonts paid to her works — Her sleeping dogs and 
 busts — Her studies and travels — Tlie ladies canvass — Her chief works — 
 Her interview with Napoleon — Her wit and beauty — Remarks on her 
 iculpturc — Rirtli of Flaxman — His enrly genius — His first works — He 
 marries and goes to Rome— His subsequent compositions — Designs 
 from the Iliad, Odyssey, &c — An account of his principal works in 
 England — Singular anecdote concerning him — His death — General re- 
 marks on English sculpture. 
 
 The annals of statuary record few artists of the fair sex, and 
 the name of Mrs. Damer is worthy of notice — less for her skill 
 in the art of sculpture, than for her having forsaken society 
 in all the pride of youth, loveliness and high birth, to devote 
 herself exclusively to its practice. 
 
 She was born in 1748, was the only child of Field-Marshal 
 Henry Seymour Conway, brother to the Marquis of Hertford, 
 and of lady Caroline Campbell, daughter of John, Duke of 
 Argyle. 
 
 It is said to have been scarcely credited in London, when 
 related, that the beautiful Miss Conway had become a worker 
 13* 
 
188 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 in wet clay, with a mob cap on lier liead to keep off the dust, 
 and an apron to preserve her silk gown and embroidered slip- 
 pers, and that with an iron hammer in one hand, and a steel 
 chisel in the other, she had begun to carve heads in marble. 
 
 According to her cousin, Horace Walpole, she rivalled the 
 antique in her busts and poodle-dogs. The graceful touch of 
 her chisel was celebrated by Dr. Darwin; and Cerrachi, who 
 plotted against the life of Napoleon in 1802, and suffered by 
 the guillotine, executed her statue as the Muse of Sculpture. 
 Perhaps a little flattery to such an artist was excusable. 
 
 She secured the good opinion of Horace Walpole by be- 
 coming an inveterate whig, and by carving two marble 
 kittens, for his collection of curiosities at Strawberry-Hill, 
 She studied under Bacon, and took a few lessons from Cerra- 
 chi. She married the Hon. John Damer, son of Lord 
 Milton; who wasted a princely fortune in extravagance, and 
 ended his life by suicide. After his death, Mrs. Damer travel- 
 led through France, Spain and Italy, dividing her time and 
 talents between sculpture and politics. 
 
 She made a group of sleeping dogs for her brother-in-law, 
 the Duke of Richmond; and took busts of the Duchess of 
 Devonshire, Lady Melbourne, and her father. Marshal Con- 
 way. 
 
 It seems doubtful which of her productions were her own; 
 and in which she received assistance. In order to enter more 
 fully into the merits of antique sculpture, she studied Greek 
 and Latin with assiduity; and imagined herself destined to 
 act a great part in the theatre of British genius. Visions of 
 future glory were ever before her mind, and she hoped be- 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 189 
 
 fore her death to hear herself styled Darner the Sculptor, 
 rather than the Hon. Mrs. Darner, daughter of the Seymours, 
 the Conways, and the Campbells. 
 
 She returned from the galleries of Rome and Florence to 
 take an active part in the famous Ladies Canvass, when the 
 Westminster election was fiercely contested, and ended in 
 the return of Charles Fox as member; and when three ladies 
 of birth, beauty, and wit, dividing Westminster into equal 
 parts, set out with the determination of conquering the whole 
 motley mob of voters, and leading them to the hustings to vote 
 for the whig candidate. 
 
 These adventurous ladies were the beautiful Duchess of 
 Devonshire, well remembered by all the old electors, Mrs. 
 Crewe, and Mrs. Darner. 
 
 But sculpture still occupied her principal time. She ex- 
 ecuted heads both real and imaginary. Queen Caroline, Isis, 
 Thalia, Fox, Napoleon, and Nelson were among her works. 
 She was fond of recording Napoleon's sayings and remarks, 
 and of relating the unbounded kindness shown to her by 
 Josephine, whom she had known in former days as the Vis- 
 countess Beauharmois. 
 
 When she returned some years afterwards to Paris, she 
 lound the fortunes of Napoleon clouded, and a new empress 
 on the throne of Josephine. She requested an audience of 
 the emperor, and presented him with the bust of Fox. He 
 received her with kindness, and gave her a magnificent snuff- 
 box set in diamonds, and now in tlie British Museum. 
 
 On the death of Horace Walpole, in 1797, she became 
 owner for life of his celebrated gothic villa. Strawberry HilL 
 
190 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Here, during the rest of her life, she set up her modelling- 
 tools in the summer, removinop them in the winter to Park- 
 Lane. She died in 1828, in the eighty-eighth year of her 
 age. 
 
 In person, Mrs. Damer was slim and elegant; in her youth 
 she was eminently beautiful; her manners were delightful, 
 and her conversation brilliant. As the works of a female of 
 rank and fashion, her busts may be entitled to praise; but as 
 an artist, her merits M ere of a middling order. She had little 
 execution, and not much poetic feeling. She seems to have 
 succeeded only in what was gentle and agreeable. Her 
 Thalia has little dignity; her Nelson is wanting in heroic ex- 
 pression; and her Fox in intellectual capacity. 
 
 There is no ease of hand, no nicety of stroke, or mark of 
 skill in her works. She seems to have planned much and 
 executed little, and to have been, 
 
 * Fond to begin, but for to finish loth.' 
 
 Flaxman, the most distinguished name in modern sculpture, 
 was born in 1755, in the city of York. His father was a 
 moulder of figures, and a diligent man in his profession. 
 From his childhood young Flaxman was of a serene temper 
 and an enthusiastic turn of mind, and gave early indications 
 of his love for the art. 
 
 As a child, he made a number of small models in plaster of 
 Paris, wax, and clay; some of which are still preserved, and 
 have considerable merit. 
 
 In his fifteenth year he became a student of the Royal 
 Academy. In 1770, he exhibited a figure of Neptune in wax; 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 J 91 
 
 and in 1827 his marble statue of John Kemble. These were 
 his first and last works^ and between tliem was a period of 
 fifly-seven years, intensely devoted to the pursuit of sculp- 
 ture. 
 
 Among his other encragements he was employed by Mr. 
 Wedgewood, in modelling for his celebrated manufactory; 
 and the designs which he made for this porcelain were won- 
 derfully simple and beautiful. One of his best works before 
 he went to Italy was his group of Venus and Cupid, and his 
 monument to the memory of Mrs. Morley, who, with her in- 
 fant, died at sea. The mother and child are rising from the 
 waves, and are received by descending angels. It is an 
 exqusite work, full of that more than mortal beauty so proper 
 to the subject which it represents. 
 
 In 1782, Flaxman married Miss Ann Denman, an amiable 
 and accomplished woman, who accompanied him to Italy in 
 1787. It is said that he resolved to pursue his studies there, 
 in consequence of Sir Joshua Reynolds having exclaimed, 
 when he heard from himself of his marriage, * Oh, then you 
 are ruined for an artist! ' 
 
 At Rome, he executed various designs from Homer, 
 ^schylus and Dante, well known and admired throughout all 
 Europe. In these beautiful designs, all is grave, severe and 
 simple, although the stenes of carnage and peril are soften- 
 ed by the frequent introduction of female figures into the 
 groups. He executed thirty-nine illustrations of the Iliad; 
 the first representing Homer invoking the Muse. 
 
 Venus presenting Helen to Paris, is a composition full of 
 tenderness, and delicacy; and in the meeting of Hector with 
 
192 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Andromache and his child, there is a mixture of dignity and 
 matronly love which can hardly he too much praised. Again, 
 m his more stormy scenes, there is a subdued tone necessary 
 to sculpture, even while vividly expressing the most energetic 
 actions; as in his Achilles striving with the Spirits of the 
 Rivers, and the Gods descending to Battle. 
 
 In his designs from the Odyssey, perhaps the most pleasing 
 is the Departure of Ulysses with his bride for Ithaca. Her 
 father entreats Penelope to stay; her husband leaves it with 
 herself. She says nothing, hut covers her face with her veil, 
 and turns from Lacedoemon. 
 
 It is to the patronage of Mr. Hope, the author of An- 
 astatius, that England owes the next great series of Flaxman's 
 works; the Illustrations of Dante, where the genius of the 
 artist was displayed in all its variety of power, whether in the 
 horrible, the beautiful, or the affecting. 
 
 In 1794 he returned to London, where his first work was 
 his monument of Earl Mansfield, for Westminster Abbey. 
 In 1797 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, 
 and in 1810, Professor of Sculpture to the Academy, where he 
 delivered his lectures every season, with but few omissions, to 
 the last year of his life. 
 
 A rapid succession of noble works from his hand gave proof 
 that a sculptor had at length appeared to vindicate the dignity 
 of national genius. One of his finest works is his monument 
 to the memory of the family of Sir Francis Baring. It is 
 among the most splendid pieces of sculpture in England. 
 
 During the peace of Amiens in 180*2, Flaxman visited 
 Paris, where he refused to be introduced to Napoleon, whom 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 193 
 
 he regarded as the enemy of his native land; and repulsed 
 the proffered civilities of David the painter. 
 
 The works in which his genius delighted were the illustra- 
 tion of poetical passages from the Bible. It was these which 
 chiefly spread his fame through distant lands. Even the re- 
 mote kingdom of Tanjore acknowledged his genius. He 
 made a statue of the Rajah himself, and one of Schevartz the 
 missionary, both of which are now in the East, and are notic- 
 ed in the Journals of Bishop Heber. 
 
 His Shield of Achilles has been ranked among his best 
 works, but some of his noblest productions belong to his latter 
 days. Such as his Psyche, his Pastoral Apollo, the .<?tatues 
 of Michael Angelo and Raphael, and the group of the Arch- 
 angel Michael and Satan. 
 
 It was in the winter of 1826, that a stranger called early 
 one morning upon Flaxman, and presented him with a book 
 bearing the singular title, * Al Ombra di' Flaxman.' Ho 
 informed him that he had just received it from an Italian 
 artist, who, believing in a report spread throughout Italy that 
 Flaxman was dead, had published this account of his life and 
 works. ' No sooner was it published, continued the visitor, 
 than the story was contradicted, and the author now begs that 
 you will accept the work and his apology.' 
 
 This singular occurrence liappened on the 2d of December, 
 1826. On the 7th day of the same month, Flaxman died. 
 He was buried in the church-yard of St. Giles, in the Fields; 
 his body was accompanied to its resting-place by the Presi- 
 dent and Council of the Royal Academy. 
 
 Flaxman was small in stature, and slim in form. He had 
 
194 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 large piercing eyes, and a noble forehead. His domestic 
 state was happy; his life simple and blameless, he was mild 
 and charitable, and a perfect example of a truly virtuous 
 man. 
 
 He was among the first to awaken the dormant energies of 
 sculpture, and to restore the simple and grand style of 
 antiquity, since the best ages of Greece, more deep feeling 
 and true taste are nowhere to be found than in his works. In 
 the loftiness of his conceptions he surpassed both Canova and 
 Thorwaldsen, though perhaps inferior to the former in the 
 graces of composition. 
 
 Since the introduction of the Phidian marbles into Eng- 
 land, every department of taste has been improved, and the 
 English artists, headed by the celebrated Chantrey, are now 
 pursuing a path which must infallibly lead to perfection; nor 
 can any school in Europe boast of more vigorous practice, 
 or sounder principles, than the British school at the present 
 era. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 195 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Science necessary for a sculptor — Earliest sculpture — Different passions 
 expressed on the Human lace — Sculpture of inferior animals — Morses 
 of the Kl<rin marbles — Remarks on the (jrecian statues — In wliat sculp- 
 ture dif^t'rs from paintintr — Of composition divided into three classes — • 
 Heroic composition suitable to sculpture — The Grecian idea of perfect 
 composition — Errors of the moderns in composition — Of style — The 
 Grecian beau ideal of beauty — Remarks on coloring statues — The 
 colossal works of Phidias — The ancient maxim witii regard to sculp- 
 ture — Of proportion — Drapery. 
 
 Before the arts of design could be cultivated with success, 
 science must have attained a certain degree of perfection. 
 A knowledge of proportion was necessary to regulate the 
 height, breadth and thickness of the human body; of geometry 
 and mechanics, to determine the powers and extent of motion, 
 and of anatomy, in order to understand the structure of the 
 bones, muscles, Slc, without a knowledge of which the figure 
 cannot be correctly represented. 
 
 The earliest imitations of the human fio;ure in all a<Tos have 
 been rude, disproportioned and insipid; because the human 
 form must be understood before it can be imitated. Professor 
 Camper lias shown in his Lectures that the figure and organi- 
 zation of man contain the principles on which the structure of 
 all inferior animals is fortped, and from which they are remov- 
 ed by gradual imperfection. 
 
 But to represent the human form with expression, a know- 
 ledge of the human mind is also necessary; of the various 
 feelings and passions which animate it; and of the effect 
 which these feelings and passions produce upon the exterior 
 of the face and figure. 
 
m 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Thus a passionate man may be known by his quick fiery 
 glances, swollen brows, dilated nosfrils, the movements of the 
 whole figure sudden, the muscles of the body disposed to be 
 rigid and contracted. The melancholy have a universal slow- 
 ness of motion, and the exterior corners of the eyes and eye- 
 brows bending downwards. 
 
 Inferior animals are mtich more easily represented than 
 human beings. The finest examples of power in the sculpture 
 of animals may be seen in the Elgin marbles. The horses of 
 the frieze appear to live and move, to roll their eyes, to gal- 
 lop, prance, and curvet. 
 
 The statues executed in the time of Phidias and his imme- 
 diate successors, represent the human figure in the full de- 
 velopement of its powers, and perfection of its beauty; and it 
 is by studying the rules of outline, rigidly observed by these 
 great masters, that we can attain just ideas upon the subject of 
 sculpture. 
 
 The ancients, in representing their divinities, endeavored as 
 far as possible to display the energy of intellect, above the 
 material accidents of passion or decay. Their Jupiter was 
 most placid when most mighty; either when extending vic- 
 tory as the reward of fortitude, or holding the thunder and 
 sceptre, the elements of his sovereignty. Mental power 
 characterizes the divinity, bodily exertion the hero. In the 
 faces of the Dying Achil es and the Laocoon, pain and death 
 produce no distortion. The elevation of noble minds is seen 
 in their sufierino^s. 
 
 The art of the sculptor is limited in comparison with paint- 
 ing, because colors and their various eflfects are beyond his 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 197 
 
 bounds. Whether the act he represents was performed in 
 sunshine or darkness, his forms must be equally perfect, and 
 his expression equally decided. 
 
 Yet this very circumstance strengthens his powers. He 
 disregards inferior objects for the perfection of the human 
 form. Composition in sculpture signifies, as in painting, the 
 grouping of figures in succession or in action; but sculpture 
 allows no picturesque addition or effect of background. The 
 story must be told, and the ground occupied by the figure and 
 acts of man. 
 
 Yet the story may require that the upper part of one figure 
 should be seen, while the lower part is concealed by an inter- 
 vening object. Some figures may be running in different 
 directions, more crowded or separate. To regulate these 
 spaces and quantities harmoniously, is one of the chief arts of 
 the sculptor. 
 
 Tiicre arc three classes of composition ; the sublime, the 
 heroic, and the tender. The sublime represents all super- 
 natural acts and appc^aranccs, — such as assemblies of the 
 gods; or in Christian subjects, the Transfiguration, the Ascen- 
 sion, &c. In this class there can be nothing common in idea. 
 The beauty and dignity of the figures should be more than 
 human; and for this style of composition, sculpture is perhaps 
 more suitable than painting. 
 
 The grey solemn tints of stone; the beautiful semi-tran«*- 
 parent purity of marble, the golden splendor or darkened 
 green of bronze, seem fitted only for subjects of dignity and 
 elevation. The awful simplicity of those forms whose eyes 
 have neither color nor brightness, and whose limbs have not 
 
198 
 
 SCULPTURE, 
 
 the glow of circulation, strikes the beholder at first view, a« 
 belonging to beings of a higher order than himself 
 
 Among heroic compositions are the battles of the Athe- 
 nians and Amazons, and of the Athenians and Persians in the 
 Temples of Minerva and Theseus in Athens. Of the tender 
 or pathetic, are the death of Meleager, or Antiope comforted 
 by Zethus and Amphion. 
 
 The ancients considered simplicity as a characteristic of 
 perfection, and represented stories by a single row of figures 
 in the bas-relief, by which the whole outline of each figure, 
 and the flow of the drapery were seen without interruption. 
 There are however instances among the Elgin marbles, 
 where many horsemen are advancing before each other, where 
 the nearer horse hides part of the preceding, without causing 
 the least confusion in the effect. 
 
 But when the sculptor attempts, as in the later Italian 
 school, to unite the effects and perspective of painting with 
 the force and severity of sculpture, — to mingle entire figures 
 with those of low relief on the back-ground, he has always 
 failed. The sculpture which partakes of the qualities of both 
 arts, cannot properly be ranked with either. 
 
 Style in sculpture is either natural or ideal, — the latter pecu- 
 liar to humanity, the former to divinity. The Greeks, who 
 had, more than any other nation, favorable opportunities of 
 viewing perfect models of grace and beauty, had formed to 
 themselves a standard of perfection for their ideal statuary. 
 
 The profile which they most admired consisted in a line 
 almost straight, formed by the forehead and nose. They 
 reckoned a low forehead a mark of beauty, and did not con- 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 199 
 
 iider large eyes as essential to a perfect face. The Venus 
 de Medicis has small eyes, and the lower eyelids being raised 
 a little, gives them an air of enchanting sweetness. 
 
 The joining of the eyebrows was considered a deformity, 
 though it is sometimes met with in ancient statues. The beauty 
 of the mouth is pecul.iarly necessary to constitute a fine face. 
 The lower lip should be fuller than the upper, to give a round- 
 ness to the chin. The teeth seldom appear, except in laughing 
 satyrs. In the figures of the gods, the lips arc generally a 
 little opened. The lips of Venus are half open. 
 
 In figures of ideal beauty among the Greeks, a dimple was 
 inadmissible; and. when seen on an ancient statue, may be 
 considered the innovation of a modern hand. 
 
 No part of the head was executed with more care than the 
 ears; and so decisive is this characteristic, that, if in any 
 itatue we observe that the ears are not highly finished, we 
 may conclude with certainty that it is a modern production. 
 
 In the heads of their female statues, the hair w as curled, 
 thrown back and tied behind in a waving manner, leaving 
 considerable intervals; which gives the agreeable variety of 
 light and shade, and produces the efiects of chiaro-obscuro. 
 
 The bands and feet of the Grecian statues arc remarkable 
 for beauty. The fingers tapered very gently from the root to 
 the point, and the joints were scarcely perceptible. 
 
 Although painting exists by colors only, and form is the 
 peculiarity of sculpture, the ancients sometimes added colors 
 to their statues, as in the Olympian Jove and Athenian 
 Minerva of Phidias. There can be no doubt that in repre- 
 sentations of the human figure, such a practice would b« 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 utterly improper. The color of fle§h in a motionless figure 
 can only resemble death, or a suspension of the vital powers; 
 
 But in these stupetidous statues, this color without motion 
 must have produced a supernatural effect. They were com- 
 posed of stone covered with plates of ivory, which of itself has 
 much the tint of delicate flesh. The gold ornaments with 
 which they were enriched must have harmonized with the 
 ivory, and added a dazzling glory to the colossal form; while 
 the coloring of life must have made them appear like divinity 
 in abstraction, or awful repose. 
 
 The ancient authors are unanimous in recording the effect 
 produced by these noble works. It was even believed that 
 Jupiter revealed himself to Phidias, and touched the statue 
 with lightning in token of his approbation. 
 
 In general, it was a maxim of thfe ancients to banish all 
 violent passions from their works of sculpture. The daughters 
 of Niobe, against whom Diana has discharged her fatal 
 arrows, are repesented in that state of stupefaction, into 
 which we may imagine the prospect of certain death to have 
 thrown them. 
 
 The poets introduce Philoctetus shedding tears, and utter- 
 ing groans; but the sculptor represents him silent and bear- 
 ing his grief with silent dignity. The great error of modern 
 artists has been in deviating from the noble simplicity and 
 sedate grandeur, which distinguished the ancient works. 
 
 Proportion is the basis of beauty, and the Grecian and 
 Egyptian sculptors laid down positive rules for the dimen- 
 sions of length, breadth, and circumference. 
 
 Drapery is an important branch of study for a sculptor, and 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 201 
 
 the simplicity and dignity of the Grecian costume was very 
 advantageous to their art. The Grecian mantle and the veil 
 of the females were capable of producing the boldest and most 
 beautiful folds. The useless variety, and capricious absurdi- 
 ty of modern dress render it difficult for a modern sculptor to 
 be at once consistent and dignified in the drapery of his 
 statues. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Manner of performinsr difterent styles of sculpture, wli^ther in metal, 
 stone, or marble — Of bas?o-mezzo, and alto-relievo models in clay or 
 wax — Manner of forrnin<^ tiie models — Of sculpture in wood— Of statues 
 in stone, marble, Ac. — An account of the manner in which a statue is 
 formed, with the various tools employed by the sculptor; and the dif- 
 ferent purposes for which they are used. 
 
 Works of sculpture are performed either by hollowing or ex- 
 cavating, as in metals, agates, and other precious stones, and 
 in marbles of every description; or by working in relief in 
 these materials, or in statues of metal, clay, wood, wax, 
 marble, and stone. 
 
 The excavation of precious stones forms a particular branch 
 of the art called intaglio. The excavation of metals consti- 
 tutes the art of engraving in its various branches, on metal of 
 any kind. There are three kinds of relief in sculpture; alto- 
 relievo, mezzo-relievo, and basso-relievo. Basso-relievo is 
 that kind of sculpture, in which the figures do not stand out 
 14 
 
202 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 from the ground in their full proportion; low or flat sculp 
 ture. 
 
 Mezzo-relievo is that in which half the figure stands clear 
 from the ground, and the other half appears buried in it; and 
 alto-relievo is that relief in which the figures are entire, or 
 nearly so, being attached only in a few places, and relieved 
 from the ground like the metopes in the Parthenon. 
 
 Custom however has nearly abolished two of these terms, 
 and basso-relievo is often applied to each sort, be the projec- 
 tions what they may. 
 
 Whatever considerable work is undertaken by the sculptor, 
 whether basso-rciievo, statue, &c., it is always requisite for 
 him to form a previous model of the same size as the intended 
 work. These models are formed either in wax, or in wet 
 clay. Few tools are necessary for this purpose. The clay 
 being placed on a stand, or sculptor's easel, the artist begins 
 the work with his hands, and except in small or sharp parts, 
 seldom uses any other instrument. In wax he sometimes 
 uses his fingers, and sometimes tools. 
 
 The model being perfected, he makes a cast of it in plaster 
 of Paris, which serves him as a rule whereby to form his stat- 
 ue. If the statue is to be in wood, the sculptor chooses it of 
 the best quality, hard or tender, according to the size of his 
 work. The statue of Diana of Ephesus was of cedar; that of 
 Apollo, at Sicyon, of box-wood. 
 
 The beauty of sculpture in wood consists in the delicate 
 
 * These metopes were the ornaments of the frieze of the Parthenon, and 
 ore now among the Elgin marbles. 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 203 
 
 manner of cutting it, free from all appearance of hardness or 
 dryness. For sculpture in marble and other stone, the artist 
 makes use of tools made of good steel, well tempered, and of 
 strength proportioned to the hardness of the material. He first 
 saws from a larger block of marble, a block proportioned to the 
 size of the work he is about to undertake. 
 
 After this, the sculptor shapes the gross masses of the forms 
 he designs to represent, by knocking off the superfliious parts 
 of the marble with a strong mallet, and a strong steel tool, 
 called a point. 
 
 He then brings it nearer to the intended form by means of 
 a finer point; and sometimes with a tool, called a dog's tooth, 
 with two points. After this, he uses the gradine, a flat cutting 
 tool with three points. He then takes the chisel, and by the 
 dexterous and delicate use of this instrument, removes the 
 ridges left by the former tools, and gives softness and tender- 
 ness to the figure. At length betakes a sort of file called 
 a rasp, and brings his work into a proper state for being pol- 
 ished. 
 
 To polish the work, he lirst takes pumice-stone, to make all 
 the parts smooth and even. He then goes over them with 
 tripoli, and if he wishes for a higher gloss, rubs them with 
 leather and straw ashes. 
 
 Besides these tools, sculptors also use the pick, a small 
 hammer pointed at one end, and at the other formed with 
 square steel teeth. This assists in breaking the marble. 
 The bouchard is used for making a hole of equal dimensions, 
 which cannot be done with cutting tools. It is a piece of iron 
 well steeled at the bottom, and formed into several strong and 
 
204 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 «jhort points, with which it bruises the marble, and reduces it 
 to powder. 
 
 Sculptors in stone have commonly a bowl in which they 
 keep a powder composed of plaster of Paris, mixed with the 
 same stone in which their work is executed. With this com- 
 position they fill up the small holes, and repair the defects 
 which they meet with in the stone itself 
 
MUSIC. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 Definition of Music — Of melody and harmony — Universal taste for music 
 — Its antiquity proved by a reference to scripture — Hymn of Moses — 
 Son(r of Miriam — Of tlio Hebrew captives — Soncr of Deborah and Barak 
 — Of Jepbtha's dauo^hter — Music in the rein n of kincf David — Musical in- 
 struments probably brought from Etrypt— Of modern Hebrew music — 
 Instruments of Egyptian invention — The ' (jUfrlia Ilotta ' — Lyre invent- 
 ed by Mercury — The ^fonnnIos — The Theban harp — Theory to which it 
 has given rise— Music in the reign of the Ptolemies— Of Cadmus and 
 Harmonia — Minerva the inventor of tlie flute — Apollo's lyre — Contest 
 between Pan and Apollo — Between Apollo and Marsyas — Hyagnis a 
 musician — The twoOlympuses — Philanunon of Delphos — Greek worship 
 of Apollo — Tradition concerning swans — The nmsea — Bacchus — Pan — 
 The syrens. 
 
 Music is the art of combining sounds in a manner agreeable 
 to the ear. If these sounds are simuhaneous, or produced at 
 the same time, they constitute melody. If successive, they 
 produce harmony. The love of lengthened tones and modu^ 
 lated sounds, different from those of speech, seems a passion 
 implanted in the mind of man all over the world. We know 
 of no people, however wild or savage, who do not take pleas- 
 ure in music, and apply it on the most opposite occasions; ia 
 XJOtes of triumph when they go to war, in songs of merriment 
 
208 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 at their banquets; in mournful hymns to solemnize their 
 funerals, or pastoraRays to celebrate beauty and the pleasures 
 of a rural life. 
 
 That music was always admitted into the religious ceremo- 
 nies, public festivals, and social amusements of mankind, 
 maybe proved by a reference to the Bible; as also the an- 
 tiquity of the construction and use of musical instruments. 
 Tubal, the sixth descendant from Cain, is called * the fa- 
 ther of all such as handle the harp and organ.' 
 
 When Jacob fled from Laban, and was reproached by him 
 for his secret flight, Laban said to him, * Why didst thou flee 
 away secretly, and steal away from me, and didst not tell me, 
 that I might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs, 
 with tabret and with harp ? ' As Laban was a Syrian, the 
 tabret and harp should be ranked among Assyrian instruments. 
 
 In the year 1491 before Christ, we have the first instance 
 of a psalm, or hymn, to the Supreme Being, upon record. 
 When having passed the Red Sea, Moses, at the head of the 
 whole people of Israel escaped from bondage, sung a hymn of 
 gratitude to the Lord. And Miriam the prophetess, * took a 
 timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her, 
 with timbrels and with dances.' 
 
 These instruments were undoubtedly brought from Egypt, 
 and the trumpet of the Jubilee, which was ordered to be 
 sounded soon after the flight from Egypt, was probably also 
 an Egyptian instrument. When the Egyptians required a 
 hymn of their Jewish captives, there is perhaps no heart that 
 does not sympathize with their feelings, when they hung up 
 their harps on the willows of Babylon, and refused to sing the 
 songs of Sion in a strange land. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 209 
 
 More than two thousand years have passed away since 
 then. Time has changed all transitory things; but the feel- 
 inojs of the heart remain the same. The sonj; that we knew 
 and loved in our childhood, the simple melody which soothed 
 our early years, will always awaken a chord in our heart that 
 never slumbers, and no effort of harmony, however brilliant, 
 will affect us with an impression at once so vivid and so pain- 
 ful. The hardy Swiss, when, fighting under foreign banners, 
 he hears the wild notes of the Ranz de Vaches, is brought 
 back in fancy to the scenes of his native hills. His arms 
 drop from his palsied hand — he sheds tears of despondency — 
 he has seen a vision of his mountain-home, and the rest of the 
 world is as a blank in his eyes. 
 
 We also read in Scripture of the song of Deborah and 
 Barak; and of the unfortunate daughter of Jephtha, going 
 out to meet her father with timbrels and with dances. From 
 this time, till Saul was chosen king, 1095 years B. C, the 
 Scriptures are silent about every species of music, except the 
 warlike blast of the trumpet, sounded on military expeditions. 
 Prophet, in some parts of Scripture appears to mean little 
 more than a poet, who sung extempore verses to the sound of 
 an instrument, as the improvisatori of Italy and Spain do at 
 present. 
 
 According to Eusebius, David carried his harp or lyre with 
 him, wherever he went, to console him in his aflliction, and 
 to sing to it the praises of God; and without having recourse 
 to a miracle in the case of Saul, the whole of David's power 
 over the disorder of that king might be attributed to his skil- 
 ful and affecting manner of performing upon the harp. 
 
210 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 It was in the reign of King David^ that the Hebrews held 
 music in the highest estimation. It was then first admitted in 
 the worship of the ark, and the ministry of sacrifice. 
 
 Josephus tells us that the number of flute-players, who led 
 the processions at the Jewish funerals, amounted sometimes to 
 several hundred. From these and various other instances, we 
 infer that music was in general use among the Hebrews from 
 the time of their quitting Egypt, till they ceased to be a nation. 
 Their first music and instruments were certainly borrowed 
 from the Egyptians; but these seem to have remained in a 
 rude state till the reign of David and Solomon. And even 
 then, the multitudes of singing men and women, of trumpets, 
 shawms, cornets, sacbuts, cymbals and timbrels, must have 
 been more calculated to"" produce sounds of joy and triumph, 
 than of musical harmony. 
 
 With regard to modern Hebrew music, all instrumental 
 and even vocal performances have been banished the syna- 
 gogue since the fall of Jerusalem, because the Jews think it 
 wrong to rejoice before the coming of the Messiah. The 
 only Jews who permit music in their synagogues, are the 
 Germans, who sing in parts, and who preserve some old 
 melodies, said to be Hebrew, and supposed to be very ancient, 
 but altogether on doubtful testimony. 
 
 It is in vain to attempt to trace the history of music from a 
 higher source than the history of Egypt; since no nation can 
 produce proofs of antiquity so indisputable as theirs. There 
 the study of music was in ancient times confined to the priest- 
 hood, who used it only on religious and solemn occasions. 
 Most of the ancient musical instruments of Greece were of 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 211 
 
 Egyptian invention; such as the triangular lyre, the monau- 
 los, or single flute; the cymbal, or kettle-drum, and the 
 sistrum, so much used by them, that Egypt has in derision 
 been called the country of sistrums, while Greece has oilen 
 been said to be governed by the lyre. 
 
 The profession of music in Egypt was hereditary, and like 
 their sculpture, was circumscribed by law, and continued in- 
 variable for many ages. On an Egyptian obelisk known at 
 Rome by the name of the Guglia rotta, or broken pillar, there 
 is represented a musical instrument with two strings, having a 
 neck to it, thus proving that the Egyptians in remote antiqui- 
 ty had discovered the means of extending their scale, and 
 multiplying the sounds of a few strings by a simple and com- 
 modious expedient. 
 
 The Egyptian Hermes, or Mercury, surnamed Trismegis- 
 tus, or Thrice Illustrious, and supposed by Sir Isaac Newton 
 to have been the secretary of Osiris, is celebrated as the in- 
 ventor of the lyre. It was said, that walking along the banks 
 of the Nile, he struck his foot against a tortoise-shell, which 
 emitted a sonorous sound. The idea of a lyre occurred to his 
 imagination, and he constructed one in the form of a tortoise, 
 and strung it with the sinews of dead animals. 
 
 The monaulos, or single flute of Egypt, was in the form of 
 a bull's horn, and was at first, probably no other than the horn 
 itself. But the most astonishing proof of the cultivation of 
 music in Egypt exists in the exquisite beauty of the Theban 
 harp, a drawing of which was taken by Bruce from a picture 
 in fresco, found by him in the sepulchral chambers behind the 
 ruins of Egyptian Thebes, 
 
212 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 This harp has thirteen strings, wanting only two strings of 
 two complete octaves. Its form is elegant, more so than the 
 modern harp, which it resembles, except in having no forepart 
 to the frame. The soundino:-board is at the back. It is or- 
 namented on the top with the figure of a sphynx and lotusj 
 the frame appears to be inlaid with ivory, tortoise-shell, and 
 mother-of-pearl, and the ornaments are tasteful and beautiful. 
 Perhaps in the fine evenings of Egypt, her veiled maidens 
 used to sail down the Nile, with its lotus-crowned banks, sing- 
 ing to these harps the praises of their gods. 
 
 The mind is lost in contemplating the immense antiquity of 
 the painting which represents this instrument. It has encour- 
 aged a belief in many, that what is usually considered in 
 Egypt the invention of the arts, was in fact the era of their 
 restoration; that after having attained to great perfection^ 
 they had been again lost, and again invented. 
 
 During the reigns of the Ptolemies, the sumptuous and vo- 
 lu|^||||^us despots who reigned over the Egyptians when they 
 had ceased to be a free people, there can be no doubt that 
 music was greatly encouraged. The father of Cleopatra was 
 surnamed Auleies, or flute-player, from his excessive fondness 
 for that instrument. But this music was probably Grecian. 
 The Egyptian music and instruments were lost after their 
 subjection to the Persians — and with the captivity of Cleopa- 
 tra, both the history and empire of Egypt terminated. 
 
 Fable and truth are so mingled together in ancient Grecian 
 history, that it is difficult to say where the one begins and the 
 other ends. It is probable that most of the Greek divinities 
 were mere mortals, who acquired divine honors by the benefits 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 213 
 
 they conferred upon mankind. Cadmus is a name much cele- 
 brated by antiquity. Having gone to Greece in search of his 
 sister Europa, he sailed to Samothrace, an island near Lem- 
 nos, where he married Harmonia, who according to some au- 
 thors was a princess, according to others a goddess, while 
 some say that she was a flute-player by profession. Howev- 
 er that may be, Harmonia could produce nothing but melody 
 on her wild flute, as the Greek music had no gamut. Perhaps 
 the truth of this story is, that Cadmus, who introduced letters 
 into Greece, married a princess who brought music or harmo- 
 ny thither. But the whole is shrouded in fiction. The gods 
 were said to have attended their wedding. Some presented 
 the bride with valuable presents, while Apollo played on his 
 lyre, the Muses on their flutes, and the other divinities shout- 
 ed for joy. 
 
 Minerva was said to have invented the flute, and to have 
 thrown it aside on being laughed at by Juno and Venus, for 
 the distortion caused by swelling her cheeks in the act of 
 blowing it. Others say that she abandoned the flute on see- 
 ing Apollo playing on the lyre, because she observed that this 
 left his mouth at liberty, and enabled him to sing while he 
 played. 
 
 Apollo's lyre was invented by Mercury, and given by him 
 to Apollo, in order to appease the angry god whose herds he 
 had stolen. Amphion raised an altar to Apollo, who in return 
 endowed him with such musical skill, that he raised the walls 
 of Thebes by the music of his lyre. 
 
 Of all the pagan divinities, none were so famed for their 
 skill in music as Apollo. Pan, having declared that his flute 
 
214 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 was superior to Apollo's lyre, accepted of a musical challenge 
 from that divinity. Midas was appointed judge. He decid- 
 ed in favor of Pan, and Apollo rewarded him with a pair of 
 ass's ears for his stupidity. 
 
 This was probably the invention of some musical poet, in- 
 tended to show that Midas, king of Phrygia, was so occupied 
 in collecting gold, that he paid no attention to the fine arts. 
 
 Marsyas, a celebrated flute-player, was the son of Hyaguis, 
 who lived 1500 years before Christ. Hyagnis was supposed 
 to be the inventor of the flute and the Phrygian mode, as also 
 of nomes, or airs that were sung to various divinities. The 
 musical contest between Marsyas and Apollo has been great- 
 ly celebrated. The flute of Marsyas was vanquished by the 
 lyre of Apollo, and the gods, influenced by the violence of the 
 dispute, flead him alive for his presumption. 
 
 There is a magnificent statue at Home, where Marsyas 
 is represented fastened to a tree, with his arms extended. 
 Among the inventions of Marsyas was the bandage made of 
 le^ather thongs, used by the ancients in playing the flute, to 
 Keep the cheek and lips firm, and to prevent the distortion of 
 the countenance when blowing it. 
 
 There were* also two great musicians in antiquity, of the^ 
 name of Olympus, celebrated performers on the flute. The 
 one lived before the Trojan war; the other was contemporary 
 with Midas, who died 697 years before Christ. The first was 
 a scholar of Marsyas; the second was a Phrygian, and the 
 author of several poems. 
 
 Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch, are unanimous in celebrat- 
 ing the praise of the disciple of Marsyas. During the time of 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 215 
 
 Plutarch, his music was still chaunted in the temples; and he 
 -svas also the author of the Curule song, which caused Alexan- 
 der to seize his arms, when he heard it perforrned by Anti- 
 genides. 
 
 Plutarch also mentions Philammon Delphos, who being 
 a great poet and musician, was considered the son of 
 Apollo. 
 
 The Greeks consecrated the cock, the grasshopper, and 
 the swan to Apollo; the first, because by its crowing it an- 
 nounces the approach of Pha3bus; the second, because it 
 sings all summer; the third, on account of its supposed 
 vocal powers. The opinion of the swan's singing sweetly at 
 the approach of death, was universally believed by the 
 ancients; and Qillian even asserts gravely that at a solemn 
 annual festival in honor of^^^pollo, a band of swans used 
 regularly to take their places among the musicians in the 
 temple, and perform their parts with the utmost precision! 
 
 All the Greek dances and sacrifices in honor of Apollo, 
 were performed to the sound of flutes; and the presents for- 
 merly sent to Delos were conducted tliitlier to the sound of 
 lyres, flutes, and shepherds' pipes. 
 
 The jMusos are the only pagan divinities whose names arc 
 still invoked; and few poets commence their undertaking, 
 without an invocation to the tuneful Nine. Apollo was paint- 
 ed with a cithara of ten strings, as a symbol of his union with 
 the Nine Muses. Pythagoras and Plato supposed that the 
 universe itself, and all its parts, were constructed upon the 
 principles of harmony. The Muses were, according to them, 
 the soul of the planets in our system; whence the imaginarj 
 music of the spheres. 
 
216 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Bacchus acted an important part in musical mythology. 
 He was the god both of wine, and song; and in ancient sculp- 
 ture, we find him accompanied by fawns and satyrs playing 
 on timbrels, cymbals, bagpipes, and horns. The processions 
 celebrated in his honor were accompanied by musicians of 
 both sexes, dressed like fawns and satyrs, and formed into 
 bands of music, playing upon drums and cymbals, and shout- 
 ing, Evohe Bacche! 
 
 Pan was another musical divinity, author of the pipe of 
 reeds called syrinx. Of the celebrated Sirens who lived on 
 the coast of Sicily, and lured the voyager to destruction by 
 the melody of their voice, it is difficult to form a decided 
 opinion. Some say that they were queens of certain small 
 islands, named Sirenusoe, that they cultivated the fine arts, 
 and founded a renowned acac^emy. Others, that the word 
 Siren implies songstress, in the Phcenician language, and that 
 the Sirens were probably excellent singers, of corrupt morals, 
 who lived on the coast of Sicily. Perhaps, the whole is a 
 fable, intended to show that pleasures, too eagerly pursued, 
 must hurry us to destruction. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 917 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Music in the primitive ages — Union of Music and Poetry — Musical demi- 
 gods amoncr the Greeks — Of the first Bards — Music and Musicians 
 mentioned in the Iliad and Odyssey — Of Thamyrud, Demidocus, Phe- 
 mius — Blank space in the History of Music — Of Thaletas, and his dis- 
 coveries in Music — Of another Thaletas, also a Musician — Archilochus 
 — His life and compositions — Tyrtseus — Terpander — He discovers Musi- 
 cal notation — Musical contests at the 01yinj)ic and Pythic frames — First 
 separation between Music and Poetry — Sacadas — Pyttiocritus — Love of 
 Music and Poetry at Sparta — Anecdote of Agesilaus — Alcman— Aglais 
 — AlcGDUs — Sappho — Mininermus — Simonidcs I'indar — Nemean Games — 
 ^Timotlieus — Act passed acrainst his Music by the Ephori — flis opinion 
 with regard to teachinor Music — Musical contests at the Isthmian and 
 Pandthancean games — The most celebrated Flute-players of antiquity — 
 Of Alcibiades — Antigenides — llarmonides — Trumpet-players — Of Do- 
 rian — Ismenias — Remark of Xenophon — Lamia, a finnale Flute-player. 
 
 In the early ages of the world, the chief employment of princes 
 was to tend their flocks, and to amuse themselves with rustic 
 songs, accompanied by rude instruments. In process of 
 time music and poetry extended their influencp from tlie fields 
 to the city; and were employed in chanting the mysteries of 
 religion, or the valiant deeds of heroes. The term singer was 
 equally applied to musician and poet; for no poetry was writ- 
 ten hut to be sung, and music was intended as an accompani- 
 ment to poetry. So many fables are connected with the first 
 poets and musicians, that some have even doubted their exist 
 ence. It is scarcely to be wondered at, that the ignoran 
 should have deified persons whom they found capable of pro- 
 ducing in them feelings of awe, rapture, and admiration, such 
 as seemed unaccountable, and surpassing human power. 
 
 The names of Chiron, Amphion, Orpheus, Licius, and Mu- 
 •OBus will never be forgotten, though tradition has thrown so 
 15 
 
218 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 doubtful a light around them. The lyre of Orpheus, especial- 
 ly, embellished with all the beauties of poetry and fiction, must 
 always be celebrated; the lyie which could silence Cerberus, 
 suspend the torments of Tartarus, and charm even the grim 
 divinities of hell. 
 
 ^ It is supposed that the occupation of the first poets and mu- 
 sicians of Greece resembled that of the hards among the Cel^s 
 and Germans; and of the scalds among the Icelanders and 
 Scandinavians. They were chanters, who sung their works 
 in cities and in palaces. 
 
 They were treated with respect, and looked upon as inspired 
 persons. Such were at first the troubadours of Provence 
 and Languedoc, and the minstrels of other countries, and 
 such was Homer himself, whose poems are the most authen- 
 tic picture that exists in the annals of antiquity, of the times in 
 which he wrote and lived. 
 
 Music is always mentioned in the Iliad and Odyssey with 
 rapture; and the poets and musicians mentioned by Homer 
 are ranked among the bards of Greece, who flourished about 
 the time of the Trojan war. The instruments most frequently 
 named by him are the lyre, the flute, and the syrinx. The 
 two last are certainly of Egyptian origin, though the Greeks 
 attribute the invention of them to their divinities. The trum- 
 pet appears to have been unknown at the seige of Troy. The 
 first signals for battle in primitive wars are said to have been 
 lighted torches. To these succeeded the shells of fishes, 
 which were blown like trumpets. At ail the public feasts and 
 banquets mentioned by Homer, there is not one without mu- 
 sic and a bard. His heroes are musical: so are his divinities. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 219 
 
 The delegates from Agamemnon to Achilles, find him singing 
 to the harp: 
 
 ^Amus'd at ease, the godlike man they found, 
 Picas'd with the solemn harp's harmonious sound : 
 (Tht» well-wrought harp from conquer'd Theba3 came, 
 Of polish'd silver was its costly frame ;) 
 With this he soothes his angry soul, and sings 
 Til' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.' 
 
 Thamyris is called by Homer, * one who plays on the cith- 
 ara.' He was born in Thrace, and was the son of Philam- 
 mon; but having challenged the muses to a trial of skill in 
 poetry and music, they deprived him of sight for his presump- 
 tion. 
 
 It has been generally tiiouglit that in the person of Demo- 
 docus the Bard, whom Homer introduces into the Odyssey, he 
 meant to represent himself. However that may be, he 
 ascribes the song of Demodocus to inspiration, and exalts his 
 character to the summit of human glory. He represents him 
 as holding a distinguished place at the Court of Alcinous, as 
 sitting at the King's table, and as being always preceded by 
 a herald. 
 
 Phemius also, who lived at Ithaca, is mentioned by Homer 
 in terms of great praise. The honor in which bards were 
 held, and the love of the ancients for music are sufficiently 
 manifest throughout all the writings of Homer. 
 
 From the time of Homer to that of Sappho, there is almost a 
 total blank in literature. Between Sappho and Anacreon, a 
 period of about one hundred years, no literary productions 
 have been preserved entire; and again between Anacreon 
 and Pindar, there is another chasm of near a century. 
 
220 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Then came a period of three hundred years, during which 
 the arts gradually improved, and during which the greatest 
 tragic poets, historians, and philosophers of Greece flourished. 
 From the death of Phidias to the time of Alexander the Great, 
 the arts and sciences continued in a state of perfection ; after 
 Avhich they began to decline. 
 
 In these early ages, poetry and music were so much united, 
 that all the lyric, elegiac, and even epic bards, were neces- 
 sarily musicians by profession. The first of these poeU 
 mnsicians upon record, after Homer and Hesiod, was Thale- 
 tas, a native of Crete. Plato and Plutarch agree in celebrat- 
 ing his skill both in music and poetry; his captivating voice; 
 and his Odes, which he enforced by the sweetness of his 
 melody. 
 
 He invented Pceans, and new measures in verse as vv^ell as 
 rhythms in music. The Spartans long continued to sing his 
 airs; and he was the first who composed the liyporclicmes 
 for the armed, or military dance. This was a kind of poetry, 
 composed not only to be sung to the sound of flutes and citha- 
 ras, but to be danced at the same time. The Italian term 
 hallatc/j the French bai ade, the English ballad had former- 
 ly the same import — meaning a song, the melody of which 
 was to regulate the time of a dance. 
 
 There was another poet and musician of the name of Tha^- 
 letas, whe lived in Crete 673 years before Christ. It was 
 said that by the sweetness of his lyre he delivered the Lace- 
 demonians from the pestilence. 
 
 Archilochus was born about 686 years B. C. He invented 
 dramatic melody ; which in modern language might be called 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 221 
 
 recitative to strict measure. He was the son of Telesiclas, a 
 person of iiigh rank, and of Enisso, a slave. He was born at 
 Paros. Having gone into the army, he displayed more fleet- 
 ness than courage in the first engagement at which he was 
 present; lost his buckler, and saved his life. * It is much 
 easier,' said he, ' to get a new buckler, than a new existence.' 
 In consequence, he lost his reputation; the daughter of 
 Lycambes to whom he was betrothed, refused to marry him. 
 His life was but a tissue of disgrace and resentment. He 
 was at war with the world, and the world with him. The 
 rage of Archilochus became a proverbial expression, and pro- 
 voking this satyrist, was compared to treading upon a ser- 
 pent. 
 
 He made many useful discoveries in music, as for instance, 
 in the sudden transition from one rhythm, to another of a dif- 
 ferent kind, — that is, of a different time; as from triple time to 
 common time, which in ancient music was called, from iambic 
 rhythm, to dactylic rhythm. 
 
 Archilochus was generally victor at the Pythic games; and 
 at the Olympic, he sung in full assembly, his famous hymn to 
 Hercules, which procured him the crown of victory, and the 
 applause of all Greece, where his name was revered equally 
 with that of Homer. 
 
 TyrtcEus, an Athenian General, is greatly celebrated for the 
 composition of military songs and airs, as well as for his per- 
 formance of them. He is also said to have invented a new 
 military flute, or clarion, to the animating sound of which, the 
 Spartans attributed their victory over the Messenians, B. C. 
 685. 
 
222 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 All the ancient writers agree in praising the talents and 
 musical discoveries of Terpander, born 671 years B. C. It 
 was said that he added three strings to the lyre. He was at 
 least the first who introduced the seven-stringed lyre at 
 Lacedaemon. He is also said to have invented notation. 
 Thus melody, which before depended upon memory or tradi- 
 tion, was preserved. The merit of this invention is however 
 by many denied to Terpander, and given to Pythagoras, who 
 lived two centuries afterwards. 
 
 At the Olympic games, musical contests formed the chief 
 part of the exhibitions. The Emperor Nero disputed the 
 prize, which we may easily believe to have been conceded to 
 him without difficulty. 
 
 At the Pythic games, the prize was given to him who had 
 written and sung the best hymn in honor of Apollo. At the 
 close of the Orissoean war, prizes were proposed by the 
 Amphyctyons, not only for those musicians who sung best to 
 the accompaniment of the cithara, which at first was the only 
 contest at the Pythian games, but to those who should sing 
 best to a flute accompaniment, and also who should perform 
 best on the flute alone. This was the first separation between 
 music and poetry. 
 
 Sacadas was the first who distinguished himself in this way, 
 by performing the Pythic air on his flute. After this, Pytho- 
 critus gained the prize at Delphos, as a solo player on the 
 flute, six different times. 
 
 Although the Spartans banished science as inconsistent 
 with their warlike pursuits, they encouraged music and poetry. 
 All the evolutions of their army were made to the sound of 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 military music. Agesilaus, being asked why the Spartans 
 marched and fought to the sound of flutes, answered, that 
 when all moved regularly to music, it was easy to distinguish 
 a brave man from a coward. 
 
 The musician Alcman was a native of Sardis, and lived 670 
 years before Christ. He was one of the great musicians who 
 were called to Lacedaemon by the exigencies of the state, and 
 was invited to Sparta to sing his patriotic airs to the sound of 
 the flute. He was remarkable for musical genius, and vora- 
 cious appetite; and is numbered by (Elian among the greatest 
 gourmands of antiquity. 
 
 Aglais was a musical lady, famous for sounding the trum- 
 pet, and for eating a marvellous quantity. 
 
 Alcoeus, the cotemporary and admirer of Sappho, was bora 
 at Mitylene in Lesbos, 604 years before Christ. Like Archi- 
 lochus he entered the army in his youth; and like him, lost 
 his shield and his honor in his first engagement. He set up 
 however as a reformer of the government, and seems to have 
 been possessed of a perturbed spirit unsuitable to the tranquil 
 pleasures afforded by the study of music and poetry. He 
 composed various hymns, odes and epigrams, and was one of 
 the greatest lyric poets of antiquity. 
 
 Sappho, the celebrated poetess, is said to have invented the 
 Mixolydian mode, higher by half a tone, than the Lydian. 
 
 Mimnermus, at the beginning of the sixth century, was 
 famous for performing an air on the flute, called Cradias, 
 usually played at Athens when the victims were led in pro- 
 cession to sacrifice. Simonides the poet is said by Pliny to 
 have^dded the eighth string to the lyre. 
 
224 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Pindar, born in Boeotia, 520 years B. C, was the son of a 
 flute-player by profession, and received his first musical 
 instruction from his father. He then studied under Myrtis 
 a lady of distinguished abilities in lyric poetry, and during that 
 period became acquainted with Corinna the poetess, who 
 afterwards vanquished him five times at Thebes, in public 
 contest for the prize of music and poetry. 
 
 The odes of Pindar were first sung in the Prytanoeum, or 
 town-hall of Olympia. Here they were rehearsed by a 
 chorus, accompanied by instruments, and were afterwards 
 sung at the triumphal entry of the victor whose achievements 
 they celebrated, into his own country. 
 
 The musical contests at the Pythian games, continued till 
 the final abolition of these games, when Christianity was estab- 
 lished. 
 
 At the Nemoean games also, prizes were instituted for 
 music. When Philopoemon was chosen a second time gen- 
 eral of the Achaeans, he happened to enter the theatre, at 
 the moment when the musician Pylades, was singing to his 
 lyre, these words from a song composed by Timotheus, 
 
 * Behold the hero, from whose glorious deeds 
 Our greatest blessing, liberty, proceeds ! ' 
 
 The assembly instantly cast their eyes upon Philopoemon^ 
 and with loud shouts of applause, showed that they considered 
 the verses as applicable to him. 
 
 Timotheus, the cotemporary of Philip of Macedon, was 
 one of the most celebrated poet-musicians of antiquity. He 
 was born at Miletus, in Caria, 346 years B. C. He excelled ia 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 225 
 
 his performance on the cithara; and is said to have perfected 
 that instrument. 
 
 He was accused of corrupting the simplicity of the Spartan 
 music, by adding new strings to the lyre, and extending the 
 musical scale. This appeared so grave an offence at Sparta, 
 that an act was passed by the Ephori, passing censure upon 
 Timotheus, as one who had * given to music an effeminate 
 and artificial dress,' and as having corrupted the ears of the 
 Spartan youth, by introducing a greater variety of notes; 
 at the same, ordering him to cut off these superfluous strings, 
 leaving only the seven tones. 
 
 Timotheus had many pupils, but exacted a double price 
 from all who had been taught before; declaring that he 
 would rather instruct those at half price who knew nothing, 
 than have the trouble of unteaching such as had accquired 
 bad habits. 
 
 Timotheus died, aged ninety-seven, two years before the 
 birth of Alexander the Great, though he has frequently been 
 confounded with another Timotheus, the celebrated player on 
 the flute, so highly esteemed by that prince. 
 
 At the Isthmian, and Panatheniran games, there were also 
 premiums for music. The Thebans in general piqued them- 
 selves upon their skill in flute-playing. The celebrated flute- 
 players of antiquity are innumerable. Alcibiades, happening 
 to see himself in a mirror when he was playing on that instru- 
 ment, was so shocked at the distortion of his countenance, 
 that he threw away his flute, and broke it. He had however 
 the illustrious example of Minerva, for a similar instance of 
 vanity. We are told that Alcibiades thus put the flute out of 
 fashion among young men of rank in Athens. 
 
226 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Antigenides, a celebrated epicure as well as musician, 
 increased the number of holes in the flute, which extended its 
 compass. He was the first who appeared in public with deli- 
 cate Milesian slippers, and a saffron-colored robe. He was 
 so aware of the coarse taste of the common people in 
 Greece with regard to music, that one day, hearing at a dis- 
 tance a violent burst of applause to a player on the flute, he 
 observed, ' There must be something very bad in that man's 
 performance, or those people would not be so lavish of their 
 approbation.' 
 
 The taste for vociferous music among the Greeks, may be 
 guessed at from an anecdote related of a young flute-player, 
 named Harmonides, who began a solo at the Olympic games 
 with so violent a blast on purpose to surprise and elevate his 
 audience, that he breathed his last breath into his flute, and 
 died on the spot. 
 
 The trumpet-players at these exhibitions used as we are 
 told to express the greatest joy when they found that they had 
 neither rent their cheeks, nor burst their blood-vessels. 
 
 Dorion was famous as a musician, poet, and epicure. His 
 wit and talents made up for his gluttony, and rendered him a 
 welcome guest wherever he went. 
 
 Ismenias, the celebrated musician of Thebes, had a flute 
 which cost him three talents, or £58 Is. * If,' says Xenophon, 
 ' A bad flute-player would pass for a good one, he must, like 
 the great flute-players, expend large sums on rich furniture, 
 and appear in public with a great retinue of servants.' 
 
 The musicians of Greece were of both sexes, and the beau- 
 tiful Lamia was one of the celebrated flute-players of antiqui- 
 
MUSIC. 237 
 
 ty. An exquisite engraving of her head, upon an amethyst, 
 is in the king of France's collection. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Music after the time of Alexander the Great — Remarks upon ancienc 
 Greek music — On modern Greek music — Of musical characters amonfr 
 the ancient Greeks — Their multiplicity — 1 he three Genera — The ditfer- 
 ent modes — Rhythm — Of the effect said to have been produced hy aa- 
 cient music — Tne two musical sects — Greek authors on music — Of Ro- 
 man music — lis style and proorress — Nero — Musical instruments of 
 Greece and Rome. 
 
 Between the time of Alexander the Great, and the conquest 
 of Greece by the Romans, there are few eminent musicians 
 upon record. Music, like painting, poetry, and sculpture, 
 was progressive in Greece; but her progress was slower than 
 that of her sister arts. 
 
 The first attempts at music in Greece, as in other countries, 
 must have been rude and simple. Rhythm or time was 
 attended to before tone or melody. Instruments of percus- 
 sion preceded all others, and long before sounds were sus- 
 tained or refined, steps in the dance, and feet in poetry were 
 marked with precision. 
 
 When music was separated from poetry, it became a dis- 
 tinct art; and from being the humble companion of poetry, it 
 became her sovereign. The Greek philosophers, however, 
 always complain of music having degenerated; perhaps, 
 because an art at one time sacred to religion, wasi used ia 
 
228 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 theatrical amusements. But while the statues and paintings 
 of Greece continue to delight the world, her ancient music is 
 a mere matter of conjecture to the curious; and it is observ- 
 ed by a modern author that modern Greek music is now so 
 far from being a standard of excellence to the rest of the 
 world, that none but themselves are pleased with it. 
 
 No ancient people, except the Greeks and Romans, had 
 musical characters; and among these, the letters of the 
 alphabet served as the symbols of sound. The simple method 
 of expressing the octave of any sound by the same sign as in 
 modern music was not known. The Greek scale consist- 
 ed in its most perfect state of two octaves, which the ancients 
 believed to be the greatest interval that could be received in 
 modern melody. 
 
 Each sound had a different denomination; besides which, 
 there were two characters, one vocal and the other instrumen- 
 lal. In order to multiply these characters, the letters of the 
 alphabet were sometimes written in capitals and sometimes 
 small; some were entire, some mutilated, some doubled, 
 some lengthened; some were inverted, and some placed hori- 
 zontally. 
 
 Finding these insufficient, they made use of accents also. 
 These united to the letters, produced, in all, one hundred and 
 twenty different characters, and these being changed and va- 
 ried as our notes are by different keys, produced one thousand 
 six hundred and twenty notes! Over a lyric poem, two rows 
 of these characters were written; the upper for the voice, and 
 the lower for the instrument. 
 
 This multiplicity of notes in ancient Greek music must have 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 229 
 
 made it a long and laborious study, even at a time when the- 
 art itself was very simple. Plato, though unwilling that youth 
 should bestow too much time in the study of music, allowed 
 them three years to learn the elements; but at the end of that 
 time, a student was hardly capable of naming all the notes, or 
 singini? an air at sight. 
 
 In ancient music, there were three genera; the drotonic^ 
 which consisted of tones and semitones; the chromatic, of 
 semitones and minor-thirds; and the enharmonic, of quarter- 
 tones and major-thirds. A mode in ancient music, was equiv- 
 alent to a key in the modern. They were at the distance of 
 half a tone from each other, and were named from the coun- 
 tries where they were invented. Thus we hear of the Lydian, 
 Dorian mode, &c. They were all minor, which must have 
 given a very melancholy cast to their melody. 
 
 The word mode, seems sometimes to have implied time, . as 
 well as tone. The Lydian measure appears to have been ap- 
 propriated to songs of sorrow; the Dorian to martial airs; and 
 the Phrygian to religious ceremonies. 
 
 From the strict union of poetry and music among the an- 
 cients, an offence against rhythm, or time, must have been un- 
 pardonable; destroying the beauty, and sometimes the mean- 
 ing of the poetry. They therefore not only beat time both 
 with hands and feet, but with shells and bones, in order to 
 mark it distinctly, which must have produced a barbarous 
 sound. 
 
 The wonderful effects, said to have been produced by music, 
 among the ancients, have induced many to suppose that the 
 art must have been brought to great perfection among them. 
 
230 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Biit besides that half of these stories are poetical allegories, 
 we must recollect that the effect of music on the multitude 
 does not prove its refinement, but the reverse. 
 
 A simple melody, with popular words, will transport a whole 
 audience; while the most learned performance in an opera or 
 oratorio, will have no effect upon them whatever. 
 
 The two great musical sects among the ancients, were the 
 Pythagoreans and Aristoxemans. Their founders, Pythago- 
 ras and Aristoxenes, together with Lasus, Euclid, and Ptole- 
 my, were the most illustrious musical theorists of antiquity. 
 
 Though the Romans were indebted to the Greeks for most 
 of their arts and sciences, yet as there is no nation so savage, 
 which has not originally some music of its own, it appears 
 that the Romans had in very high antiquity, a rude music pecu- 
 liar to them, and had imitated the Etruscan musical establish- 
 ments, both in their army and temples. But the Romans, 
 more military than refined, never, either in music or songs, 
 approached the elegance of the Greeks. It seems as if melo- 
 dy had always remained in a rude and coarse state amongst 
 them. Their hymeneal odes were rather noise and clamor 
 than music, and it is not probable that their military songs were 
 more harmonious. 
 
 Towards the latter end of the republic, music however was 
 in great favor at Rome, as also in the voluptuous reigns of the 
 emperors. It was employed in the theatres, temples, and 
 banquetting-rooms; but it appears to have been entirely bor- 
 rowed from the Greeks, as well as the instruments of music 
 in use among the Romans. 
 
 Nero, in the year 60 after Christ, instituted exercises of 
 
f 
 
 MUSIC. 28i 
 
 music, and soon after sung in public on the stage at Naples, 
 Afterwards, having gone to Greece, he disputed the prize with 
 the best performers there, and returned to Italy with eighteen 
 hundred prizes, which he had extorted from his judges. He 
 took peculiar care of his voice, and had an officer about his 
 person to admonish him when he spoke too loud. If the em- 
 peror, transported by sudden passion, did not listen to his re- 
 monstrances, the officer had orders to stop his mouth with a 
 napkin. 
 
 The musical instruments, which were the same in ancient 
 Greece and Rome, were of three kinds; wind instruments, of 
 which the principal were the flute, horn, syrinx, trumpet, and 
 water organ; stringed instruments, which included the harp, 
 cithara, lyre, ^and psaltery; find instruments of percussion, 
 such as drums, cymbals, and bells. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Early admission of music into the cluirchrs, both Pa^an and Christian — 
 The Anibrosian and Grerroiian cluirch — The h:irp and psaltry admitted 
 into churches — First ornran known in France— Music cultivated by the 
 Monks — Music in the dark ages — Ohliirations due to Italy in regard to 
 music — Invention of counterpoint hv Guido Aretinus — Some account of 
 his life and works — Odo, abbot of Cluni — Importance of time in music, 
 and invention of tlie time-table — John do Muris — Magister Franco — 
 Fashion both in harmony and melod}'. 
 
 Music had early admission into the churches among the an- 
 cients. In pagan ceremonies, the prayers and praises ofl^ered 
 up to the gods were songs and chorusses, accompanied both 
 
232 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 by music and dancing. The early Christians also sang hymns 
 and psalms; as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, where 
 we are told that at midnight Paul and Silas in their dungeon 
 prayed, and sang praises unto God. 
 
 In A. D. 384, during the reign of Constantine, Ambrose, 
 bishop of Milan, introduced into the church that species of 
 singing called the Ambrosian chant. It is probable that he 
 imported it from the east; as before that time there was a 
 regular choir established in the church at Antioch. An order 
 of monks also were settled there, who were obliged to preserve 
 a perpetual psalmody, as rigidly maintained as the vestal fire 
 of antiquity. 
 
 After the time of St. Ambrose, no memorable change took 
 place in church music till the year 600, when Gregory the 
 Great reformed the ecclesiastical chant, which still subsists, 
 under the name of the Gregorian chant, in most of the cathe- 
 drals of France and Italy. 
 
 Church music has now become venerable from its antiquity, 
 and the use to which it is solely appropriated. Its simplicity 
 and total difference from secular music, prevent levity in the 
 composition, as well as in the performance. It is believed 
 that instruments were admitted into the churches in the early 
 ages, but not indiscriminately. The harp and psaltery, being 
 considered most grave and majestic, were preferred to all 
 others. 
 
 In the eighth century, St. John Damascenes compiled and 
 reformed the chants in the Greek church, as St. Gregory had 
 done in the Roman. 
 
 In the early ages of Christianity, musical missionaries were 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 233 
 
 sent from Rome to the other parts of Europe, to instruct the 
 converts of the gospel, in church melody. Augustine, the 
 monk, was sent for this purpose to England, by Pope Grego- 
 ry; and in 680, Pope Agatho, sent John, the Pra3centor of 
 St. Peters at Rome, to instruct the monks of Weremouth in 
 the art of singing, and performing the festival services through- 
 out the year, as in Rome. Missionaries of the same nature 
 were also sent to France, where the French disputed with 
 them, as to superiority in singing; and commenced that rival- 
 ry still subsisting between the musicians of France and Italy. 
 
 These circumstances account for the similarity of church 
 music, all over Europe, at the time of the Reformation. Ro- 
 man music and sin^inj; were as much in favor in England, dur- 
 
 DO D ' 
 
 ing the middle ages, as Italian compositions and opera-sing- 
 ers are at present. 
 
 Alfred the Great encouraged music, and was himself anex- 
 cellent musician. The story of his entering the Danish camp, 
 in the disguise of a harper, is well known. St. Dunstan also 
 was so good a musician, that he was accused of magic. 
 
 In 514, the hydraulicon, or water-organ, began to lose its 
 favor, and the wind-organ, blown by hand-bellows, became 
 common. In the seventh century, Pope Vitalian introduced it 
 into the church-service at Rome, and in 757, King Pepin re- 
 ceived from Gonstantine VI., a present of the first organ ever 
 seen in France. The invention may therefore be attributed to 
 the Greeks. In the tenth century, the organ became com- 
 mon both in England, Italy, and Germany, and was received 
 into the convents and churches. 
 
 Music employed much of the leisure of the monks in their 
 16 
 
231 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 retirement; and the clergy, who were better skilled in the lib- 
 eral arts than any other condition of men in these ages, both 
 cultivated music themselves, and taught it to others. 
 
 During the dark ages, no works of taste or genius in any 
 art were produced. Music consisted merely of such chants as 
 were applied to the psalms and hymns of the church; and, ex- 
 cept in Italy, was neglected like all the other polite arts. 
 
 The Goths, Vandals, and other barbarians had seized on 
 the most fertile provinces of Europe, l^heir ideas were sav- 
 age, their language harsh, and one on which little vocal melo- 
 dy could be formed. All the dialects of Europe are still a 
 mixture of Celtic and Latin, and more vestiges of the Latin 
 tongue still remain in Italy than elsewhere. Italian, so suited 
 to vocal music by its softness, is Latin corrupted, and some- 
 times softened and improved. 
 
 At the courts of the Roman pontiffs, music, along with the 
 other arts, met v/ith more early encouragement than in any 
 other country. It is from Italy that modern music derives its 
 scale, its counterpoint, its best melodies, its religious and 
 secular dramas, and the chief beauties and graces of modern 
 music. Thus Italy in modern times, has been to the rest of 
 Europe what ancient Greece was to Rome. 
 
 Counterpoint, or music in parts, was said to have been in- 
 vented in the year 1022, by Guido, a monk of Arezzo, in 
 Tuscany. To this celebrated monk, numerous musical inven- 
 tions are attributed. His work, entitled the Micrologus, (from 
 a Greek word signifying compendium,) is a treatise in monk- 
 ish Latin, full of obscurities, and containing his method of teach- 
 ing boys to sing, with rules for the proper performance and 
 composition of the plain chants. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 235 
 
 Guido, who belonged to the order of St. Benedict, excited 
 the envy of his brethren by his success in music. Pope Ben- 
 edict VIII., hearing of his discoveries in that art, sent for 
 him to Rome, where he was treated with much kindness, 
 though he did not remain long absent from his convent. 
 
 But John XX. renewed this invitation, upon his suc- 
 cession to the papal chair. Guido accepted it, and having 
 shown the Pope his Antiphonarium, or notation of the mass 
 for the whole year, his Holiness, regarding it as a prodigy, 
 would not quit his seat, till he liad learned to sing a chant in 
 it, by Guido's new method. 
 
 Unable to bear the heat of Rome in summer, Guido quitted 
 that city, and paid a visit to the Abbot of Pomposo at Ferrara, 
 who pressed him so strongly to remain in his convent, that he 
 consented, and there composed several of his musical tracts. 
 
 He is said to have invented the gamtmit, and to have called 
 it so, because he added the Greek letter Gamma to the scale. 
 He also first suggested the use of lines and spaces together. 
 Many other important discoveries in music are attributed to 
 Guido Aretino: his reputation has lasted more than 750 years, 
 and his name still remains respectable among musicians, for 
 the services which he rendered to the art. 
 
 Odo, Abbot of Cluni in Burgundy, was another learned 
 musician of this period, and his hymns, chants, and anthems, 
 are still preserved in the Romish church. 
 
 Before the invention of characters for time, music must have 
 consisted of simple counter-point, or note against note, as is 
 still used in churches. Time is of such importance in music, 
 that it can give meaning and energy to a repetition of the 
 16* 
 
236 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 same sound. Thus a drum seems to express different tunes, 
 when it only changes the accents and measure of a single 
 sound. 
 
 The invention of a time-table is given by the best writers to 
 John de Muris, who flourished about 1330. But in a manu- 
 script of John de Muris hmiself, bequeathed to the Vatican 
 library by the queen of Sweden, he gives the honor of this 
 important discovery to Magister Franco, a learned scholastic 
 of Liege, who lived in 1083. 
 
 Franco appears also to have first suggested the use of 
 hars in m.usic. It seems wonderful that the immutable laws 
 of harmony should be subject to the caprices of fashion; yet 
 such is undoubtedly the case. Concords which we consider 
 perfect were rejected by former ages. When men became 
 tired of the monotony of unisons and octaves, the fourth be- 
 came their favorite interval. Then thirds were considered 
 more pleasing; and in Corelli's time, a chain of sevenths was 
 thought necessary to combine harmony. 
 
 That there is a fashion in melody, is less surprising. 
 Even language, though not like music ideal and arbitrary, is 
 as temporary and local to the ears of those that are accustom- 
 ed to it, as the arrangement of sounds in melody, and the 
 combination of sounds in harmony. 
 
 A new formed language or melody is polished by imper- 
 ceptible degrees; and there is some music which would now 
 sound as absurd to us, as the language of Chaucer would ap- 
 pear if spoken by a gentleman of our own times. It is this ca- 
 price of fashion which renders the favor of musical compositions 
 so transient. The works of poets, painters, and architects, 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 237 
 
 remain to delight posterity, but the works of a musician, de- 
 pending for their perfect execution on the various powers of 
 voices, instruments, and performers, have little chance of ob- 
 taining immortality. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of Troubadours in the eleventli century — Old Provenc^al melodies — The 
 Lay of king Richard — The son^ of Blondel — Anselm Faidit — Songs in 
 the thirteenth century — The harp — The viol — Jonglerie — Company of 
 minstrels — They fall into disrepute — Tiie song of Roland — The ballads 
 of Chatelain de Coucy — Musical instruments used in France — French 
 music in the fourteentii century — Italian music in the middle ages — Mu- 
 sic at the time of Petrarca — At the time of Boccaccio — Francesco Cieco — 
 — Antonio — Music of the Cambro-Britons — The Welsh bards — Their 
 extirpation — Music in England in the fourteenth century — In Germany 
 at the same period — Now divisions of the musical scale — Invention of 
 discord — Melody netrlected — Harmony improved — Spanish and Flemish 
 composers — Okenlieim — Tosquin — Arrigo .ledesco — Hobrecht — Pierre 
 de la Rue — Music in England till the Reformation — Chief composers. 
 
 In the eleventh century, durini; the first Crusade, Europe began 
 to emerge from barbarism. With poetry, music, and chivalry, 
 the Troubadours rose into favor. They were received at the 
 courts of kings. They sung the praises of the high-born 
 beauties of the court, and the greatest barons and piinces, 
 who cultivated music themselves, treated them with friendship 
 and honor. 
 
 In the simple tunes of these bards of Provence, we may 
 still discover the germs of the future melodies both of France 
 and Italy. About 1119, Provenoal poetry had arrived at its 
 
238 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 greatest point of perfection, and was sung to instruments. 
 At this period, violars, or performers on the vialle, or viol, 
 juglars, or flute-players, players on many other instruments, 
 and coinics, or comedians, abounded all over Europe. Under 
 the general name of Jongleurs, they travelled from province 
 to province, singing their verses at the courts of kings and 
 princes, who rewarded them with clothes, horses, arms and 
 money. 
 
 The Lay, or Song of Complaint, written by King Richard 
 I. during his imprisonment in Germany on his return from 
 Palestine, is one of the earliest specimens of romance poetry 
 which remains. 
 
 The French song, which his minstrel Blondel sung under 
 the windows of the black tower where Richard was confined, 
 is still extant. The King and Blondel had composed it 
 together, and when King Richard heard it he knew it could 
 be no other than Blondel who sung, and he took up the strain, 
 and finished it. 
 
 Anselm Faidit was a troubadour, patronised by Richard ; 
 and one of the most ancient melodies extant was composed by 
 him on the death of his benefactor. In these simple melodies, 
 no time is marked, nor is there much variety of notation. 
 
 In the thirteenth century the songs were of various kinds; 
 moral, merry, plaintive and lively melody, seems to have been 
 little more than plain song or chanting, the embellishments of 
 which depended on the abilities and taste of the singer. 
 
 The harp passed for the most noble and majestic of instru- 
 ments, and the romancers place it in the hands of their heroes, 
 as the ancient Greek bards did the lyre. A poet of the four- 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 239 
 
 teenth century, Machan, wrote a poem in its praise, in which 
 he confines its use only to knights, esquires, and ladies with 
 beautiful hands. * Its courteous and gentle sounds,' he says, 
 * should be heard only by the elegant and good.' 
 
 The instrument, which frequently accompanied and disputed 
 pre-eminence with the harp, was the viol. Till the sixteenth 
 century, this instrument was furnished with frets; after that 
 period, it was reduced to four strings; and still, under the de- 
 nomination of violin^ it holds the first place among treble instru- 
 ments. The viol was played with a bow, and diflered entirely 
 from the vielle, the tones of which were produced by the fric- 
 tion of a wheel; the wheel performed the part of a bow. 
 
 The term Jonglicric, in old French, included four diflx'rent 
 species of performers; the troubadours, who wrote, set, and 
 sung their own verses; the singers, employed by those poets 
 and composers, to whom nature had denied a voice; the di- 
 seurs, narrators, or romancers, who in a kind of chant recited 
 their metrical histories, and the players upon instruments, who 
 accompanied the troubadours and singers, or performed at 
 feasts and revels without sin^in^. 
 
 In 1330, the minstrels formed themselves into a company, 
 and obtained a charter. On account of their disorderly con- 
 duct, they were banished by Philip Augustus. His successors 
 recalled them, and they were united under the general name 
 of Mmcstraudic, minstrelsy; having a chief appointed over 
 them, called King of the Minstrels. They lived in a particu- 
 lar street in Paris, still called St. Julien des Menestriers. 
 They played at all weddings and parties of pleasure; but in 
 1395, their immoral conduct again called forth the censure of 
 the government. 
 
240 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Thus, though restored to public favor, the order had greatly 
 fallen into disrepute. Troubadours were no longer received 
 with respect. Yet they were in a great measure the fathers 
 of literature in France. They also polished the manners, es- 
 tablished the rules of politeness, and refined the rudeness of 
 its inhabitants. 
 
 The famous song upon Roland continued in favor with the 
 French soldiery, so late as the battle of Poictiers, in the time 
 of their King John; and when he reproached one of them for 
 singing it when there were no Rolands left, the soldier an- 
 swered that Rolands would soon be found, had they a Charle- 
 magne at their head. 
 
 Among the most ancient songs on the subject of Love, 
 which are preserved in the French language, are those of the 
 unfortunate Chatelain de Coucy, who, having gone to the Holy 
 Land, entreated his esquire to have his heart embalmed, in 
 the event of his death, and sent to the Lady of Fayel in Picar- 
 dy, in a little casket, together with a purse of silk and hair, 
 which she had worked for him. 
 
 But the Lord of Fayel, having met the esquire as he was 
 entering the castle with the casket in his hand, seized upon it, 
 dismissed the esquire, and ordered the cook to serve up the 
 embalmed heart for dinner, with a sauce to render it palatable. 
 When the lady was told that she had dined upon the heart 
 of the Chatelain de Coucy, she retired to her chamber, and 
 starved herself to death. 
 
 In the time of Philip de Valois, more than thirty musical 
 instruments were known in France. Among these, were 
 harps, flutes, hautboys, bassoons, trumpets, guitars, bagpipes, 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 241 
 
 viols, rebecs, organs, 8lc. Some songs are still extant, written 
 by Thibaut, King of Navarre, and addressed to Queen Blanche 
 of Castile. 
 
 In the fourteenth century, music in parts, moving in differ- 
 ent melodies, came into general favor. Of these old songs, 
 both the words and music are difficult to read; the words from 
 being nearly effaced, and the music, from being without bars. 
 
 With respect to the music of the middle ages in Italy, it 
 does not appear to have wholly perished, f In 1268, when 
 Prince Conrad marched against Charles I., of Sicily, we are 
 told of a chorus of women who sung through the streets, ac- 
 companied with cymbals, viols, drums, &c. In 13G8, Lionel, 
 Duke of Clarence, having married a daughter of the proud 
 house of Visconti, gave five hundred superb dresses to the 
 minstrels who attended. 
 
 The most ancient melodies existing in Italy are a collection 
 of sacred songs, supposed to have been brought there by the 
 pilgrims who went to the Holy Land. In 1310, a society was 
 formed at Florence, for the performance of these religious 
 poems. This company still subsists, and the members of it 
 frequently sing their hymns through the streets in parts, accom- 
 panied by an organ. 
 
 Every nation in Europe has produced good poetry before 
 it could boast of good melody, and when the sonnets of Petrar- 
 ca delighted all Italy by their grace and beauty, it does not 
 appear that music had by any means kept pace with her sister 
 art. We are indeed told, that when the poet was crowned 
 with laurel in the capitol, two choirs of music, the one vocal, 
 and the other instrumental, accompanied the processioOj by 
 
242 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 turns producing sweet harmony. And from this it is inferred 
 that counterpoint, and singing, and playing in concert, must 
 have been in some measure understood in Italy, at that period. 
 
 From the writings of Boccacio, and his account of the man- 
 ner in which, during the dreadful plague at Florence in 1348, 
 the Florentines amused themselves with music and dancing in 
 order to banish thought; it is plain that there were two kinds 
 of music and performers in his time, as at present. One 
 species of music, was a plain, simple, and popular mel- 
 ody, generally understood. The other, an elaborate and 
 artificial species of music, which could only be played by sci- 
 entific persons, or professors. 
 
 The most illustrious musician of this period in Italy, was 
 Francesco Ciero. He was a native of Florence, and being: 
 deprived of sight by the small-pox, he applied himself to the 
 cultivation of music. He was celebrated for his performance 
 on the organ, and was publicly honored at Venice by receiv- 
 ing the laurel crown, in the presence of the Duke of Venice. 
 He died in 1390. 
 
 Another musician named Antonio de 1 'Organi, was so cele- 
 brated for his skill in music, that the most eminent musicians, 
 of England, are said to have crossed the Alps, in order to hear 
 his performance. 
 
 The Cambro-Britons, the ancient inhabitants of Britain, 
 held their bards in high reverence. Songs of very great an- 
 tiquity are preserved in the Welsh language, and the harp to 
 which they were sung was no less in favor with the Saxons 
 and Danes than with the Britons. The bard, in Wales, was 
 the eighth officer in dignity at the court. He had a place in 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 243 
 
 the royal hall next to the steward of the household. Musie 
 was considered an accomplishment necessar}' to the educa- 
 tion of a monarch; and to sing to the harp was requisite to 
 form a perfect prince, or a complete hero. 
 
 The bounty of William of Normandy to his bard is record- 
 ed in Doomsday Book. In 1271, Edward I. took his harp- 
 er with him to the Holy Land. And when Edward was 
 wounded with a poisoned knife at Ptolemais, the harper, 
 hearing the struggle, rushed into the apartment, and killed 
 the assassin. It was however, this monarch, who afterwards 
 •extirpated all the Welsh bards. 
 
 From the writings of Chaucer, we find that music was in 
 high estimation in England during the 14th century. The 
 most ancient English song still extant. Is one written in 1415, 
 on the victory of Henry V. at Agincourt. About that peri- 
 od, two eminent musicians flourished in England, John Dun- 
 stable, and Dr. John Hambois. The latter is supposed to 
 have been the first musician who was honored with the de- 
 gree of Doctor in England. 
 
 The most ancient German music extant is that set to the 
 hymns of the first reformers, though there can be no doubt 
 that the Germans had at that period songs in their own lan- 
 guage, set to melodies formed upon the Guido scale. But 
 none of these appear to have been preserved. 
 
 Music had now a regular and extensive scale for melody,, 
 a code of laws for harmony, and a commodious notation and 
 time-table. Thus musicians were furnished with the whole 
 mechanism of their art. After the invention of printing, 
 music, and especially counterpoint, became an object of high 
 
244 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 importance. About the middle of the 15th century, the scale 
 re-ceived six divisions: base, baritono, tenor, contralto, mez- 
 zo-soprano, and soprano. The natural pitch of these is about 
 three or four notes above each other. 
 
 While harmony was thus becoming more refined, it was 
 found, like other sweet and luscious things, to become insipid 
 for want of contrast. Then a mixture of discord Was intro- 
 duced, like a shade in painting to subdue a bright color. 
 Discord, in music, does not consist in a defective interval, 
 which would produce a jargon; but in the artful use of such 
 combinations which are too disagreeable for the ear to dwell 
 upon, yet which are necessary as a relief to harmony. 
 
 In the mean time, while harmony was improved, melody had 
 been long neglected. It was long before men had the courage 
 or genius to invent new melodies. In the 15th century, we 
 hear of harmony in four parts in the Pope's chapel. The 
 composers were Netherlanders, and the singers Spaniards, 
 And before the year 1600, there were eminent composers, 
 both Spanish and Flemish. The encouragemeut given to the 
 liberal arts by the Emperors Charles IV. and Francis I. was 
 undoubtedly the cause of the progress of music in French 
 Flanders and the Spanish Netherlands. These princes lived 
 less in their capitals than elsewhere, and resided frequently 
 in Brussels, Antwerp, Mons, Carabray, and other places. 
 
 John Okenheim, a native of Hainault, is the oldest composer 
 in parts, whose works still remain. Josquin, Isaac, and 
 Brumel, were composers whose works surpass in excellence 
 all that can be produced of equal antiquity by the inhabitants 
 of England, Italy, or any other part of the world. The 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 245 
 
 masses of Josquin are still highly celebrated. Some suppose 
 him to have beea a native of Flanders, while others consider 
 him an Italian. 
 
 The chief beauty ol his works consists in his knowledge of 
 harmony, as there was then little melody, and no grace in the 
 arrangement of single notes. Arrigo Tedesco, or Henry Isaac, 
 was a musician of great reputation, and held the situation of 
 Maestro di Capella of the church of St. John in Florence. 
 His compositions also were chiefly ecclesiastical. After him, 
 Jacob Hobrecht, a Netherlander, and Pierre de la Hue, were 
 the most eminent contrapuntists on the continent. The music 
 of these composers has now become new from an excess of 
 antiquity, and those who are satiated with modern melody, 
 harmony, and modulation, would have great pleasure in lis- 
 tening to these ancient performances. 
 
 In England, it was so customary for the old poets to write 
 new words to old tunes, that there was little business for a 
 composer. Such of these old melodies which remain are sim- 
 ple and uncouth, and little more airy than the chants of the 
 church. Harmony however had in the middle of the 16th 
 century arrived at great perfection in England. The compo- 
 sitions were almost entirely for the use of the church, but 
 bear a stamp of national originality, and do not resemble the 
 choral productions of the continent. Among the most emi- 
 nent composers were Fairfax, William of Newark, Tavcrnen, 
 Tudor, Parsons, and John Marbcck, who set the whole English 
 cathedral service to music. 
 
246 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 In what modern music consists — Of melody-^Consonance — Remarks 
 on national music — Scotch, Irish, Tyrolese, &c. 
 
 Modern music consists of melody, time, consonance, and 
 dissonance. By melody is implied a series of sounds more 
 fixed, and generally more lengthened, than those of speech; 
 arranged with grace, and with respect to time, of proportional 
 lengths, such as the mind can easily measure, and the voice 
 express. These sounds are regulated by a scale, consisting 
 of tones and semitones; but admit a variety of arrangement, 
 as unbounded as imagination. 
 
 Consonance is derived from a coincidence of two or more 
 sounds, which being heard together, by their agreement and 
 union, afford the utmost pleasure to ears capable of judging 
 and feeling. The combination and succession of concords or 
 sounds in consonance, constitutes harmony; as the selection 
 of single sounds produces melody. 
 
 Dissonance is the want of that agreeable union between 
 two or more sounds, which constitutes consonance in musi- 
 cal composition. It is occasioned by the suspension or 
 anticipation of some sound before, or after it becomes a con- 
 cord. 
 
 Of musical tones the most grateful to the ear are such as 
 are produced by the voice; and the most pleasing music is that 
 which approaches the nearest to vocal; such as can be sus- 
 tained, swelled, and diminished, at pleasure. The violin 
 flute, and hautboys, may be ranked as the first of these. The 
 
MUSIC. 347 
 
 instrument which produces the greatest effect is the organ; 
 but it is imperfect, both in expression and intonation. With 
 respect to excellence of style and composition, it may be 
 said that to practised ears, the most pleasing music is such 
 as has the merit of novelty, added to refinement; and to the 
 ignorant, such as is most familiar and common. 
 
 Each country has its peculiar style of melody, preferred by 
 the people of that country to all other styles. This variety 
 appears to depend upoii many causes; on the climate, the 
 language, the disposition of the people, the nature of the 
 scenery amongst which they live, and perhaps in some meas- 
 ure, upon their government or institutions, which must have 
 an influence upon their character and disposition. 
 
 Thus the music of the Highlands of Scotland is almost 
 uniformly of a wild and melancholy character. The sights 
 and sounds of nature in these mountain regions are all of a 
 melancholy cast. The waves have a mournful sound as they 
 dash against the rocks; so has the wind, when it sweeps over 
 the dark heath, or moans through the lone valley, or howls 
 round the mountain-tops. 
 
 There is nothing vulgar in these mournful melodies. The 
 ancient Highlanders were proud, imaginative, and supersti- 
 ti6us; devoted to their chieftains with a lofty enthusiasm, 
 looking down with contempt on the petty traffic of their Low- 
 land neighbors. Their business was war, their occupation 
 hunting; and at the intervals of tliese pursuits, the Highland- 
 er, wrapt in his plaid, lonely and solitary, would indulge in 
 fanciful reveries amidst the dark mists, the stupendous pre 
 cipices and the rolling torrents of his dreary land. It is not 
 
248 
 
 MUSIC* 
 
 wondei-ful that their music and poetry were alike colored by 
 the scenes amongst which they lived. The gathering of the 
 clan was to music at once wild and martial. The Highland 
 widow who mourned for the death of her fair-haired boy, 
 lamented his untimely fate in strains passionate and pathetic — 
 and in language which was simple and lofty. 
 
 The Lowland melodies are of a different cast. They speak 
 of clear streams and peaceful valleys,— they express love and 
 tenderness, and tranquil domestic affection. Many of thenr 
 are named from the rivulets and hills adjoining the Tweedy 
 near Melrose; such as Galavvater, Ettrick Banks, and the 
 Braes of Garrow. Many have supposed that David Rizzio was 
 the composer of these songs; an opinion utterly devoid of 
 probability. In the time of Rizzio, harmony was the fashion- 
 able study of the Italian composers; while melody is so much 
 the characteristic of the Scotch tunes, that it is uncertain 
 whether bases were set to them before the present century. 
 
 It is indeed probable, that Rizzio, being a skilful musician, 
 executed these songs with a delicacy unknown to the native 
 musicians; that he perhaps corrected the extravagance of 
 certain passages, and thus improved the beauty of these pas- 
 toral melodies. 
 
 Some consider James I. as the father of plaintive melody in 
 Scotland; and it is certain that all the Jameses were skilled 
 both in music and poetry. From the reign of James I. to the 
 end of the reign of James V., we may reckon the great era of 
 Scottish poetry and music. During that period flourished 
 Gavin, Douglas, Ballenden, Dunbar, Herryson, Scott, Mont- 
 gomery, and Sir David Lyndsay, with many others, whose fine 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 249 
 
 poems are still extant. But the most ancient and beautiful 
 Scotch melodies were probably the invention of the Scotch 
 shepherds, who actually felt those sentiments and affections 
 whereof they are so expressive. 
 
 Irish melody differs from the Lowland Scotch music, as 
 much as the latter does from the Highland. It is full of deep 
 feeling and pathos. It has more energy than Scottish music 
 — perhaps more variety. There is a vehemence in it, which 
 seems expressive of the character of the people, with occa- 
 sional bursts of sorrow and indignation; while their ludicrous 
 songs are the very essence of mirth and untamed vivacity. 
 
 The Alpine melodies, and songs of the Tyrol, have the wild- 
 ness peculiar to mountain music, yet are wholly unlike tho 
 music of the Scotch highlands. They breathe a spirit of free- 
 dom and wild gaiety. The music is clear, bold, and anima- 
 ting. The Swiss hunter has but to descend from the misty 
 brow of the mountain, to discover mid-way his cheerful cot- 
 tage encircled by vines. He is not condemned, like the 
 Highlander, to perpetual dreariness. The mountain-scenery 
 is awful and sublime; but the roseate tint upon the Alpine 
 snows reminds him of sunshine and his smiling home. 
 
 The natives of the southern countries in Europe, arc re- 
 markable for their universal love of music, and for the excel- 
 lence of their voices. In Spain, in Italy, and in the south of 
 France, music appears to be a kind of native language, like 
 the untaught warbling of the birds. At Venice, the gondo- 
 liers sing in parts; and though the music is rude, it has a 
 pleasing effect, when, softened by distance, it steals over the 
 waters of the Brenta. The native melodies of Italy are grace- 
 17 
 
250 
 
 MUSIC 
 
 fill and tender; and their arie hufe have a lightness and gaie- 
 ty, and sometimes a grotesque mirth, which only an Italian 
 can understand. The airs sung by the peasants of Italy are 
 in general more remarkable for grace and sweetness, than for 
 deep feeling. Those of Spain have, like the Spanish lan- 
 guage, more energy and a more romantic character. They 
 tell of a more mountainous country, of a more high-souled and 
 a graver people. In Italy the theme is ever of love or beauty. 
 In Spain, there is a greater mixture of devotion and romance 
 with gallantry. The vocal music of France is not pleasing to 
 any other nation, on account of the peculiarity of their proso- 
 dy. They always lay a stress on the last syllable. The 
 French language is the only one which has words terminating 
 in an e mute; and this e, which is not pronounced in common 
 speech, has a note assigned to it in music. Their native 
 melody is in general slower than might be expected from the 
 vivacity of the inhabitants, and upon the whole, with little ro- 
 mance or deep tenderness, unless in some of the old Proven- 
 cal airs, which seem to have given rise to many of the melo- 
 dies both of France and Italy. It is certain, from whatever 
 cause it may arise, that the national music of every country is 
 as distinct as their language. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 English music in the IGth crntury — Italian music and musicians in the 
 same century — German music and composers in the lOth century — Of 
 French, Spanish, and Dutch music and composers of the same period — 
 Music in England in the 17th century — Of masques, madrigals, hallads, 
 «&c. — The most eminent English composers — Music in Italy in the 17th 
 century — Most celebrated composers and violin-players — Of Corelli — 
 Music in Germany in the 17tli century— Introduction of the Italian opera 
 into Germany — Of French music in the 17th century — Italian opera 
 introduced into France — Of Lulli — English composers for the chuich 
 after Purcell. 
 
 Before the Reformation, as there was but one religion, there 
 was but one kind of sacred music in Europe, plain chant, and 
 the descant built upon it. That music was applied to one 
 language only, the Latin. In the 16th century, music was in 
 England an indispensable part of polite education. There is 
 a collection preserved in manuscript called Queen Elizabeth's 
 Virginal Book. If her majesty was able to execute any of the 
 pieces in that book, she must have been a great performer. 
 Tallis, singularly profound in musical composition, and Biid, 
 his scholar, were two of the authors of this famous colleo 
 tion. 
 
 During the reign of Elizabeth, the genius and learning of 
 the British musicians were not inferior to any on the Continent, 
 an observation scarcely applicable at any other period of the 
 history of En^iand. Sacred music was the prirripal object 
 of study all over Europe. The lute and virginais were he 
 onlv instruments for which any tolerable music was compos- 
 ed. The violin was hardly known Viols with six strings and 
 fretted hke a guitar, were admitted into private concerts, but 
 ^ 17* 
 
 \ 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth was in the habit of being regaled during 
 dinner with twelve trumpets, and two kettle-drums, together 
 with fifes, side-drums and cornets, which shows the state of 
 regal music at that period. 
 
 The lute, which is now scarcely known, was the favorite 
 instrument of every nation in Europe during the last two cen- 
 turies. Choral compositions, madrigals and songs in parts, 
 were the only vocal music then known. Solo songs, anthems, 
 and cantatas, are the production? of later limes. It is there- 
 fore upon church mn^ic, madrigals and songs in parts that 
 the English, during the reign of Elizabeth, must rest their 
 reputation. Taste, rhythm, accent, and grace must not be 
 sought for in this kind of music. What is generally under- 
 stood by taste in music, is nearly inadmissible in the gravity 
 of church composition. The figures and canons of the 16th 
 century, like the Gothic buildings in which they were sung, 
 have a gravity and grandeur peculiarly suited to the purpose 
 of their construction. However uncouth they may now ap- 
 pear, they should be preserved as venerable relics of former 
 musical labors and erudition. 
 
 The 16th century in Italy gave birth to Giovanni Pierliugi 
 da Palestrina, the most eminent master of the age in which 
 ho lived. He was born in 1529, at Palestrina, and having 
 when very young distinguished himself as a composer, he 
 was admitted into the Pope's chapel at Rome; and having 
 brought choral harmony to a degree of perfection which has 
 nover since been exceeded, he died in 1594, at the age of 
 sixty-five. We are told that in 1567, the Pope and Conclave 
 having been offended and scandalized at the light manner in 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 253 
 
 which the mass had long been set and performed, determined 
 to banish music from the church. Palestrina, then aged 
 twenty-six, entreated his Holiness to suspend the execution 
 of his design, till he had heard a mass of his composition. 
 
 His request was granted, and on Easter Day, his famous 
 mass entitled Missa Papce Marcelli was performed in solemn 
 assembly, before the Pope and College of Cardinals, who 
 found it so grave, noble and elegant, that music was restored 
 to favor and again admitted in the celebration of sacred rites. 
 The Italians place Palestrina at the head of the Roman school 
 in music. 
 
 Luca Marenzio, also of that school, brought madrigals to 
 their highest degree of perfection towards the end of the 16th 
 century. He was a native of Corcaglia, in Brescia. The 
 Italians surnamed him The Swan; and the greatest persons in 
 Italy courted his society. He died in 1599. 
 
 At the head of the Venetian school, the Italians place 
 Adrian Willaert, usually called Adriano, a native of Bruges. 
 His works and scholars were very numerous. His dexterity 
 in the construction of canons was truly wonderful. 
 
 At the head of the Neapolitan school was John Tinctor, 
 and after him, Rocco Radio, both celebrated and learned 
 musicians. The first secular music in parts which has boon 
 known on the Continent, is the harmony that was set to the 
 rustic and street tunes of the kingdom of Naples. During 
 the 16th century, these, under the names of aricj villanelfe, 
 &c., were as much in fashion throughout Europe as Venetijin 
 ballads have since been. Besides the old tunes, which were 
 then collected, and published in four parts, innumerable airs 
 
254 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 wore invented in imitation of these by all the great composers 
 of that time. They were sung about the streets in parts, and 
 contain more air and vivacity in the melody, than any other 
 songs of the same date. 
 
 No Neapolitan composer of this period, has obtained such 
 high praise as Don Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa. 
 Tassoni, an Italian author of that period, says that he imitated 
 the Scotch melodies, but those which remain of his composi- 
 tion, have no resemblance whatever to Caledonian music. 
 His contemporaries appear to have been dazzled by his rank, 
 in the encomiums which they bestow upon him. 
 
 At the head of the Lombard school was Father Costanza 
 Porto, of Cremona, author of eighteen different works for the 
 church, full of elaborate and curious compositions. Gastoldi, 
 also of the Lombard school, was the authe^r of various lively 
 ballads, more graceful than any melodies which were written 
 before the cultivation of melody for the stage. 
 
 Of the Bolognese school in the 16th century, among the 
 chief masters were Artusi and Andrea Roti; and of the 
 Florentine school, Francesco Corteccia, author of madrigals 
 and church music; Alessandro Striggio, a voluminous com- 
 poser; and Constantius Testa, one of the most graceful com- 
 posers of that period. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Germany, besides numerous theoretical 
 w^riters and composers, the talents of innumerable practical 
 musicians and performers are highly celebrated. The in- 
 habitants of that extensive empire had long made music a part 
 of general education. They were especially famous for the 
 excellence of their organs, as well as for their performers on 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 255 
 
 ihat instrument. During the sixteenth century, among their 
 most eminent composers and theorists were Reischius, Mi- 
 chael Roswick, Henry Soris, Faber, Hoffman, and many 
 others. 
 
 Before the reign of Francis 1. music appears to have been 
 little cultivated in France; and even during his reign it re- 
 ceived little improvement. But so many excellent masters 
 of harmony existed, especially in the Low Countries, that mu- 
 sic in parts had become common all over Europe. The first 
 French musician of eminence, after the death of Francis I. 
 was Cretin, who published, in 1546, a work containing thirty- 
 one Psalms of David, set to music in four parts. Ronsard, the 
 favorite bard of France during the three succeeding reigns, 
 had his songs set to music in four parts by Bertrand, in 1578, 
 under the title of Les Amours de Ronsard. 
 
 Claude le Jenne was the author of melanges, songs, and 
 psalms. His melanges consist of French songs and motels, 
 the former greatly resembling the madrigals of Italy. They 
 possess in general much art and skill, with little melody and 
 rhjthm. 
 
 The lute was the chief instrument played upon in France at 
 this period, and the violin was introduced by Baltazarini, 
 sent from Piedmont at the head of a band of violin players, by 
 Marshal Brissac, to Queen Catharine de Medicis. Baltaza- 
 rini having delighted the court by his ballets, divertissemens, 
 and other dramatic representations, received in consequence 
 the surname of Bcaui-joijcux. 
 
 Indeed, the great number of Italian musicians who followed 
 in the train of Catharine de Medicis, induced the musicians of 
 
Q56 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 France to change their own rude and simple method, and to 
 adopt the grace and delicacy of the Italians, both in vocal 
 and instrumental music. From the ballets introduced by 
 Beaux-joyeux, we may trace the origin of the ballet heroique, 
 and the ballet historique, in France, where the first place ia 
 given to dancing, and the second to poetry and music. 
 
 Music in Spain was early admitted into the circle of the 
 sciences at their universities. Before the time of Salinas, who 
 lived at the close of the sixteenth century, though the theory 
 of music had been attended to, yet it had been little cultivated 
 as an art. Francis Salinas was a native of Burgos, and was 
 born blind. He was taught very early to sing, and to play 
 upon the organ, in the performance of which he excelled. His 
 treatise upon music has been greatly celebrated. He died in 
 1590, aged 77. 
 
 The works of Don Cristofero Morales were celebrated all 
 over Europe about the same period. He wrote chiefly for 
 the church, and his compositions were in high favor at Rome, 
 till those of PaJestrina supplanted them. Other eminent 
 Spanish composers of the sixteenth century were Guerrero of 
 Seville, Flecha of Catalonia, and Ortiz of Madrid. 
 
 In Flanders and the Netherlands, many able composers had 
 succeeded Jusquin. Among these, Cyprian Rore, and Or- 
 lando Lasso may be particularly mentioned. They travelled 
 through the different courts of Europe, and were great mas- 
 ters of harmony. They composed masses and psalms for the 
 church, as well as songs adapted to various languages. Their 
 compositions are lighter than those of Palestrina, and when 
 they strive to be grave and solemn, they frequently become 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 257 
 
 heavy and dull. Their songs have much modulation, but lit- 
 tle melody. 
 
 In the seventeenth century, masques, the precursors of ope- 
 ras, came into great vogue in England. They resemble ope- 
 ras, since they are in dialogue; are performed on the stage; 
 are ornamented with machinery, dances and decorations; and 
 have always music, vocal and instrumental. They differ from 
 them in having no recitative, which is the essential character- 
 istic of an opera. 
 
 About the beginning of the same century, madrigals began 
 to go out of vogue, and were supplanted by fantasias, or fan- 
 cies, of three or more parts, wholly composed for viols and 
 other instruments, without the assistance of the voice. About 
 the end of the reign of James I. a music lecture, or professor- 
 ship, was founded in the University of Oxford, by Dr. William 
 Heyther. 
 
 Charles I. loved music and patronized musicians. He wag 
 also himself a good performer on the viol-da-gamba. In 1637, 
 Milton wrote the Mask of Comus, which was set to music by 
 Henry Lawes, a celebrated musician, who performed the part 
 of Thyrsis in it. The other characters were sustained by the 
 sons and daughters of Lord Brackley, to whom it was dedi- 
 cated. Indeed, these musical dramas were usually performecl 
 by the king, queen, and nobility, especially the splendid bal- 
 lets, where they represented heathen divinities or allegorical 
 characters. 
 
 Among the best musicians of England at this period wero 
 Nathaniel Giles, Orlando Gibbons, Dr. William Child, and 
 Pelham Humphry. Attempts were now made in England for 
 
258 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 simplifying harmony, and purifying melody; but for some 
 time with little success. The harmony was given up, and the 
 melody, that filled its place had the merit of simplicity, but 
 was totally devoid of accent, grace, or invention. 
 
 The praises that are bestowed by contemporaries upon some 
 of the music and musicians of this period only show that the 
 worst music is more admired during times of ignorance than 
 the most exquisite productions at a more enlightened time. 
 
 From the death of Charles I. till the Restoration, notwith- 
 standing the gloomy spirit of the age, music was zealously 
 cultivated in private. John Jenkins was a voluminous com- 
 poser fancies for viols, and was the first Englishman who 
 professedly imitated the Italian style. The restoration of 
 Charles II. drew from their retreats all the surviving musi- 
 cians who had been involved in the calamities occasioned by 
 the civil war. 
 
 The ballads of Dr. Blow, which were much in vogue at this 
 time, contained more melody than those of any preceding 
 composers; yet they were not of that graceful kind which the 
 Italians were now rapidly carrying to perfection. It is in 
 these ballads, that the union of Scotch melody with the 
 English is first conspicuous. 
 
 King Charles had a taste for all things that were French, 
 and in order to please him, all the composers in London 
 etrove hard to imitate Lulli, a Frenchified Italian, master of 
 the court music in Paris, who was then considered the great- 
 est musician of his time. 
 
 The eminent English musician, Henry Purcell, was born 
 in 1653. His genius embraced, with equal facility, every 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 25d 
 
 species of composition then known. In writing for the 
 church, he manifested extraordinary talent, whether he ad- 
 hered to the elaborate style, of his predecessors, or adopted a 
 new and more expressive style of which he was himself one of 
 the principal inventors. In compositions for the theatre, he 
 gave more melody and interest to the voice than had ever 
 been heard in England before. And in private music, such 
 as sonatas for instruments, songs, ballads, or catches for the 
 voice, he so far surpassed whatever England had before pro- 
 duced or imported, that all other musical productions were 
 instantly consigned to oblivion. 
 
 Among these graceful melodies the Mad Bess of Purcell is 
 so celebrated as to need no panegyric, its favor having been 
 revived by almost all the best English singers. His songs 
 are preserved in a collection entitled the Orpheus Britanni- 
 cus. Here are collected the songs, from which the natives 
 of Britain first received a delightful impression by the music 
 of a single voice. 
 
 A revolution in favor of melody and expression was now 
 preparing in Italy, even in sacred music. Dramatic compo- 
 sition, consisting of melodies and recitation for a single voice, 
 now began to be preferred to music of many parts. Ludovico 
 Viadana, an eminent church composer of this period, has the 
 reputation of having invented the indication of chords by 
 figures, in what the Italians call basso continuo, and the 
 English, thorough bass. 
 
 Allegri was the author of the famous Miserere still sung ia 
 the Papal chapel during Passion week. Though it undoubt- 
 edly owes much of its eflfect to the surrounding scene, to 
 
360 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 the solemn assembly of the Pope and Cardinals, the extin- 
 guished torches, and the mystery of the concealed voices, yet it 
 must ever be considered as one of the most sublime efforts of 
 human genius. 
 
 At the same period, the two Mazzochi contributed to the 
 perfection of church music, by extending the bounds of har- 
 mony. Many famous organists flourished in Italy in this cen- 
 tury. Near the latter end of it, a learned and elaborate 
 species of Chamber Duet for voices began to be in favor. 
 The first composer of these was Bonoricini, then the Abate 
 Stefl^ani, born in 1674, an admirable musician. These were 
 followed by the duets of Clari, Handel, Marcello, Gasparini, 
 Loth, Hasse, and Durante. 
 
 Arcangelo Corelli was born in February, 1653, at Tusigna- 
 no, in Bologna. He visited Paris, in 1672, but was driven 
 thence by the jealousy of Lulli. Soon after, he led the band 
 ef the opera at Rome, as .principal violin, and published his 
 Twelve Sonatas and his Balletti da Camera. His chief fame 
 was acquired by his solos for the violin, and his works have 
 contributed more to charm the lovers of music by the mere 
 powers of the bow, without the human voice, than those of any 
 composer that has yet existed. 
 
 Being invited to Naples to perform before the King, his 
 timidity prevented him from fully displaying his powers. The 
 King left the room in the middle of an adagio. The famous 
 Scarlatti executed a passage in which he failed. A hautboigi 
 player was admired more than him, and Corelli returned 
 mortified to Rome. 
 
 The Concertos of Corelli have withstood the attacks of 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 261 
 
 time and fashion. The harmony is rich and pure, the parts are 
 judiciously disposed, and considering that many of them are 
 upwards of a hundred years old, their grace and elegance are 
 wonderful. After the publication of his works, the violin 
 increased in favor all over Europe. Among a multitude of 
 celebrated names we may mention Gemunani, Tartini, Pas- 
 qualino Bini, and Veracini, who played so beautiful a solo in 
 the cathedral at Lucca, that the audience transported, called 
 out, Evviva! 
 
 Numerous German musicians also distinguished themselves 
 during the 17th century. The reign of harmony and figure 
 Continued longer there than in Italy. Among the most cele- 
 brated organists and composers, were John Klemme, Jacob 
 Froberger, Andreas Hammerschmidt, surnamed the Glory of 
 Germany, (perhaps because Mozart was not then born) 
 Schein, Scheit, and Buttstett. 
 
 In 1627, the celebrated Martin Opitz translated the opera 
 of Daphne from the Italian. Schiitz, the chapel-master, set it 
 to music, and it was performed at the court of Dresden on 
 the occasion of the marriage of the Elector's sister with 
 George II. In 1665 the opera of Alcindo and Clorinda was 
 performed at Vienna. In 1678, Theiles's Adam and Eve 
 was performed in the German language at Hamburgh. In 
 1694, Keiser, Brenner and Krieger began to compose for the 
 German theatre. At the beginning of the 18th century the 
 performers in the German operas were all tradesmen, car- 
 penters, or shoemakers; and the Armida and Semiramis of 
 the evening sold fruit and sweetmeats the next day. Thi» 
 however was only in the infancy of the musical drama. 
 
262 
 
 MUSIC 
 
 By a more frequent intercourse with Italy, and the estab- 
 lishment of Italian operas in all the German courts, music in 
 Germany, particularly instrumental, was soon brought to a de- 
 gree of perfection beyond that of any other country, Italy 
 hardly excepted. 
 
 Though the French have long wished to have a dramatic 
 music of their own, yet they certainly owe the introduction of 
 the opera to the Italians. Orfeo and Euridice was perform* 
 ed in Paris in 1647. Music was little cultivated in France, 
 till the operas of Lulli, under the powerful patronage of Louis 
 XIV. excited public attention. He was born near Florence in 
 1633, was the son of a peasant, and was taught by a Cordelier 
 to play on the guitar. The Chevalier de Guise brought him 
 to France, and he was made under scullion in the kitchen of 
 Mademoiselle de Guise, where he annoyed his fellow-servants 
 by constantly scraping on a miserable violin. However his 
 merits were discovered, and by degrees he obtained public 
 favor, received letters of nobility from the King, and became 
 celebrated all over Europe. 
 
 The celebrated singer. La Rochois, was one of his pupils. 
 La Niacpin, another celebrated singer, was also famous for 
 her romantic adventures; for having fought various duels, 
 killed three of her adversaries, and ended her life in devotion 
 in 1707, aged thirty-four. 
 
 The airs in the operas of Lulli, are short simple tunes, 
 more in the style of Venetian ballads than of opera songs, but- 
 the recitative is grave, noble, and simple. 
 
 In England, after Purcell, the chief composers for the 
 church were Glarke, Dr. Holden, Dr. Creyghton, Tucker, Ald«^ 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 363 
 
 rich, &c., and John Stanley, who though bhnd, attained to 
 great proficiency in music. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of mysteries and Oratorios, in Italy — Opera — Buffe — Cantatas — Chief com- 
 posers in these different styles — Musical dramas in En aland — Arrival 
 of Italian singers there — Handel arrives in England — Mrs. Anastasia 
 Robinson — Cuzzoni — Bordoni — Oratorios in England — The opera goes 
 out of fashion — is revived — Celebrated Opera-Singers — Dancing pre- 
 ferred to music — Madame Mara— Dr. Arne — The ItaHan opera in London 
 at the present time — Catch-Club, and Concert of Ancient Music — Musio 
 In Franco after Lulli — Rameau — Attempt at introducing Italian music 
 in Paris fails — Party-spirit between the followers of Gluck and Piccini — • 
 Of French music at present — Music in Germany — Of Mozart — His life 
 and works — His death and requiem — Other eminent composers iiK 
 Germany. 
 
 The first truly dramatic exhibitions in Italy were their spirit- 
 ual comedies, or religious mysteries; representing diflTerent pas- 
 sages of Scripture, such as the Conversion of St. Paul; the 
 Death of Isaac; and others. By degrees these were admitted 
 into church, and improved into oratorios. Stradella, a cele- 
 brated musician of Naples, was one of the best composers of 
 these oratorios. Since then, they have been enriched by 
 the chorusses of Colonna, Alessandro Scarlatti, Leo, and 
 above all, Handel. In 1706, Arcangelo Spagna, published 
 fifteen oratorios, in which our Saviour, and sometimes the 
 Supreme Toeing himself, were profanely introduced among the 
 dramatis person®. 
 
 Carlo Pallavicini was the author of Demetrio, composed for 
 
864 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 the Venetian opera. Caldara also was a celebrated dramatic 
 composer. The opera BufTa was introduced into Italy in the 
 I6th century. But the burletta music of Italy was little 
 known, until the comic operas of Ciampi, and Galuppi, were 
 performed on the English stage. 
 
 Cantatas^ which were early known in Italy, first consisted, 
 like opera scenes, of little more than recitative. Then a 
 eingle air was introduced, distinct from the recitative, and re*- 
 peated to different stanzas after the narrative part of the 
 poem, like modern ballad airs. Towards the end of the 16th 
 century, they were brought to great perfection, especially by 
 Alessandro Scarlatti. We are told that Tranceschelli, a cel- 
 ebrated violincello-player, accompanied one of these cantatas 
 at Rome so admirably, while Scarlatti played on the harpsi- 
 jchord, that the company who were good Catholics, and not 
 incredulous of miracles, were firmly persuaded, that it was 
 not Tranceschelli who had performed on the violincello, but an 
 angel who had assumed his shape. 
 
 After Scarlatti, Gasparini, Bouoncini, Caldara and Pergo- 
 lesi were among the most celebrated composers in this style. 
 The first musical drama that was performed in England, 
 wholly after the Italian manner, was Arsinoe, Queen of Cy- 
 prus, translated from the Italian of Stanzani of Bologna, and 
 performed in 1705. The singers were all English. In 1707, 
 Addison wrote his opera of Rosamond, which was set to music 
 by Clayton, a contemptible composer, and was thrown aside 
 after three representations. 
 
 Then opera-singers began to arrive from Italy, and the 
 famous Niccolini Grimaldi appeared in London in the opera 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 365 
 
 t>f Pyrrhus and Demetrius. He was a Neapolitan. His 
 voice was at first a soprano, but descended afterwards to a 
 fine contr'alto. In 1710 the opera of Almahide was brought 
 out in London, the first opera performed in England wholly in 
 Italian, and by Italian singers. The Italian opera was thus 
 first heard to advantage there, since the vocal music of Italy 
 can only be heard in perfection, when sung to its own lan- 
 guage and by its own natives. 
 
 The year 1710 is distinguished in the annals of music by 
 the arrival in Britain of George Frederic Handel, who had 
 been in the service of the Elector of Hanover, and came to 
 England on a visit of curiosity. Aaron Hill, the director of 
 the Haymarket, instantly applied to him to compose an opera, 
 which he did. It was Rinaldo; the admirable music of 
 which was written in a fortnight. 
 
 Soon after, the celebrated Mrs. Anastasia Robinson accept- 
 ed of an engagement at the opera. This great vocalist, was 
 the daughter of a portrait-painter, and was afterwards married 
 to the Earl of Peterborough, In 1720, the principal persons 
 in England, having subscribed 50,000 pounds for supporting 
 the opera, George I., formed the subscribers into a society, 
 which was named the Royal Academy of Music. Handel was 
 commissioned to engage the performers; and for that purpose 
 went to Dresden, where Italian operas were performed in the 
 most splendid manner at the court of Augustus, Elector of Sax- 
 ony. Here Handel engaged Senesino, Berenstadt, Boschi, 
 end Duranstanli. 
 
 In 172:J, the celebrated Francesca Cuzzoni arrived in Eng- 
 land, and soon after, her distinguished rival Signora Faustina 
 18 
 
266 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Bordoni. Two violent parlies were formed in London, respect- 
 ing the merits of these splendid singers; no dispute whether 
 theological or political, ever occasioned a more inveterate party- 
 spirit. In seven years, the whole oO,000 pounds was exhaust- 
 ed, and at the close of the season the singers dispersed. At 
 the end of the year, however, Handel recommenced the opera 
 at his own risk, and engaged a new band of Italian performers. 
 In 1732, Handel introduced oratorios into England, and ex- 
 hibited his Esther, and his Acis and Galatea. Some years 
 after, his statue was erected in Vauxhall. 
 
 Handel's operas of Parthenope and Alessandro, which may 
 rank among the best of his dramatic compositions, were per- 
 formed by first-rat<; singers from Italy. No vocal performer of 
 the eighteenth century was so unanimously allowed to pohsess 
 power, sweetness, and extent of voice, as Farinelli. Now, 
 his powers would excite no astonishment. 
 
 About this time, however, the rage for operas diminished. 
 Curiosity began to be satiated, and faction, opposition, and en- 
 mity to Handel, occasioned them to be entirely given up, for 
 some time. That great composer was also disabled at this 
 ' period of his life, by the double infliction of palsy and insanity. 
 He had written thirty-nine Italian dramas for the English 
 stage, exclusive of the opeias which he had set in Germany 
 and Italy. 
 
 In 1739, he re-appeared in public, and carried on oratorios 
 at the Haymarket. The Earl of Middlesex engaged the King's 
 Theatre, with a new band of singers from the continent, and 
 the Italian opera was revived in London. Among the finest 
 singers, whose arrival in England formed memorable eras in 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 267 
 
 music, uxre Giardini, Manzoli, the finest soprano after Fori- 
 nclli, Tenducci, and more especially Cactano Guadagni. He 
 performed in the Messiah and Samson of Handel. 
 
 In 1773, Miss Cecilia Davics made her appearance in tho 
 opera of Lucca Vero. She was the first English singer who 
 was considered worthy to perform on an Italian stage. Then 
 the famous Gabrielli, daughter of a cardinal's cook at Ronr:e, 
 arrived in London. She was equally famous for her exquisite 
 voice, and unbounded caprice, Lucrezia Agrigari was soon 
 after engaged for the Pantheon, at the salary of £\00 per night, 
 for singing two songs only. Anna Pazzi, Signora Georgia, 
 and Pacchierotti, were all celebrated in their turn for their 
 performance on the London boards. 
 
 In J 781, dancing gained the ascendant over music in the 
 opera-house, and those who spoke loudest when Pacchierotti 
 sung, sat in breathless and wondering silence when Vestris 
 performed his airy evolutions. The year 1734 was rendered 
 memorable in the nnnals of music by the magnificent manner 
 in which the birth, genius, and abilities of Handel, were 
 celebrated in Westminster Abbey and the Pantheon, by five 
 performances of pieces selected from his own works, and exe- 
 cuted by a Lj::d of more than five hundred voices and instru- 
 ments, in i\i [presence of their majesties and the first persons 
 in the kingcK iii. 
 
 In the same year, Madame Mara, whose voice many still 
 alive remember with rapture, first arrived in England. 
 
 Till the Italian opera was established in England, little was 
 expected from the sinnrers, but a voice and ear; and even iho 
 exquisite performers of Italy excited more astonishment than 
 18* 
 
263 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 emulation, among the English. D'Arme first began a change 
 in English vocal music, by refining the melody, more from 
 Italian than English models. His compositions, if analyzed, 
 would be found to contain an imitation of Italian, English and 
 Scots melody. Various celebrated violin-players, from the 
 Continent, have also contributed to improve the English taste, 
 and there are now many native singers, both male and female, 
 who may vie with their Italian rivals. The Italian opera in 
 London, however, continues to be supported by all persons of 
 rank and fashion in that country. Italian music and Italian 
 singers usurp th^ public favor almost entirely, nor, considering 
 this patronage of foreigners only as a matter of taste, can it be 
 objected to. 
 
 There are various eminent instrumental performers now in 
 England^ both native and foreign. In 1162, the Duke of 
 Queensbury and some others instituted the Catch Club at the 
 Thatched-house in London, both for performing the canons, 
 catches, and glees of old masters, and for the production of 
 new compositions, of the same kind. In 1776, the Earl of 
 Sandwich instituted the concert of ancient music, for the per- 
 formance of such solid and valuable productions of the ancient 
 masters, as had been discarded for an intemperate rage for 
 novelty. Upon the whole, the state of practical music in Eng- 
 land is in an extremely flourishing condition. 
 * In France, the greatest composer after Lulli, was Rameau, 
 born at Dijon, in 1683. Party rage was violent in Paris be- 
 tween their respective admirers. The style of Rameau, though 
 formed upon that of Lulli, is more rich in harmony, and varied 
 ifx melody. Rameau's system of a Fundamental Base, and 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 269 
 
 his opera of Castor and Pollux, carried his celebrity to the 
 greatest height in France. In 1752, a troop of Italian burlet- 
 ta singers exhibited at the opera in Paris. 
 
 But after many attempts at Italian music, the patriotic ears 
 in France returned with pleasure to the ancient national 
 strains; the operas of Lulli and Rameau were revived, and 
 the Italian singers driven from France. Then the Chevalier 
 Gluck, the pride of Vienna, produced his opeitis in Paris, and 
 the universal cry there, was, that he had restored the dramatic 
 music of the ancient Greeks. When he was at the height of 
 his fame, the celebrated Piccini arrived from Naples. Then 
 a furious war broke out between the followers of Gluck and 
 Piccini. No door was opened to a visitor, without the ques- 
 tion being asked; 'Monsieur tes-evous Gluckiste or Picci- 
 niste } ' 
 
 The French theorists arc too apt 1o reduce music to a mere 
 mechanical art; and are in genera! too well satislied with mu- 
 sic of their own country, to see the necessity for a reforma- 
 tion in the vocal department. There are many instrumental 
 performers in France, who are very celebrated. Auhcr en- 
 joys at present the plenitude of popular favor as a composer* 
 M. De la Borde, a famous musical theorist, says that the Ital- 
 ians are superior to the French in melody, bul that the Frencll 
 surpass them in harmony. 
 
 Without disputing this last opinion, which most good judges 
 of music must consider erroneous, it is suflicient to observe 
 that neither melody nor harmony alone can constitute good 
 music, which consists in the union of both. 
 
 In no country has music made more rapid progress, or exci- 
 
270 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 ted more attention, than in Germany. All the princes of that 
 empire, have encouraged musical professions at their respect- 
 ive courts. The emperors appear to have heen all partial to 
 Italian language and music. In 1724, a splendid opera was 
 exhibited at Vienna, on the birth of an arch-duchess. The 
 performers were all persons of high rank. Two arch-duch- 
 esses were amongst the dancers, and the Emperor himself was 
 the principal director, and accompanied the voices on the harp- 
 sichord. 
 
 Mozart, the prince of German musicians, was born at SlliIz- 
 burg, in 1756. From his earliest years, he evinced the strong- 
 est proofs of that wonderful genius which has obtained for him, 
 among musicians, the rank which Raphael holds among paint- 
 ers. Music seemed to fill his soul. He loved it with an en- 
 thusiasm which made all childish amusements appear ins*; id 
 to him. In his fifth year, he wrote a concerto for the harpsi- 
 chord, which could only be played by the most practised per- 
 former. 
 
 Soon after, he was taken by his father to the court of the 
 Emperor of Austria, where his juvenile proficiency excited the 
 utmost astonishment. He had the greatest aversion to discord 
 and shrill tones. On first hearing the sound of a trumpet, he 
 fell senseless to the ground. This delicate sensibility is ap- 
 parent in all his works. Music appears to have absorbed all 
 his faculties, and to have rendered him incapable of attending 
 to the common pursuits of life. He attained the highest de- 
 gree of perfection in the art, and is unequalled in the richness, 
 purity, and depth of his ideas. 
 
 His instrumental compositions, his sonatas, concertos, sym- 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 271 
 
 phonies, and quartetts, will remain a model for all succeeding 
 ages. His operas are unrivalled for taste and depth of feel- 
 ing. Among these, his Don Giovanni, his Cosi fan Tuth, his 
 Zauberflote, and his Clemenzadi Tito, may perhaps be select- 
 ed from a crowd of splendid pertbrmances. In sacred music, 
 he was equally successful. His famous requiem was the last 
 piece which he ever wrote. It is said, that a stranger called 
 one day upon Mozart, and requested him to compose a mass 
 for the death of a friend of his, desiring him to fix his own 
 price, which the visitor paid in advauce; promising to call 
 again in a few months, and to give an additional sum when the 
 work was concluded. 
 
 Mozart commenced the mass with the utmost energy and 
 interest, hut being interrupted by other commissions, it was 
 not finished when the stranger made his re-appearance, at the 
 specified time. Mozart apologized for the delay, and again 
 continued the composition with such unusual ardor, that his 
 wife, afraid lest such exertion should injure his health, en- 
 treated him to suspend his labors. He replied that he was 
 writing a requiem for himself His words were true, for be- 
 fore it was concluded, his health daily declined; he died, De- 
 cember 5th, 1792, in the 36th year of bis age, and this solemn 
 and beautiful requiem was performed at his I'uneral. 
 
 In 1766, the musicians at Vienna, since celebrated all over 
 Europe, were Christopher Vagenseil, Leopold Hoffmann, 
 Charles Ditters, and Joseph Haydn. The celebrated Haydn 
 was born at Rhorau, on the holders of Hun;j^ary and Austria. 
 His music is varied and beautiful. His adagios arc pathetic 
 in the highest degree, while his allegros are exhilarating 
 from their liveliness. 
 
272 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Kozeluch, of Vienna, is remarkable for the solidity, good 
 taste and harmony of his compositions; and the science, har- 
 mony, and depth of Beethoven's works, must long render his 
 name celebrated. But the excellent composers of Germany 
 are innumerable. Their scientific and beautiful compositions 
 are spread all over Europe. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Music in Italy in the 18th century — In Venice — Musical dramas at Naples 
 — Pergolesi, Jomelli, Cimarosa, Paesiello — State of music in Italy in the 
 19th century — Of Rossini and Weber — Their chief works — Celebrated 
 female singers — Of Signora Pasta — Of Paganini. 
 
 It is certainly from Italy that all the grace and elegance of 
 modern music are derived. At the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century, Venice was distinguished for her numerous dramatic 
 composers. In 1702, the elegant and graceful Gasparini com- 
 posed Tiberio, his first opera, for that city. Caldara was one 
 of the greatest professors both for the church and stage that 
 Italy can boast. In 1727, the chief composers at Venice 
 were Parta, Porposa, Albinoni, Viyaldi, and Buini. Many 
 others succeeded them, and among these may be particularly 
 mentioned the names of Pescetti, Alberti, and Marcello. 
 
 Few instances occur of musical dramas at Naples till the 
 beginning of the 18th century. Before the time of the elder 
 Scarlatti, Naples seems to have been less diligent in the culti- 
 vation of dramatic music than any other state in Italy. Since 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 273 
 
 that time all the rest of Europe has been furnished with com- 
 
 posers and performers from that city. 
 
 The famous Pergolesi was born at a small village near 
 Naples, in 1704. His merit was never sufficiently appreciat- 
 ed during his life-time. He died in the prime of life, and his 
 death was attributed by many to poison. No sooner was he 
 dead, than all Italy became loud in his praise, and his opera 
 of Olimpiade, which two years before had been heard with 
 indifference, was now listened to with rapture. 
 
 The ease and simplicity of his style formed an era in modern 
 music. It was chiefly in vocal compositions that he excelled, 
 and his clearness, simplicity and sweetness of expression just- 
 ly entitle him to supremacy over all his predecessors and con- 
 temporary rivals. 
 
 Nicolo Jomelli was born at Avellino, near Naples, in 1714. 
 He wrote many excellent operas, was a great harmonist, and 
 naturally grave and majestic in his style. His abilities in 
 writing for the church were even superior to those which he 
 manifested for the stage. Having gone into the service of 
 the Duke of Wurtemburg, and finding that the Germans were 
 fond of learning and complication, he changed his style to 
 suit their taste, which enraged the Italians, who considered 
 him in consequence as a quack. 
 
 Climate operates so much in music, that what is admired in 
 one country, is detested in another. In cold climates, labor 
 is necessary to circulation; in hot, ease is the grand desider- 
 atum. In Italy, whatever gives the hearer the least trouble to 
 disentangle, is called gothic, pedantic and scehrata. The 
 works of Cimarosa and Paesiello, Neapolitan composers, are 
 
274 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 universally played and admired. The list of Roman and 
 Neapolitan composers is nearly innumerable. The great 
 vocal performers of Italy are admired thoughout Europe. 
 Their conservatorios or musical academies, continue to pi;o- 
 duce a succession of talent and of splendid voices, and few 
 persons have visited Italy without being gratified by the nu- 
 merous operas of that land of music, among which the San 
 Carlo at Nq)les, and the Scala at Milan, occupy the first 
 place. 
 
 Rossini and Weber have for some time past divic-ed the mu- 
 sical world between them. The premature death of the latter, 
 when scarcely arrived at the zenith of his fame, has caused a 
 blank in the musical world, which will probably not be filled 
 for a long period of years. Where the music of this emi- 
 nent composer is not liked, it is probably not understood. 
 There is a degree of refinement, delicacy, and invention, which 
 lovers of simple and common music can no more understand 
 than the Asiatics harmony ; and we are told that the Chinese, 
 after repeated trials, have banished harmony, or music in parts, 
 as too complicated for ears accustomed to simplicity. 
 
 Jomelli was the first who introduced musical coloring, as it 
 is called, by which music describes peculiar sounds, motions, 
 &c., such as the undulating motion of the waves, the roaring of 
 the wind and other sounds in nature. Where this is used 
 judiciously, it has a fine efl^ect, as when Mozart in his beauti- 
 ful terzettof ' Soave sia il vento,' expresses the placid undula- 
 tion of the sea, or when we hear the beating of the oars in 
 Rossini's Turco in Italia. Still more has Weber succeeded 
 in this depictive style. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 275 
 
 In Wcber*s splendid opera of the Freyschutz, be leads us 
 through dark forests, over hill and valley, among lonely scenes 
 where we are startled by the chorus of the wild huntsmen. The 
 breaks, bursts, and changes in his music remind us of varied 
 and broken scenery. Now his progress seems stopped by a 
 torrent. He springs over a chasm, or he rests for a moment 
 to breathe the clear pure air of the mountain tops. Or, when 
 in Oberon, the mermaid sails in her shell over the dark blue 
 waters, there is a gentle, lazy monotonous motion, well suit- 
 ing the dreary inanity which we connect with the idea of 
 these half-human dwellers in the ocean-caves. 
 
 The fairy sound of Oberon's horn is truly startling and 
 elfish; yet wild, sweet, and playful. His Roshana is a de- 
 lightful air, breathing oriental luxury, and well calculated to 
 enslave the knight, if music could have triumphed over his 
 moral courage. In the opera of Preciosa, the lightest and 
 perhaps the most graceful of Weber's productions, nothing 
 can be more pleasing than the marked and energetic sound of 
 the gipsey's dance, and the Spanish style of the music, expres- 
 sive of the sound of tinkling feet. 
 
 His last opera was Euryanthe, one of his most scientific 
 works; but the Germans themselves are more especially en- 
 thusiastic on the subject of the music which Weber set to the 
 songs of their late poet Korner. He was a man of an amia- 
 ble character, modest, reserved in his manners, and domes- 
 tic in his habits. 
 
 It is difficult to forma cool judgment of Rossini at a mo- 
 ment when his works are delighting the whole of Europe; 
 when by his dazzling and biilliant productions, he not only 
 
276 
 
 Music. 
 
 enjoys the celebrity which is seldom accorded during the life- 
 time of men of genius, but has thrown into shade those of 
 almost every other composer, Mozart not excepted. There 
 are indeed many who endeavor to criticise the operas of 
 Rossini, who blame him for having introduced a redundance 
 of ornament into music, who accuse him of want of energy, 
 and of a repetition of himself. But the last is somewhat 
 excusable when we consider the number of his works; and 
 his Tancredi and Semiramide show that he is capable of a 
 graver and plainer style than that which he usually adopts. 
 
 His music appears peculiarly well adapted to display the 
 brilliant powers of the present great singers. Pasta, Mali- 
 bran, and Sontag continue in their different styles to enchant 
 every enlightened audience in Europe with the melody of 
 Rossini. Pasta, especially, by her exquisite taste, adds a 
 charm to these songs, and gives to them a new beauty 
 which makes us feel as if we understood them for the first 
 time. The brilliant voice of Catalani has begun to decline, 
 and no singer of the present day can rival Pasta; nor did even 
 Catalani, with all her wonderful powers of execution, and her 
 voice which seemed to pour forth a torrent of melody, equal 
 Pasta in depth of feeling, judgment, or taste. 
 
 But the days of Orpheus seem to be revived in the wonder- 
 ful effects produced by the violin of Paganini; and his extra- 
 ordinary performance upon one string. So surprising does it 
 appear even to the most scientific professors, that serious ac- 
 cusations of diablerie have been brought against the signer. 
 The lovers of romance endeavor to throw a strong tinge of the 
 marvellous over his adventures. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 277 
 
 He is said to have made a compact with Satan himself, to 
 have murdered his wife, with a thousand other extravagant 
 surmises. He was in truth a native of the environs of Ge- 
 noa; displayed when young extraordinary skill in music; be- 
 came extravagant and dissipated; spent the money which he 
 earned at the gaming-table; was thrown into prison, not for 
 the murder of his wife, as has been supposed, but for a gam- 
 bling-debt; amused himself when in this situation by playing 
 upon a violin with one string, simply because the others were 
 broken; and finally became a proficient in the art. 
 
 Paganini's appearance and performance, however, almost 
 justifies the credulity which has given rise to these marvellous 
 stories. His swarthy complexion, black, dishevelled hair, 
 long fingers, and strange manner have something extremely 
 striking and grotesque. Then, when he plays, he seems to be 
 fighting, with some wild animal, tearing, struggling, and final- 
 ly triumphing. 
 
 The professors of music who listen to him, il not violin-play- 
 ers, thank Heaven that they never attempted to perform on 
 that instrument; while those who are, throw away their violins 
 in despair. 
 
 On a late occasion, a string of his vioKn having broken, 
 there was a universal rush among the other performers to 
 seize it, and it wa& finally divided amongst them as an invalu- 
 able relic. In less enlightened days, it is certain that Paga- 
 nini would have ranked among the gods or demi-gods of an- 
 tiquity; with Orpheus, Bacchus, or perhaps with Apollo him- 
 self. 
 
V 
 
GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE 
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