SUN PICTURES. LONDON : GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PUIN'TERS, ST. John's square. SUN PICTURES: A SERIES OF TWENTY HELIOTYPE ILLUSTRATIONS OF yjlTH pESCPxJPTIVE J^] lESCRIPTIVE UETTEP^^RESS. |£onbon : SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, LOW, AND SEARLE, 188, FLEET STREET. 1872. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/sunpicturesserieOOunse TO THE PRINCESS LOUISE, PRINCESS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, MARCHIONESS OF LORNE, THIS SERIES OF HELIOTVPES OF CHOICE SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN ART, IS, BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. t CONTENTS. 1. Portrait of a Canadian Lai>y 2. The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine 3. Poesie ...<., 4. Portrait .... 5. A Little Bit of Scandal 6. La Bella Giardiniera . 7. Ariadne (Bust) 8. The Knight and Death . 9. Sheep ... 10. The Jeweller of St. Petersburg 11. "La Bella di Tiziano^' . 12. Portrait of Berghem 13. Sappho ..... 14. La Belle Jardiniere 15. " Falstaff's Own". 16. Les Miserables 17. Charles I. in Vandyck's Studio 18. The Dean's Canopy, St. Paul's 19. Studies of Heads . 20. Group for a Fountain . H.R.H. the Princess Lou ise. Corrcggio. J. CooiiKtns. Vamhjeli. J. B. Burgess. M. Gortliijiani. Clesuu/or. A. D'drer, Vcrbeclchoeven. W. Cave Thomas. Tiziano Remhrandt. A. Baccani. Raffaello. H. S. Marks. Gustave Bore. L. Y. Esrosura. GrinJiiuj Gihhotis. Michelangelo. ItosseJlino. ) PREFACE. HE following series of Sun Pictures is offered to tlie public as exhibiting truthful reproductions of select specimens of very different branches of Graphic and of Plastic Art. It illustrates oil painting, crayon drawing, engraving, and modelHng in terra-cotta ; it enables the ^ observer to make a comparison between modern and medieval skill, representations of some of the chefs-d'ceucre of Art, the prints will, it is hoped, be regarded as of no small intrinsic value ; but a special interest attaches to the publication of a volume which exhibits, with fair success, the capabilities of that new style of printing which, competent judges expect, will form the favourite method of the book-illustration of the future. The prints them- selves have appeared, from time to time, together with a portion of the letter- press, in the pages of the monthly journal, Art ; but recent improvements effected by the patentee of the Heliotype process give a special and unprecedented freshness to the present issue. While all the delicate accuracy of the best silver photographs is assured by this process, with absolute permanence, both chemical and mechanical, the Heliotype prints are the only graphic works into the preparation of which photo- graphy enters, in which mounting is entirely superseded. The invariably destructive tendency of this expedient, even in books printed regardless of expense, is but too well known to every purchaser. B HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS LOUISE. SUN PICTURES. l|0rtrait of a ^^aitaMaii I HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS LOUISE. ;>^;^^)"^HE charming portrait of a beautiful Canadian girl, which forms the frontispiece of the present volume, is a sun picture taken from a crayon drawing by her Royal Highness the Princess Louise. The original formed one of the chief attractions of the Exhibition, in the Autumn of 1870, at the New British Institution, in New Bond Street, for the benefit of the widows and orphans of the German soldiers who fell in that triumphant military promenade through France which closed with three of the most tremendous disasters ever yet recorded in history. In the famous battle of Minden, when the French troops were losing ground, a gallant ofl&cer, Claude Reignier, Comte de Guerchy, advanced before the line, tore ofi" his steel cuirass, which he hurled at the advancing allies, and called on his men to follow a leader who was no more protected from sword or bullet than themselves. It is in the spirit of De Guerchy alone that those of the most illustrious rank who would inscribe their names in the Lihro tVOro of art, can achieve a success worthy of their blood. Satire is not silent, even in courtly circles, as to the smoothing of a royal road to renown, as well as to learning. But her Royal Highness of Lorne has thrown off her cuirass. She has not hesitated to hang her productions in the full glare of contemporary day. Nor has the verdict thus challenged been doubtful. Perhaps no art enigma of the year excited so much curiosity as the question, who was the subject of the graceful crayon of the artist-Princess. Without presuming, while merely holding the light pen of a book illustrator, to speak in the measured tones of the critic, it may yet not be out of place to remark that the portrait evinces the possession by the royal artist of one of the most rare, as it is one of the most important, gifts of the artistic temperament — the power not only to select a good subject, but to place it artistically on the canvas. In our English exhibitions it is frequently the case that the most ambitious efforts of the best living painters are hopelessly damaged by disregard of the great laws of composition, or, it may be rather said, by want of that intuitive genius which avoids the violation of those laws. Two famous pictures in the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1871 were conspicuous instances of this want of instinct, where good drawing, lovely Greek faces, and harmonious wealth of colour were thrown away on designs which, if roughly sketched in pen and ink, would rather have resembled geometrical diagrams than any natural groups. With this single remark, the truth of which is obvious to the least educated eye, we leave our readers to dream their own legends as to the sweet face of the " Canadian Lady." One other remark must be permitted, without departing from the reserve above prescribed, and that is, that the judgment of her Royal Highness the Princess Louise as a purchaser has been brought into evidence in the Exhibition of 1871, no less than her skill has been in the work before us. The picture of the greatest interest to the English art-student, as showing how possible it is for an English hand so to catch the cunning of the great cinque-cento masters as to produce a work that might be readily mistaken for one of an Italian school, was exhibited by this royal connoisseur. " The ' Virgin and Child,' by the late W. Dyce, although not a faultless, is a most charming picture. The hands have been too hastily painted, and the unfor- tunate use of a bituminous medium is betrayed by the appearance of numerous cracks, which, while they keep up the illusion of Italian origin and old date, threaten the permanence of the work. But drawing, colour, expression, all have the highest merit. The rapt, innocent look of the Virgin mother is worthy of Correggio. The depth of poetic shadow from which the eyes of the wonderful infant look forth might have been cast by the pencil of Raffaelle. The rich red and blue of her drapery resemble the colours of an unspoiled Perugino. Without copying any individual master, Mr. Dyce has shown, in this exquisite cabinet painting, that he has drunk deeply at that fountain of inspiration which was common to the greatest of them all. It is a picture of which the country may be proud, no less than it is of its royal owner." Such was the testimony of a contemporary critic of the Exhibition ; and it may be readily conceived that, when the taste to select is concurrent with the power to design, the artist may afford, on approaching the easel, to lay aside the panoply of a descent from Alfred the Great. CORREGGIO. II. CORREGGIO. :^::0<'|)5 NE of the most beautiful and often-repeated of the smaller works of Correggio is the " Marriage of St. Catherine," of an engraving of which, by C. Lorichon, we produce a facsimile. " The youthful saint," to use the language of Kiigler, " according to her vision, is betrothed to the divine infant in presence of St. Sebastian and of the Virgin, who carefully superintends the holy rite." The best example of the picture and its rejjlicas is that in the Louvre. The subject is comparatively modern — St. Catherine of Sienna died in the fourteenth century, and was not canonized until 1461. In the background are represented, after the whimsical mode of which the famous gates of Ghiberti afford the most remarkable example, the closing scenes of the lives of each of the two minor saints. St, Sebas- tian is exposed to death by the arrows which he bears as a symbol ; and St. Catherine kneels awaiting her martyrdom. The tender dignity of the face of the Madonna is almost unrivalled even by Correggio himself. A like tenderness of tone subdues the rusticity of Sebastian, who is evidently drawn from the life, an Italian peasant ennobled by the genius of the artist. The expression of the face of the infant, though natural and childlike, is less happy ; the form and contour of his limbs are charming, and thoroughly Italian. There is an indescribable something in a child nurtured on Italian milk, that can never be mistaken by those who have watched its infancy, which is altogether different from the dimpled plumpness of a hearty English boy or girl. This peculiar modelling is well brought out by the extreme delicac}^ of the engraving. The original painting has the entire composition elevated and united by a wonderful harmony of colour. The incident represented is perhaps the most characteristic instance of the growth of mythological legend that is to be found illustrated by ecclesiastical art. The relation between Raffaello and Correggio, as painters, is not dissimilar to that which exists between Phidias and Praxiteles, as sculptors. In each instance the later artist had a conception of, and a power of representing, beauty, almost superior to that of his predecessor. In each instance there was a diminution of dignity. Raffaello caught no faint glimpse of the celestial serenity of the Queen of heaven, Allegri lingered round the rosy shade of an earthly Eden. The purity of the first is passion- c 18 less; in the second lay the power to depict the very crisis of passion, without losing a certain infantile grace that draws a veil of modesty over the figure. The saints of Raffaello are the young men in shining garments of the Evangelists. The women of Correggio have never yet heard the question, " Who told thee that thou wast naked ?" And yet, notwithstanding his well-repaid worship of the very spirit of Beauty, we can trace, in the masterly pose and inimitable foreshortening of Correggio, some of the early steps towards that exaggeration of expression that led to the portrayal of the histrionic heroes of the bizarre style. C 0 0 M A N S. t III. J. COOMANS. LTHOUGH not one of the choicest of the works of this very popular French artist, this is, nevertheless, taken per sc, and without refei'ence to the artist's own standard, a very charming work, and has been reproduced by our photographer with entire success. The Pompeian ornamentation and detail of dress, decoration, and furniture, are rendered with a happy fidelity ; and in the matter of light and shade there is scarcely any thing left to be desired. Two young ladies of Patrician mould have retired to a window over- '^ii looking the sea, in order to read some verses, probably the composition of one of them ; for the air of the young creatures is too simple and serene to allow of the supposition that the verses are from a lover. Let us rather suppose them students, and that they represent in a double way, as the artist evidently in- tended, the genius of poesie. The colouring in the original is refined, with a tendency to that delicacy to which secondary tints lend themselves so readily. Joseph Coomans has made himself famous by the sweetly tender manner in which he has depicted the mothers and children of ancient Rome ; and we think he has imparted to this picture of two young virgins the same air of purity and innocence. This atmosphere of innocence, indeed, pervades all M. Coomans' s classical works ; and, having studied with much assiduity and success the archseology of the period which he paints, he is able to give to all he does a vraisemhlance which his charming idealization rather enhances than impairs. p 0 r t r a i VANDYCK. IV. VANDYCK. )^^^^^^-|SHE attractive power of a work of art to the educated eye is an excellent ~ I nil W'-p ijieasure of its value, for a well-trained mind will, if it does not perceive some striking quality in the object presented, pass it by unheeded, without any impression being received or any thought ex- cited. This cannot, however, be the case with the noble portrait here reproduced ; it cannot fail to attract attention, and on a close exami- nation will gratify the most exacting critic. We have selected this picture as illustrative of the style of Vandyck, not on account of its possessing any historical importance, but because it presents such a characteristic example of the great master's power. It is indeed a misfortune that we know neither the name nor the histoiy of the distinguished-looking personage here represented by Vandyck' s pencil, whose intel- lectual features and dignified air fitted well with the painter's art to make the work an important portrait. It is much to be regretted also, that owing to the nature of the colours used in the dress and background, no just impression can be conveyed by photography of these parts of the picture. But though the method of reproduction employed fails in some respects, there can be no question of its excellence in rendering the admirable drawing in the head and hand, the latter looking truly Michelangelesque in vigour. Being painted upon panel, and well preserved, the colours look so brilliant and pure that a casual observer might at first sight mistake the portrait for the work of Rubens ; but, apart from the fact of its present owner, Mr. Frederick Percy, having discovered Vandyck's initials, A. V. D., with the letter P for Pinxit, interlaced upon it (though faintly visible), the evidence of its parentage is clearly marked in every line ; and it becomes interesting to compare its style and execution with some other of Vandyck's portraits, in support of its ascription to him. The resemblance in the colours to Rubens, particularly in the shadow of the hand, marks the school ; the calm dignified pose of the head, and the full confiding look of the eyes — when in keeping with the character (as in those of Rockox, Henricus de Booys, the Abbe Scaglia, &c.) — are strong characteristics of Vandyck, and the expression of life and thought in the refined features, so vitally rendered here, are special prerogatives of D 26 lii.s, sucli as justified that estimable, and excellent old critic, Jonathan Richardson, ill declaring, in his chapter on Expression, that for portraiture, " next to Raphael, no man hath a better title to the preference than Vandyck ; no, not Titian himself, much less Rubens." The form and position of the hand is also very usual with him, as witness his portraits of Palamedes, Honthorst, Hondius, and a host of others, though in none so happily rendered as here ; and the full circular ruff is seen in several of his early portraits, executed in Italy and in his own country before his departure for England. The complexion, though fair, has a slightly sallow hue, denoting an Italian origin ; the hair, moustache, and fragment of l)eard are of a dat^k auburn colour. The face is most delicately painted, and the modelling perfect ; the touches are laid on tenderly, but with the greatest truth and certainty of effect. This is especially noticeable about the forehead, so that the handling throughout is also in accord with the opinion of Richardson, who states that " perhaps no man ever managed a pencil in all the several manners better than Yandyck." The white of the ruff is toned down, so as not to interfere with the face, and the hand comes forth with all the force of which the artist was master. The relief given to all these parts is wonderfully assisted by the dark background above, and the black-coloured mantle of the figure, the folds of which are arranged in the manner and with the consummate taste observable in Vandyck' s other choicest works. Further comments are needless. The work, though signed, requires no signature ; although the fact of its bearing one is a proof of the estimation in which the painter held it himself. S sunt §it flf ^r:viibaL J. B. B U R G E S S. V. S %mh §it of ^mih-dV J. B. BURGESS. ^^^^^^^V^'^^HIS piquant and not unfamiliar passage in Spanish domestic life, " so happily reproduced in every detail and touch, which tells so well its own story, is from the facile pencil of Mr. J. B. Burgess, the artist who contributed to the Exhibition in aid of the Distressed Peasantry of France the much admired picture of " The Guitar Player." The three ladies seated in the garden attached to the church are too busy with their little bit of scandal to be aware that the father confessor waits them ; and he, good man, like Spanish priests generally, is not sufficiently above mundane matters not to have an interest, even if he forego active sympathy, in the little affairs of his lady parishioners. His concern has therefore a mingled motive, and the character of a holy father will only be resumed when he gets inside the confessional. In the meantime, the beautiful creature biting the finger of her glove is hearing something which is evidently not altogether of an agreeable kind. A rival probably is in the field ; and the stately dame with the outspread fan knows it, and is enjoying quietly her chagrin. Mr. Burgess, like Mr. Long, is a faithful discij^le of the school founded by John Phillip of Spain, and we are glad of the opportunity of recording that the great master spoke to the writer of these lines in no stinted terms of both artists, only the season before he died, and augured well of their future. Mr. Burgess is still in the prime of life, and if he advance as steadily as he has done of late years — since the time, we mean, of which we have just spoken — his place will be a high one among British artists. His rendering of texture, as may be seen in our heliotype as plainly as on the artist's own canvas, is remarkably dexterous and complete, and his indi- vidualization of character is all that the most fastidious could desire. Each of these three ladies has a marked idiosyncrasy ; and their characters, and almost their lives, could be set forth in writing with as much confidence of their truth as if what was said arose from personal knowledge. This is no mean praise where there is so much unity of type. The colouring, like the texture, of Mr. Burgess, partakes of the bold, yet pleasing, qualities of the school to which he belongs ; and there is so much of both kinds of merit in the faithful reproduction before us, that we need not dilate on the matter. The pictm^d* formed one of the chief attractions in Mr. Wallis's exhibition at the French Gallery in 1870, and was one of the first to find a purchaser. M. GORDIGIAXl. VI. M. GORDIGIANI. ^^:^^^t^HE Pretty Gardener, of wliicli tlie accompanying print is a repro- duction, is the property of C, Lucas, Esq., and the work of Signor Gordigiani ; it was shown in the Itahan division of the picture-gallery at the International Exhibition of 1871. It is a very pleasing picture, and Mr. Lucas may be congratulated on his selection. The face of the young lady is decidedly Italian ; not remarkably pretty, but expressive and natural. It is in all probability a portrait ; the black- brown hair is treated very cleverly. The most striking part of the work, how- ever, is the delicate modelling of the bust ; partly hidden beneath the corset and partly covered by a delicate gauze scarf. The entire figure is well indicated beneath the quiet toned dress, of alternate stripes of white and neutral blue, which is looped up in front. The arms, covered with greenish-yellow sleeves slashed at the elbows, are admirably drawn. The colour of the dress is a difficult one for a composition, but the artist has harmonized the picture with great skill by means of the screen of oleander, the dark green of which is relieved by a russet hue, thrown into shade by the blue sky which peeps in at one of the upper corners of the picture, and by the pretty gardener's harvest, the mass of admirably-painted flowers lying on the stone seat in the fore- ground. Signor Gordigiani is a man in the prime of life, resident in Rome. There is reason to hope that he will send examples of his work to future exhibitions. Delicate home-subjects like La Bella Giardiniera will always be acceptable to the British taste. E BUST FROM THE STATUE BY CLESINGER. 5 vri. BUST FROM THE STATUE BY CLESINGER. 'HE Ariadne of Clesinger is one of tlie best specimens of the sculpture of the modern French schooL Repeated ad nauseam^, in every size, in clay, bronze, marble, the bust which we reproduce is the best portion of the statue. The dreamy, imperious, voluptuous expression, although rather denoting the character of an Agrippina than that of an Ariadne, harmonizes well with the Grecian profile. The pose of the head is spirited, and even approaches the majestic. The hair forms a noble coronal, and the treatment of the vine-leaves and grapes bound in its tresses is not so elaborately over-excellent as is usually the case with the details of contemporary French sculpture. The whole figure, indeed, is obnoxious to a much severer criticism than is the bust. Nothing in the entire history of plastic art, if we except those medals to which Tiberius gave an infamous notoriety, has been so melancholy as the character of the French sculp- ture of the present day. The exquisite skill in manipulation attained by the artists only brings into stronger relief the intolerable corruption of their art. The highly-finished bronzes produced by such houses as Barbedieime's — multiplications and reductions numberless of the same forms — show sculpture reduced to the level of ornamental furniture. But the original designs of Oarpeaux, Clesinger, and other sculptors, degrade the most ancient and most noble of the fine arts into a provocative of the lowest passions, and a display of mercenary immodesty. In the Ariadne herself, the figure, where it was intended to be made voluptuous, has only become coarse. The pose (suggested, it is probable, by the immortal frag- ment of the Theseus) is so ill-managed, regarding the nymph alone, as to present the outline of a capital W when viewed in a certain direction. If the figure reclined upon the ground it would be inelegant. Perched, as it is, on the back of a small tiger- cat or panther, it is. simply ridiculous. The animal would be crushed by the weight ; nor is there any thing to redeem this great fault by suggesting an ethereal nature in the rider. In forsaking the true guide to all excellence in sculpture, purity of motive, the French artists of the Second Empire seem to have drawn down on themselves the vengeance of a justly offended muse ; for while their mastery of material is of the very 38 lii^-Js=^=-^" v.\.)<,UR ninth illustration is from a picture of sheep and lambs by the celebrated artist VerbeckhcDven. It is evident at a glance at this work that we are in the presence of a master, and M. Verbeckliceven's reputation throughout Europe has long been thoroughly established. The various expressions of the three animals in this picture exhibit an amount of study of the subject that is most rare, and the difference in the treatment of the fleece of the lambs and of their elders is very striking ; so is the painting of the legs of the animals, and especially that of the lamb that stands nearly all in shadow. The grouping and pose are perfect. So true to nature are the sheep of Verbeckhceven, that they seem to all but bleat. The crisp, elastic texture of the wool seems to tempt the fingers to press it. The differences in the physiognomy of different sheep, so familiar to the shepherd who can call each of his flock by name, are rendered intelligible to the sceptical observer by the pencil of this artist. No modern collection of pictures of any note is without specimens of his skill. While he is chiefly known as a painter of sheep, it is from his peculiar love of the study, rather than from any lack of a more general skill, that his subjects are thus usually chosen. Last year, at the advanced age of 76, he paid a visit to the Scottish highlands, and has shown that he can give as much life and fire to the wild sheltie as he can lend depth and distance to mountain landscape. Lt may be the fault of purchasers, rather than of artists, when the name of a painter reminds us of the famous complaint of toujours perdrix. As an animal-painter Yerbeckhoeven has deservedly attained a high rank and a special celebrity. W. CAVE THOMAS. I 4 X. W. CAVE THOMAS. HE Jeweller of St. Petersburg is one of those pictures wliicli tells its own story. To persons at all familiar witli natural types, and with, those peculiarities of feature, or rather of the expression of feature, and of gesture that betray to the subtle observer the calling and occupation of their subject, the title is. an unnecessary piece of information. The portrait was exhibited in the South Kensington International ition of 1871 ; but was there so unfortunately hung that it could not '^P' be properly seen, and, consequently, duly appreciated. The subject was one • ^'t of those Jewish traders who were expelled from Russia by an Edict passed early in the present century. It was painted by Mr. Thomas shortly after returning from Russia. The heliotype might have been taken from life. The delicate lines of the carefully tended beard ; the similar, but yet wholly distinct, pencilling of the fur ; the rich soft lustre of the velvet cap, are wonderful triumphs of the brush. The expression of the face, with its grand and masculine features contracted by the wrinkles under the eyes, that speak of the constant pursuit of minute gains ; the perplexed and dubious air given to the shadowy brow ; the massive and well-shaped forehead ; the grave and tasteful mouth, make the head a very noble study. The hands, which are of a peculiar type, with their well-defined filbert nails, and the instinctive grasp of the carcanet, of which the jeweller is estimating the value, are not less deserving of attention. In saying that the picture is worthy of the artist, we are paying it, perhaps, a higher compliment than by any more elaborate description. Mr. Thomas has brought from his studio at Munich much of the patient consci- entious habit of the German artists — an acquisition of the utmost value when combined with the more native gifts of genius. Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, in selecting Mr. Thomas as a guide to study at the easel, has evinced the possession of one of the rarest and most valued of princely endowments — the power of judicious selection of competent servants. Art may look for that encouragement which honours alike the givers and the receivers — which shines with a common lustre on Augustus and on Virgil — from a Princess who, herself an artist, makes no attempt to leap over the barriers, the thorns of which become blunt before illustrious and impatient assailants, G 50 but endeavours to enter tlie temple by the ordinary portal, and under the guidance of an honest and painstaking servitor of the fane. Nor are the artistic merits of Mr. Thomas, we make bold to suggest j less grateful to the royal patrons or to the public purchasers and admirers of his work, from their knowledge of the large heart of the man, his devotion to the service of his fellows (in his honorary services at the Woi'k- men's College, and elsewhere), and his possession of these qualities, as to which liis friends, if silent, are by no means forgetful. FROM AN ENGRAVING BY MANDEL. XL FROM AN ENGRAVING BY MANDEL. IITIAN hat/S been styled the Prince of portrait Painters. Had he not been something more, the title might have been hotly contested. But he was more. Wlien we consider the unusual length of his honoured and vigorous life of ninety-nine years, the dignity of his person, the court paid to his genius by the royal personages of his day, from the emperor downwards, the influence which he exerted on contemporary art, his devotion to his favourite pursuit, the eagerness with which he sought to penetrate the secrets of nature herself, so far as they could lend lustre or permanence to the pigments he employed, the splendour and harmony of his colouring, the majesty and power of his drawing and composition, and, perhaps above all, the solemn, elevated, earnest, yet thoroughly sensuous tone of the society in which he moved, we must admit that he stands alone as a painter. His portraits look out from the canvas as if they had stepped down from a planet where the inhabitants were of somewhat higher rank, in the great hierarchy of creation, than the children of earth. The women he loved to paint stand before us as if calm and happy in the enjoyment of their own majestic existence. Very different from the passionless deities of the greatest Greek or Egyptian sculptors, they yet seem elevated above the petty troubles, and more petty jealousies, that vexed the municipal life of Italy, as they worry and perplex the subjects of modern civilization. Beauty, in the women of Titian, appears not so much a thing to worship, as a natural and necessary attribute. Calm thought, fixed resolve, irresistible will, seem harmonized by a sort of fatalism of dignity. Symbolic representations are not the sphere of the subjects of his portraiture ; they are them- selves the symbols, or rather the self- wrought embodiment, of a certain grandeur of character and fulness of life. Of the portraits proper of Titian, one of the most famous is that of a lady, now in the Pitti Palace at Florence, known by the name of " La Bella di Tiziano ;" of an engraving of which, by Maudel, we give a Sun picture. This ripe and majestic beauty is attired in a blue dress, brocaded with gold, with padded sleeves of violet, slashed or puffed with white, wearing a gold chain round her nobly modelled neck. Her rig'ht hand, in an attitude very common among Italian women, holds the tassel of 54 a rich girdle of goldsmith's work. Her left, crossed over her waist, peeps daintily forth from the moderately full cuff of the sleeve, edged, of course, with Venetian- ])oiiit lace, and displays the delicate taper of the forefinger and thumb. The dress is low — as dresses were considered before the time of Lely — edged with delicate lace, and displaying the upper portion of a bust that may be called faultless. The hair, rippling with a natural curl, forms an appropriate and magnificent coronet, even as it is worn by the peasant women of Sorrento at the present day. The flat, well-cut arches of the brow, of a curvature properly proportioned to that of the line between the hair and the ivory forehead, and that again in harmony with the contour of the head ; the bold, slightly aquiline nose, with its delicate point and proud nostril ; the ruby treasure of the mouth ; the dark, fawn-like eyes ; are the principal features of one of the noblest images ever yet made immortal on canvas. The grand air of the time, of the country, and of the painter, invests all the charms which criticism can particularize with a magic that no language can convey. In the Sciarra Gallery at Rome there is the portrait of another stately serious beauty, known by the same name. This lady is painted in a red and blue silk dress. Neither of these paintings must be confounded with the often-repeated picture of Titian's daughter, Lavinia, a beautiful and splendidly attired girl, who looks over her shoulder at the spectators, while holding up a dish piled with fruit. The face of the nude figure in the museum at Berlin, behind whom a young man is playing the lute, is of a type similar to that of the subject of our illustration. This picture closely resembles that charming Venus in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, which Kugler states to be a portrait of the Princess of Eboli ; in which the artist has attained a triumph more complete than even he has perhaps enjoyed elsewhere. The exquisite form of the unclothed beauty is represented with all the magic of Titian's colour, with all the grace of his design ; and yet the attention of the observer becomes riveted on the face. No remark can bear a more significant testimony to the masterly power of Titian. REMBEANDT. XII. REMBRANDT. [>t;;^>SHE somewhat coarse, but intelhgent, features of the Flemish painter Berghem, his plain Puritanic band and shadowy hat, form a subject such as admirably suited the taste and the style of Rembrandt. The eye looks out from beneath the well-cut pent-house of the brows, with the fire of that youth which never fades — the youth of the artist. On the lips, clumsy as they are, and somewhat coarse, is impressed the signet of judicious taste. Even the stumpy -curl of the mous- tache has an originality of character. Alert, observant, self-reliant, the face is one to which it would not be easy to assign a profession in absence of knowledge of the subject. It might be that of a soldier when drill was slack, and the best pay was to be found in the enemies' treasure-chests ; it might be that of a shipwright, or a carver in wood. That of a man familiar with the use of tools, of war, of industry, or of art — it undoubtedly is. The falling bands seem to echo the word Amen. The Heliotype process has enabled us to give, by the kind permission of the Marquis of Westminster, such a reproduction of the admirable portrait of Berghem in that nobleman's collection, as, until very recently, it would have been impossible to print. The greatest master of engraving — could Raphael Morghen or Strange return to earth — can but produce a translation of the original ; something like an English version of an ode of Horace. The idiosyncrasy, even the nationality, of an engraver is always to be detected in his work. In the print before us we have as exact a fac-simile as is consistent with reduction in size, and with mono-chromatic, or rather bi-cliromatic rendering. The very touch of the great Flemish painter is there, modified only by the yet more subtle power of time. The influence of age on the medium employed by Rembrandt is as discernible in the print as in the painting ; and the features look out from the page with all the vivid reality which characterizes the portraiture of this master. The photograph might have been taken from life, rather than from canvas. H A. BACCANI. XIII. tt A. BACCANI. X:^w<\r^>''(1 ^ ^^^^ Italian artist to depict Italian beauty ; not, indeed, ■ \'^ Q^^^^^^^ -\li? that the dark eyes and ebon coronal of hair that are so regal to our Northern admiration are half so much prized by the children of the South. The poets and painters of Greece and of Rome attributed golden hair to the Goddess of Beauty, whatever might be the com- plexion of her attendant graces. But perhaps a Greek or Italian artist can draw a woman of the South with more vivid reality than would be attained by a painter of Teutonic blood, for the very reason that he is less dazzled by her beauty. Signor Baccani, the painter of the noble Italian figure here called " Sappho," was a Special Commissioner for Italy at the International Exhibition of 1871. His study for the immortal poetess was one of the most generally admired among the Italian paintings in that collection. It is true, that the beauty of the author of the Sapphic verse was, according to historic tradition, that of the mind rather than that of the body. Her death Avas the consequence of the desertion of her lover, Phaon. Perhaps Signor Baccani's representation is not altogether inconsistent with that legend. A boatman of Mitylene— and Phaon was no more, although endowed with supernatural beauty — might be supposed readily to tire of the imaginative, passionate, imperious woman who is reclining beneath the laurels of the picture. It is the old story — of like loving unlike. The Sappho of Baccani may be thought, without any great stretch of imagination, to be reflecting on one of the stern lessons of ^sop — or rather of Phgedrus, for we have not the original in the Greek — which maybe echoed in the most familiar of the tongues of Christendom with a less mournful cadence than that of the Lesbian verse : — He. Here ! take away the empty jar. Dry like yourself, old crone ! Its sparkling juice is scatter'd far. Its wreaths are over-blown : Women and wine-jugs woi'thless are With the aroma flown. 62 I love the sparkle and the flush Of rich Falernian grape ; I love the maiden's mantling blush, Her lithe and graceful shape : For neither would I give a rush If the first glow escape. She. I know that with my golden youth Fled charms that once were mine. No more my ringlets twine, in sooth, Like tendrils of the vine ; The pearl no longer apes my tooth, The diamond mine eyne. But if, as from this wine-jar old, Sparkle and glow are fled, The fragile relic yet may hold Perfume Divinely shed. Have not your noblest poets told Of Hope that wakes the dead ? RAFFAELLO. XIV. ii RAFFAELLO. •;■ /^-rSi^ Belle Jardiniere is the cliarming title of one of the most consummate ' '""^ " works of art ever executed in the tide of time, — one of Raphael's masterpieces, before which critics can only break forth in expressions of admiration and praise, and which almost sanctioned the epithet of " The Divine," bestowed upon him by men who knew all that had been done in Pagan and in Christian art. Can the perfection of womanhood and of the holy innocence of children here presented ever be pictorially surpassed ? Those ambitious spirits only who have endeavoured to scale the heights, and reach the table-lands, of art, can appreciate to the full the magnitude of the achievement in this and kindred works by the same regal hand. We may admire either the colour, the expression, the facile composition, or the executive dexterity evinced in the treatment of similar subjects by many of the old masters; but none of their pictures will bear juxtaposi- tion and rigorous comparison with those of Raphael, without its being immediately perceived that the humanity of their presentments is less ; that their works are either exaggerated, or not sufficiently pronounced in this or that particular ; that they fail indeed in that entire symmetry of qualities which constitutes the classic ne ^>/;f6- iilti-a of attainment. Lanzi says, "In this interval more particularly" (circa 1508) "Raphael executed the works which are said to be in his second style, though it is a very delicate matter to attempt to point them out. Vasari assigns to this period the ' Holy Family' in the Rinuccini Gallery, and yet it bears the date of 1506. Of this second style is undoubtedly the jjicture of the Madonna and the infant Christ and St. John, in a beautiful landscape vuth ruins in the distance, which is in the gallery of the Grand Duke ; and others, some of which are to be found in foreign countries." Raphael's biographers do not generally mention his literary attainments, but Celio Calcagnini, an eminent literary character of the age of Leo, says of him, in writing to Giacomo Zieglero, " I need not mention Vitrmdus, whose precepts he not only explains, but defends or impugns with evident justice, and with so much temper, that in his objections there does not appear the slightest asperity. He has excited the admiration of the Pontiff Leo, and of all the Romans, in such a way, that they regard him as a man sent down I 66 ft'om lioavcii purposely to restore the eternal city to its ancient splendour." This acknow- ledged skill in arcliitecture must suppose an adequate acquaintance with the Latin lan- guage and with geometry ; and we know from other quarters that RafFaello assiduoiisly cultivated anatomy, history, and poetry. But his principal pursuit in Rome was the study of the remains of Grecian genius, by which he perfected his knowledge of art. He studied too the ancient buildings, and was instructed in the principles of architecture, for six years, by Bramante, in order that on the death of that artist he might succeed him in the management of the building of St. Peter's. Not yet content with what he saw in Rome, he employed artists to copy the remains of antiquity at Pozzuoli, and throughout all Italy, and even in Greece. Nor did he derive less assistance from living artists, whom he consulted on his compositions. The universal esteem which he enjoyed, and his attractive person and engaging manners, Avhicli all accoimts unite in describing as incomparable, conciliated him the favour of the most eminent men of letters of his age. Such then, in brief, were the extensive culture, the person, and the manners of the painter of " La Belle Jardiniere," the gem of the imperial art diadem of the Louvre. The illustration is in all respects but that of size a facsimile of the fine engraving" by Aug. Desnoyers. HENEY STACY MARKS. XV. HENRY STACY MARKS. ^'~::^flfr^''X ALSTAFF'S OWN, which our heHotype artist has reproduced with so much charming fidelity, is as fair an example of the style of Mr. Marks : as we could well have chosen. The original was first exhibited on the '1^ walls of the Royal Academy in 1867. Mr. Marks in this picture has )l not sought to represent any particular scene from Henry ] V . ; he has rather aimed at showing what manner of men they were with whom Sir John so flatly refused to march through Coventry, and of whom he said, " If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet." The day is far spent, and rain-clouds are gathering above the hill which the ragged and hungry regiment of Sir John, led by the villanous Pistol bearing the ensign, has just surmounted. The baggage-waggon and the rear-guard toil painfully after the main body, about which we can plainly see, as it comes marching towards us, that Falstaff was perfectly justified in saying the hard things he did. He casts, as he rides, a devotional eye towards the women, who hear more than they bargained for when they came out to see him and his men go past. The units forming this motley crew are so well individualized that one would have no difficulty in composing a de- tailed history of the life of each. Let the reader enjoy this pleasure for himself. The little drummer-boy, who marches in front of the burly Bardolph, whose supper for the night dangles from his girdle, is the same who afterwards figures in the wars of Henry V., as servant to Nym, Bardolph, and Pistol. In his rose-red cap and suit of buff, the patient little fellow lends a redeeming interest to the worthies with whom he walks, and the eye, in scanning the various faces which fill the canvas, always returns to this one with renewed pleasure. The costume is that of the reign of Henry IV., and the name of the artist is what people would call a guarantee for its accuracy. In the matter of colour we may mention that the standard and its bearer are of a rich dark red, the boy to the right and Falstaff to the left in pale yellow, while the intervening figures work in with this tint, and show what harmonies may be produced by the skilful manipulation of pale blue and green, browns, greys, and reds. The picture, like all that Mr. Marks does, is the result of much conscientious study and care, and we are happy to think that the public now possesses in the heliotype before us a veritable find imperishable transcript of so important a work. (JUaTAVE DORE. XVI. GUST AVE DORE. £^^;^n["^,HIS plate is produced from a pliotograpli of a large oil-painting, by M. Gustave Dore, and presents a good example of Lis extraordinary genius. The work derives nearly all its value from the power of ex- pression of the faces, and rarely has the artist caught and fixed on the canvas any thing more thoroughly natural and striking. The girl's face is a perfect study, and, in spite of its setting, is eminently beautiful. As to the child, its face and dress are so peculiar and yet natural, that we suspect they must have been studied from the life ; there is something in the bloated cheeks and the shadow that veils the young brow intensely painful, though delightful in an artistic point of view. The legs of the child are admi- rably rendered. M. Dore has a marvellous eye for the eccentric and the squalid ; we wish he would give a series of typical sketches of his own country. As a rule, French faces drawn by English artists are caricatures, and the extremely clever French artist Gavarni, although he resided for some time in this country, and published many sketches of common life, never succeeded in drawing an average English face ; the national type always escaped him. In fact, his visit to England is said to have been fatal to Gavarni. With these facts patent to all, we do not think M. Dore could do a better service than by fixing French types on paper for our edification. We remember an early work of his in which many Parisian peculiarities are admirably caught, such as the Petit Rentier, the Dames de la Halle, and the Etudiants. It is a tendency of civilization to obliterate class characteristics ; the student is now not at all what he was in Gavarni's time, and in a few years the change will doubtless be more complete still : such a gallery would therefore have an historical as well as an artistic interest. The French, or any other people, " peints par eiix-memes,^^ have always a great attraction for those foreigners who love art too much to accept caricatures as types. The effective manner in which the eyes of the child peer out from beneath the pent-house-like hood, is all Dore's own, and is perfectly startling*. The original picture is in the possession of Daniel Grant, Esq., of Cleveland Gardens, Bays water. It will be matter of interest to watch the success of Gustave Dore's attempt to illus- trate English life. This artist is filled with a noble ambition. He is ever desirous K 74 to excel himself. It was a favourite wish of his to illustrate Shakespeare ; but the hio-h price that he set upon the task, and his resolve to do all or none, appalled his French publishers. It is well for M. Dore's fame that he has not prematurely at- tempted this Herculean task. For the artist Avho should rightly illustrate the works of the o-reatest writer of modern times, there is requisite not only a poetic fire that will flash back the genius of the dramatist — that M. Dore has — but further, a wide ex- perience of the different scenes, and differing nationalities, that form the setting of the various dramas. We have no Spanish play, or the Spanish tour of M. Dorc would have enabled him to illustrate our meaning. But the painter who would draw the Jew that Shakespeare drew, or who would throw on pale northern canvas the liquid fire of Juliet's eyes, must have dreamed in the shadow of the Rialto. No less should the aspiring artist be faraihar with Scotland, with Denmark, with English life, character, and scenery. For the adequate illustration of the "Faerie Queen," the artist may draw material from his own dreams; for that of the greater— the only greater— English poet, his experience must be not only that of travel, but that of residence and of study in the various scenes made familiar to our insular imaginations by that immortal verse. L. Y. ESCOSURA. XVII. €\nxxh^ tire imi in 0inibird'9 ^tuMa/' L. y. ESCOSURA. ^^X'i/^UR readers are in a position to judge for themselves liow far the composition of this picture has been matter of careful consideration to the artist ; and if they take exception to the rather formal arrange- ment of the lines in connexion Avith the three principal figures, it must be remembered the scene depicted is one of semi-state, and that the attitudinizing would readily fall into the staid and conven- tional. The shoe of the period gives rather a clumsy appearance to the feet, but in this, as in all the other details, the painter is historically accurate ; for bred as Mr. Escosura has been, it could scarcely have been otherwise. This studio of Vandyck was situated in Blackfriars, where all royal artists had their appointed residence; and thither the king frequently went by water to visit him. So charmed was he with the conversation and artistic abilities of Vandyck, that he knighted him in 1632, as he had honoured his master Rubens, two or three years before. To Vandyck's pencil Charles owes no small portion of that dignity with which his memory is still invested ; and Mr. Escosura has very happily introduced the very portrait which best conveys to us what manner of man the king really was. The framed picture standing on the easel next to it contains the children of the ill-starred monarch. Both works have been rendered wonderfully popular by the rare burin of Robert Strange, on whom, in spite of the well-known Jacobite antecedents of the great engraver and his heroic wife, George the Third had the graciousness to confer the dignity of knighthood. It should not be forgotten, that Strange had also engraved Benjamin West's Apotheosis of the two children of King George. The courtier arranging the chair fur his Majesty is in buff, and the appointments of the chair itself are of bright crimson. The slashed doublet of the burly personage behind the king is of dull red, and the lower .portions of his dress are black. The lady by his side is attired in a green bodice, to which is attached a skirt of delicate grey ; and on the square stool in front of the great canvas lies some red and green drapery. The king himself is in white, while the painter, by a happy contrast, is dight in the richest black. Besides the two pictures on the easels, the background is judiciously filled up with dark tapestries. From these remarks, those of our 78 i-(>arlcrs who have not seen Mr. Escosura's picture of Cliarles the First in Vandyck's Studio, will be able to form some estimate of its leading tones. We can assure them that the general effect of the canvas itself, as indeed may be seen from our reduction of it into black and white, is harmonious and pleasing. Leon y. Escosura, the author of the work we have been considering, is a Spaniard, having been born in the picturesque province of Asturias. For his art education he went to Paris, and, after his preliminary studies, placed himself under the guidance of Gerome. The pupil shows many of the qualities of his great master ; and as he is still comparatively young, we may expect those qualities to assume yet greater emphasis and tone. As it is, he has produced a picture the interest of which to cultivated Englishmen is enhanced by the many names it calls up of those dear to art, and whose memories, in this respect at least, are kept green, if not sacred. XVIII. 'Y^^^/^^ '^H'E carving in the choir of St. Paul's is by the great English artist, 'i^'i^S^S^'^^- Grinling Gibbons. The canopy of the Dean's stall, represented in our print, occupied, until the recent alterations in the cathedral, the position usual in collegiate churches and chapels, immediately to the riffht hand of the entrance to the choir. The two little ano^els on either side of the canopy are special attendants on tins post of honour. The two cherubs below form part of the celestial choir referred to hereafter. The very grain of the wood is brought out by the minute fidelity of the heliotype process ; and the unrivalled boldness and delicacy of the foliage is reproduced with stereoscopic force. There is a life in a good picture which is not to be described in technical language. It is not the representation, as in a mirror, of the very image of the subject. It is not vivacity of expression, or characteristic truth of pose. It is a life which, like that of nature, varies with the changing hours, and looks with other eyes upon morning, and noontide, and evening visitants. While paintings thus require, in order to be thoroughly understood, to be studied under changing lights, and especially to be viewed in the light used by the ])ainter, the case is yet more striking w^ith regard to sculpture. The difference of twenty minutes of time in the position of the sun makes as much change in the illumination of a statue as in that of a landscape. Any shadows in mountain scenery that are retouched by a sketcher after some such interval of time become confused and blurred. The greatest landscape-painters limit their sketches by the watch ; hence the sharp, natural definition of the wonderful mountain scenery depicted by Albert Bierstadt. Nor is it only of. the case of sculpture exposed to open dayhght that we speak. In a building, however lighted — in the halls of the Royal Academy, as in the aisles of Westminster Abbey — one hour's advance in the movement of the sun may throw a totally new expression into a work of sculpture. This constant, living change, is perhaps more fully illustrated by the cherub choir with w^hicli the genius of Grinling Gibbons has peopled the oaken canopies of St. Paul's, than in any other instance we can cite. We will not speak at tliis moment of all the features of this noble composition. We are referring to the singing cherubs alone; the carven choristers, who "continually do cry" in the ears of those whose hearts echo their celestial voices. If these lovely heads L 82 be regarded — tliere are forty-eight of them, no two alike — with atteution, it will be seen that they are not only singing, but singing from visionary books, placed at a distance from the canopy of the stalls sinailar to that which separates the heads and the books of the white-robed chorister boys below. Perfect symmetry of balance, with the entire absence of rigid bilateral repetition, is obtained by the simplicity of this arrangement. The stall or throne of the Lord Mayor, and that which was intended for the Archbishop (though now occupied by the Dean), divide the lines of ministering angels on either side of the choir. Thus there arc four groups, each consisting of twelve heads. In each of these, the three outer cherubs sing together from the same notes. The six inner ones sing in pairs. The caryatiform angels below are grouped in pairs, each turning outward from his fellow. Over the whole angelic chorus, with the changing light of the sun, or with the illumination of taper and of lamp, come changes like those of an April day. At one time the ruling idea is that of beauty, at another of infantile simplicity, at another of devout worship. And when light is low, and worshippers few, and the old organ, under the perfect touch of one of the masters of music who have the privilege to strike the keys, gives forth one of its most appropriate melodies, the boys may be seen to sing. The grand dialogue between the Soul and Death, in which the former triumphs in assertion of its native immortality, which men learned in music call The Dead March in Saul, or the melody which, on Christmas Eve, floats away into heaven on the wings of the receding angels, seems to be voiced and chorused by the cherubs of Gibbons. We know of no such instance in which the sculptor appears to have attained a mastery over sound, as well as over form, and to have not ojily endowed his children with beauty, but filled their mouths with music. MICHELANGELO. XIX. MICHELANGELO. ^^^'y*iHE sheets of studies of heads by MiCHELANiiELo, which we have selected ^ specimen of the art-treasures contained in the University galleries at Oxford, is highly interesting. The great beauty and value of these drawings need hardly be descanted on, but for the benefit of such of our readers as are not intimate with the original drawings, we give a description of this sheet of studies, extracted from a useful and interesting work published by Messrs. Macmillan & Co., in which the entire series of drawings by Michelangelo and Raffaello are critically described by a writer fully qualified for the task — Mr. J. C. Hobinson, F.S.A. " This splendid sheet of studies," says Mr. Robinson, " is probably one of the ' carte stupendissime di teste divine,' which Vasari says (Vita, p. 272) Michel Augelo executed as presents or lessons for his artistic friends. Not improbably it is actually one of those njade for his friend Tommaso dei Cavalieri, who when young was desirous of learning to draw. The approximate date is indicated by the fact that one at least of these heads is from a figure in the Sistine Chapel ceiling ; and the writer supposes the sheet to have been produced shortly after the conclusion of that work (in a.d. loll , or A.D. 1512). That these heads are not j)reliminary studies for after elaboration might in fact be inferred from their appearance, which in most instances is obviously that of masterly shaded drawings from the round, or from finished originals. " Six or seven of these heads are of male personages, three appear to be of females, and two others are respectively those of a young faun and a satyr. They are distri- buted rather irregularly over the sheet, and are on different scales ; the most conspicuous and important of all being that of a young man wearing a turban (on the left side of the paper towards the middle). This is an admirably finished drawing of the head of one of the male figures, or genii, holding up the ornamental festoons of oak-leaves in the Sistine ceiling (the one placed over the Sibylla Libyca) ; it is the same of which another authentic drawing has come down to us (also in red chalk) on the reverse of the sheet containing the first design for the recumbent figure of Adam, in the com- position of the Almighty giving life to man. Just above it, on the present sheet, is a smaller foreshortened herd in the same pose, strongly resembling that of the 86 Adam itself. Several of the other heads, notably that of the female in profile wearing a hood of massive drapery, are, if not directly reproduced, probably only slightly altered from those of figures to be found in the ceiling fresco. " There should also be specially noticed a beautiful profile head of a young man with long falling ringlets, in the left-hand upper corner ; this has somewhat of the characteristic typical expression of Leonardi da Vinci's youthful heads. Finally, the lifelike head of a laughing faun, in the lower part, is doubtless also from some previous work of the artist himself, whilst the outline sketch of a grinning satyr's face in profile seems to have been inspired by a head in one of Andrea Mantegna's prints (the Fighting Tritons) . The style of design of these heads is of inimitable power and perfection ; the outlines are firmly drawn, without any appearance of that uncertainty which so often distinguishes Michel Angelo's drawings at a later period, and the shading is laid on in broad and simple masses of graduated tint, as if with a brush ; in fact they are modelled in precisely the same style as the heads in his oil pictures and frescoes. The writer's belief is, that Michel Angelo, having been called upon for a sheet of studies to serve as drawing copies, selected various heads from his own works, previously executed ; and copied them at once on this paper, on a reduced scale from the cartoons in his studio. " The peculiar flat or mat appearance of the red chalk lines and shading leads to the belief that an off'tract or counterproof was taken from the drawing, probably shortly after it was executed. The paper bears a conspicuous watermark of crossed arrows within a circle." A. EOSSELLINO. XX. €xovi^ for :t Joinitaiir. A. ROSSELLINO. >C5f2^^>j^^l-^ HE present group is a fiwourable specimen of a frequently-executed subject. For tlie crowning ornament of a fountain (and it is for this purpose that the present object has probably been designed), one of the most usual, and, it may be added, most graceful, compositions has frequently been found in a combination of the graceful curves of the childish form with the sharp, energetic, and thoroughly contrasted lines of some lower animal. The admirable Boy and Goose of the Vatican museum will recur to the memory of many. Pompeii when yielding to the excavator, as she so often does, a little fountain in the peristyle, incrusted with shells and mosaic, usually compensates for the — must it be said?— cochiei/fied character of the decoration by a graceful little bronze genius presiding over the narrow tube and scanty supply of water once issuing from it. Indeed, the above sentence embodies the recollections of the writer on seeing, many years ago, an exquisite group (precisely of a boy and dolphin, and now in the museum at Naples) emerge from the soft grey ash in which it had been preserved for future admiration. It is, indeed, a matter of curious speculation how in many instances the types of small and comparatively unimportant compositions liave survived through all the darkness of the centuries following the downfall of Imperial Rome, to reappear fresh and apparently fire-new from the artist's brain to charm the eyes of Medicean or Urbinatan connoisseurs. The frescoed walls of Pompeii show to this day attitudes and groups so identically similar to their antitypes of cinque-cento bronze or majoUca, that it is impossible for the spectator to doubt that the renaissance object is a copy, not of the Pompeian, which is clearly impossible, but of some earlier, original common to both. This, however, is a digression from our immediate subject, and a somewhat unuecessary one, seeing that the group now in question bears sufficient internal evidence of its date to warrant its ascription to the latter half of the fifteenth century. Few will be disposed to question the judgment which assigns the parentage of the work to Antonio Rossellino ; one of that brilliant group of contemporary sculptors, who, like our Elizabethan dramatists, seem to have fed upon each others' fires and raised their respective arts in one short generation to the highest attainable pitch. The minor M 90 licvlits in a galaxy are apt to be overlooked, nor is Rossellino an exception to the rule. In this country his name was, till lately, all but unknown ; and even now many a traveller passes through the museums of Florence, giving but a scanty and passing notice to the works of this artist. Those, however, who ascend the beautiful hill of S. Miniato, and visit the church so rich and varied in its associations, both artistic and historical, will certainly do justice to the sculptor of the tomb of Cardinal di Portogallo ; and should they remember the type of feature characterizing tlie grace- ful children on that sepulchre, will not fail to trace a family resemblance in the boys of our group. Vasari tells us specially of a marble fountain executed by Rossellino in the inner court of the Palazzo de Medici, and his description seems at first not inconsistent with the theory that we may possess in terra-cotta a reminiscence of the upper part of that work, which is now unfortunately lost. This conjecture, however, seems scarcely justified by the words of the text. " Fanciulli che sbarrano delfini " calls before the mind's eye rather a group of these poetic monsters — very different, by the way, to the actual dolphin — on whom the boys ride astride, and Vasari may well have referred to something more important than this small and graceful compo- sition. This, however, is a point of no importance : what is certain is that we here possess a work of one of those early sculptors whose innate vigour was so self-born, so independent of leading-strings, so sure to reach the goal at which it aimed, that one must needs regret the Medicean patronage which turned so full and fresh a stream into any channel already dug, even though Phidias and Praxiteles were the engineers of the old course. " And yet the light that led astray Was light from heaven." THE END. GILBERT AXD RIVINGTON, VRINTERS, ST. JOII.n's SCiUARE, LONI)t)N.