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AN 
 
 INQUIRY 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 REQUISITE CULTIVATION 
 
 AND 
 
 PRESENT STATE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ARTS OF BESIGN 
 
 IN 
 
 ENGLAND, 
 
 BY 
 
 PRINCE HOARE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PKINTED FOR RICHARD PHILLIPS, NO. 6, BRIDGE- 
 STREET, BLACKFRIARS, 
 BY B. M'MJLLAN, BOW-STREET, COVENT-GARDEN. 
 
 1806. 
 [ Price 7s, in Boards. ] 
 
TO THE 
 
 EARL OF DARTMOUTH, 
 
 PRESIDENT, 
 
 AND TO THE 
 
 OTHER GOVERNORS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BaiTISH INSTITUTION 
 
 rOR PROMOTING 
 
 THE FINE ARTS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 UNITED KINGDOM, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING PAGES 
 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2010 witii funding from 
 
 Researcin Library, The Getty Researcii Institute 
 
 http://www.'archive.org/details/inquiryintorequiOOhoar 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The interest at present so warmly taken in 
 every thing that concerns the Arts of De- 
 sign, and the comparatively slender methods 
 hitherto adopted by this country to promote 
 their progress, furnish cause to regret that 
 they have not been made the subjeds of 
 more accurate inquiry. The nature and pro- 
 perties of those Arts, and their consequent 
 public value, present a field unexplored by 
 the researches of British erudition, and al- 
 most unnoticed amidst the extensive circle 
 of British glory. 
 
 Painting has chiefly been considered by 
 writers, as possessing the powers of imitating 
 
 merely 
 
It PREFACE, 
 
 merely the external appearances of nature. 
 Aristotle's authority has been brought to 
 support this opinion, although without any 
 due regard to the extensive sense in which 
 he has used the term so frequently quoted. 
 
 In the present moment the idea of Paint- 
 ing is of a more enlarged description : " We 
 "^ ask/' says the British Institution, " that 
 '' professional talents be no longer confined 
 ^' to inferior objects, but that our Artists 
 *" be encouraged to dire6t their attention to 
 ** higher and nobler attainments; to paint 
 *^ the mind and passions of man ; to depic- 
 " ture his sympathies and affedlions, and 
 *^ illustrate the great events which have been 
 '' recorded in the history of the world." 
 From the approbation and desire of these 
 higher and nobler attainments, is evidently 
 derived the general interest in the state of 
 
 the 
 
PREFACE. •- 
 
 the Arts, and the general readiness to concur 
 in every projecft for their encouragement. 
 
 It is not my design, in this short treatise, 
 to present to the reader a complete investi- 
 gation of the faculties of Painting and Sculp- 
 ture, but to offer to his perusal such remarks 
 as my particular situation has enabled me to 
 form. The Honorary Office which I hold in 
 the Royal Academy, and the task in which 
 I have there engaged; have led me to many 
 refledlions on the various degrees of exer- 
 tion made by different States, in proportion 
 to their respeaive powers, for the advance- 
 
 iiientof the Plastic Arts; and thence, for. 
 ^king the ungrateful office of comparison, 
 I have been induced to examine abstrac5ledlv' 
 how far, in this particular point, a full and 
 adequate use has been made of the means 
 ^d talents of my own country, for the dis- 
 ^ charge 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 charge of that most important of all trusts, 
 the due cultivation of the strength and fa- 
 culties of a nation. 
 
 Little apology will be requisite for an in- 
 quiry of this nature. In a State, by the 
 spirit of which every individual appears to 
 be called on, for the purposes of general 
 utility, to acquaint himself more or less with 
 the political nature of his age and country, 
 as it is justly deemed an impertinence to 
 meddle in extraneous subje6ls, so it can only 
 be thought a due obligation to connedl with 
 each especial province of study, a knowledge 
 of the rank and public interest which it is 
 entitled to hold, and to endeavour to point 
 out the peculiar means which it possesses of 
 social advantage, or national aggrandize- 
 i^ent. 
 
 It 
 
PJREPACE. V 
 
 It was easy for me to perceive that a dis- 
 cussion of such a subje6l might lead to the 
 expression of sentiments very different from 
 those at present subsisting in the minds of 
 many of my countrymen, and even of some 
 in the highest classes of rank and learnino- 
 but as various circumstances have contri- 
 buted to bring within my reacli a consi- 
 derable degree of requisite information on 
 the subjea of the Arts, they have likewise 
 conduced to make me regard an attempt of 
 this kind as a task incumbent on me to 
 perform ; my apprehensions also above men- 
 tioned are naturally decreased, since the Pro- 
 posal of the British Institution has been made 
 public, and I indulge a hope that I shall often 
 be found to speak the sentiments of an asso- 
 ciation so friendly to the Arts. 
 
 t> 3 I have 
 
Vl PJREFACE. 
 
 I have been desirous, in the following In- 
 quiry, to take a view of the general powers 
 and just purposes of the Arts op Design; 
 to consider their probable influence on the 
 fame and morals of a people; and lastly, to 
 examine in what degree of estimation they 
 may be expected to rise in England, as well 
 as to what uses they might, and ought, to 
 he applied by a great, powerful, and ho- 
 nourably ambitious nation. 
 
 During the arrangement of these thoughts 
 on paper, a work has been published which, 
 at first view, seemed to supersede the pre- 
 sent design, and to render any further efforts 
 on the subjedl superfluous, — this is Mr. 
 Slice's spirited and masterly performance of 
 Rhymes on Art. But, on further consi- 
 deration, and after conversation with the 
 
 author 
 
PREFACfi, Vll 
 
 author of that work, there appears reason to 
 believe that even a repetition of argument 
 may be attended with beneficial conse- 
 quences; and where, in some instances, I 
 differ from the sentiments expressed by Mr. 
 Shee, I have too high an opinion of his 
 candour, to doubt that he will readily admit, 
 and even approve of this public statement of 
 such a difference. 
 
 Painting, it must be granted, is an art, 
 the pradlice of which is better understood 
 among the English Professors, than its essen- 
 tial faculties have hitherto been among other 
 classes of society, however elegantly cultivat- 
 ed; a circumstance probably owing to the total 
 exclusion of the Arts of Design from any 
 share in the studies of our public education. 
 The late Lord Kenyon, with an ingenuous 
 frankness suited to his enlightened mind, 
 b 4 was 
 
Viil MEPACE. 
 
 was heard to declare his convI(^Ion that the 
 Arts possessed faculties, probably of a very 
 high degree, with which his education had 
 left him unacquainted. It is scarcely in the 
 power of words to convey to an unprofes- 
 sional reader any adequate idea of the occa- 
 sional irrelevancy of classical ingenuity when 
 exercising its strength in criticism on the 
 i\rts of Design. But this subjedl will be 
 noticed in the course of the following chap- 
 ters. 
 
 Mr. Shee, certainly, is in no danger of 
 committing errors in this respect, but does 
 he not yield to prejudices of a nature similar 
 to those he blames, when he endeavours to 
 draw a comparison between Poetry and 
 Painting to the advantage of the latter ? Is 
 he not returning in kind the supposed in- 
 justice of writers ? I am not inclined to think 
 
 the 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 the poets, who have given the preference 
 to their own art, unjust, although I may not 
 imagine them adequately informed on the 
 subject of Painting, for the purpose of appre- 
 ciating with justness its comparative merits. 
 May it not, moreover, be conceived unneces- 
 sary, that the question of precedence should 
 be settled between the two Arts, until there 
 shall be no other argument of contest or 
 emulation remaining to employ the powers 
 of either ? Let them first miite their forces 
 and their charms to subdue the world to the 
 interests of benevolence and peace, and it 
 will be then time enough to contend which 
 has had the greater part in so meritorious 
 an achievement. 
 
 The reader will perhaps be surprised to 
 
 observe, that I have classed the Fine Arts in 
 
 a mode different from that which is usually 
 
 b 5 adopted 
 
X PI5EPACE. 
 
 adopted by writers. I have considered the 
 properties and eftedls of Painting as so ex- 
 adlly similar to those of Poetry, that the two 
 Arts may justly be described to be one in 
 essence, and only varying in mode. With 
 Painting I unite Sculpture, and to these two 
 united I give the definite appellation of the 
 Plastic Art, I have not comprized under 
 this title the sister Art of Archite6lure, al- 
 though the derivation of the epithet might 
 render it nearly as applicable to that branch 
 of Design as to the two former ; but I am 
 inclined to give the name of the Plastic Art 
 to Painting and Sculpture, in preference, 
 because I think they acquire a value different 
 and distin(5l from Archite61ure, by the power 
 they possess, like Poetry, over the human 
 passions; and it is in this last point that 
 their intelle<5lual dignity consists. 
 
 As 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 As to the term itself, Plastic Art, I have 
 adopted it because, although stridlly express- 
 ing modelling only, it has been rendered 
 familiar to the public ear by modern use, as 
 applicable both to Painting and Sculpture. 
 I have wished in vain to find a simple term, 
 which, denoting the art of form, rendered the 
 vehicle of intelleSlual expression, might be 
 conjointly applied to Painting and Sculpture. 
 The ai't of metrical language, diredled to simi- 
 lar purposes, has been more fortunate. Im- 
 memorial usage has distinct ivel}- confirmed to 
 it the sacred name of Poetry, whereas in fadt, 
 the writer, the painter, and the sculptor, 
 are all equally poets; the 7nens divinior, the 
 TToirfj?, belongs equally to all the three. 
 Quindiilian's expression respe61ing Painting 
 is well known: " (Artium) alicC in effect ii 
 " (positoe), quae operis, quod oculis sub- 
 *^ jicitur, consummatione finem accipiunt, 
 b d " qiL m 
 
XII fREPACE. 
 
 " quam vomnKnif appellanus qualis est pic^ 
 f' tura.''* 
 
 From this division of the three branches 
 of Art, no intention, it is to be hoped, can 
 be insinuated of depreciating the comparative 
 estimation of Archite6lure. Archite(5lure 
 derives from the objed^s of its pursuit pre- 
 tensions which are of a very different, and 
 will, to 'many, appear of a higher kind 
 than those of the former Arts: Architec- 
 ture may justly claim a rank in civil pro- 
 gress with Agriculture ; the essential direc- 
 tion of both is Utility, and, as they advance, 
 they enter the provinces of beauty. But the 
 essential aim of Painting and Sculpture is 
 Beauty, and it is in their advance only that 
 they enter the province of public utility, 
 ArchitecSlure stands in these points com- 
 pletely contrasted with them. It marches, 
 
 however. 
 
PREFACE. XiU 
 
 however, with equal pace in the formation 
 of taste, as far as taste depends on symmetry, 
 arrangement, or proportion of parts ; but it 
 ceases to accompany them when they enter 
 the sphere of moral instru6lion. In this 
 sphere Poetry, Painting, and Sculpture, 
 visibly take their station together. 
 
 I desire, therefore, to be understood, that 
 whenever I use the term Plastic Art, I mean 
 especially the Arts of Painting and Sculpture 
 in their highest provinces of history and 
 poetic imagery. Under the names of the 
 Arts, the Plastic Arts, and the Arts of Z)e- 
 sign, or form, I range Painting in all its 
 branches, Sculpture, Architedlure, and what- 
 ever else may be achieved by a knowledge 
 of the principles of these three Arts. I 
 liave chiefly confined my observations to 
 Painting and Sculpture, but I give to the 
 
 subje6l 
 
XlV ]?REPACE. 
 
 subjedl of my inquiry the general term of 
 the Arts of Design, because I conceive the 
 national cultivation of every branch of them 
 indispensably requisite to the completion of 
 a nation's task. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed, that 
 '^ the value and rank of every Art is in pro- 
 ** portion to the mental labour employed in 
 " it, or the mental pleasure produced by it. 
 " As this principle," he continues, " is ob- 
 ** served or neglected, our profession be- 
 *' comes either a liberal art or a mechanical 
 '' trade. In the hands of one man it makes 
 ** the highest pretensions, as it is addressed 
 *' to the noblest faculties ; in those of an- 
 ** other it is reduced to a mere matter of 
 " ornament, and the painter has the humble 
 '^ province of furnishing our apartments with 
 ** elegance." 
 
 I have 
 
PBEPACE. X> 
 
 I have not endeavoured to treat of all the 
 numerous branches of Art, and of their 
 varied beauties, or to describe its equally 
 various powers of rendering itself delightful 
 to the eye, both in form and colour; but I 
 have wished to set it forth to view as an 
 mstrument of intelle6lual agency. I am 
 aware that the intelleBuality of Painting and 
 Sculpture, although it form their highest 
 essential chara<5ler, does not constitute the 
 whole of their Art ; many parts relate to the 
 mere imitation of form. But I regard the 
 final excellence of the artist as depentling on 
 his ability to subdue the hand to the head, 
 and to render Form subservient to the ex- 
 pression of the mind. It is from the exer- 
 cise of such powers I have endeavoured to 
 trace the moral, and consequently the ci\ il, 
 importance of the Arts of Desigx. 
 
 In 
 
Xvi PREFACE. 
 
 In examining their claims to national cul- 
 tivation, having first stated the methods 
 which might be conducive to their efFedtual 
 advancement, and the measures which have 
 been taken in England for that purpose, 
 I have endeavoured to ascertain what ex- 
 pe^lations may justly be formed of English 
 Genius in the Arts, and what degree of credit 
 is to be given to the criticisms of foreign 
 writers on this point; after which, as a test 
 of the opinions that have been advanced, I 
 have exhibited a general view of the state to 
 which the Arts of Design have arrived in 
 the circumstances of the present moment; 
 omitting, however, in general, any mention 
 of the names of living professors, for reasons 
 sufficiently obvious. 
 
 In considering the requisite interference 
 of Public Authority in support of the Arts, I 
 
 have 
 
PREFACE. XVH 
 
 have not presumed to decide the species of 
 reward which should be conferred on suc- 
 cessful talents; I have merely stated that 
 it should be certain. It might not, per- 
 haps, have been improper to add, that what- 
 ever be the degree of reward, it should 
 partake not less of honour than of wealth. 
 Honour is the meed for which Genius 
 thirsts; the renovating spring which ex- 
 cites it to tresn energies. Rewards, un- 
 connected with honour, too frequently lead 
 to the negledt of native talent ; and unless 
 honour add a stimulus to exertion, em- 
 ployment may make rich artists, but will 
 never produce great ones. 
 
 Whatever may be the comparative merits 
 of poets and painters, their fates have in this 
 country been unequally subje6l to the in- 
 fluences of ignorance and caprice. Milton 
 
 com- 
 
XVllJ FUEPACE. 
 
 complained of negle6l, and Reynolds met 
 the flatteries of worldly attention. On the 
 other hand, Addison, Pope, and Goldsmith, 
 enjoyed the tribute of public admiration and 
 respe6t during their lives ; and in a still more 
 recent period, the amiable Cowper has re- 
 ceived the homage due to his talents and his 
 virtues ; while even the pecuniary remune- 
 ration due to the labours of Thornhill was 
 contested (and their value measured by the 
 yard) ; and while it is yet within the scope 
 of remembrance, that Wilson, now so highly 
 estimated, and whose works are now wel- 
 comed to all galleries, lived and died almost 
 unknown beyond the circle of professional 
 friendship. 
 
 To preclude from the annals of the future 
 historian the records of deeper regrets, to 
 
 persuade 
 
PREFACE. \n( 
 
 persuade by obvious exposition and gentle 
 reasoning to the contemplation of a great 
 national concern, and to attra6l by candid 
 argument the attention of the wise, just, 
 and enlightened powers of our nation ; in a 
 word, to express the united wishes of every 
 votary of the Arts in England, will be found 
 the endeavour of the following pages. 
 
 P. S. There is one further point In which 
 I have omitted to consider fully the .'mport- 
 ance of the Arts to a Nation, namely, the 
 commercial advantages which may be de- 
 rived both from its highest and most sub- 
 ordinate branches, when under the influence 
 of superior cultivation. I do not conceive 
 myself qualified to render a satisfa6lory ac- 
 count of these advantages to the public ; but, 
 while I close my present task, I fix my eyes 
 
 with 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 with gratifying confidence on men whose 
 zeal, information, and abilities, may effec- 
 tually illustrate so interesting a topic. 
 
 CON- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Of the Advantages arising from the Cultivation of 
 the Arts ; and on the Methods most conducive to 
 their Advancement, < I 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Of the importance of the Fine Arts to the Fame of 
 a Nation^ 3 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Of the cuhivation of Public Taste, and the influence 
 of the Arts on the jMorals of a People, 23 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Of the interference of Public Authority In support of 
 the Plastic Arts, 5g 
 
 Sect. I. — Of the Effeds likely to arise from the 
 Efforts of our Artists under casual employment, 
 
 or the Patronage of Individuals, , , , 66 
 
 Sjsct. 
 
«XU CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Sect. II. — Of the EfFefts to be expeded from the 
 Patronage of Public Authority, TJ 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Of the Estallishment, Design, and Progress of the 
 Royal Academy of Arts; and of its Annual Ex^ 
 hibitions, Ill 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 Of the Royal Academy, 113 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 Of the Annual Exhibition at Somerset- House, .... 136 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Of the Powers of English Genius; conducive to Ex- 
 cellence in the Arts, 153 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Of the Genius, or natural disposition of the English, 
 with respeft to the Arts of Design, 155 
 
 SfiCT. 
 
CONTENTS. XXm 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sect. I. — Of Genius, 157 
 
 Sect. II.— Of Genius, in relation to Painting, .... i6s 
 Sect, III. — Of the Criticisms of Foreign Writers, IQO 
 
 Sketch of the present state of the Arts of Design in 
 
 England, 211 
 
 Painting, 215 
 
 Sculpture, 234 
 
 Archite6lure, 242 
 
 Engraving, 255 
 
 Conclusion, 2G4 
 
ERRATUM, 
 
 p. 251, last line but two, after the word transferred, 
 insert " from those Temples." 
 
NATIONAL CULTH^ATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ABTS OF JDESIGN. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 On the Advantages arising from the 
 Cultivation of the Arts ,- 
 
 And on the Methods most conducive to 
 their Advancement, 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FINE ARTS TO 
 THE FAME OF A NATION. 
 
 For know, by Nnture's lib'ral hand de.sign'dj 
 Man of no grov'ling or ungen'rous kindj 
 Athirst by excellence to win renown. 
 Honour bis meed, and fame his virtue's crown, 
 
 LONGIN. ANON. TK.VNSLAT, 
 
 'T^HE acquisition of fame, by meritorious 
 adion, is the worthiest achievement 
 of our nature. The pursuit of fame as a 
 primary objeci:, is indeed justly reprehended 
 by morahsts, because the desire of such an 
 objecl cannot subsist, in a truly virtuous 
 mind, singly and divested of every other mo- 
 tive ; but fame, when it follows the energe- 
 tic and successful prosecution of exalted 
 B 2 purposes. 
 
4 IMPORTANCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 purposes, is the richest and dearest tribute 
 that can be received from mankind. 
 
 Fame, good or ill, is the inevitable guer- 
 don of PUBLIC CONDUCT, The deeds of pri- 
 vate men may shun, and escape, the light ; 
 artifice may shelter insignificance, and be in 
 return preserved by it from discovery ; but 
 the actions of States cannot equally avoid 
 the eye of observation : obscurity and con- 
 cealment are not within their reach ; nor 
 is it in the power of nations to veil, or gloss 
 over, particular points of their history, and 
 procure a partial sentence by evasion, or 
 the imposing surface of a moment : the 
 tremendous balance of fame is suspended 
 over them, and will infallibly fix the most 
 awful doom which humanity can receiN't 
 on this side of the grave. 
 
 But, although none can control this 
 mighty arm of judgment, we are all at li- 
 berty to investigate and weigh its verdict, 
 to wive or withhold our assent ; and the 
 vote qf every succeeding generation, nay, of 
 -^very successive refleding individual, tends 
 
 to 
 
TO THE FAME OP A NATION. 5 
 
 to Weaken or confirm the decree : in this 
 manner fame becomes tianb;itory or per- 
 manent. 
 
 To appreciate the chara^^er of nation?, 
 as of men, it is necessary to take into our 
 consideration the whole of its component 
 parts. We must observe whether a nation 
 has exerted itself in arms, excelled in sci- 
 ence, been superior in ingenious industry, 
 or, finally, eminent in the last accomplish- 
 ment of our civil state, the polished gifts 
 of genius and taste. Again, of each of 
 these attainments it is requisite to examine 
 the source and motives, whether it has been 
 pursued from the necessity of self-defence, 
 or the desire of oppression ; whether from 
 the love of truth and utility, or of vanity 
 and ostentatious parade; whether to diffuse 
 comforts, or to heap the shrines of ava- 
 rice and luxury ; whether, finally, to inform, 
 or to enslave, ihe understanding ; to sof- 
 ten and polish, or to enervate and debase, 
 the mind. 
 
 It sometimes happens, that one of these 
 B 3 attain- 
 
6 IMPORTANCE OP THE ARTS 
 
 attainments is .possessed in so peculiar a de- 
 gree by a single nation, as to form its cha- 
 ra6leristic feature. Thus we regard the 
 Egyptians as learned and religious, the Per- 
 sians as splendid and luxurious, the Car- 
 thaginians as sagacious and politic, &c. 
 And of most of these it is true, ihat any 
 one of them may be possessed in a singu- 
 lar and pre-eminent degree, without its con- 
 ferring on the nation that possesses it any 
 claim to general, uncontested pre-eminence 
 of character and fame. We allow the Ro- 
 mans to have been brave, and eminent for 
 public spirit ; but we censure them for the 
 want of those social and domestic refine- 
 ments of sentiment, which constitute the 
 most enviable pleasures and comforts of later 
 civilization; and in this respe6l we consider 
 them as our inferiors. Obje61ions, in an 
 equal or greater degree, are still more con- 
 spicuous in the general chara61er of the 
 other nations before-mentioned, as well as of 
 many which might easily be added to the 
 \ist. Thus it will be found that neither 
 
 valour. 
 
TO THE FAME OF A NATION. / 
 
 valour, learning, pomp, or subtilty, neither 
 extent of conquest, profundity of research, 
 refinement of pleasure, or ingenuity of ar- 
 tifice, with other various achievements and 
 attainments, can give a title to allowed supe- 
 riority of fame. 
 
 But, after remarking the insufficiency 
 of all these, it cannot but forcibly strike 
 our observation, that (to v/hatever cause, 
 physical or moral, the fact be owing) where- 
 ever the Polite Arts appear, and flourish in 
 a surpassing degree, the happy native of 
 that soil may, without fear of refutation, 
 arrogate to his country the rare triumph 
 of universal renown. Other perfections shed 
 their lustre like single stars in the canopy of 
 heaven; the influence of the arts alone unites 
 their distant fires, and presents the glories 
 of a constellation. 
 
 The throne of the arts (with some degree 
 of exception in favour of Leo's golden reign) 
 has hitherto been acknowledged, by the con- 
 sent of the world, in one country only ; and 
 where, but in one country, has been ac- 
 b4 knowledgcd 
 
8 IMPORTANCE OP THE ARTS 
 
 tnowlcdged this decided superiority of/«me? 
 Envy itself scarcely knows how to level its 
 shaft ngainst the name of an Athenian. 
 
 It has been elsewhere remarked, that it is 
 the })eculiar felicity of triumphs obtained in 
 the province of the fine arts, that they 
 serve rather to excite the afFe6lion than the 
 j aloLisy of a rival ; and while they awaken 
 competition, they conciliate approbation and 
 applause. The fame handed down to us of 
 the Athenian state, is that which presents 
 itself to our refle6\ion under the most grate- 
 ful hues. When we combine in one idea 
 their conspicuous examples of valour, of 
 public spirit, and its attendant self-denial, 
 with their knowledge equally profound and 
 polite, their refined taste, and their unrival- 
 led eminence in the fine arts, the assem- 
 blage cannot but form in our minds and 
 hearts a national charadler, which it would 
 be a prouder and more gratifying boast to 
 surpass, than any other with which we are 
 acquainted. 
 
 " ATHENS, 
 
TO THE FAME OP A NATION. Q 
 
 "Athens, to succeeding ages the rule of taste, 
 and the standard of perfedion." 
 
 Dr. Young, on Original Composition, 
 
 " The Grecian commonwealths," says the 
 elegant author of Ilcrmes (" wliile they 
 " maintained their Hberty), were the most 
 " heroic confederacy that ever existed; they 
 " were the poUtest, the bravest, and the 
 " wisest of men : in the short space of Httle 
 " more than a century, they became such 
 " statesmen, warriors, orators, historians, 
 *' physicians, poets, critics, painters, sculp- 
 " tors, architedls, and philosophers, that 
 " one can hardly help considering that gol- 
 " den period as a providential event in ho- 
 " nour of human nature, to shew to what 
 " perfe6\ion the species might ascend." 
 
 Noble contention ! who should most excel 
 In government well pois'd, adjusted best 
 To public weal ; in countries cultur'd hi^h > 
 In ornamented towns, wliere order reigns. 
 Free social life, and polisli'd manners fair j 
 In exercise and armsj arms only drawn 
 For common Greece, to quell the Persian pride; 
 in moral science, and in graceful arts. 
 
 Thomson's liberty. 
 B 5 Now, 
 
10 IMPORTANCE OP THE ARTS 
 
 Now, if the fame of the Greek states be 
 thus pre-eminent, and if it must necessarily 
 occur to ever}^ reader of history, that, of 
 all the various parts of chara61er enumerated 
 in the passage from Hermes above-mention- 
 ed, the three which regard the plastic arts, 
 are those alone wherein the Greeks have as 
 yet found no equal competitor*, it appears 
 just to conclude, either that those arts pos- 
 sess in themselves, exclusively, the privilege 
 of conferring the laurel of fame, or that 
 their influential effe6l on the nation that 
 cultivates them, is that of rousing it to such 
 superiority of effort, as equally to deserve 
 the palm in all the various points of cha- 
 ra6ter. Either of these conclusions must 
 sufficiently demonstrate the importance of 
 the arts to the fame of a nation. 
 
 *<■ O Greece ! thou sapient nurse_ of finer arts, 
 Which to bright science blooming fancy bore. 
 Be tJiis thy praise, that thou and thou alone 
 In these hast led the way, in these excell'd, 
 Crown'd with the laurel of afsenting time! 
 
 THOMSON. 
 
 The 
 
TO THE FAME OP A XATION", 11 
 
 The pbilantliropic observer of mankind 
 will readily oj)en his bosom to admit the 
 latter of these two conclusions ; he has 
 often sighed, in refle61ing how few are the 
 boasted and en\iied acquisitions of human ta- 
 lents, which have not been perverted to th.e 
 lamentable purposes of dissention, strife, 
 malignity, and mutual destruction ! The 
 statesman, the warrior, the orator, the cri- 
 tic, nay, with regret his recolleclion will 
 add, the historian, the poet, the physician, 
 and last, the philosopher, how have thcv 
 sometimes JLohhj raged, to light the torch or 
 spread the flame of devastation, to stir the 
 spirit of inimical contest, or to point the 
 shatt of jealousy, envy, and more than mor- 
 tal calumny, at mankind I The cultivation 
 of the arts alone is exempt from this ac- 
 cession of dangerous power. They alone 
 unalterably and necessarily lead to the at^ 
 tainment of the highest, because the hap- 
 piest, purposes of social intercourse. Beautv, 
 physical and intelledual, the ornament and 
 delight of our nature, is their perpetual 
 B object. 
 
3 2 IMPORTANCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 obje<5l. The temple of the Graces, of all 
 that softens, all that endears, all that unites 
 mankind, is the abode of the arts. They 
 take their visible course over the surface of 
 all the pleasing emotions of tlie mind ; their 
 invisible one penetrates and pervades them. 
 They have no existence but from those qua- 
 lities of our nature, which sooth, which 
 delight, which enrapture. 
 
 Theirs are the lessons, and the plans of peace. 
 To live like brothers, and, conjun6tive all. 
 Embellish life. 
 
 What can be more captivating than the ac- 
 count given by an Athenian orator, of the 
 state of social life in a country adorned by 
 the dominion of the arts 1 
 
 '* EX£v^^ipw; ^i TX TB -uj-pog to. xoivov •aro?'.iTiVO[j,£Vy. 
 " >c«i Ig rriv -stpo^ aXXriKov^ tuv- xaS" r}[/,i^c<,v sttitv- 
 ** ^svjXiCTtav V7ro^iOt.tiy ou ^j opy^?? tov 73"£Aa?, it Ka.^^ 
 '* Vi^ovriv T» ^fioij i^ouTigy oC^i a,C,yif^K>v<; f^iVy Xv7rripa.g 
 *' cTf Tr o^sij d^^ri^ovug ■zD'tfOr«3'£iW£j/o». avsTroc^^ug 
 *^ $i roi 'iSid ■UTPoo-cy.iXovulegf rod Sr\^o<rix SiO- §i^ 
 
TO THE FAME OP A NATFON. 13 
 
 TUV (X,KpOa<T£ij X«» TCOV VOfy.OdVy USti fAClAifX aUTWV 
 
 »> 
 
 *' ^tXoy.aXoZuiv n yap ^w,£t' fuVfAf/'a?, xai (pi?.0' 
 
 Aoy fi* y.xip'xi 7\ Xoyov y.oy.7r'jp ^puy-i-jx xat to 
 ixi ay^ o[ji.oAcy:tv Tin a,nr^ooi/j a/^Aa ixr\ 
 
 ** Ai«f fpoi/Tw? "yap (?-(i Jcai T&'fJ's iXPl-''^^> '^^^ toA- 
 
 ^aV T£ Ot Oil/TOJ iXJiAlfXy XXi TJiCl Ul> iTTl^Slpri" 
 
 (TOfxiVy JxAoyi^so-Saj. & roTg aAAojf oi^y.^ioi y.iu 
 ■S'pao-cf, Aoyj^iWOf J's inuoi/ (p^pn. x.oans'oi «J'' av th;< 
 
 y'^/C'"' '^'^•^"<'i XpiS'SnEP 0» rx T£ hlVX XXI V^iX 
 
 cxtpifXTX yiy'y'xcKivTic, xzi cTia xaura ^n xtto- 
 
 The 
 
 * " We go through the cffkes of the state without 
 " obstruclious from one another] and live together in 
 " the mutual endearaients of private life M'ithout sus- 
 '•' picions : not angry w iih a neighbour for following 
 " the bent of his own humour, norputtingon thatcoun- 
 " tenance of discontent, which pains though it cannot 
 •* punish. So that, in private life, we converse toge- 
 
 " ihec 
 
1x1 IMPOrvTANCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 The plastic arts are those vvhich^ in an- 
 cient times, have been thought principally 
 deserving to accompany and enforce the pur- 
 poses of religion. They alone were deem- 
 ed worthy to be the attendants of the gods. 
 
 *' ther without diffidence or damngc, whilst we dare 
 " not on any account offend against the public, through 
 " the reverence we bear to the magistrates and the 
 " laws ; chiefly to those enadled for redress of the in- 
 " jured, and to those unwritten, a breach of which is 
 " allowed disgrace. 
 
 " In our manner of living, we shew an elegance tem- 
 " pered with frugality, and we cultivate philosophy 
 '' without enervating the mind. We display our wealth 
 " in the season of beneficence, and not in the vanity 
 " of discourse. A confession of poverty is disgrace to 
 " no man ; no efl'ort to avoid it, is disgrace indeed. 
 
 " Herein also consists our distinguishing excellence, 
 " that in the hour of r.6t;on we si.ew the greatest cou- 
 " rage, and yet debate beforehand the expediency of 
 " our measures. The courage of others is the result 
 " of ignorance; deliberation makes them cowards. And 
 " those undoubtedly must be owned to have the great- 
 " est souls, who, most acutely sensible of the miseries 
 " of war, and the sweets of peace, are not hence in the 
 "■ least deteried from facing Qanger."-»->Swii//r5 Trans- 
 lat'ion of Thiaydidcs. Book ii. 
 
 The 
 
TO THE FAME OP A NATION. l5 
 
 The Jupiter Olympi'us*, and Minerva of 
 Phidias, the Apollo of Myron, and the Dia- 
 na of Mentor, were believed capable of in- 
 creasing the solemnity of public devotion. 
 
 In latter ages, painting has been equally 
 ele6led to be the instrument of a more 
 enlightened dispensation. It no longer in- 
 deed awed the soul with religious terrors ; 
 but, in aid of a system, to whose essence it 
 belongs to calm the passions, and allay the 
 perturbations of the spirit, it was employed 
 in representing the most endearing and con- 
 ciliating images ; love, homage, devotion, 
 social afFe6lion, charity, piety : the ten- 
 der and enraptured mother, catching and 
 refledling the transports of her mysterious 
 offspring, or uttering chastised sorrows over 
 his appointed suiferings; the inspired teach- 
 ers of religious truth, exemplars of fervid be- 
 neficence and patient resignation, imparting 
 
 * " Cnjus pulchiituJo adjecis^e aliquod etiam re- 
 " ceptae religioni videtur ; adco majestas operis Dc- 
 ura aequavit." — Quincillian. 
 
 liglit 
 
i6 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 light and comfort to the soul, or ease and 
 health to the body ; the spirits of heaven 
 descending to. rescue the injured from op- 
 pression and danger, or to strengthen and 
 support the rnartyr in the hour of parting: 
 these are the sentiments it has been the 
 task of painting to invigorate ; these are 
 the examples it has impressed on the bosom 
 of the proselyte, the faithful, the adorer ! 
 
 From this benevolent province of art, 
 the artist, unfortunately for the fame of our 
 country, has been, at one time, driven by 
 the luxurious ravages of power entrusted to 
 sycophants and petty tyrants ; and, at ano- 
 ther, banished by the devout but mistaken 
 zeal of the reformers of religion, who not 
 only repressed the progress of painting, but 
 aimed at the total extin6lion of its struggling 
 flame. The vain profusion of Henry the 
 Third profaned the sacred reputation of the 
 arts ; and by causing ihem to be consi- 
 dered as objedls of luxury and extrava- 
 gance, rendered them a subjedl: of ob- 
 loquy to succeeding reigns, solicitous of 
 
 no 
 
TO THE FAME OF A NATION, If 
 
 no arts but tliose of war. In later days, 
 they suffered injustice of a severer kind, de- 
 prived of the power of affording subsistence, 
 and stigmatized as sources of irreligion and 
 impiety. Even our Elizabeth, the zealous 
 patroness of every other kind of knowledge, 
 and possessing a mind diligently cultivated 
 by learning, is said to have severely reproved 
 the dean of her chapel, for presenting to 
 her, as a new-year's gift, a prayer-book 
 enriched with engravings and drawings, re- 
 presenting the holy sufferings of the saints 
 and martyrs, and to have given him a 
 stri6l charge never again to let such irregu- 
 larities find their way into places of divine 
 worship*. 
 
 Prejudices of this nature are at present re- 
 moved alike from the minds of the govern- 
 
 * Fortunately tlie dean found pardon by pleading 
 his ignorance, and declaring that the book was the work 
 of a German. " It is well," replied the offended queen, 
 " that it was from a stranger j had it been any of our 
 " subjects, we should have questioned the matter."— 
 £ee Barry s Inquiry. 
 
 menfe 
 
is IMPORTANCE OP THE APxTS 
 
 ment and of the people ; but how much so- 
 ever it may become a subjecl of astonish- 
 ment, it is unfortunately certain, that by no 
 subsequent sovereign or government, since 
 the days of Henry the Eighth and Eliza- 
 beth, has a retribution been offered to the 
 arts of design, equivalent to the blow which, 
 in this latter period, was levelled at their ex- 
 istence. Italy and France have in their turn 
 basked in the golden ray of opportunity ;. 
 they have seen the wishes and the talents 
 of their respedlive governments mixing their 
 genial powers to awaken and perpetuate the 
 splendour of the arts, and each of those coun- 
 tries has shone with momentary bright- 
 ness under that favouring influence. In 
 England, the full trial of auspicious days yet 
 remains to be made. Whether the powers 
 of English minds be equal to the arduous 
 task, is a problem which no circumstances of 
 latter times have hitherto combined to solve. 
 The assertion of this truth is due to our 
 character as a people : injustice to that cha- 
 rafler. let us not forget that the trial does 
 
 yet 
 
TO THE FAME OF A NATION. 3^ 
 
 yet remain for us; and that, until it be 
 made, thee exists, amidst the enliglitcned 
 researches of philosophy and science, one 
 deficient point in our efforts for intelle6lual 
 excellence. 
 
 Throughout this brief view of the impor- 
 tance of the arts to general fame, it has 
 been constantly assumed (consistently with 
 the sentiment taken from Longinus in the 
 initial motto of this chapter), that every na- 
 tion, possessing powers and opportunity to 
 illustrate the high endowments with which 
 man is invested by Providence, is thereby 
 laid under an indispensable obligation to 
 aspire to the summit of human eminence* 
 Every rival is to be surpassed. Humilitv, 
 however graceful in an individual, is in- 
 consistent with the exertions of a colle(?live 
 body. A nation must assert, must attain; 
 and is allowed to announce, and even boast, 
 its attainments. Those to whom the des- 
 tinies of such nations are entrusted, are 
 called upon to provide the means of great- 
 ness ; nor can the hand of power be ab- 
 solved 
 
*20 IMPORTANCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 solved riom its task, until it can be said that 
 " Our city is become the school of all others, 
 " and that every man amongst us is ex- 
 " cellently formed for all tlie various scenes 
 " of active life*." 
 
 In this progress of greatness, the course 
 of the fine arts cannot be omitted nor ne- 
 glected. According to the degree of their 
 cultivation will be estimated the national 
 portion of intellectual sensibility, and its ca- 
 pacity for advancement in mental elegance. 
 The acute discernment of political institu- 
 tions, the prudence and equity of laws, 
 may justly render a people the admiration 
 of the world, and the thunder of its arms, 
 and prowess of its valour, make it the ob- 
 je6l of universal terror ; but the tribute of 
 those affections which bind mankind in 
 chains of amity, and link the hearts of na- 
 tions to each other, is only to be won by 
 the demonstration of a superior power in 
 the improvement of mental pleasure. A na- 
 ■■» ■ < ■' 
 
 * Thucydides. Oration of Pericles. 
 
 tion 
 
TO THE FATME OP A NATION. 21 
 
 tlon is awful by its wisdom, tremendous by 
 its arms, lovely by its intellectual arts. 
 
 Of the points which constitute the so- 
 vereignty of Athenian fame, England has 
 achieved many in an equal degree with that 
 envied state ; some in a greater. Where 
 then lies the cause that prevents us from add- 
 ing to the statement of our successful rival- 
 ship those points, which must either be of 
 easier acquisition, or, if more difficult, then 
 more worthy to be acquired ? What but 
 the cultivation of the arts, can finally and 
 fully wipe out the charges brought, and still 
 believed to be in force, against our na- 
 tional chara<fter ? If we are said to be proud, 
 if we are said to be disdainful, if we arc 
 said to be ingulfed and bound in com- 
 mercial calculations, what better than the 
 attainment of eminence in the arts can 
 evince the fallacy of these accusations ? If 
 such an opportunity is neither sought for, 
 nor presents itself, the future historian, 
 guided by impartiality, will weep over the 
 destinies of a people, with whom no efforts 
 
 for 
 
22 IMPORTANCE OF THE ARTS^ Sec. 
 
 for fame were inauspicious, but whose ut- 
 most faculties were never put to the test in 
 pursuits of competition for those honours, 
 the attainment of which fixes the splendour 
 of the human name and charadler. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
113 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 OF THE CULTIVATION OF PUTLTC TASTE, AND 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS ON TH£ 
 
 MORALS OF A PEOPLE. 
 
 'Tis use alone that san(5tifies expense. 
 
 And splendour bortows all her rays from sense. 
 
 POPE, MOR. £SS. 
 
 IN what degree the establishment of 
 the Plastic Arts in iheir higher spheres, 
 might contribute to fame, and to the pre- 
 eminence of our national characSler, it has 
 been the endeavour of tlie preceding chapter 
 to demonstrate. The present will contain 
 the general outlines of plans formed, at dif- 
 ferent times, by the artists of our country, 
 with a view to fulfil those duties which they 
 conceived to fall peculiarly to their share, 
 
 amidst 
 
24 INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 amidst tlie general prosecution of national 
 grandeur. The zeal and fervid spirit that 
 distinguish the style in which the latter 
 of these plans is recommended in the letter 
 annexed, will not fail to make a considerable 
 impression on the reader, and will render 
 every farther argument superfluous to those 
 who set a high value on triumphal monu- 
 ments of their country's glory. 
 
 But, justly splendid as such memorials 
 appear, and santlioned as they are by the 
 consent and applause of every age, there is 
 yet a different point of view in which it is 
 here designed to consider the importance of 
 the fiive arts ; a point in which they u-ill 
 hardly fiil to engage all suffrages, — even of 
 those, who notwithstanding what has been 
 urged, may still belittle inclined to regard mere 
 fame as a sufficient object for costly and la- 
 borious competition. The point alluded to 
 is the influence which an improved, or in- 
 ferior, state of the plastic arts, is likely to 
 obtain over the morals of a people. 
 
 That vice, both in the mind and in out- 
 ward 
 
ON THE MORALS OF A PEOPLE. 25 
 
 ward allien, is intimately conne6led with 
 bad taste or want of taste, has been asserted 
 by many observers of mankind, and is an 
 observation of too palpable a nature to be . 
 controverted. 
 
 Taste is the power of selecting the best 
 from all other parts of its object ; and of 
 whatever nature be the object, this fa- 
 culty cannot fail, according to its respec- 
 tive degree, to operate conspicuously on 
 human choice, whence its eiie6l is ne- 
 cessarily extended to conducl and cha* 
 rac'iler. 
 
 No man may aspire to rank with the high- 
 est individuals of his species, who is not 
 able at least to perceive the excellence and 
 beauty of virtue. Indeed, those aggregate 
 maxims of conduct which we agree to class 
 in the code of her laws, are so avowedly 
 conducive to the real interests and happi- 
 ness of men, that whoever has not the force 
 of mind to attain the conviction of their va- 
 hie, or wants either the natural impulse, or 
 the due diredion, of the mind towards that 
 c attain- 
 
25 INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 attainment, can never lay claim to the palm 
 given to an exalted few, the gratitude, ho- 
 mage, and benevolence of their fellow- 
 creatures. Without this force, or this di- 
 rc6lion, the most splendid talents, the most 
 a6live abilities, receive from men, at the 
 best, a mixed tribute of wonder and pity. 
 Examples, in both parts of this assertion, 
 will easily be found : in the one they are 
 too few to be overlooked ; in the other they 
 are too numerous to be recounted. 
 
 To aid this force of the mind, to call 
 forth and guide its beneficial impulses, to 
 give and confirm its direction to its highest 
 ends, is within the province of taste. It is 
 within its province, from its essential na- 
 ture as above defined, to infuse new strength 
 in every propensity to right, and enfeeble 
 every seduclive motive to wrong. In a po- 
 lished nation, half the portion of existing 
 vice may be ascribed to bad taste, to the 
 want of that cultivation of the mind, which 
 leads to an habitual preference of the better 
 to the ivorse. The invisible sceptre which 
 
 sways 
 
ON THE MORALS OP A PEOPLE. 2/ 
 
 sways and fixes the public morals of a people, 
 is held by the hand of taste. 
 
 '•' It is this difference of pursuit," says 
 Goldsmith, " which marks the morals and 
 " chara(5^ers of mankind ; which lays the 
 *' line between the enlightened philosopher 
 ** and the half-taught citizen ; between the 
 *' civil citizen and the illiterate peasant ; 
 ** between the law-obeying peasant and the 
 " wandering savage of Africa. The man, 
 " the nation, must therefore be good, 
 *' who>e chicfest luxuries consist in the re- 
 " finement of reason; an<l reason can never 
 *•' be universally cultivated, unless guided 
 " by tfiste ; which may be considered as the 
 ^' link between science and common sense, 
 " the medium through which learninsr should 
 " ever be seen by society." 
 
 If this preliminary question be fairly 
 stated, the importance of the arts, in the 
 respedl mentioned, is an argument of easy 
 and natural consequence. Every path of in- 
 strudion, laid open to the minds of the peo- 
 ple, will necessarily produce an influence on 
 c 2 their 
 
28 INFLUENCE OP THE ARTS 
 
 their morals, in proportion as each of those 
 paths is more or less liable to the access of 
 taste. But the cultivation, and, in success- 
 ful circumstances, the exaltation of taste, is 
 the necessary, primary, and continual ob- 
 je<5l of the arts. It is by the improvement 
 and enlargement of this faculty, by adding 
 hourly to the force of its discriminating 
 qualities, that the artist hopes to vindicate 
 his rightful claim to honour and distinc- 
 tion. If not appreciated, if not judged, by 
 this internal tribunal of the intelle61, lie 
 would disdain rewards, however s|)lendid, 
 and reo^ard the most sumptuous munificence 
 as an obligation demanding indeed his grati- 
 tude, but not as a remuneration congenial 
 to his wishes or his labours. 
 
 From this argument a subsequent con- 
 clusion will ensue ; that wherever the cul- 
 tivation of the arts is once begun, it must 
 soon become of the highest civil import- 
 ance that the organs of cultivation should 
 be salutarily employed. 
 
 It cannot admit of a question^ whether 
 
 painting 
 
ON THE MORALS OP A TEOPLE. 2g 
 
 painting and sculpture possess a power of 
 producing moral etfe^ls of some kind. What- 
 ever is capable of producing emotions in us, 
 of afteding our passions, of exciting indig- 
 nation or disgust, pleasure or horror, must 
 be allowed to have a corresponding influence 
 on our minds and manners. This power we 
 seem to have tacitly conceded to sculpture, 
 by the general admission of its produ(51ions 
 into our churches. When we seek to im- 
 mortalize public veneration and regret for 
 departed worth, we dire6l the marble to 
 breathe over the ashes of the illustrious dead, 
 and consign to posterity the sculptured 
 image of 
 
 *' Chiefs, grac'd with scars, and prodigal of blood ; 
 " Stern patriots, who for sacred freedom stood 3 
 " Just men, by whom impartial laws were given ; 
 " And saints, who taught, and led, the way to 
 heaven." 
 
 We think this at once the most impres- 
 sive (as it is the most durable) memorial of 
 virtue, and the readiest and aptest method 
 of forming the heart to emulation. From 
 c 3 painting 
 
30 INFLUENCE OP THE ARTS 
 
 painting we do not seem to be yet aware 
 that equal benefits are to be derived* ; yet 
 
 in 
 
 * To the memory of the lamented Hero of the Nile, 
 the Baltic, and the Straits, the sculptor will be 
 charged with the sadly-pleasing task of consecrating^ 
 every honour which his art can achieve. But it is no- 
 derogation from the powers of sculpture to say, that it 
 is not within the single province of (bat art to form aa 
 adequate record of the viftories of Nelson. The marble 
 monument will call the tear into our eyes, and bid our 
 bosoms heave with regret, when it displays the cfiigy 
 of the man or the emblems of his virtues : such tii« 
 butcs his immortal name demands. But the present oc- 
 casion calls likewise for more expanded remembrances of 
 the scenes in which he became illustrious. Extensive ac- 
 tions claim to be shewn, and these are faintly represent- 
 ed by sculpture, by means of bas-relief, and their repre- 
 sentation generally imperfe6l in efFe6l, unless aided by 
 accessory inscriptions. 
 
 Painting, on the contrary, embraces and has powers 
 to express the wider scope of the hero's a6tions. She 
 can shew the varied hues of distant climes, which he 
 traversed with the speed of winds, and in wliich he 
 shone, now firm and cool in council, now eager and 
 impatient in pursuit of the enemy, now ardent and in- 
 trepid in fight, and now, alas ! expiring in victory. She 
 can shew seas tinged with the blood of his country's foes, 
 
 their 
 
ON THE MORALS OF A PEOPLE. 31 
 
 in our general reasonings, we readily ac- 
 knowledge the sources of power over the 
 mind to be the same in the two arts, with 
 the balance perhaps in favour of painting*. 
 
 their flags flying before his name, or tlieir ships hurled 
 into the air by his thunders. Can the examples of hiu 
 patriotic prowess be too frequently imprest on our sight, 
 on our remembrance ? Can they be too forcibly com- 
 mended to the emulation of posterity ? 
 
 * The comparative merits of these two branches of 
 art has been often anxiously co. nested by their respec- 
 tive professors, who have ably displayed the peculiar 
 excellences of each. The account will probably uimn'in 
 forever open between them. There is indeed one dis- 
 tinct boast which itjs in the power of sculpture alone lo 
 make. By reason of the durability of its works, it be- 
 comes, in process of time, if not the only credible 
 witness of the existence of the sister art, at least the 
 only testimony of her past eminence. Sculpture enjoys 
 the privilege of being the criterion by which are appre* 
 ciated the reports relative to cotemporary painting. If the 
 works of such artists as Praxiteles, Apollodorus, and 
 Agasias, had been less eminently deserving of our admi- 
 ration, we should have been at a loss to judge what de- 
 gree of credit we ought to give to the accounts transmit- 
 ted by authors respecting Protogenes, or Timanthes, 
 Zeuxis, or Apelles. 
 
 C4 It 
 
32 INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 It will be evident on examination, that 
 whatever be the exalted ends to which the 
 works of our best poets aspire, of ruling the 
 imagination, of expanding the affedions, 
 improving the heart, inflaming at once and 
 regulating devotion, the same are equally 
 the aim, and equally within the reach of 
 painting. Does a Milton or a Young en- 
 force more fervently, or more powerfully, the 
 lessons of truth and of religion, than a Raf- 
 faelle, when he paints the death of the perjured 
 Ananias or the glorious transfiguration of 
 our Redeemer ? Is the tenderness of ma- 
 ternal love, is the purity of sainted thoughts 
 and looks '* commercing with the skies,"^ 
 jfjore sensibly commended to our hearts by 
 the sweet effusions of a Watts or an Addison, 
 than by the Madonna, commonly termed 
 della Seggiuola, or by the Saint Cecilia*, 
 from the hand of the same painter? Do holy 
 awe and sorrow more fill our hearts over the 
 poem, than over the pidlure, of Christ sink- 
 
 * Formerly in the church of St. Giovami in Monte, 
 at Bologna. 
 
 ing 
 
ox THE MORALS OF A PEOPLE. 33 
 
 ing under the burthen of the cross, or sur- 
 rendering Hfeon it, to save mankind ? 
 
 In fa6t, the plastic art, and that of poetry, 
 have no strife with each other ; their pur- 
 poses and their efFe6ls are the same ; they 
 search the same springs for charms that sur- 
 prise and enchain the intellect, and exercise 
 their influence by the force of the same 
 powers. It may be added, that both are 
 best employed in mutual illustration ; and 
 both may be considered as in some measure 
 incomplete, unless they are combined*. The 
 moral advantage of both consists in mixing 
 instru6lion with delight, and it is to this 
 purpose that the homogeneous powers of 
 their natures are eminently suited. The 
 modes only, employed to convey instru6iiori 
 thus mingled with delight, are different in 
 the two arts. 
 
 * The three arts of jwetry, design (or the plastic art), 
 and music, have tliC same common union ; no instance, t 
 believe, can be adduced, in which tlie effeft produced 
 by either of them would not be increased by the simulta- 
 neous adbibitiun of one or both of the others. 
 
 c 5 The 
 
34 INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 The distinguishing properties of painting, 
 in this respe6l, are so well described by Ri- 
 chardson, that it is difficult to offer to the 
 reader any account of them equally satisfac- 
 tory with that contained in the following pas- 
 sages : 
 
 *•' The great and chief ends of painting 
 " are to raise and improve Nature, and ta 
 " communicate ideas ; not only those which 
 " we may receive otherwise, but such as 
 " without this art could not possibly be 
 " communicated ; whereby mankind is ad- 
 " vanced higher in the rational state, and 
 " made better; and this in a way easy, ex- 
 " peditious, and delightfLil." 
 
 " Our ideas of all visible things, and 
 " of some that are invisible, or creatures 
 '* af the imagination, are raised and im- 
 " proved in the hands of a good painter,. 
 " and the mind thereby filled with the 
 *' noblest, and therefore the most deligh.t- 
 *•' ful, images." 
 
 " Not only such ideas are conveyed to us 
 *^ by the help of this art as merely give us 
 " pleasure, but such as enlighten the un- 
 
 ^'' derstanding 
 
ON THE MORALS OP A PEOPLE. 35 
 
 derstand'.ng and put tlie soul in motion. 
 From hence are learned the forms and 
 properties of things and persons ; we are 
 thus informed of past events ; by this 
 means joy, grief, hope, fear, love, aver- 
 sion, and the other passions and affec- 
 tions of the soul, are excited ; and above 
 all, we are not only thus instru6led what 
 we are to believe and practise, but our de- 
 votion is inflamed, and (whatever may 
 have happened to the contrary) it may 
 thus also be rectified." 
 *' The ideas thus conveyed, come not by 
 a slow progression of words, or in a lan- 
 guage peculiar to one nation only, but 
 with such a velocity, and in a manner so 
 universally understood, that it is some- 
 thing like intuition or inspiration*." 
 
 Having considered the value of painting, 
 from the extensive power it possesses over 
 the mind, ami the advantages accruing to a 
 state from its just and virtuous culti^vation, 
 
 * Discourse on the Science of a Counoisseur. 
 
 c6^ let 
 
36 INFLUENCE OF THE ABTS 
 
 let US look for a moment on the absolute and 
 inevitable danger of negle(?t in this point. 
 
 The pleasure, naturally arising from the 
 contemplation of works of painting and the 
 other imitative arts, a pleasure felt by, and 
 common to, the people in common life, of 
 all nations and chara6lers, will of necessity 
 find its vent in society in some channel or 
 other. How many channels of public de- 
 pravation are constantly opening, how many 
 artifices of moral pollution are every hour 
 put in pra61ice and every moment kept ia 
 play, by profligate dexterity and mercenary 
 cunning, need not be mentioned to any in- 
 habitant of a metropolis. It cannot there- 
 fore be considered unworthy of a legisla- 
 ture, sedulously watchful of the morals of a 
 great people, to assign a proper province foi' 
 the gratification of this natural, and natu- 
 rally innocent^ pleasure, by means of such 
 an institution as shall provide a safe and be- 
 neficial store of continual public amusement. 
 The activity of desire, if not properly di- 
 rected, must cither idly dissipate itself in 
 trifies and insipid vanity, or suffer perver- 
 sion 
 
ox THE MORALS OP A PEOPLE. 37 
 
 sion and depravation from the allurements 
 of vice. The open avenues to the heart, if 
 virtue and diligence are once suffered to be 
 driven from their guard, will be quickly, 
 although insensibly, filled with the wildest 
 phantasms of indecent and tumultuous riot. 
 Gross, debasing images of sensuality, rude 
 chimeras of civil disgust, and deformities of 
 political satire, will usurp the place due to 
 the charms of chastened beauty and historic 
 truth. 
 
 The first effort towards the regular em- 
 ployment of the arts on great moral pur- 
 poses, was made by the artists of the Royal 
 Academy, and others, in an offer to contri- 
 bute their gratuitous labours to tlie farther 
 d(^coration of St. Paul's Cathedral, by pre- 
 senting, each, a pi(5^ure or sculpture of a 
 religious description. The pious prelate, 
 then bishop of the diocese, actuated no 
 doubt by the most conscientious motives, 
 esteemed it his duty to discourage such a 
 design, and the proposal was accordingly 
 dismissed. 
 
 It was obje6lcd by the bishop, th.'it the 
 
 chiwius 
 
38 INFLUENCE OP THE ARTS 
 
 charms of painting were of a nature too se- 
 dLi6live for liis congregation, and that the 
 forms and varied tints of beauty might divert 
 their thoughts from heavenly to earthly ob- 
 jects, and excite emotions inconsistent wi'th 
 religion*. 
 
 How 
 
 * I cannot wholly divest myself of surprise, that in 2 
 cultivated mind, whose professional studies had necessa- 
 rily been so abstraded from all sedu6tive objects of a 
 sensual nature, the idea of painting should have been 
 wholly confined to images of the kind just mentioned^ 
 and the art regarded only in the faculty which it posses- 
 ses in common with all other attainments (whether of 
 art or science), of contributing, ivken improperly used, 
 to the corruption of the mind, 
 
 J sl)all quote a sentiment of a different comple^cion : 
 
 " When I look upon Raphael's pi6ture of Our Saviour 
 " appearing to his Di->ciples after his resurre(5tion, I can- 
 " not but ihink the just disposition of that piece has in it 
 *' the force of many volumes on the subject. Such en- 
 " deavours as this of Raphael, and of all men not called 
 "■ to theaitiir, are tollaleral helps not to be despised by 
 " the ministers of the gospel," — Guardian, vol. i. 
 No. 21. 
 
 The learned and pious Alterbury speaks of our 
 church music (to which no obje6lionhas yet been n)ade) 
 
ON THE MORALS OF A PEOPLE. 3^ 
 
 How far this refusal called in question the 
 judgment and religious discretion of the 
 Sovereign who had consigned the cupola of 
 St. Paul's to the pencil of Sir James Thorn- 
 liill, it would be wandering from the de- 
 sign of iliese pages to examine. It is our 
 
 in terms applicable with equal force to painting : " One 
 ' of its principal uses being," says he, ** to break with 
 ' a grateful violence that engagement of thought which 
 ' we often bring with us into the church from those we 
 ' last conversed with, as well as those accidental dis- 
 ' trad^ions which arise during the course of divine ser- 
 ' vice." 
 
 " Our misapplication of mind at such times is often so 
 ' great, and we so deeply immersed in it, that there 
 ' needs some very strong and powerful charm to rouse 
 ' us from it." This charm he asserts to be found in 
 
 sacred music ; " because," he adds, " such is our na- 
 
 ' ture, that even the best things and most worthy of 
 
 ' our esteem, do not always employ and detain our 
 
 ' thoughts, in proportion to their real value, unless 
 
 ' they be set off and gre.itened by some outward cir- 
 
 ' cumstances, which are fitted to raise admiration and 
 
 ' surprise in the breasts of those who hear or behold 
 
 ' them." 
 
 Sermon on the Usefulness of Church Music. 
 
 present 
 
40 INFLUENCE OP THE ARTS 
 
 present concern to consider it only as con- 
 ne6led with the moral uses which miglit 
 have been derived from the labours of the 
 artists ; and even on this point argument is 
 now unnecessary, since an advanced degree 
 of information respe6iing the arts has ob- 
 viated all objections of the kind above- 
 mentioned, and evinced that the real pro- 
 vince of works of art, dedicated to religious 
 purposes, is to concentrate, not to distrs6l, 
 the attention of the pious worshipper ; to 
 enforce by consentaneous impressions the 
 subject of his thoughts ; to a6l as a com- 
 ment, of obvious application, on the doc- 
 trines inculcated by the teacher. 
 
 The opportunity lost by the rejection of 
 this proposal, cannot but furnish a subject 
 of public regret. The animation and zeal 
 of the artists who offered themselves on the 
 occasion, would have led to the most stre- 
 nuous exertions of their talents, and their 
 example might have prevailed in a degree 
 sufficient to give us, from that moment, the 
 lead in the moral school of iiistoric art. 
 
 Repressed 
 
ON THE MORALS OF A PEOPLE. 41 
 
 Repressed in their first attempt, and fear- 
 ful that there might yet be found a re- 
 maining scruple in the breast of some, 
 however few, with regard to rendering the 
 solemn temples of devotion schools of na. 
 tional taste, our artists, at a later period, 
 sought out a sphere wliolly free from that 
 objection, yet equally open to professional 
 exertion. They conceived a design of an 
 undertaking aptly calculated to form a mag- 
 nificent feature of national grandeur. 
 
 It will be remembered that, some few years 
 since, a proposal was agitated for eredling a 
 column, or other public monument, asame- 
 morial of our naval glory. Various opinions 
 having been offered, and various schemes 
 devised for this great national purpose, the 
 Artists of the Royal Academy, in a meeting 
 of their General Assembly, concurred in 
 drawing up a plan, which they afterwards 
 presented to His Majesty, of 
 
 A Dome, or Gallery of British Honour, 
 
 to be progressively erecled, and to commence 
 with the CQnstru6tion of such large parts as 
 
 might 
 
"42 INFLUENCE OP THE ARTS 
 
 might (with arcliitecSlural propriety, and ac- 
 cording to a settled design) be afterwards 
 united to others; for instance, 1st, a ves- 
 tibule; 2dly, wings; 3dly, a dome, &c. 
 &c. ; the interior of each part to be 
 likewise progressively filled with historical 
 representations, in painting and sculp- 
 ture, of the great achievements of the 
 English, martial, civil, commercial, and 
 colonial. 
 
 A plan thus calculated to eiTi[)loy the 
 greatest talents England should produce in 
 the three departments of the plastic arts, 
 and to raise the arts themselves to their just 
 eminence, was recommended by farther con- 
 siderations of utility, derived from the im- 
 provement, consequently to be expelled, in 
 all the elegant branches of manufadlure, 
 as well as the establishment, amongst us, of 
 several subordinate species of art, hitherto re- 
 garded as sources of exclusive revenue to the 
 Continent. It was also probable that it would 
 be attended with the revival of another branch 
 bf revenue, by renewing the sale of historical 
 prints on the Continent ; a sale once so ex- 
 tensively 
 
ON THE MORALS OP A PEOPLE. 43 
 
 tensively carried on, and so prockidlive, from 
 the unexampled prices paid for our engrav- 
 ings of that kind. 
 
 The general scheme of this plan was sug- 
 gested by a letter (mentioned in the forego- 
 ing pages), which was, with manly senti- 
 ment, thus openly addressed to the editor 
 of one of our daily journals. 
 
 " SIR, 
 
 " Having lately seen by the public papers, 
 that it is in contemplation to erecSl a co- 
 lumn, statue, or other monument, in ho- 
 nour of the British Navy, I trust it cannot 
 be thought unbecoming in any man to offer 
 his sentiments respedling the best mode of 
 carrying so laudable a design into execution, 
 and rendering it at the same time a monu- 
 ment of the good taste of the nation ; as I 
 suppose every man must feel, on such an oc- 
 casion, that whatever, by meanness of con- 
 ception, or clumsiness of execution, is dis- 
 graceful to the national taste, must be equally 
 disgraceful to the ^orious end in view, and 
 
 reflet 
 
44 INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 refle(5l lasting dishonour, instead of credit^, 
 on its liberal supporters. 
 
 " Attention to this point is the more neces- 
 sary, as the valour and superior dexterity of 
 the British seamen have been felt, admired, 
 and fully acknowledged, by the surrounding 
 nations ; but, it must be owned, we have 
 not as yet been equally successful in im- 
 pressing them with an advantageous opinion 
 of British taste. Some advances, however, 
 within a few years past, have been made, 
 even in this resped^ ; and the attention that 
 has been paid us in consequence, should ren- 
 der us doubly cautious, and rouse us to redou- 
 bled energy, that we may not again fall into 
 contempt — contempt, accompanied by in- 
 sult and derision ; for the watchful jealousy 
 already excited by the progress of the arts, 
 since the establishment of the Royal Aca- 
 demy, will not suffer a failure, in an objedl 
 of so high a kind, to pass in mere silence 
 and negle6l. 
 
 " Being a private individual, without rank, 
 and without mfiuence, I should not have 
 
 dared 
 
ON THE MORALS OF A PEOPLE. 45 
 
 <1ared to obtrude my thoughts on the public, 
 but tiiat I feel my full share of enthusiasm 
 in the generous cause, and that my line of 
 study leading me to the immediate conside- 
 ration of such subje(5\s, I naturally imagined 
 it possible that I might have more ideas rise 
 on the occasion, than could readily offer 
 themselves to every one ; but far from pre- 
 sumptuously wisliing to di6iate to others, I 
 only profess to throw out a few hints for the 
 consideration of those who may have more 
 judgment and taste than myself, and are 
 more particularly engaged in the design ; 
 and happy shall I be, and think myself amply 
 rewarded for my trouble, if my conceptions 
 should only be tiie means of exciting the at- 
 tention, and drawing forth the ideas, of 
 «ome one abler to do justice to the subli- 
 mity of the subje6l. 
 
 "A work like that in question, in addition 
 to durability in the materials, magnificence 
 in the strudture, and taste in tlie execution, 
 ought to abound in sources of instrudiion 
 ^iid entertainment ; it should be as interest- 
 ing 
 
46 IXFLUEXCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 ing in itself, as it is, from the nature of its 
 subje6^, capable of keeping curiosity always 
 alive, and of being viewed with fresh admi- 
 ration for a thousand years. 
 
 " A column may at first surprise by its mag- 
 nitude, and please by its beauty ; but the 
 uniformity of its impression on the sight, 
 alike on all sides, and at all times, must 
 quickly render it uninteresting ; and after a 
 few ages of disregard, posterity may only 
 view it as a quarry of materials for other edi- 
 fices. A colossal statue might do more, in 
 some respe6ls, than a column, but in mag- 
 nitude and efFe6t it must be inferior ; and 
 the inhospitable climate, by wearing away 
 the sharpness and delicacy of the workman- 
 ship, would prevent its being long consider- 
 ed as an objc61 of attention, in point of 
 taste ; the ideas suggested by it would be of 
 too refined and abstra6\ed a nature to allow 
 it to be very instructive, and it must at last 
 partake too much of the uniformity of a pil- 
 lar, to be capable of affordmg that pleni- 
 tude and succession of entertainment which 
 
 ought 
 
ON THE AIORALS OF A PEOPLE. 47 
 
 •ongbt always to accompany great dara- 
 bility. 
 
 *' Having shewn the insufficiency, in some 
 points, of the plans already proposed, it re- 
 mains now to consider how all the impor- 
 tant and necessary qualities above-mentioned 
 can be combined. This, I conceive, may 
 be effc(5led by the adoption of the following 
 scheme, in which the whole powers of the 
 arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, 
 may be united ; and what subject ever of- 
 fered itself more worthy of such a combi- 
 nation 1 
 
 " What I would recommend, in preference 
 to either a column or a statue, is — First, that 
 •on some convenient spot in the metropolis, a 
 circular building should be ere6i<:d, as nearly 
 on the plan of the Pantheon at Rome as the 
 different designation of it will allow, into 
 which th.e lip;ht should be admitted through 
 the dome, at or near the top. Secondly, 
 That the whole internal circle should be di- 
 vided into compartments, on which should 
 be painted a certain number of the most bril- 
 liant 
 
48 INFLrEXCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 liant vicilories and remarkable achievements, 
 judiciously and carefully selected from the 
 naval history of Great Britain, beginning 
 from the remotest periods, and coming gra- 
 dually down to the present day. Thirdly, 
 That between every two of the pictures, 
 against spaces left for that purpose, there 
 should be placed one or more statues, of the 
 size of life, of the greatest heroes of the 
 British Navy who commanded in the acflions 
 represented on the adjoining canvasses, and 
 to whose skill and intrepidity the success is 
 chiefly to be attributed. Under the princi- 
 pal paintings, I would have placed a .smaller 
 set, relative to our trade, commerce, colo- 
 nization, discoveries, and other subjects 
 connected with, and growing out of, the 
 great power and prosperity of our Navy. 
 Fourlhli/, That over the whole should be 
 hung a series of half-length portraits of 
 other great men and gallant officers, who, 
 though not of the first class, have deserved 
 well of their country. As this circle will be 
 large, some space in it may be reserved for 
 
 future 
 
ON THE MORALS OP A PEOPLE. 4g 
 
 future claimants, yet perhaps unborn, who 
 will not, we have every reason to hope, add 
 less to the honour of their country, nor fall 
 short of the celebrity of their glorious pre- 
 decessors. Fifthly^ That in the centre of the 
 building, under the dome, there be placed a 
 colossal group in marble, representing Nep- 
 tune doing homage to Britannia ; and at the 
 head of the room, a statue of his present 
 Majesty George the Third, in whose reign 
 the British naval power has reached a point 
 of exaltation which seems to preclude the 
 possibility of its being carried much higher 
 by our successors. 
 
 " I pretend not, nor indeed is this the time 
 or place to enter into the detail ; on that the 
 archite6l, the painter, and the sculptor, must 
 be consulted ; and happily the Royal Aca- 
 demy can- supply, not one only, but many, 
 in each department of art, of ability fully 
 equal to the great end proposed. It is suffix 
 cient here to remark, that simplicity and 
 grandeur should be the leading chara(5leris- 
 tics of the building and its decorations, both 
 D within 
 
50 INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 within and without. What an efFecSl miirht 
 a design like this, happily planned and exe- 
 cuted, produce ! Plow magnificent, how 
 instructive it might be made ! How enter- 
 taining to trace down from the earliest re- 
 cords of our history, the gradual increase of 
 our Navy! to remark the different stages ofits 
 growth, from a few simple canoes in its in- 
 fancy, to the stupendous magnitude of an 
 hundred firPt rate men of war ! Miracles 
 of the mechanic arts, proudly bearing Bri- 
 tain's thunder 1 the bulwark of England ! 
 the glory of Englishmen, and the terror and 
 admiration of the world ! How flattering 
 to the imagination to anticipate the pleasure 
 of walking round such an edifice, and sur- 
 veying the different subjeCls depidled on its 
 vvalls ! Battles, under all the varied circum- 
 stances of day, night, mf)on-light, storm, 
 and calm ! — the efrecls of fire, water, wine', 
 and smoke, mingled in terrific confusion ! 
 In the midst, British valour triumphantly 
 bearing down all opposition, accompanied 
 by humanity, equally daring and ready to 
 
 succour 
 
ON THE MORALS OP A PEOPLE. 51 
 
 succour the vanquislied foe ! Discoveries, 
 in which we see dehneated the strange 
 figures, and still stranger costume of na- 
 tions, till then unknown, and where the 
 face of Nature itself is exhibited under a 
 new and surprising aspe6l. Then to turn 
 and behold the statues and portraits of the 
 enterprising commanders and leaders in the 
 a6lions and expeditions recorded, and com- 
 pare their different countenances ; here a 
 Drake and an Anson! there a Blake, a 
 Hawke, a Boscawen, and a Cooke ! 
 
 " In such a place, what man, or descrip- 
 tion of men, can fail to be interested ? The 
 philosopher, the man of genius, the man of 
 taste, the naturalist, the physiognomist, the 
 soldier as well as the sailor ; in short, all 
 conditions might resort here for study, or 
 for amusement. Age might here find sub- 
 je6l for pleasing meditation, and here youth 
 might imbibe virtuous enthusiasm. 
 
 " What a noble field for honourable con- 
 tention would also be opened by such an 
 undertaking, to our artists of all denomina- 
 D 2 tions J 
 
52 INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS 
 
 tiohs ; and what might not be expelled 
 from their exertions, when equally operated 
 upon by patriotism, grandeur and celebrity 
 of subje6l, and personal emulation, who 
 now produce so much, almost without en- 
 couragement, and without notice ! 
 
 " It is indeed the opinion of many persons 
 of the highest consideration, that nothing 
 but an opportunity of this kind is wanting, 
 to enable them to rise as superior to the 
 justly admired schools of Italy and Flanders, 
 in the execution of their works, as they 
 confessedly are already in the choice and 
 composition of their subjects. If so, what 
 would any of the boasted galleries and col- 
 led ions have to offer in comparison of such 
 an assemblage as is here proposed; and how 
 deeply are not the policy and interest, as 
 well as the honour of the nation, engaged in 
 the furtherance of such a design ! 
 
 " I have been encouraged. Sir, to trouble 
 you thus far with my sentiments, by the ad- 
 vice of several iiidividuals of acknowledged 
 ludgment and taste, who are convinced as 
 
 well 
 
ON THE MORALS OF A PEOPLE. 53 
 
 well as myself, that no plan truly efficient 
 and honourable in all points of view, can 
 be adopted, that partakes not in a great de- 
 gree of what I have now proposed, which is 
 of a nature so powerfully and generally in- 
 teresting, that I doubt not it might be car- 
 ried into effe(ft to great advantage as a pecu- 
 niary speculation merely. The public exhi- 
 bition, with the publication of a set of en- 
 gravings of the work, would probably pay 
 the expence of the whole, with considerable 
 interest, and the nation would derive the 
 benefit from it of being greatly enriched, at 
 the same time that the rapid dispersion of 
 the prints into all quarters of the globe, 
 would contribute more than can well be 
 imagined or described, to give an exalted 
 and universal impression of British valour, 
 taste, munificence, and genius. 
 
 *' I am, Sir, with great respecSV, 
 
 " John Opie*.'* 
 
 * Vide True Briton, 1800. 
 
 d3 To 
 
54 IKTLUENCE OP THE ALTS 
 
 For the purpose of carrying into execution 
 their magnificent and honourable project, the 
 framersofthe plan adopted by the Academy 
 conceived that the sum of 5000/. per ann. 
 would be an amply adequate allowance ; a part 
 to be laid out in the building, and a part in 
 works of painting and sculpture ; and, in the 
 eyes of men little versed in pecuniary calcula- 
 tions, such a sum appeared to make no great 
 or objectionable figure amidst " the ocean of 
 " public expenditure*." This assistance to 
 tlie progress of English art the Academicians 
 thought it, therefore, incumbent on them 
 to solicit ; and although their zeal on the 
 the occasion failed to become an obje6l of 
 immediate attention, the design of the Gal- 
 lery is too congenial with English minds, 
 and with the benevolent re2:ard of the Iloval 
 Patron of the Academy, to be considered 
 
 as reie6led-|'. 
 
 The 
 
 * Rhymes on Art. 
 
 f The relative connexion which the Gallery of British 
 Honour would hold with the Royal Acaden)y and the 
 
 British 
 
ON THE MORALS OF A PEOPLE. 55 
 
 The cffci^^s which such a display of na- 
 tional glory would produce on enlighten- 
 ed minds, ambitious of virtuous fame, are 
 easy to be calculated ; and it is hardly to 
 be questioned that the same influence would 
 extend itself, though less rapidly, yet not 
 with less certainty, over every class and de- 
 gree of society. Will it seem absurd to say, 
 that by laying open such a gallery to public 
 leisure, and by the concomitant general exhi- 
 bition of engravings * from so respedlable and 
 pleasing a source of familiar interest, greater 
 
 benefit 
 
 British Institution, is obvious. These two woukl suc- 
 cessively afford the truest test of the talents fitted to adorn 
 such a national trophy. 
 
 * It pecessar.ly follows, thnt engravings would be 
 made from all the works exhibited in the gallery j they 
 indeed form a necessary appendage to the scheme ; and 
 they would, no doubt, be found to form a very conside- 
 rable article of revenue by their exportaliou to foreign 
 countries ; the late decrease of profits in that respeiil be- 
 ing now ascertained to have arisen Irom the entire want 
 of just and adequate employment for the talents of our 
 engravers. The high esteem in which ti»e plates from 
 B 4 tiie 
 
56 
 
 INFLUENCE OP THE ARTS 
 
 benefit would accrue to the bulk of the 
 people, in a moral view, than can easily be 
 hoped from the prosecution of an ignorant 
 or profligate publisher of licentious prints, 
 which are not less a disgrace to the crowd 
 that eagerly surrounds his window, than a 
 just source of punishment to himself. Such 
 disgrace and such prosecutions could indeed 
 scarcely exist, if a regular effort were made 
 to countera6\, in kind, these scandalous exhi- 
 bitions. A publisher, of the description al- 
 luded to, places in view prints representing 
 scenes of vulgar sensuality, because he consi- 
 ders them as attra6live. Did an opposite win- 
 dow display other subje6^s of so superior an 
 interest as to draw away his crowd, he would 
 not fail speedily to exchange his wares, and to 
 exhibit those only of the better and more pre- 
 vailing class. 
 
 the National Subjects of the Death of General JVolfe 
 in the arms of viBory, the Battle o§' La Hogue, &c. 
 were held in every market in Europe, will sutiiciently 
 shew the probable rcbult of an English gallery in this 
 point. 
 
 It 
 
ON THE MORALS OF A PEOPLE. 57 
 
 It is impossible, as has been said, not to 
 be aware of the unfortunate influence of all 
 vicious allurements ; but, as works of the 
 noxious kind just mentioned, are for the 
 most part the produ6lions of men of mean 
 capacity, it can hardly be asserted, that a 
 public, of whatever rank, would continue 
 to waste its leisure on such despicable ob- 
 je6ls, while its contemplative faculties might 
 be amused uith works of genius and taste, 
 rendered familiar, and brought home to its 
 bosom by the most fascinating of all inte- 
 rests, national sympathy. To assert this, 
 would be to suppose a people wholly desti- 
 tute of the seeds of those valuable qualities 
 which opportunity every where appears to 
 cultivate with success : it would be, in our 
 own country, to suppose the people destitute 
 of every noble sentiment which they have so 
 conspicuously displayed in the p sent in- 
 teresting moments of our political state. 
 
 It does not therefore appear improbable, 
 
 that some of the most disgraceful sources of 
 
 mental corruption would be wholly destroyed 
 
 Do by 
 
58 INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS, &c. 
 
 by substituting an adequate supply of more 
 salutary amusement to the avidity* of public 
 
 TASTE. 
 
 * If any one doubt the existence of this disposition in 
 the public at the present moment, let him ask himself, 
 at what shop-windows does he most frequently find his 
 passage impeded by crowds ? Are they not invariably 
 those of the printsellers ? Let him refleft at the sanie 
 time, whether the crowd be, in his opinion, employed 
 in looking at the obje(5ls most fit to be presented to it. 
 Painting is a school of information to the unlettered as 
 well as to the learned. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
59 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 OP THE INTERFERENCE OF PUBLIC AUTHO- 
 RITY IN SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. 
 
 These are imperial works, and worthy kings." 
 
 POPE, MORAL ESSAYS. 
 
 THE importance of the arts, as well to 
 the greatness as to the moral charader of a 
 nation, naving been (it is hoped, justly) 
 stated, in the obvious refle6lions offered ia 
 the foregoing pages, it will not be the pre- 
 sumptuous aim of the present chapter to en- 
 force the consideration of the subjed^, by 
 pointing out more strongly the public en- 
 couragement of the Arts of Design as a task. 
 incumbent on the high faculties of predo- 
 minant states, as a debt for which they are 
 responsible to a nation and to mankind. 
 d() If, 
 
Co OP PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 If, on contemplating a duty of such mag- 
 nitude, the extensive and capacious mind 
 of an enhghtened government find therein 
 no adequate employment for thoughts of 
 conscious greatness, no food for honourable 
 ambition, no theme of virtuous praise, it is 
 not within the hopes of the Writer of these 
 sketches to suggest new excitements of at- 
 tention. Arduous indeed is then the task 
 to break the magic seal of that urn, in which 
 the genius of English painting, like the 
 fabled beings of Arabian fancy*, has long 
 lain pent and robbed of substantial form, 
 doomed for a circle of years to utter un- 
 heeded sighs, and then perhaps to slumber 
 forever ! 
 
 Dii melius vertant ! 
 
 But should a wish for the accomplishment 
 of unrivalled national fame, for the exten- 
 sion of peaceful human intercourse, for the 
 establishment of more discriminate attach- 
 
 * §ee Thousand and One Nights. 
 
 ment 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. 6l 
 
 ment to moral order, should such motives 
 awaken a desire for the effedlual progress 
 of arts, so eminently subservient to those 
 purposes, it is here designed to represent 
 how inadequate to their prote6lion and se- 
 curity must be all methods to which a pow- 
 erful and permanent patronage does not lend 
 its organizing and supporting hand. 
 
 It is due to candour previously to state, 
 that opinions occasionally delivered by ar- 
 tists themselves, in moments probably of 
 insulted merit or wounded pride, may be 
 produced as militating against this theory. 
 They have been heard to assert, that it is 
 not from the smiles of courts, not from the 
 influence of rank, not from the patronage 
 of power, that genius lights his living fires, 
 or robes him in his splendid array. Let 
 such language be interpreted by its proper 
 lexicon, let it be construed as merely the 
 iigurative expressions of passion, urged to 
 retort by the consciousness of slighted ta- 
 lents. On a cooler examination, the case 
 
 will 
 
62 OP PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 will appear very different, a? it will be pre- 
 sently attempted to prove. 
 
 Nothing indeed can be more dangerous than 
 a dodlrine which tends to discourage the great 
 from fostering the arts, by holding forth as 
 an unquestionable tenet, that genius is a force 
 which cannot be restrained, and ti.atuhere- 
 ever it really exists, it will make its way, in 
 spite of all obstacles, — perhaps improved by 
 collision. If this were satisfadcry as general 
 reasoning, to what end were all the cultiva- 
 tion and encouragement given to various 
 parts of learned stud) ? To what purpose 
 were our universities ? The best and only 
 requisite answer to such a do6lrine is expe- 
 rience. When did genius thus burst its 
 way in an unprepared soil } Have not Raf- 
 fael, Correggio, Titian, Rubens, risen on 
 the previously methodized labours of their 
 respfcdive schools ? In a sister art, did not 
 evc?i the uild Shakspeare shine in the lap of 
 English learning ? Were this wondrous ray 
 of graphic genius to appear amongst us, 
 
 yiiat 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. 63 
 
 what would be its fate in the present un- 
 ripened and unorganized state of English 
 art ? It would dazzle for a day, as it ever 
 must ; would be assailed by critics from its 
 first dawn on the horizon, idolized by con- 
 noisseurs, gazed at, talked of, followed in 
 crowds by the public, and then left, alike 
 by all, to the events of chance or destiny. 
 - In t!ie case of an artist of extraordinary 
 promise appearing; amongst us, what would 
 be the extravagant eagerness, what would 
 be the ridiculous crowd of the multitude 
 pressing around his door, on his first arrival 
 in London I Not extravagant, not ridicu- 
 lous, from any improper degree in which he 
 would be the objc6l of attention ; his me- 
 rits, his genius, would justly lay claim to the 
 highest ; but ridiculous, because, while the 
 painter pursued the natural course of im- 
 provement, whither would fly the zeal of 
 applause, whither the rage of curiosity ? 
 Far from enabling him, or even assisting his 
 endeavours, to reach the heights of his art, 
 what, amidst the fervid tide of admiration, 
 
 would 
 
64 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITT 
 
 would be the encouragement held forth to 
 him ? To build the lofty pile of historic, or 
 ideal excellence ? No : to paint the features 
 of his delighted gazers; and, ever ready as 
 the public patronage of real merit is sup- 
 posed to be, this great artist would probably 
 be able to give an account o^ years passed in 
 inadequate and uncongenial employment, 
 from which the slow hand of judicious dis- 
 tin6^ion could alone finally rescue him : but, 
 in that interval, vvhocould savwhat faculties 
 of genius had lost the tide of their strength, 
 what bright exhalations of the mind no 
 sooner sparkled, than they fell and faded 
 like a shooting star ? Far different might 
 have been, — it cannot be presumptuous to 
 say, far different would be, the case, if 
 England exhibited a path in which pa- 
 tronage stood prepared to succour the pass- 
 ing candidate on the road of fame, and se- 
 curity awaited his arrival at the goal of ex- 
 cellence. 
 
 On the supposition, then, that the aid 
 of patronage be requisite, to direct and 
 
 maintain 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. 65 
 
 maintain the growth of the arts in gene- 
 ral, it becomes proper to examine whether 
 the intervention of public authority be 
 that species of patronage absolutely neces- 
 sary to the full attainment of the end in 
 view, namely, the exaltation of the Arts of 
 Design, so as to render them effeclually con- 
 ducive to the highest civil purposes they can 
 embrace ; or what reasonable hopes may 
 be entertained of accomplishing the same 
 purpose by other means. In which exami- 
 nation thus much is obvious; the attainment 
 of the end proposed can flow from two 
 sources only ; First, From a plan of a 
 comprehensive nature, which shall secure a 
 continual progress of the arts towards its 
 obje6l ; or, Secondhj, From the general, or 
 casual, employment of the artists under the 
 patronage of individuals. 
 
 The present chapter here subdivides it- 
 self into two parts ; and the latter conside- 
 ration shall be brought first in question. 
 
 SECT. 
 
66 
 
 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 SECT. I. 
 
 Of the EffeSis likely to arise from the Efforts 
 of our Artists under casual Employment, 
 or the Patronage of Individuals. 
 
 Of * the censures which supercilious 
 criticism has been so frequently inclined to 
 cast on the state of painting, and on the ob- 
 je(51s to which it is chiefly restrained in the 
 present day (censures probably the cotempo- 
 rary attendants on fi//days), a great portion 
 appears to be derived from an ill-founded 
 notion tliat in this, as in other countries, 
 every painter may safely devote himself to 
 the nobler and more intellc(51nal brandies of 
 his art, if he pleases. Wc arc so accustomed 
 in England to the contemplation of great 
 
 * A few of the remarks contained in this P'iist Section, 
 have been at a former period offered to the public tlirough 
 a diti'erent channel. 
 
 and 
 
IN SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. 67 
 
 and successful individual exertions, that we 
 scarcely pardon the man who fails of arriv- 
 ing at the highest goal to which his path in 
 life directs him ; and we make few allow- 
 ances for collateral or contingent impedi- 
 ments. But, in the opulence of a commer- 
 cial system, where these individual efforts 
 chiefly rise to success, the artist alone will 
 be found destitute of the means of provid- 
 ing for the unconstrained exercise of his 
 aspiring industry. The consideration of the 
 a6lual state and progress of a painter's pro- 
 fessional life will best demonstrate the truth 
 of this assertion. 
 
 It may escape the notice of a busy public, 
 that those whom intelle6\ual impulse leads 
 away to the study of the arts, voluntarily 
 forego the probable chances by which opu- 
 lence is attained, and independent exertions 
 supported. They thro v themselves, at their 
 outset, on the mercy of congenial disposi- 
 tions, by whom they feel a confidence that 
 they shall be encouraged and sustained n 
 their lofty but tranquil endeavours to inform 
 
 and 
 
68 OP PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 and gratify the minds of those among whom 
 they live. 
 
 Their progress in the world is too apt to 
 open a scene of disappointment in these their 
 fondest hopes, and to prove to them, that 
 they must frequently descend from the de- 
 licious heights of fancy to the humble 
 paths of ordinary labour. Unable to indulge 
 the ambition of improving others, they have 
 recourse to such parts of their art as are hkely 
 best to answer the ends of self-subsistence. 
 Their occupations then depend on those, 
 whose »»astes they are so fortunate to please, 
 and the employer thus becomes answerable 
 for the mode ipf their progress. If the gene- 
 ral taste had Reached that high degree of 
 maturity, at which it would desire, and re- 
 lish, the excellence alone of art, the artist 
 would of consequence be led to pursue its 
 highest tracks ; but, without this maturity of 
 public taste, a similar result is hardly to be 
 expelled from individual zeal, and the artist 
 rapidly sinks a relu6lant,but helpless, victim 
 of employment of a more contra6ted nature.. 
 
 The 
 
IN SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. 6^ 
 
 The necessity of resorting to such a mea- 
 sure must evidently be greater or less, in 
 proportion to surrounding contingencies. In 
 Italy an artist may paint, be poor, and yet 
 live; he finds an apartment spacious enough 
 for himself and his works, at an cxpence 
 which i.s soon repaid by industry. In Eng- 
 land, where his abode, his life's subsistence, 
 almost his life itself, is, from the moment of 
 his outset, tributary to the pecuniary de- 
 mands of the state, what means has he to 
 carry forward his slow, laborious task of ex- 
 cellence ? It is surely less a subject of won- 
 der that he should make few independent 
 exertions, than that he should make any 
 at all. 
 
 That the exertions in the class of history 
 (when they «ri? made), are independent, may 
 be easily ascertained by the circumstance of 
 the historical works, in our exhibitions, 
 having rarely, at the time of their being sent 
 thither, any other owner than the painter 
 himself. They are hardly ever bespoke, 
 but painted at the risk of the artist, from 
 
 his 
 
70 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 his own arduous desire to excel, and are 
 too frequently left, negle6led, on his hands. 
 
 There prevailed indeed, a few years since, 
 a vague mode of discourse concerning the 
 encouragement given to the arts, by which 
 any one who listened without forming other 
 observations, would have been led to conclude 
 that the English artists had (Mily to devote 
 themselves to the highest paths of their art, 
 in Older to secure the protection of the 
 great and powerful ; and that, whenever 
 they have turned aside to meaner objedls, 
 their deviation must be attributed to in- 
 capacity : but it has been found, on candid 
 examination, that, in the general history of 
 our arts, the voice of disinterested patro- 
 nage has scarcely returned an echo to the 
 aspiring wishes of the artist; and that, when 
 its hand has been stretched forth, it has 
 seldom been to bestow more than a wreath 
 of barren praise. 
 
 It is at first difficult to reconcile this 
 statement with the expensive readiness, 
 frequently witnessed amjiigst us, to pur- 
 chase 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. 71 
 
 cliase the works of old and forciarn 
 mnsLers. Sams, surpassing the nr)st rap- 
 tiiious and visionary imagination of those 
 who painted the works, have been paid for 
 such of their produdions as have deservedly 
 become the bright ornaments of cabinets 
 and galleries. But th.is hixnry of Ojjulence 
 deserves to be carefully di-tinguished from 
 the real enconragemcnt of the arts ; indeed 
 it may occasionally exist without the small- 
 est degree of love for them, or pleasure in 
 their produ6\ions. Every purchase of the 
 kind just mentioned may be considered as 
 having less reference to a love or zeal for 
 the arts, than to the prudent considerations 
 of property and commerce. A picture, 
 whose merit is ascertained by time, is justly 
 regarded as a jewel of high value. Of 
 this circumstance the most ignorant in 
 painting are as well apprized as the pro- 
 foundest connoisseur. Such a pi61ure can, on 
 any exigency, be transferred to another pos- 
 sessor with little or no diminution, nay, per- 
 haps with increase, of the vender's wealth. 
 
 The 
 
72 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 The purchase-money therefore can only be 
 said to be exchanged from one stock to an- 
 other, and the transa6lion no more indi- 
 cates a love of painting, than common 
 transfers at the Bank do a love of the three, 
 or four, per cents. 
 
 If this be encouragement of art, it 
 is, indeed, to be accomplished at a very 
 cheap rate, without loss, without risk. 
 But is such the generous hand, that 
 from its OH'n stores fosters the tender 
 germ of genius ; from its own sources 
 waters the plant, watches its unfolding 
 leaves, and shelters its blossoms ? The purse, 
 thus magnificently opened to welcome 
 home the already established treasure of 
 painting, gives a just encouragement to 
 trade, but none to genius ; fosters the 
 broker, but adds no support to the artist*. 
 
 * A late colleiJ^or is said to have declared, (hat he 
 would on no account sufler the introduction of any work 
 of our modern school into his co]lc(5\ion, by whatever 
 artist it might be painied I 
 
 Amidst 
 
IN -SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. 73 
 
 Amidst the traffic of pidiires, to wliich 
 the present revolutionary times have- given 
 rise, a late distinguished nobleman added 
 to the ornaments of our metropolis a^allery 
 of the most celebrated works of which France 
 and other countries were once possessed. 
 The tribute of acknowledgment due to mag- 
 nificence, and to the pleasure so rare a spec- 
 tacle affords, it is a pleasing task to pay. 
 How desirable were it, that to this stately 
 colledlion were adjoined a room filled with a 
 single work of each considerable artist of his 
 own country ! What splendour would be 
 added to the accumulated treasure, if it ap- 
 peared subservient to the excitement of na- 
 tional emulation, and if its possessor at once 
 held forth to living competitors the chal- 
 lenge, the opportunity, and the means, of 
 rivalling the fame of past ages ! 
 
 The price of one pi61ure among this 
 iumptuous collection, would probably be 
 nearly adequate to the furnishing such an 
 apartment of the English School*. ' 
 
 Tlie 
 
 * It is said that the present possessor of this magnlii- 
 B. cent 
 
74 OF PUBLIC AUTHOEITY 
 
 The English painter, thus remaining 
 destitute of any advantage from the 
 wealth which is yet lavished on pictures, 
 must, if he design to procure subsistence, 
 seek it in the subordinate branches of his 
 art ; or, if he desire to raise his art to its 
 utmost point of exaltation, he must look to 
 other sources of support. 
 
 It may appear, on a superficial glance, 
 that he ought to find one of these sources 
 in the Institution of the Royal Academy ; 
 but the Academy will be seen, on just con- 
 sideration, to hold a very different office in 
 aid of the arts. The Academy is designed to 
 instru6t its pupils in the proper methods by 
 which they may aspire to rewards, in the 
 various provinces of its schools, and to assist 
 to the utmost their progress in study ; but 
 here ends its task. 
 
 The same observation may be aj)p1ied to 
 
 cent collection has in contemplation the farther enlarge- 
 ment ot his splendid treasure. It is to be wished that he 
 may view the subjtft in the li^ht here represented. 
 
 several 
 
IN SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. 75 
 
 several other societies or establishments, by 
 whatever name distinguished, whose profess- 
 ed objedl has been the encouragement and 
 advancement of the fine arts. The Shak- 
 spcare and other galleries held out a mo- 
 mentary employment to the artists of the 
 present day, while they themselves subsisted 
 on the genius they rewarded. Nothing 
 farther could be expelled from them. All 
 these were the schemes of benevolent and 
 "well-disposed ingenuity, destitute of per- 
 manent power. The hopes to which they 
 gave birth were attended with consequences 
 nearly fatal to some of the artists who as- 
 sisted in their outset. From the transient 
 nature of their construction, they are all 
 necessarily vanished, and those painters who 
 had deserted the household security of por- 
 traiture to follow the visions of fancy, found 
 themselves, on their dissolution, suddenly 
 destitute of habitual employment, and liad 
 thus the difficult task of beginning their ca- 
 reer anew. 
 
 With regard to the effeds likely to be 
 E 2 produced 
 
7^ OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 produced by a recent estab'ishmcnt, hope 
 and exped^ation are naturally awakened ; 
 but as the general propositions for its ad- 
 ministration, and other equally general pur- 
 poses, are the whole that has hitherto been 
 made known *, it is difficult at present to 
 appreciate its probable influence -f-. 
 
 Whether this be, or not, the channel 
 through which the arts are destined even- 
 tually to find their just height in England, 
 it is sufficiently evident that the support re- 
 quisite to such an exaltation of the arts as 
 may tend to promote the fame and moral 
 interests of a nation, must be of a perma- 
 nent kind ; a support to which the eye of 
 
 * This was wrilten in August last. 
 
 f The British Institution (besides the preiniums it 
 proposes to hold forth to young artists) offers a general 
 mart tor works of eminent merit. An immediate gr;.ti- 
 firation is thus furnished to the painter. His works will 
 be taken off his hands, and find an entrance into galle- 
 ries hitherto shut to them. It is greatly to be hoped that 
 the next step will be the formation of a gallery of seleci 
 examples of modern art. 
 
 aspiring 
 
IN SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. 77 
 
 aspiring youth may look forward with confi- 
 dence, on which the unwearied student may 
 securely rest his hopes, and to which he 
 may lay an indisputable claim, whenever his 
 genius and his talents shall have made him 
 
 vvorthv to receive it. 
 
 ■J 
 
 Let us next, therefore, consider the ef- 
 fects to bo exj)e6led from the patronage of 
 public autliority. 
 
 SECT. ir. 
 
 Of the Effe&s to he eocpefled from the Pa- 
 tronage of Public Authority, 
 
 The advantage arising from the patro- 
 nage of the plastic art by public authority 
 would be twofold ; it would dire(5l and fix: 
 this great organ of instruction in a laudable 
 and useful (and therefore its proper) path ; 
 and would afford a just and durable support 
 to its exertions thus fitly methodized. What 
 the fluduating aid of an individual may have 
 E 3 momen- 
 
irS " OP PUBLIC AUTHOEITT 
 
 momentarily efFeded, the authority of a go- 
 vernment would render constant and per- 
 manent ; the casual fragrance which a pass- 
 ing gale may have bestowed, would be con- 
 verted to the richness of a perpetual spring. 
 
 In order to ascertain the probability of 
 these benefits, it will be requisite to enter 
 into a detail of the means by which they 
 may be considered attainable. First, as to the 
 proper path : 
 
 In Greece, the arts were applied to the 
 highest purposes of society. They were 
 employed to enforce religion, morality, and 
 obedience to the laws. We do not know of 
 their having ever greatly deviated from these 
 purposes*. *' They multiplied enjoyments, 
 " and improved benevolence -j-." Here then 
 
 * I have the authority of an eminent sculptor f(;r 
 «aying, that the art of sculpture was constantly employed 
 in Greece in the service of religion and patriotism; that 
 there is neither group, statue, or basso-relievo, of (he 
 Jirst merit, that does not belong to one of these distinc- 
 tions. 
 
 't Lord Kaimes' Sketches of Man, 
 
 they 
 
IN SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. 79 
 
 they accomplished the signal end for which 
 they are entrusted to man by his Creator. 
 
 In Italy they shone with inferior glory, 
 because, although the bounty of sovereigns 
 flowed in ample streams for their support, 
 their cultivation was not always duly watch- 
 ed by the moral care of the state. The 
 mighty genius of Titian was suffered to 
 luxuriate on licentious obje6ls ; on a 
 Danae awaiting the embraces of a golden 
 Jove, or a ducal mistress caparisoned 
 with the title of a Venus. While, in the 
 performance of these works, he displayed 
 powers near to divine, the purposes to which 
 he applied them must be lamented, as de- 
 basing their value. The painter who could 
 add delight and awe to temples, by his pic- 
 tures of the Annunciation, and of St. Pietro 
 Martire, sunk to be the magnificent pandar 
 of royal luxury ! 
 
 Since the last revival of the arts in this 
 
 country, every arduous road, into which 
 
 painting may be directed, is yet open before 
 
 us ; the ground yet untrodden ; and it 
 
 e4 remains 
 
80 OP PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 remains for us either to exhibit an example 
 of wisdom and virtue in the strid, moral, and 
 reh^ioiis use of the faculties of this art, or 
 to let its blossoms drop prematurely to the 
 earth, its graces be trampled in the dust, 
 and to leave the name of England, in her 
 brightest period, unadorned and waste, in 
 the records of the arts. 
 
 It were vain to investigate what are the 
 present powers of men who would be called 
 forth to the commencement of so im» 
 portant a task : the question is not, in 
 Vviiat degree they would at once be able to 
 efie(5l all that would fix the glory of oup 
 particular state, but in w hat manner and to 
 what ends their various degrees of ability 
 should be employed, to forward what must 
 be, at all times, the just aim and purpose of 
 every state. 
 
 *' Haec certamina nobis cum majoribus manent." 
 
 ** If ever the great taste in painting," 
 says liichardson, in the work quoted in the 
 
 preceding 
 
IN SUPPORT OF THE PLA.STIC ARTS. 81 
 
 preceding chapter — '' if ever that cleliglitful, 
 useful, and noble art, does revive in the 
 world, 'tis probable 'twill be in England. 
 Let us," he continues, " at length disdain 
 as much to be in subje6lion in thisrespedt 
 as in any other ; let us put forth our 
 strength and employ our national virtue, 
 that haughty impatience of inferiority, 
 which seems to be the chara6teristic of 
 our nation, in this as on many other il- 
 lustrious occasions, and the thing will be 
 effe61ed ; the English School will rise 
 and flourish." 
 Next, as to a just and durable support : 
 Let us previously consider the nature of the 
 support at present given to the exertions of 
 artists in foreign countries. 
 
 From the splendid earnestness of other 
 great states to encourage the arts at the 
 present moment, the English artist, if he may 
 not derive a certain expectation, is at least 
 induced to form a propitious omen for his 
 native land. The efforts (however errone- 
 ous) >vhich France has lately made to 
 *5 enrich 
 
82 OP PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 enrich and fertilize the genius of her country 
 by the accumulation of treasures of ancient 
 art, the capacious and comprehensive aca- 
 demic establishments of Russia and Milan, 
 and the magnificence of royal patronage in 
 Spain, justly challenge, and, it is hoped, 
 do not defy the competition of England. 
 
 In Russia, where, according to the sen- 
 timents of her writers, the most gigantic 
 strides are making towards the highest cul- 
 tivation of moral life, the advancement of 
 painting is considered as one of the objeds 
 highly worthy of national attention. It is 
 regarded as conducive to the progress of 
 her virtuous career; a homage more grate- 
 ful to the arts, because more demonstrative 
 of mental respe(5l, than all that has ever 
 been offered by that predatory lust, which 
 trampling on national security and domestic 
 property, has snatched their treasures to 
 the grasp of a conqueror, and borne them 
 violently away, at one period, from Greece, 
 and at another, from Italy. In France, the 
 living painter is oppressed and overlaid by 
 
 the 
 
IX SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. 83 
 
 the splendid triumph of imported works. 
 In Russia, rewards and honours are held 
 forth witii an open hand to the native artist. 
 The President of the Academy of St. Pe- 
 tersburg, in the honours of competition 
 which he offered to the young artists for the 
 best memorial of the eminent and early- 
 lost Koslovski ; and the mild and enlight- 
 ened Alexander, in his enhancement of the 
 arts by the supplementary articles of the 
 same institution*, seem to have touched 
 the vital spring of their future greatness. 
 Honour is the stiinulus most congenial to 
 the arts ; the sentiment which could not 
 fail to infix itself in the bosom of the youth- 
 ful sculptor, when publicly called on to con- 
 tribute to the immortal record of his master 
 and instructor, will be indelible, and will 
 preserve its efficacy undiminished through 
 the whole course of his life. 
 
 By the institution of the Academy of Mi- 
 lan a wide field of coujpetition is opened to 
 
 * Vide Academic Annals, published by aiithoiity ol 
 the Royal Academy, 1803, 
 
 e6 artists 
 
84 OP PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 artists of every kind, and rewards are liberally 
 bestowed on professional eminence ; it does 
 not, however, as in the foregoing instance, 
 ]ead to any permanent establishment for suc- 
 cessful art. In Spain and Germany, liberality 
 and judgment, appear to march hand in hand. 
 In France, the numerous assemblage of 
 schools, lyceums, and institutes, by which the 
 arts are assisted, dazzles the view ; prizes are 
 tlistributed to theoretic ingenuity and pradii- 
 cal skill; everynerve of thought, every faculty 
 of talent is called into aclion ; yet, magni- 
 ficent and high-sounding as the plans of 
 encouragement are towards the artists, the 
 last report of the class of tiie fine arts in 
 the National Institute, on the question of 
 the progress of the arts since the year l/SQ, 
 seems to prove their projeci as yet occasional' 
 only, and immature *. 
 
 The following passage is sele(5^ed from tlie 
 
 * At the same tiriiC that I make this remark, I feel it 
 my duty to acknowledge, that the accounts of the gene- 
 ral encouragement given to the arts in France, are very 
 imperfcftly transmitted to us. 
 
 report 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. 65 
 
 report on arcliitediire : " We have no\y 
 nothing hut consolatory prospects; great 
 and important repairs succeed each other. 
 The first, that of the Luxemburg, is 
 posterior to lySQ; the monarchy had left 
 tliat beautiful palace in ruins. The re- 
 storation of this monument was com- 
 menced by the Republic, and it is con- 
 tinued vyith increased splendour by the 
 talents of the accomplished archite(;^ (M. 
 Chalgrin) who respe6b the glory of De- 
 brosse. 
 
 *'The report which shall begin at the period 
 when the present terminates, will do 
 justice to the great encouragement given 
 to sculpture. How splendid will that 
 report be, if we may judge of it by the 
 embellishments which Paris has received 
 since the year 10 ! The noblest of them 
 all will be the completion of the Louvre, 
 the second appearance of which, in some 
 measure, eclipses the admiration com- 
 manded by the first. 
 
 " The minister of the interior has assigned 
 a spacious apartment in the Palace of the 
 
 <* Arts, 
 
8(§ 
 
 OP PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 " Arts, to receiv'e the precious colledliioii of 
 " the most beautiful antique architedlural 
 *' ornaments, formed with so much care by 
 " our colleague Dufourney, during a resi- 
 " dence of thirteen years in Italy. This 
 " unique colle6lion v/ill be devoted to the 
 '* purposes of study." — Report of the Pro- 
 ceedings of the Class of the Fine jJrts of the 
 National Institute, during the year 11*. 
 
 There is no reason for doubting the 
 word of the reporter, that great projet-ls 
 are in contemplation, and great works 
 in execution, and that the piclure of the 
 years immediately ensuing will be of the 
 most brilliant hue ; but at the end of these 
 works and these schemes, as they are all 
 temporary and insulated, new resources must 
 be sought ; and those resources must neces- 
 sarily be subjected to the momentary dis- 
 position of the sovereign or the minister. 
 
 From the contemplation of other countries 
 let us return to our own, and examine,^/*.??, 
 what is in the power of England, with. 
 
 * See Moiulily Magazine, February lbO«5. 
 
 respe<^ 
 
IX SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. 87 
 
 respe6l to the arts, from its political state ; 
 next J what means derived from the patronage 
 of public authority might furnish the best 
 hopes of eventual success ; and lastly, m 
 what manner an adequate plan could be 
 conducled with the greatest facility. 
 
 First, as to the power of England from its 
 political state : 
 
 Mr. Hume has delivered his opinion, that 
 '^ for the arts and sciences to arise at first 
 " among any people, it is necessary for that 
 *' people to enjoy the blessingsof a free state ;" 
 a sentiment which if he did not borrow from 
 Longinus, he had at least his authority for it : 
 
 *' y\ ^n[xoxpcx,Tix ruv y-ByacXuv aya^tj t»3't)|/o?, vj 
 
 KOii cr\ii/a.7ri^Xiiov j 0pc'y«» t£ y*P» »xani tx 
 (poovTtxxTX Twv y.iyaXofpovuv n iXevB'bpiX) xa) 
 
 iTTiXTTKrXi 3t«» OitJ.a, ^iU^liV TO TTpo^VjXOV TY,q Trpog 
 
 dXXriKaq 101$'^ x«J Trjf TTfpt t« TrcuTliX <piAoTJ- 
 
 " These 
 
 * " Democracy is the nurse of great men ; almost 
 
 " With 
 
88 OP PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 '' These noble plants," adds Mr. Hume, 
 **may be transplanted into any government ; 
 *' but," he continues, " a republic is more 
 *' favourable to the growth of the sciences, 
 " and a civilized monarchy to that of the 
 " polite arts." 
 
 Mr. Hume, ever ingenious and discrimi- 
 nating, has raised an unquestionable series 
 of argument, on the ground which he 
 assumes as to the nature of the polite 
 arts. Considered as mere instruments of 
 luxury and pleasure, they certainly depend 
 on complaisance and flattery for their exist- 
 
 " with her alone have fine writers flourished and died : 
 " 'tis liberty that is fornicd to nourish the sentiments of 
 " great geniuses, to inspire them with hope, at the same 
 '* time to forward the propensity of contest one with an- 
 " other, and the generous emuhition of being the iirst." 
 
 Longinus, se6t. AA. 
 N. B. Whenever assertions of this kind, rcspeding the 
 exclusive advantages of democracy, are found in ancient 
 writers, it should always be recolle6ted that they were 
 ignorant of any mixed government like our own ; Eng- 
 land unites ihe advantages that may flow from demo- 
 cracy with those of monarchy. 
 
 ence. 
 
IN SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. 8C) 
 
 cnce, or at least for their continuance : and 
 complaisance and flattery are likely to prove 
 more profitable engines in the presence of 
 an absolute monarch, than before the 
 throne of law and justice ; but it is evident 
 that, in as much as concerns the Arts of 
 Design, this ground is taken with the same 
 confined view noticed in the preface, Vv'hich 
 brings into contemplation none but their 
 inferi';r and more ordinary qualities; a view, 
 unfortunately,, too frequent with the most 
 eminent modern authors of our country, and, 
 no doubt, to be chiefly attributed to tlie edu- 
 cation of writers in institutions unconnedted 
 with the cultivation of those arts. Whenever 
 the plastic art has been in question, it has, 
 in consequence, become the topic of discus- 
 sion to learned and ingenious men unac- 
 quainted with its real nature and complete 
 powers. 
 
 Moreover, is not experience against Mr. 
 Hume on this subietSl ? Did the court of 
 Leo X. raise the arts to th.at high state of 
 
 moral 
 
90 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 moral and religious dignity which they at- 
 tained in the republics of Greece ? 
 
 With regard to poetry, if we judge from 
 the three great examples of excellence in 
 the highest class of that art, will not his 
 assertion be found doubtful ? Do we know 
 that Homer lived at court ? Was not tiie 
 growth of Latin verse, whose splendour finally 
 blazed in the yEneid of Virgil, matured un- 
 der republican predominance * ? Did not 
 Milton deck himself for immortality in the 
 time of our commonwealth ? 
 
 Poetry, and with it the intellectual Arts of 
 Form, considered as great moral agents, as 
 partaking of the importance of historical 
 
 * Mr. Harris seems to be of this opinion. " So like- 
 *' wise Virgil, in the time of Odavins, wrote his ^Eneid, 
 " undwiih Horace, Varius,and many other fine writers, 
 ** partook of his prole6tion and royal nicnificcnce. But 
 *' then it mast be remembered, that these men were bred 
 " and educated in the principles of a free government ; it 
 •■' was thence they derived th?t high and mnnly spirit 
 *' which made them the admiration of after ages." 
 
 Note ill Hermes, book iii. 
 
 science J 
 
IN SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. Ql 
 
 science, do not depend on the breath of a 
 courtier, on the smile or disdain of a fa- 
 vourite ; tliey stand engrafted in the stock 
 of national dignity, and flourish secure from 
 the influences of accidental ignorance or 
 caprice. National patronage bestows on 
 them a more durable glory ; the colle6live 
 judgment of a people risen to greatness, 
 will not sufi'er them to fluctuate with the 
 favour of a few changeful and successively 
 fleeting individuals. 
 
 But in whatever light we may choose to 
 regard the arts, whether sm the instruments 
 of luxurious pleasure, or moral utility, it 
 appears from Mr. Hume's theory, that 
 England is favourable not only to their rise, 
 but to their growth also; in its democratic 
 part it fosters their austere and useful quali- 
 ties, in its monarchical their graces and 
 delights. 
 
 It follows then, that it is not only natural 
 that in such a state the arts should expert to 
 attain their highest point of elevation, but 
 that it is unbecoming the dignity of such a 
 
 state 
 
92 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 state to suffer them to remain in that sub- 
 ordinate degree which subjedis them to lose 
 their nobler purposes; — the organs of pleasure 
 only and the viciims of caprice. England, 
 as a country, is honoured by every enlight- 
 ened mind which refle61.s its rays on the 
 -arts; but England, as a state, is disgraced as 
 long as tlie aits are left to individual pa- 
 tronage, however illustrious. 
 
 lb correspond, therefore, with these lofty 
 expeclations, it is requisite to consider, next, 
 from what means the best hopeg of eventual 
 success may reasonably be derived under the 
 supposed protedlion and influence of public 
 authority. 
 
 It is evident that while the arts remain in 
 their present undomiclliated state, they can 
 only continue to dissipate their vigour in 
 unprodu6tive struggles. Like youth, that 
 wastes its genial bloom in devious excesses, 
 prodigal of its blossoms, and shedding un- 
 returned sweets, the support which they 
 should bring to their country, and the honour 
 they should add to her enlightened institu- 
 tions, 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ACTS. 03 
 
 tions, are forfeit and lost : like youth's, their 
 dawning lustre fiies by on hasty wings, its 
 track is soon irrevertibly closed, and disap- 
 pointment and remorse follow it in vain. 
 
 The prevention of this national loss can 
 only be sought in such wise and providential 
 care, united with permanent power, as hav- 
 ing first ascertained the real importance of 
 the plastic art, shall steadily continue to call 
 forth its real uses*. 
 
 [n examining the means essential to the 
 prosecution of this important purpose, it will 
 be requisite to draw aside the veil which 
 prejudice has thrown peculiarly over this 
 country in regard to the due encouragement 
 and distiriclion of the plastic arts ; it is re- 
 quisite to behold them as united with poetry 
 and history, in all the important purposes of 
 moral progress and delight, as principals in 
 the class of those obje61s of ingenuous study 
 
 ■* Tbequestinn m.iy here be fairly asked, where shall 
 this union of wisdom and power be found except in oar 
 legislnture ? 
 
 which 
 
Q4 OP PUBLIC \UTIIOKITT 
 
 which polish and humanize the manners, 
 multiply the enjoyments, and improve the 
 benevolence of nations. 
 
 In the arrangement of the various studies 
 of youth in our univ^ersities, no place has 
 hitherto been allotted to the Arts of Design. 
 Whether any appointment was originally 
 proposed or made for their cultivation, might 
 be a subje6l of curious inquiry ; but, leaving 
 that question for the present, it is beyond 
 doubt, that whatever signs of favour they 
 had experienced, were diligently obliterated 
 at the Reformation ; and, while the useful 
 service which a knowledge of music could 
 render to ecclesiastical candidates probably 
 caused the establishment of university degrees 
 in that art, no pretensions were allowed 
 to painting or sculpture, which might, at 
 the least, prefer claims not inferior to music, 
 in the scale of civilization. If our his- 
 tory at this period did not furnish us vvith 
 these obvious causes, it would be very dif- 
 ficult to account, even plausibly, for the 
 great distance at which the cultivation of 
 
 the 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. C)5 
 
 the arts of painting and sculpture has been 
 pLiced from that of poetry, music, and the 
 science?. Thcv could hardly have been ex- 
 cluded from our universities as ignoble, since 
 it could not have escaped the knowledfire of 
 those learned bodies, that they had in their 
 favour the authority of Alexander, who or- 
 dained, that painting should have the first 
 rank among the liberal arts, and that none 
 but those of noble family should pradlise it. 
 We might therefore, at the first glance, have 
 been induced to suspedl that our ancestors 
 had not apprehended the mental rank which 
 painting necessarily holds, from its influence 
 over the mind, and that they had classed it 
 either among the departments of commerce, 
 or of mere mechanical industrv. On this 
 head the present day is not in doubt ; the 
 academic discourses of Reynolds have evinced, 
 at once by argument and example, the de- 
 gree of intelleclual esteem to which painting 
 may vindicate its claim. 
 
 Nothing can be more evident than the 
 advantages which would accrue to the arts 
 
g6 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 by their admission into those venerable es- 
 tablishments. Whence could the mental 
 nourishment, \vhich has been stated as indis- 
 pensably requisite, be so well supplied as 
 • from those diffusive fountains of knowledge ? 
 It is in those the painter should seek, as 
 from those he might so justly hope to de- 
 rive, the strength and sinews of his labours 
 for future eminence. In those abodes of 
 learning, the painter would acquire that 
 general, comprehensive knowledge, which 
 combines the powers of various branches 
 of study in the service of a single one ; by 
 the aid of which the ambitious investisrator 
 of nature levies forces in the provinces of 
 neighbouring allies, to condudl him to vic- 
 tory in his own. The regular instru6lions 
 of a professor in painting, duly qualified for 
 his office (and in such we are not deficient), 
 would impress on the tender mind the na- 
 ture and importance, and consequently the 
 just objetl, of the art. The little conceits 
 of sensitive ignorance, so often mistaken for 
 genius, would sink in the tide of study ; 
 
 effe6tive 
 
IX SUPPOnT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. Q/ 
 
 effedlive energy would accompany the efforts 
 of instrudled talents, and genius v/oiild 
 expand his wings, to soar with security 
 through the regions of invention. 
 
 It needs no argument to prove how widely 
 different a result must spring from a mind 
 stored with all the treasures of learning which 
 the universities spread forth to their pupils, 
 or from the same mind boasting no other 
 aid than that of devious application, and 
 rich only in the stares of unembellished and 
 uncultivated fancy. 
 
 Besides the essential advantages to be de- 
 rived from regular instru6f ion, additional ones 
 must also be expedled from the lofty emu- 
 lation of spirit, which would be justly ex- 
 cited in the artist, in consequence of the 
 footing on which he would perceive himself 
 placed. He would find himself classed with 
 those whose labours were in due time to 
 maintain the honours of his country. If he 
 should fail of rising to excellence by the 
 proper cultivation of his talents, he w^ould 
 be left without a subterfuge for insuf- 
 P fjciency. 
 
93 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 liciency, because he would have no ]>]ea 
 to offer foundecl on the want of means or 
 opportunity. Moreover, in consequence of 
 tlie natural communication between young 
 students, he v/ould be exposed to the eyes 
 and criticisms of those who had, by the 
 same habitual channel, acquired just notions 
 of the scope and nature of his art ; notions 
 which, however singular the assertion may 
 appear, are not now to be found (as has 
 been before remarked) in a large propor- 
 tion of those whose minds are, in other 
 respe6\s, highly cultivated by study and 
 learning *. 
 
 The 
 
 * With regard to this point, more could be said by 
 painters than can, perhaps, be said without offence to 
 tbo-;e whom it is their interest and wish to please. It 
 often creates astonishment in artists, who are apt to con- 
 ceive that every kind of knowledge is bestowed by a 
 public liberal education, to tind scholars of the pro- 
 roundest erudition in letters, very little better informed 
 I ithe properties of painting than the idlest boy in an 
 academy. That this is not owing to any want of capa- 
 city 
 
IN SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. QQ 
 
 The concession of these privileges would 
 therefore operate to the advantage of all 
 classes. It would render the youths of supe- 
 rior station more enlightened patrons of the 
 artists, and stimulate the artists to be found 
 worthy of enlightened patrons. 
 
 Were the plastic art thus placed in its 
 real class, the produdlion of its real uses 
 
 city to acquire knowledge, they evidently demonstrate 
 by their great literary proficiency ; and it can only there- 
 fore be accounted for from the total exclusion of the 
 study of the plastic arts from the schools in which that 
 proficiency has been acquired. 
 
 I shah take the liberty to mention an anecdote to 
 ■which I can myself bear witness, A poet of high name, 
 and an ex-member of one of our universities, conversing 
 with my father in his study, his eye was caught by a 
 model made by Scheem?.ker, from the celebrated antique 
 fragment of a statue commonly called the Torso of 
 Michael Angelo. He asked what animal or other objeft 
 it represented. My father modestly explained the sub- 
 jed of inquiry, and added, " If I, Sir, had asked such 
 a question respeding any work of poetry, what opinion 
 would you have entertained of a painter ?" 
 
 F '2 would 
 
100 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 would soon follow. It would be found 
 worthy to perpetuate the records of our 
 countr3''s greatness, to attend on its reli- 
 gion, and to enforce the perceptions of 
 blessings derived from its laws : and for all 
 these purposes it is plain that public autho- 
 rity could afford it ample and sufficient 
 scope. 
 
 We come now to examine in what manner 
 a plan adequate to the proposed end might 
 be rendered most easy of execution. 
 
 A simple proposition shall here be offered, 
 in which, it is believed, there is every ap- 
 pearance of obvious truth. An adequate 
 plan of support to the arts must include 
 these two measures : 
 
 First, A provision for the means of study 
 and instru(?tion of such young students as 
 shall be elected to the profession of the arts. 
 
 Secondly, An ordinance of great national 
 works, which shall be regularly progressive ; 
 and to the execution of which honourable 
 rewards shall be annexed. 
 
 The 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. 101 
 
 The most effe61ual methods of maturer 
 instrLi(5iion have been already hinted : the 
 arrangements of such a plan would be 
 easy. The appointment of a professor, 
 with as many scholarships as may be 
 esteemed requisite, would be all that is 
 wanting. The students in painting would 
 mix, in the general education, with those 
 destined to other branches of learning, and 
 enjoy individually the same advantages as 
 others. Previous to this period of education, 
 the means of elementary study and pracSlice 
 might be furnished at the Academy ; from 
 whose schools, greatly enlarged beyond their 
 present state, youths might be sent, as they 
 are from other schools, to either of the 
 universities, in order, by farther studies in 
 their appropriate class, to acquire their re- 
 spe6live professional degrees; after which the 
 provision already made by the Academy for 
 their travels into Italy, might takeefFedl, and 
 would then bear the highest promise of utility. 
 It appears to have been an essential part 
 of the plans of other countries, to form a 
 F 3 separate 
 
102 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 separate establishment for the education of 
 painters, and to comprise in it such instruc- 
 tion merely as is primarily necessary for 
 the pra6lice of their art *. But, it must 
 be recolledled, no government, since the 
 time of Pericles, has assumed the task of 
 regulating the destiny of the intelledual 
 arts, and fixing them in their highest and 
 most salutary sphere. It is to be doubted if 
 this can ever be efFe(fled by exclusive esta- 
 blishments for their cultivation : all arts and 
 sciences, it has long since been observed, 
 have a connexion and dependence on one 
 another, and it is the communication of 
 
 * The methods adopted in onr country are singularly 
 dilTerent from tliese plans. Not only our arts are 
 ifparated from the seats of learning, but all the sup- 
 plies of metiiods tending towards their acquisition, 
 instead of being united in any one establishment, are 
 scattered among the various institutions, called the Royal 
 Institution, the Iloyal Academy, the Museum, and the 
 Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. In addi- 
 tion to all which, a new one now makes its appearance, 
 equally sandioned by exalted patronage. 
 
 their 
 
IN SUPPORT OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. 103 
 
 their mutual lights that eminently tends to 
 the perfe6lion of all. 
 
 The other point for consideration is the 
 direction of such public works as the fame 
 and virtue of a nation may be said to de- 
 mand ; and the regulation of rewards pro- 
 per to be annexed to the execution of such 
 important works. 
 
 What is to be offered on the former of 
 these heads, is by this time sufficiently ob 
 vious : halls, churches, palaces, may, by 
 the accord of the legislature, be rendered 
 the receptacles of historic, religious, and 
 moral rcoords. The impartial decisions of 
 wisdom and justice, the chaste symbols of 
 evangelic faith, the valour of the hero, the 
 firmness and integrity of the patriot, repre- 
 sented in impressive charadters, may re- 
 spectively find their appropriate abodes, and 
 "our walls, like the inspired oaksofDodo- 
 *' na's grove, will teach us history, morality, 
 " divinity*." 
 
 * Hichardson. 
 
 F 4 What 
 
104 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 What can impress on an assembled people 
 a more endearing image of their Sovereign, 
 than to view him surrounded by the meri- 
 torious anions of his predecessors ? What 
 can more endear a nation to themselves, 
 than to behold the forms and exploits of 
 those whose virtues have transmitted honour 
 to them as an inheritance ? What more 
 endear a people to its soil, its laws, its in- 
 stitutions, than the constant renewal to 
 the sight, of those scenes, v^^here freedom 
 has been achieved, mental chara6\er vindi- 
 cated, and social happiness established and 
 secured ? 
 
 Does any one doubt what has here been 
 said ? Let him figure to himself, that, 
 when he enters the solemn cathedrals of 
 London and Westminster, he beholds our 
 blessed Saviour on the mountain, imparting 
 Ills saving knowledge to the minds, or dis- 
 tributing bread to the wants, of the multi- 
 tude ; when he enters the presence-cham- 
 ber of his Sovereign's palace, that he meets 
 the upright and philosophic Nassau, landing 
 
 to 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. 105 
 
 to receive the sacred guardianship of En- 
 glish rights ; that, in the senate, he sees 
 the assembled Barons in the a(5t of ascer- 
 taining those rights, and swearing their in- 
 violable maintenance, or the pure and en- 
 lightened orators, the fence of whose lips 
 no accents ever passed, save those of daunt- 
 less equanimity and truth ; that, when he vi- 
 sits the halls of our city, he is accosted by 
 men whose wisdom, whose philanthropy, 
 whose counsels, whose arms, have adorned 
 or maintained the state ; that he meets a 
 Locke or a Newton, a Howard or a Chat- 
 ham, an Abercromby or a Nelson, de- 
 voting life to intelle6lual eminence, or pre- 
 pared to render it a willing tribute to the 
 triumphs of their country. What if he 
 could indeed behold these glorious visions ! 
 Who could depart from such a spectacle, 
 and not bear away a mind improved and 
 strengthened in religious charity, loyalty, 
 and patriotic zeal ? But, if the painter per- 
 form well his task, the impression made by 
 his art will be second only to that produced 
 by the reality of the objedl, 
 
 f5 It 
 
106 t)F PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 It is almost needless to remark, that in 
 England, if the high authority of the legis- 
 lature should once give being and force to 
 ordinances of this nature, the emulation of 
 lesser public bodies, and of individuals, 
 would soon render their efFe6ls diffusively 
 beneficial. What hall would be vacant of 
 such records of associated merit ? What 
 nobleman would not wish, amidst this blaze 
 of public example, to enrol some generous 
 a6l, some brave exploit, some deed of piety 
 or wisdom performed by the founders of his 
 own race and honours ! 
 
 It is difficult to conceive what mpre pow- 
 erful stimulants men can feel to virtuous and 
 heroic condu6l, than such continual remi- 
 niscences of the merit of their predecessors. 
 
 It is of importance to observe, that for 
 the adequate execution of such works, it is 
 requisite that the highest talents should be 
 drawn forth. The doors at which competi- 
 tion, like a hydra, would rush for entrance, 
 must be stri^lly guarded. The trivial mockery 
 
 of 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. 10/ 
 
 of mean conceptions would pollute the 
 sacred ground of national honour. But the 
 difficulty of obtaining the prize would not 
 deter aspiring genius from etfort. The value 
 of tiiat must necessarily be enhanced, which 
 will be bestowed on the worthiest only*. 
 
 * If the incitement of talents by such means should 
 unexpecledh produce an excess of deserving competi- 
 tors, an after seieciion, when the course ot ten or twenty 
 years should liave ascertained the estimation of their 
 works, might lake place, and a situation of distinguished 
 eminence be a.ioLietl to such performances as were pro- 
 nounced honourable to the country. 
 
 It is to be observed that, in order to settle the claims 
 of merit by the only standard which can ever be satis- 
 faftorily applied to arts and sciences, these juugments 
 must be fixed by the decision of those educated in the 
 proposed classes of art at the universities. Great objec- 
 tions, no doubt, rest on this point, trom the nature of 
 professional jealousy } but a greater mischief would be 
 thus excKided, the interference of any other than pro- 
 fessional interest. . 
 
 How desirable would it be, and how advantageous to 
 public convenience and honour, if the plans of all pub- 
 lic works were settled by a criterion of the same ki.id ! 
 How often do we see edifices of great public moment 
 left, without a question, to the most private, and some- 
 times almost invisible management ! 
 
 f6 It 
 
108 OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY 
 
 It is sufficient that the reward be certain. 
 This is a necessary point, in order to up- 
 hold the perseverance of struggHng merit 
 through a path beset with difficulties and 
 surrounded by distra6ling allurements. The 
 artist must surmount the one, and escape 
 the others ; he will triumph over both, if 
 he can fix his eye on a meed of which 
 successful toil cannot finally be deprived. 
 
 To sum up briefly the evidence which 
 may be deduced from the investigation at- 
 tempted in this chapter ; 
 
 It has been stated, that the due direc- 
 tion of the arts of sculpture and paint- 
 ing to the paths which they ought to 
 tread, and the just and permanent sup- 
 port which they ought to receive, are 
 not the work of individuals, and can be 
 hoped for from no authority less than le- 
 gislative ; and that, in order to efFe6luate 
 any plan of raising the arts in this country 
 to a height equal to the renown of former 
 ages, and of rendering them the instruments 
 of the highest national purposes, it is requi- 
 site to enable the student to prosecute 
 
 his 
 
IN SUPPORT OP THE PLASTIC ARTS. lOQ 
 
 his studies in the most extensive and effec- 
 tual modes, to supply him with the most 
 ample means of knowledge, and to affix a 
 final reward to his labours, in employment 
 and honour adequate to their merits. With- 
 out the first, the necessity of procuring a 
 livelihood will always subjedl him to trivial 
 interruptions of proper study; without the 
 second his mind will be deficient in due ex- 
 pansion ; and without the last, what can. 
 induce him to persevere in his arduous toil ? 
 To what purpose shall he struggle to ascend 
 a steep and craggy summit, if, on gaining 
 it, he fears it will present nothing but a bar- 
 ren prospe6l, and perhaps leave him no other 
 resource than to dash himself precipitately 
 down, and extinguish in obscurity at once 
 his ardour and his hope ! 
 
 PART 
 
PART II. 
 
 Of the Establishment, Design, and Progress 
 of the Royal Academy of Arts ^ 
 
 And of its Annual Exhibitions, 
 
113 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 OP THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 To softer prospedts turn we now the view, 
 
 To laurel'd science, arts, and public works. 
 
 That lend my finish'd fabric comely pride. 
 
 Grandeur and grace. 
 
 Thomson's liberty. 
 
 THE institution of the Royal Academy 
 was the first measure of high authority, 
 which tended to rescue the Arts of Design 
 in England from their almost proscribed 
 state, from the ignominy of total public 
 negle6l. During the reigns of two monarclis, 
 of a name now so justly endeared to us, the 
 glorious task of giving security to our con- 
 stitutional libertieSj seems to have absorbed 
 
 all 
 
114 OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 all other exertions, and consequently we 
 discover in them few symptoms of sensibility 
 towards the refinement of the arts. The 
 flame of national patronage had been lighted 
 in the reign of Anne ; she continued the 
 protedion of royal favour to Sir Cliristo- 
 pher Wren, and adorned the cupola of the 
 cathedral of London with the pencil of 
 Thornhill. — If it may not be considered as 
 important, it is yet curious to remark, that 
 the restri6lion of the art of painting, and its 
 liberation, should have been the a6\s of 
 female Sovereigns. — But as if the patronage 
 of Anne had been premature^ during the 
 reigns that followed an ungenial damp arose, 
 like vapours that repel an untimely spring, 
 and expanding its chilly influence, soon 
 wrapped the arts in clouds of darkness. Hap- 
 pily, that liberty whose altar had been con- 
 secrated by virtuous struggles, however dis- 
 dainful she then appeared of the softer blan- 
 dishments of intelle61ual arts, cherished the 
 spirit which forbids ardour to be extinguish- 
 ed, and renders perseverance inexpugnable. 
 
 Negied 
 
OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 115 
 
 Neglecl:, although it might mortify, did not 
 subdue the British artist ; although the 
 curfew was tolled in the regions of Paint- 
 ing, the painters watched the covered 
 embers, and reverencing their fading lustre 
 like the expiring glow of vestal fire, pre- 
 served them, pure and unimpaired, to meet 
 the returning breath of happier hours. 
 
 When the artists found that expectation 
 offered no prospect, and patience drew forth 
 no hope, they assembled in an almost un- 
 noticed society for the renovation of the 
 drooping arts. They endeavoured to unite 
 their individual forces, in order to give weight 
 to their movements ; and when they began 
 to gather assurance that their Sovereign's 
 " bounty would not shame the giver," tKey 
 offered themselves to the liberality and pro- 
 te61ion of our gracious Monarch. From this 
 union in a common cause, arose the insti- 
 tution of the Royal Academy. 
 
 Full of confidence in their native powers, 
 but reduced to the lowest ebb of their 
 fortunes, the artists of St. Martin s 
 
 LauQy 
 
Il6 OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 Lane*, remind us of the account given by 
 Virgil, in his seventh book, of the JEx\qk\, 
 when the long persecuted followers of -^neas 
 reached the shores destined to be the seat 
 of their future greatness: 
 
 " Heus! etlam mcnsas consiimlmus 
 " ea vox audita laborum 
 
 " Prima tulit finem, primamque loquentis ab ore 
 " Eripuit pater, ac stupefa6tus numine pressit. 
 " Continuo, Salve fatis mihi debita Tellus, 
 " Vosque, ait, 6 fidi Trojae salvete Penates. 
 
 " genitor mihi talia, namque 
 
 " (Nunc repeto) Anchises fatorum arcana reliquit : 
 
 ** Cum te, nate, fames 
 
 ** Accisis coget dap'ibus consumere mensas ; 
 
 " TUM SPERAKE DOMOS DEFESSUS f ." 
 
 * The street in which the Society of Artists as- 
 sembled. 
 
 •)• " See we devour the plates on which we fed! 
 " ^neas took the word and thus replies: 
 " (Confessing Fate with wonder in his eyes) 
 « All hail, O Earth! all hail my household Gods! 
 " Behold the destin'd place of your abodes !" 
 
 Drjdeiis Translation. 
 
 Reynolds 
 
OP THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 11/ 
 
 Reynolds was at hand (the ^Eneas of the 
 hour) to catch the gleam of dawning hope, 
 and with the skilful talents of a leader, and 
 the enthusiasm of genius, he cherished and 
 diffused its invigorating warmth. ^* There 
 ** have been times," says he, in his discourse 
 on the opening of the Royal Academy *, 
 " when even the influence of Majesty would 
 " have been ineffectual ; and it is pleasing 
 " to refle6l that we are- thus embodied, 
 " when every circumstance seems to con- 
 " cur from which honour and prosperity 
 " can probably arise. There are at this time 
 " a greater number of excellent artists than 
 " were ever known before at one period in 
 '* this nation ; there is a general desire 
 " among our nobility to be distinguished as 
 " lovers and judges of the arts; there is a 
 " greater superfluity of wealth among the 
 " people to reward the professors ; and above 
 " all, we are patronized by a Monarch, 
 *' who, knowing the value of science and 
 
 * January 2, 1 769. 
 
 " of 
 
118 OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 " of elegance, thinks every art worthy of 
 " his notice that tends to soften and hu- 
 " manize the mind." 
 
 The Koyal Academy has a twofold capa- 
 city ; it is^Jirst, an assemblage of the most 
 eminent professors of the Arts of Design, 
 for the purpose of giving improvement and 
 celebrity to an English school ; and, secondly^ 
 a guardian of the rising candidates for etni- 
 nence in the paths to which that school 
 direcls them. 
 
 The degree of rank which it assumed in 
 the first of these points, we who are now 
 living are able to ascertain. Besides the 
 various merits of its other members, the 
 president (Sir J. Reynolds) was a man so 
 splendid in his labours, and so admirable in 
 his condu6f, that his chair can rarely be 
 filled by one so variously calculated to raise 
 a public institution to celebrity. In the 
 pra(^\ice of his art inexorably firm ; in liis 
 general and ex -professional manners yielding 
 and meek ; by the commanding powers of 
 the former^ and the attradive sweetness of 
 
 the 
 
OF THE ROYAL ACADEMT. IIQ 
 
 the latter, he drew around him a circle of 
 men of the highest distin6lion in every class. 
 Those who loved him for " arts that taught 
 ** themselves to rise," rendered him an almost 
 implicit deference ; and those of the highest 
 and most illustrious nobility met him with 
 a species of homage, which, however it might 
 flow from condescension, they were sensible 
 they seldom offered to rank alone. 
 
 In its second department, the History of 
 the Academy is intimately conne6led with 
 tlie view of necessary patronage, which 
 formed the subjecl of the preceding chapter. 
 
 The design of the Royal Academy has 
 been already described, viz. that of instru6l- 
 ing its pupils in proper methods, by the 
 aid of which they may aspire to excellence 
 in the highest departments of art, and of 
 assisting their progress to the utmost. Here 
 is held forth a hope, authorized by the high 
 san61ion of his Majesty's name; in the ful- 
 filment of which, regarded in a national 
 view, not only the idea of liberality, but even 
 the sense of common justice is implicated. 
 
 To 
 
120 OP THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 To educate youths in an academy, and to 
 leave them, when educated, without em- 
 ployment adequate to the purposes of 
 their education, would be a system too 
 incongruous for remark. The Academy, 
 in this latter division of its faculties, can 
 properly be esteemed as the nurse only of 
 painting; it fosters the infant, and supplies 
 him with strength to run the race of con- 
 test ; but should no farther care be taken to 
 maintain the honour of his course, should no 
 award of triumph await the viclor, the pri- 
 mary establishment of an academy might 
 appear to have done little else than create 
 delusive prospe6ls, and to have excited hope 
 only to sharpen the sting of disappoint- 
 ment. 
 
 It may not be improper to notice a mis- 
 taken idea which is said to have prevailed 
 till very lately, with respecfl to the supplies 
 by which this institution has been main- 
 tained. Many have entertained a persuasion 
 that, long after its foundation, it continued 
 to derive its whole support from the bounty 
 
 of 
 
OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 121 
 
 of the Sovereign, defraying its expenditure 
 and preventing its wants; and they regarded 
 every member of the Academy as a person 
 receiving his reward from the royal purse, 
 with the comfortable additional distribution, 
 among the whole body, of whatever sums 
 were annually derived from the Exhibitions*. 
 But how different is the view presented to 
 our minds, when vt^e read the account of this 
 establishment lately given by one of these 
 very members! 
 
 After mentioning that the Academy, at 
 its formation, " was fortunate enough to 
 " obtain the countenance and high sanc- 
 \' tion of his Majesty, and to be avSsistcd 
 *' in its first years by his beneficence." 
 
 * This conception of the state of the Academy, if it 
 may have deprived its members of the honourable meed 
 really due to their independent spirit and perseverance, 
 is, in another light, highly flattering to them, as it proves 
 the public sentiment of what might, without injustice, be 
 regarded as the reward of their exertions. The opinion 
 formed by persons unacquainted with fa6ts, is always 
 founded on their idea of what should le, and what they 
 consequently imagine is the case. 
 
 G « This 
 
122 OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 *' This establishment," continues the 
 author, " wliich ought to be national and 
 " comprehensive, which ought to include 
 " within its walls every tTiing that is essen- 
 " tial, expedient, or inviting to the pro- 
 " gress of the student, uhich should rest 
 " on a foundation w^orthy of the freest, 
 " the richest, the most powerful, and the 
 " most generous people on earth, and 
 *' which, by foreigners, is supposed to be 
 " a splendid example of public munificence, 
 " derives its income from the disinterested 
 " labours of artists, possesses not a single 
 " original example of the old masters ; and, 
 *' excepting the advantage of apartments at 
 '^ Somerset-Place, has not, for many years, 
 " received th.e smallest assistance from the 
 " state *." 
 
 After reading such a statement, we na- 
 turally feel ourselves disposed to regard with 
 some degree of admiration the unabating 
 
 * Notes to Rhymes on Art, or the Rcnjunstrance of a 
 Painter, by M. A. ^h^e, R. A. 
 
 struggle 
 
OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 123 
 
 struggle of self-supported talents, which the 
 public has witnessed in the progress of this 
 institution *. Nor can we withhold a por- 
 tion of astonishment, on refletling that the 
 enlightened views and benevolent disposi- 
 tions of the Sovereign, towards an institution 
 which has excited so much attention during 
 the course of thirty-seven years, should 
 never yet have been seconded by any one of 
 his numerous successive administrations. 
 The Royal Academy of England, which has, 
 by the exertions of individuals, drawn forth 
 the applause of every other nation, still re- 
 mains, as it were, unsanciioned by its own ; 
 a private society, honoured, patronized, 
 adopted by the Sovereign, but not in any 
 
 * in the discourse of Sir J. Reynolds, already men- 
 tioned, he expresses his hope, that the dignity of the dyiiifr 
 art (as expressed by Pliny) may be revived under the 
 reign of George III. Painters yet use the same expres- 
 sion with regard to the aftual state of their art ; a proof 
 chat, nevertheless, it is not yet extinft. 
 
 G 2 degree 
 
124 OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 degree connected with the great civil insti- 
 tutions of England*. 
 
 In what has here been observed, will be 
 found tlie causes of the limited scale on 
 which the Roval Academy has been hitherto 
 arranged. In the first formation of its rules, 
 it is not improbable that many parts of its 
 fabric were imitated from the academy of 
 St. Petersburg, which had, a few years be- 
 fore, received its sanation from the powerful 
 genius of the Empress Catherine. A great 
 similarity is discernible in its proje6t, but the 
 proje6l was here contracted to little more 
 than the superior regulations of a friendly 
 professional society. Charity towards the 
 distresses of decayed or unsupported artists, 
 constitutes a feature, not less important than 
 honourable, of its construction. To supply 
 the funds requisite for this purpose, a part 
 
 * The British Institution, in its recent establisiinitnt, 
 liberally and judiciously blends the interests of the Kojal 
 Academy with its own. It is by such progressive stcj s, 
 that the arts may at length be broui^ht forward to due 
 excnions. 
 
 of 
 
OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 125 
 
 of the profits of the annual Exlnbltions 
 were, and still are, accumulated ; and the 
 bounty of these disinterested labourers is tis 
 open and liberal as their task is nieritoriou?. 
 One circumstance relative to the scale of 
 our academic establishment, is too remark- 
 able to have escaped public observation. In 
 the distribution of Professorships (to which 
 offices is annexed the duty of reading public 
 ledlurcs to the pupils of the Academy), there 
 is no appointment in ^cwZ/jiMre. Howconfined 
 soever it was tliought fit, at the first insti- 
 tution, to render the list of salaried offices 
 (a caution fortunately no longer requisite in 
 the same degree), it is natural to imagine 
 that this distinct and eminent branch of the 
 arts, being one of the three which gave 
 the title to the Academy, would have been 
 thought worthy the endowment of a school 
 of especial instruction*. 
 
 But 
 
 * The Iloyal Academy also clefts n limited number o? 
 
 Engravers as associate mcmbersj but, neither, is there any 
 
 G 3 provision 
 
126 OF THE EOYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 But inadequate and contracted as the 
 scheme of tliC Royal Academy may ap- 
 pear by a comj)arison with others de- 
 signed to forward a similar purpose, its 
 views having been authorized by the sanc- 
 tion of the Sovereign's name and pro- 
 mised aid, the obligations into which it has 
 entered as the deposit and guardian of the 
 plastic flame, assume an air of so considerable 
 importance, that they justly become an object 
 of public concern ; and our duty leads us to 
 inquire how far t!ie institution has corre- 
 sponded to its professional. promises, how far 
 it has diffused around it the light of instruc- 
 tion and science. 
 
 By the rules of the institution, the Aca- 
 demy binds itself to forward the advance- 
 ment of the arts in our country, by dili- 
 gently supplying instru6lion to young 
 
 provision in the Academy for instriidion in Engraving, 
 a branch of art which, if it may not rank with the in- 
 ventive genius of the fiist three, is so evidently instrumen- 
 tal to the dissemination of their fame, that its cultivation 
 cannot but be of the highest importance to them. 
 
 Students 
 
OP THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 127 
 
 students in various specified branches ; by 
 affording to all deserving artists an oppor- 
 tunity of displa^ine- their talents to the 
 public in the annual Exhibition ; and bv 
 sending abroad, and maintaining for a fixed 
 period, the students of highest promise in 
 its schools. It is natural to conclude, that 
 men, themselves feeling the want of generous 
 efforts for their support and progress, would 
 not be ncgledtful of contributing all the 
 assistance they were enabled to bestow, to- 
 wards the general advancement of the clc- 
 sign ; and, accordingly, we find, that in the 
 long course of this establishment, very few 
 omissions of its public duty have occurred*. 
 
 If 
 
 * Besides the regular schools of the Plaster and Living 
 Models, there are tour a6tive Professorships in the Royal 
 Academy, viz. of Painting, Anatomy, Arciiitefture, and 
 Perspective. The Professors are charged to deliver six 
 leiStures every year, in their respe6tive provinces. In the 
 two former of these departments the lec'tares have been 
 diligently continued, with few (merely unavoidable) in- 
 terruptions j in the last they have been wholly omitted, 
 G 4 and 
 
128 OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 If we compute in one amount all that may 
 be classed under the head of academic exer- 
 tions, during the whole of its progress, the 
 result will appear highly satisfadlory and 
 honourable. Besides the regular perform- 
 ance of the internal duties of the schools, the 
 distribution of premiums, and the constancy 
 of the Exhibitions (which will be spoken 
 
 and private tuition hns been substituted j there is at 
 present no Professor in Perspeftive. In Architedture the 
 ICiStures also continued regularly for a long period : the 
 distinguished abilities of the late professor leave it to be 
 regretted, that other public duties deprived the Academy 
 of the advantages his instrudions would have afforded 
 to its pupils. 
 
 The offices of Chaplain to the Royal Academy, of 
 Professors of History and Ancient Literature, and of 5e- 
 cretary for Foreign Correspondence, are honorary, and 
 have been annexed to the Academy since its first ar- 
 rangements. 
 
 The performance of the obligation of the Academy 
 respecting the maintenance of three young students in 
 Italy, has been obstructed by the present insecure state 
 of the Continent. 
 
 of 
 
OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 129 
 
 of in the next chapter), and besides the va- 
 rious instruction which the science, inge- 
 nuity, and taste of the Professors have largely 
 contributed to diffuse, it is not to be for- 
 gotten that the discourses of Reynolds were 
 delivered within the walls of this establish- 
 ment. Were the public indebted to the 
 Academy for this circumstance alone, the 
 advantage derived from its institution would 
 yet be of the highest importance. The ex- 
 cellence of those discourses did not consist 
 in conveying any minute information to 
 the pupils relative to the practical part of 
 their art, but they were addressed to the 
 ambition of the students, they awakened de- 
 sire, and shevi'ed the gates of excellence and 
 fame. 
 
 Nor were their efFecls limited to the de- 
 light and improvement of the students of 
 the Academy : in the comprehensive and 
 philosophic views which they afforded to all, 
 they demonstrated the connexion of a pain- 
 ter's studies with all other sources of intel- 
 leclual pleasure; they recalled the arts to 
 G 3 the 
 
30 OP THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 the just estimation in which they had for- 
 merly stood ; and they may be considered as 
 having been the first serviceable engines in 
 expanding the national mind towards the 
 full perception of graphic excellence. 
 
 Amidst the numerous instances of zeal 
 in the administration of the Academy, some 
 deviations, and partial negle6l, have crept in 
 upon its rules, and still prevail, but they are 
 of such a nature as easily to admit of reform. 
 These deficiencies, or imperfedlions, arise 
 from the confined and private nature of the 
 institution, and would infallibly be remedied 
 if it were conneded with other obje(5ls of 
 public regulation*. A national superin- 
 tendance would, not improbably, enlarge the 
 
 * One passage in Mr, Shee's account of the Academy, 
 deserves particular notice ; this is, the just regret he 
 expresses at the want of origiiial examples of the great 
 masters of the art of painting. It appears to be within 
 the views of the British Institution to supply this defi- 
 ciency, and it is to be hoped that in the colleftion they 
 shall form, the works of English artists of established 
 fame will not be excluded. 
 
 scale 
 
OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 131 
 
 scale of instriidlion, and place within the 
 reach of the English artist, at least as many 
 advantages as those offered by the institutions 
 of St. Petersburg, Milan, Paris^ Vienna, or 
 Madrid. 
 
 The academy of St. Petersburg is a vast 
 establishment, comprehending the entireedu- 
 cation of youths sele6ted for the cultivation 
 of the arts of^Painting, Sculpture, and Archi- 
 tecture, from a very early stage of child- 
 hood to their final estabhshment in those 
 branches of art for which they have respec- 
 tively appeared best qualified. Besides a 
 general superintending care of their health 
 and social habits, the institution embraces 
 every branch of instru6lion, religious, mo- 
 ral, and professional ; including in the last 
 term general erudition as well as especial 
 practice of the Arts of Design. A more 
 complete academic system it would be dif- 
 ficult to form, and it is crowned by the pro- 
 visions made for the students on their outset 
 in the public practice of their profession. 
 
 The Establiahment of Milan is conspi- 
 G 6 cuous 
 
J32 OP THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 cuoLis for the extensive, field which it opens 
 to youthful talents, and for the large scale 
 on which it at once provides instrudion, 
 and rewards the instru6iors. There are no 
 less than eight a6live professors of various 
 divisions of art, attached to an equal number 
 of schools, all of which (besides the galleries 
 of pidures and statues) are amply furnished 
 with appropriate objeds and materials of 
 study. It rewards the theoretic as well as 
 the pradical teacher, and is itself a source 
 and supply of national works. 
 
 The scheme of this institution is pro- 
 fessedly the same as that of Paris; — but the 
 consideration of the patronage of arts in 
 France will be better undertaken at a future 
 period, when we may have more adequate 
 means of ascertaining its adtual state. 
 
 In the accuracy and regularity of the 
 methods of study adopted in the academy 
 of Vienna, the indefatigable genius of the 
 nation is honourably displayed. If excel- 
 lence be ever attainal)le by study and by 
 regular cultivation of talent, it may justly 
 
 be 
 
OP THE ROYAL ACADEMY. ] 33 
 
 be hoped from the judicious order and gra- 
 dual progress in which youth is there led 
 forward, from the simplest rudiments of in- 
 strudlion to the full exertion of duly or- 
 ganized powers. 
 
 The institution of the Academy of St. 
 Ferdinand, in Madrid, is marked with the 
 polite magnificence which characterizes the 
 condu6l of the Spanish nation. The arts 
 of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, are 
 denominated the three noble arts ; the 
 academicians have many of the privileges of 
 nobility ; the academy itself has those of 
 the Sovereign's palace. The various schools 
 are liberally endowed and excellently ar- 
 ranged ; and the colledions of pidtures and 
 casts, very far exceed those of which any 
 other public body in Europe is possessed *. 
 
 It 
 
 * The reader is referred to the Academic Annals 
 published by the Royal Academy. I wish I were able 
 to make tliis statement of Foreign Academies more coir.- 
 plete. In my department at the Academy, I have used 
 BO little diligence to procure accounts from every great 
 
 Academy 
 
134 OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 It is on the most extensive foundations of 
 knowledge that the expanding stru6^ure of 
 the arts may be expedled to arise, that it 
 may ereS. its lofty columns to the sky, and 
 " glitter from afar," Yet this is not all that is 
 wanting. The vigilance of the state must 
 be at all times active to discriminate and 
 reward, to prevent torpor from stealing over 
 uniformity, and to keep the flame of genius 
 ever " tremblingly alive." 
 
 Academy in Europe, of its respeftive state of art, but 
 except in the instances above-mentioned, I have not yet 
 been able to obtain them. 
 
 Some ingenious objections have lately been urged by 
 a writer of much erudition and pleasantry, against the 
 inefricacy and consequent absurdity of academic institu- 
 tions ; but (if vi'it, like poetry, did not dispense with re- 
 ply) it may be answered, as I have before remarked, that 
 the sanie objedlions would be of equal force against all 
 colleges of instruction. The genius of classic learning, 
 of mathematics, of poetry, is no more bora within the 
 walls of an university, than that of painting in an aca- 
 demy 5 but it is requisite to provide food for the infancy 
 of both. I nm very ready to agree, that an academy 
 sometimes supplies very insufticien. nutriment. 
 
 The 
 
OP THE KOYAL ACADEMY. 135 
 
 The Royal Academy of England is, with 
 regard to the Arts of Design, the first, and 
 consequently the most subordinate, step in 
 the career of national refinement, but it is 
 the proper link which unites the progress of 
 the arts with the greatness of the nation. 
 
 CUAP. 
 
136 
 
 CHAP, II. 
 
 OF THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION 
 AT SOAIERSET-HUUSE. 
 
 While Fame is young, too weak to fly away. 
 Envy pursues her, like some bird of prey 5 
 But once on wing, iht n all the dangers cease. 
 Envy herself is glad tube at peace. 
 
 D, OF BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 THE public Exhibition of the works 
 of artists, is a iriode of appeal to the world 
 which seems to be sanctioned by the customs 
 of all ages. Pliny, speaking of Aj^elles, says, 
 " Idem perfecta opera proponebat in per- 
 ** gula transeuntibus, atque post ipsam ta- 
 " bulaui lateus, vitia quae notarentur au- 
 
 *' sciiltabat. 
 
EXHIBITION AT SOMERSET-HOUSE. 137 
 
 *' scultabat, vulgiim diligentiorem JLidicem 
 ** quam se praeferens." 
 
 To court investigation, and to seek fame 
 through the discussion of pubHc- sentiment, 
 is the objc6l of these Exhibitions*. The 
 artist, immured within his silent dwelling, 
 and absorbed in solitary thought, perceives 
 that he cannot, himself, justly appreciate 
 the fruits of his labours : the voice of ad- 
 miring friends bears too evident marks of 
 partiality to be wholly satisfadlory : he pants 
 for more unquestioned triumph, and longs 
 to expose the offspring of his conception to 
 the wide and searching atmosphere of public 
 opinion. 
 
 But the gratification of an ambitious indi- 
 vidual, although it be thus the objecSl first 
 in order, soon ceases to be the first in im- 
 portance. The public derive from it an 
 extensive benefit, which they could not 
 so easily and so efFe6lually acquire by any 
 
 * I have seen pidures hung up to pubHc view under 
 the portico of the Pantheon at Home. 
 
 other 
 
138 OP THE ANXUAL EXHIBITION 
 
 Other means, namely, the exercise and im- 
 provement of their own powers of refinement 
 and taste. It h chiefly on this ground that 
 exhibitions, such as they are now estabhshed 
 in most of the academies in Europe, lay claim 
 to national respe6\. In England, they have 
 greatly contributed to - ripen the public 
 judgment on all points of art, and appear to 
 have l»ad one very salutary consequence, 
 that of diffusing a general desire (now first 
 beginning to assume form and substance, and 
 mixing with the wishes of the artists) to see 
 the arts employed in a manner more worthy 
 of their capacity and extensive powers. For 
 it must be observed, that unless the objedls 
 exhibited be found adequate to the previous 
 state of mind and consequent expe6tation of 
 the beholder, little else than discontent can 
 be the result ; instead of pleasure smiling 
 in the eye, and pride mantling to the heart, 
 the weapons of critical animadversion will 
 soon sparkle in the hands of many who are 
 bidden to the feast. 
 
 This statement will probably suggest the 
 
 cause 
 
AT SOMERSET-HOUSE. 13Q 
 
 cause of that fastidious sentiment so fre- 
 (juently displaying itself in the Exhibition- 
 room of Somerset-House. Since the com- 
 mencement of those Exhibitions, an awaken-*, 
 ed public has formed higher conceptions 
 of art, to which the class of works gene- 
 rally exhibited is not now found to corre- 
 spond. 
 
 It has been sufficiently shewn, that this 
 disappointment arises, not from the want of 
 zeal in the artist, but from the want of a 
 proportionate combination of other sources 
 of national progress. Men of refle6ting 
 minds will, therefore, frequently look round 
 on that splendid magazine with regret ; but 
 it will be with the utmost caution that they 
 will utter sentiments of condemnation on 
 the artilicers. Those who suffer such sen^ 
 timents to transpire can hardly be aware, 
 that, in the contempt and disregard which 
 they affedt for the efforts of the artists, they 
 contemn and disregard themselves ; — what 
 the artists are as individuals in a professional 
 view, they themselves are in a national one; 
 
 they 
 
J40 OP THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION 
 
 they contemplate in the Exhibition a trial 
 of national ability and national character, 
 wherein, if they perceive nothing but dis- 
 comfiture, they must be content to think 
 that endowments probably equal, perhaps 
 superior, to their own, are either found un- 
 equal to the task of intelie6lual art, or are 
 baffled and languid for want of due direction 
 or adequate support; in either of which pre- 
 dicaments the general chara6\er of the na- 
 tion cannot but be materially involved. 
 
 In the outset of the Exhibitions at Somer- 
 set-House, so slender was the state of general 
 information on the subjedf of the plastic 
 arts, that the very nature of the design ap- 
 peared to be wholly misunderstood. Criti- 
 cism and satire sallied forth against the ex- 
 hibitors ; pourtraying them not as peaceful 
 cultivators of arts, whose province it is to 
 *' soften the manners and expand the mind," 
 but, almost, as savage and rapacious banditti, 
 from whose inroads it required the combined 
 strength and knowledge of society to guard 
 a suffering public. Scarcely was there a 
 
 journalist 
 
AT SOMERSET-HOUSE. 141 
 
 journalist who did not put on Mambrino'3 
 helmet on this doughty occasion. In the 
 course of the long period during which the 
 Exhibitions have been continued, they have 
 gradually induced a relish, and a juster appre- 
 ciation, of the merits of the artists ; if the 
 fervor of criticism has not abated, its rancour, 
 at least, has greatly subsided, probably in 
 proportion as its views of the arts hav*e be- 
 come more discriminate ; and this circum- 
 stance may be adduced as one among many 
 proofs, of the tendency of the arts to hu- 
 manize the manners of society. 
 
 The lustre and renown of the English 
 Exhibition was long maintained by the ini- 
 mitable labours of Reynolds, with the addi- 
 tional force of Wilson in its early period, 
 and with the occasional aid of Gainsborouo-h ; 
 names which will go down to posterity with 
 the most admii'ed and celebrated of the 
 world. The death of the first of these 
 seemed to diffuse a momentary torpor over 
 the provinces of the arts, and the Exhibitions 
 wore a cold and lifeless hue. That of 1800 
 
 was 
 
142 OF THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION 
 
 was the fii"st in which the energies of the. 
 remaining artists appeared to revive, and 
 vindieate to their own account, the meed 
 which that great professor had held without 
 a contest. The influence of his manner also 
 began to subside, and the various talents 
 of youthful artists were no longer confounded 
 in the desire of attaining a partial resemblance 
 of his mode of practice. At that moment the 
 exertions of the painters may be considered 
 as forming a new epoch in our Exhibitions. 
 
 The prevailing character of English art, 
 as presented in an Exhibition, is boldness and 
 force of colour, and of light and shade ; and 
 richness of effect. Expression of feature is 
 always aimed at, and sometimes given. In 
 draiving, more care is used to avoid palpable 
 defe6i, than labuur to ;icquite praise : it is 
 often academic, sometimes learned, rarely 
 comprehensive and cbara6ieristic. Com- 
 position (v.'ith some few powerful exceptions) 
 is in general vague and desultory, sometimes 
 corre6\., often graceful and pleasing. In the 
 aggregate appearance of the Exhibition there 
 
 is 
 
AT SOMERSET-HOUSE. M3 
 
 is greater vivacity than corredlness. Our 
 painting is like our drama, libertine in 
 method and combination, but animated and 
 forcible in effe6t*. 
 
 llie negle6l of due restri61ion in the num- 
 ber or degree of works admitted into the 
 Exhibition, has been thougiu dangerous 
 to the credit of national taste ; but in the 
 view already taken of the academic institu- 
 tion, as intended to assist not the merits onlv, 
 
 * It was remarked of our Exhibitions, a few years 
 since, by a French painter of no inferie^r merit f, that he 
 found the English less grounded in the ^fj-a/nraar of their 
 art, and less regular in its conducl, than his own nation j 
 yet that he could not but feel at the same time someth ng 
 more interesting and striking in cheir pictures than in 
 those of France, 
 
 It is natural, therefore, to hope, tliat if nature has fur- 
 nished so strong a grounJ-uork, cuiiivntion and skill 
 would perfcft the fabric. B.:t the iiifiuence of circum- 
 stances is wanting. If occn-.ion call for exertions of a 
 higher kind, there is no ground for thinking that they 
 will not be made. 
 
 f M. Danloux, who painted a picture (which was exhibited) of 
 a Vestal condemned to die in imprisonment. 
 
 but 
 
144 OF THE AXNUAL EXKIBITIOX 
 
 but also the wants of artists, it would be 
 difficult to draw the line of admission with 
 severitv. 
 
 In estimating the value of artists, as they 
 present themselves in an annual Exhibition, 
 every candid mind will hold a very different 
 criterion from that which is justly applied on 
 viewing the cabinets and other colle6tions of 
 sovereigns and nobles. The former contains 
 their works casually displayed according to 
 the circumstances of the passing moment ; 
 the latter are the result of a painful and ma- 
 ture seledlion, through a length of years, 
 from the happiest moments of the painter's 
 life. An Exhibition contributes to a painter's 
 honour little more than an editor does to 
 that of an author, when, roused by public 
 admiration of some favourite work, he brings 
 together fraor-ments which the author's ma- 
 iurer judgment had concealed from sight, 
 or \\\s Jinal wishes consigned to the fire. 
 Yet this circumstance affords no argument 
 against tlie custom of frequent Exhibitions. 
 The defects, as well as the excellencies, 
 
 of 
 
AT SOMERSET-HOUSE. 145 
 
 of living genius are the concern of the 
 public : in the moments of a6tual exertion, 
 all that is done is the clue object of its atten- 
 tion : when time has iiuluced that compa- 
 rative appreciation which fixes the value of 
 "vvhat is done, suppression, however foreign 
 to the practice of tliesc curious, inquiring 
 days, would be one of the most useful duties 
 that could be performed*. 
 
 It would be no depreciation, therefore, of 
 an annual Exhibition, if it could be proved 
 that it would not, even by seleclion, form a 
 satisfactory gallery for a connoisseur, since 
 it is the promiscuous gathering of one time 
 and one school only, instead of the cream 
 and, as it were, the distillation, of many. 
 
 With regard to the defects visible in a 
 great number of the works annually exliibited 
 
 * Instead of increasing the loads that encumber our 
 galleries under the authority of established names, the 
 removal of the most defeftive parts which names alone 
 have san6tioned, woul J b. cjinparalively a blessing to the 
 studious in art. 
 
 H in 
 
146 OF THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION 
 
 in England, it may probably be with truth 
 asserted, that no one time or school has 
 existed, which could have produced an Ex- 
 hibition so numerous as ours, without like- 
 wise admitting pictures of very inferior merit. 
 Indeed, where is the cabinet or gallery, how- 
 ever carefully chosen or fastidiously revised, 
 which, bating the prejudice of blind and igno- 
 rant admiration, does not exhibit many 
 pi61:ures of merely nugatory value ? 
 
 It would be an invidious task, to endeavour 
 to eradicate a prejudice which appears occa- 
 sionally to be the 
 
 *' Mentis gratlssimus error," 
 
 or to destroy the exquisite satisfa61ion with 
 which the collector wraps himself in his gal- 
 lery, and contemplates the unmixed honours 
 of foreign countries — unmixed, except with 
 the rubbish of the same countries. We may 
 smile with complacence on his enjoyments 
 while he rests contented in them, but it is 
 surely lamentable to all but the happy 
 dreamer, when he extends his pleasures to 
 
 the 
 
AT SOMERSET-HOUSE. 147 
 
 the siicriiicc of cotcmporar}' merit ; when we 
 behold a mind fearful of admitting any sug- 
 gestion of the attainments of living artists, 
 and its avenues, in a manner, blocked up 
 even against an incUnaiion to belie\c the 
 
 o 
 
 honours of our native country. 
 
 To men of this description it would bL^ as 
 painful as useless, to hear that a Reynolds 
 sometimes equalled, and sometimes surpassed, 
 many of their favourite specimens of 
 
 " Their lov'd Guide's air, 
 
 " Paulo's free stroke," &c, 
 
 and that if English painters have not yet risen 
 to match the awful names of the few who 
 stand illustrious exemplars of art, we are yet 
 little in dread of comparison with the rest. 
 But a colleclor, of the class above-mentioned, 
 looks for beauties only in the works of the 
 old and foreign masters ; and, with less of 
 liberal benevolence, appears too often on the 
 watch for defe6ls only in those of the mo- 
 derns in his own country. In an old picture 
 any single beauty is sufftcient to ensure its 
 title to admiration, and its admission into 
 the cabinet of this man of taste ; in a modern 
 H 2 on(j 
 
148 OF THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION 
 
 one any single fault is equally potent to its 
 condemnation and exclusion. 
 
 Happily wc have in this country many 
 instances of connoisseurs whose minds are 
 open to every generous sentiment respedling 
 our artists, and to the just appreciation of 
 their works*. Yet candour will not reje6l 
 
 one 
 
 * Enlightened characters of this description, are pro- 
 bably now more in number tlian could be met with some 
 years ago. On perusal of the following passage in the 
 Analysis of Beauty, one can hardly refrain from smiling 
 at the terms in which the admirable, but indignant, 
 painter describes those " who take the infectious turn of a 
 " connoisseur:" •' The reason why gentlemen who have 
 *' been inquisitive after knowledge in pictures, have their 
 "■ eyes le: s qualiHed for ovir purpose than others, is, 
 " because their thouglits have been entirely and con- 
 " tinually empIo)cd and encumbered with considering 
 " snd retaining the various manners in which the pic- 
 " tures are painted, the histories, names and chara6ters 
 " of the masters, together with many other little cir- 
 " cumslaiicts bel;;ngiiig to the mechanical part of the 
 " art ; and little or no 'ime hos been given for perfe6ting 
 " the ideas they ougld to have in their minds of the 
 '* objcds themselves in nature; for by having thus 
 
 " espoused 
 
AT S0MEE3ET-1T0USE. MQ 
 
 one obvious refle6lion, regarding the coni- 
 paralive estimation of tlie works of other 
 schools and of our own. In the pictures of 
 foreign and celebrated masters, whatever 
 peculiarities are discernible in style or execu- 
 tion, they are, from the immemorial customs 
 of virlu^ implicitly set down in the catalogue 
 of the painter's excellencies, and considered 
 as unquestionable indications of superior ge- 
 nius. In the works of our own artists, all 
 such pecidiarities are censured as manner^ 
 and are consequently set down in the account 
 as so many defects. That these peculiarities 
 constitute what is called manner, is unques- 
 tionable in both instances, and the most 
 common analogous observation will prove, 
 that manner is at all times a draiv-hack on 
 
 " eipoiised and adopted their first notions from nothing 
 " but ivutatinns, and becoming too often as bigotted to 
 " their faults as their beauties, the}' at length, in a man- 
 " ner, totally negleft, or at least disregard, the works 
 " of nature, merely because they do not tally with what 
 " iheir minds are so strongly prepossessed with." 
 
 H 3 excel- 
 
'150 OF THE ANNUAL EXHIEITIOJS 
 
 excellence * ; yet it is this defedl which adds 
 to devotion on one side, and to supercilious 
 coldness on the other. To speak fairly, there 
 is but one description of virtuosi, in whom this 
 condu6l is deserving of indulgence, namely, 
 in those \\ho possess no other method of 
 distinguisliing and ascertaining the perform- 
 ances of different artists. 
 
 To recognize the deficiencies annexed to 
 excellence, is within the power of those who 
 cannot reach to the perception of excellence 
 
 '•' " Yv'hat are all the manners, as they are called, of 
 " even the greatest nwsters, which are known to differ so 
 " much from one another, and all of them from nature, 
 '• but so many strong proofs of their inviolable attach- 
 " ment to falsehood, converted into established truth ia 
 " their own eyes by self-opinion ?" 
 
 Hogarth, Inlrodiiciion to Analysis of Beauty. 
 
 There is an asperity in this remark which nearly out- 
 weighs its acuteness. Manner is the inevitable medium 
 ol all human communication; it is native in us, inwoven 
 in our constitution, and peculiar in each individual j it 
 may often deserve our pity, but can only challenge our 
 jiuger, when, like a coxcomb enamoured of his own 
 ordinary person, the painter's self-iiidulgence displays his 
 imperfeftions by way of grace, and mistakes defeft for 
 
 beauty. 
 
 itself. 
 
AT SOMERSET-HOUSE. 151 
 
 itself. Men know the sun by his spots, who 
 could not endure to look on his fires. We 
 are all made by nature adequate judges of 
 one another's defeds : accurately to dis- 
 criminate, to see, and, most of all, to feel, 
 what is good in the efforts of genius and 
 skill, as it is the highest, so it is the most 
 difficult attainment of study and criticism. 
 
 The Exhibitions of this country have pre- 
 sented to the public many works of excel- 
 lence. The Count Ugolino, by Reynolds, 
 the Niohe, by Wilson, the Shepherd's Boy, 
 by Gainsborough, the Mount Vesuvius, by 
 Wright, stand exempt from competition in 
 their respedlive kinds ; and how many more 
 admirable works by those artists, how many 
 by others still living, will the reader's recoil 
 ie6lion supply ! 
 
 Could a gallery be formed from our Ex- 
 hibitions, by a selection which shovild place 
 in it the pi6lures just now mentioned, and 
 such others as have been alluded to, might it 
 not boldly aspire to comparison with many ce- 
 lebrated assemblages of the works of Caracci, 
 DomenichinO; Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Pous- 
 H 4 sin. 
 
152 OF THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION, &C. 
 
 sill, Claude, and Ruysdael ? and securely bid 
 defiance to all the Denners, Scalckens, Fettis, 
 Seranis, Brughels, Cignanis, Vanderneers, 
 Gelligs, Gemignanos, and the whole tedious 
 catalogue of unimportant names ? 
 
 Is there a fear of thinking, or hesitation 
 in daring to suppose, that our painters are 
 equal to artists who are talked of with so 
 much pomp hy ait6Iioneers* P 
 
 That the regard of the public has been so 
 long withheld from the plastic art in Eng- 
 land, is a circumstance which may prove 
 eventually favourable to its solid establish- 
 ment. The zeal of the artists, so long 
 destitute of individual prote6lion, will seek 
 a more enlarged patronage ; and thus the 
 slowest rise of the arts will be the most firm 
 and stable. 
 
 * Fortunately for the professors of drawhig, there are 
 no very great colleftions by the hands of foreign masters j 
 and it is singularly deserving of observation, that perhaps 
 jrom that very cause, the public are not afraid to bestow 
 the just praises and prices, on works of this description.. 
 
PART III. 
 
 On the Poivers of EngUsJi Genius; 
 conducive to Excellence in the Arts, 
 
 H 5 
 
155 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 OP THE GENIUS, OR NATURAL DISPOSITION 
 
 OF THE ENGLISH, WITH RESPECT TO 
 
 THE ARTS OF DESIGN. 
 
 -Natura subllmis et acer. 
 
 Et spiral graphician satis. 
 
 IT has been, and yet remains, a theme 
 of triumph in the mouths of other nations, 
 that England has not been able to exhibit 
 any incontestable proofs of powers adequate 
 to what has been elsewhere displayed in the 
 acquirements, talents, or genius of painting. 
 Whether this be, or be not, a fa6t admitting 
 of demonstration, will be hereafter examined. 
 But as if the assertion of presumed fa6ls 
 H 6 were 
 
155 OP THE GENIirS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 were not sufficient to satisfy exultation, it 
 has been vaguely said, and learnedly main- 
 tained by physical criticism, that the na- 
 tional intelle6l of the English is not disposed 
 to eminence in the plastic arts ; and a con- 
 clusion has thence been drawn, that all at- 
 tempts to cultivate them, and all hopes to 
 court them, must necessarily be superfluous, 
 and terminate in despair. 
 
 Before we bow to so tremendons a deci- 
 sion, let us be allowed to consider the grounds 
 on which this assertion is made, and the 
 authority on which it rests. This will most 
 efFed^ually be accomplished by ascertaining 
 as accurately as possible, first, the meaning 
 of w^hat is usually termed genius ; next, its 
 nature and relations in respect of painting ; 
 and, lastly J the degree of credit due to those 
 ingenious critics who have so triumphantly 
 brandished their system before our eyes. 
 
 SECT. 
 
HEiiPECn.NG ARTS OF DESIGN. 137 
 
 SECT. 1. 
 
 Of Genim, 
 
 As there is scarcely any term in our 
 language which has been the subject of more 
 various definitions, so there is no real faculty 
 of the mind, which has been more variously 
 accounted for, than that collective power, 
 or that eminence, which (in what manner 
 soever defined) has been allowed by universal 
 consent to be implied in the word genius. 
 
 In considering it as a term, or expression 
 of speech, we must naturally look for its 
 interpretation to the language whence it has 
 devolv'ed to us. 
 
 " Cur alter fratrum cessare, et ludere, et ungi 
 " Praeferat Herodis Palmetis pinguibus j alter 
 " Dives et iinportunus, ad umbram lucis ab ortu 
 " Silvestrem flammis et ferro railiget agrum, 
 " Scit Genius, natale comes qui tenipeiat astrum, 
 " Naturae deus humanae, mortalis in unum— 
 " Quodque caput, vultu mutabilis, albus et ater." 
 
 Horat. Epist. ii. I. 2. 
 
 Here 
 
158 OF THE GEN^IUS OP THE E:>JGLIS11 
 
 Here we evidently find genius, mytholo- 
 gically drest indeed, but meaning little or 
 nothing else than the Indoles, or natural dis- 
 position, which inclines every individual to 
 one particular pursuit, or choice in life, more 
 than to another. Other passage? of similar 
 authority, will, no doubt, occur to the clas- 
 sical reader. 
 
 The word genio, in Italian (the legiti- 
 mate heir of the Latin tongue), possesses 
 the meaning here attributed to it ; as may 
 -be seen in p. 4, of the Dialughi sopra 
 le Tre Arti di Disegno*. In this its 
 proper sense, we also use it in our own 
 
 * " In tutte duequeste cose trovo molto da ridire,Signor 
 " Carlo. La prima e, che voi forse per vostra cortesia, 
 " ml mettlate ncl nuniero degl' intendenti, quando io 
 " semplicemente da giovanetlo per pociii anni ho atteso 
 " a disegnare; e cio anche per un sopra piii, e per 
 "■ mero spasso; e poi gettato bgni cosa in un canto, 
 *' non ci ho mai piu neppur per ombra pensato. Ne mi 
 " e rimaso altro, che un fortissimo genio, il quale da 
 " primo mi face attendere per quel poco di tempo al 
 " disegno, &c." 
 
 language, 
 
KESPECTING ARTS OP DESIGN". 15^ 
 
 language, as when we say, " the genius of 
 a country, or of a language." 
 
 The English word genius, therefore, when 
 used independently, may be regarded as an 
 abstracl term arbitrarily formed, to express 
 the combination of all various propensities 
 of genius, as the word man includes the idea 
 of all various men ; and thence, farther, as 
 we apply tire word 7ncm to distin6lion or 
 'pre-eminence among human creatures (be- 
 cause combining the most excellent pro- 
 perties of the whole race) e. g. as we say, 
 *' vSuch an one is trulT/ a man, such an one 
 is a man ;" so we apply the word genius to 
 the peculiar pre-eminence of that combina- 
 tion in a single instance among all others ; 
 and thus we arrive at saying in general terms, 
 ^' Such a man has a genius.'^ 
 
 Let us next consider genius as a faculty 
 of the mind ; in which point the solution is 
 necessarily more difficult, as the subjedl is 
 more occult, and the research more in- 
 tricate. 
 
 By the vulgar (and what class of men 
 
 does 
 
l60 OP THE GENIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 does not that term occasionally compre- 
 hend ?) genius has been considered as a 
 kind of magic, or preternatural inspiration ; 
 as a felicity of endownicnt, which precluded 
 all labour, cleared away every obstacle by a 
 single breath or glance, and, to attain, re- 
 quired only to be dire61ed*. To have a 
 genius was accounted similar to the posses- 
 
 * Milton (who cannot certainly be classed among the 
 vulgar) yet set^ms to have thought highly of peculiar inspi- 
 ration, or poetical iustinft; witness his repeated mention of 
 the frequent secret admonlilon of his muse ; addressing 
 whom hr says, 
 
 • " Yet not alone, wlien thou 
 
 " Visli'st my t-himbers iughtly, or when Morn 
 
 " Purples the East." Par. Lost, lib. vii. 
 
 And aga'n, 
 
 " Thee, Sion, and the flow'ry brcr>ks beneath,* 
 
 ♦' That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow, 
 
 *' Nightly I visit 
 
 " Then feed on thoughts that voluntary move 
 
 " flarmonious numbers, as the wakeful bird 
 
 " Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid 
 
 •' Tunes her uoiSturnal note." Par. Lost, lib. iii. 
 
 sion 
 
KESPECTIXG ARTS OF DESIGN. lO'l 
 
 sion of a double voice, second sight, or other 
 phenomena of nature. 
 
 It has moreover been conceived, that this 
 extraordinary faculty was confined and bound 
 by the hand of nature, to roll its more 
 than ele^lric fires along a single path, and 
 that if it ever strayed, or were by accidental 
 circumstances precluded from that path, 
 the remaining portion of the mind which it 
 inhabited, displayed little more than inex- 
 plicable dulness, and imbecility bordering on 
 the state of an idiot. This latter part of 
 the system, indeed, seems to have beea 
 thought necessary, in order to confirm, or 
 perhaps to enhance, the miracle of the for- 
 mer ; although it may be said that, in con- 
 formity with such opinions, genius is to be 
 considered as degrading man, not exalting 
 him^ since it tends to shew the confinement 
 
 of human intellect *. 
 
 In 
 
 * If the remark be not too ludicrous, on the ground- 
 work of this system, the amusive author of the Cabinet 
 des Fees may be said to have built her description of Fine 
 
 Ear, 
 
162 OP THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 In an equal extreme, on the other hand^ 
 it has been the fashion of modern opinion, 
 under the guidance of Dr. Johnson *, 
 seconded by Reynolds (in this point cer- 
 tainly the pupil of Johnson), to overthrow 
 as completely as possible the erroneous no- 
 tions of former times, and to assert that 
 there is no such distincSl essence as the power 
 which has been thus exalted under the title 
 of genius. Dr. Johnson appeared to think 
 the distinction of genius, even in the wide 
 sense in which Horace has used it, a mere 
 phantom of the imagination ; that the powers 
 of the mind might be equally dire(5led to all 
 objeCls, and that the same capacity, the 
 same comprehension, and the same energy, 
 would form alike the lawgiver, the astro- 
 nomer, the moral philosopher, the logician, 
 the painter, or the poet. 
 
 Ear, Grudgeon, Ivlarksman, and the other attendants of 
 Fortunio, who, in this view of the subje6t, may all be said 
 to have been men of genius. 
 
 * Helvetius and o^IJer foreign writers, have maintained 
 similar do6trineis. 
 
 While 
 
RESPECTING ARTS OF DESIGN. ] ()3 
 
 While we rest in the general terms just 
 now used to describe the powers of the 
 niindj this assertion may undoubtedly pass 
 unquestioned; but wlien we proceed to in- 
 vestigate what particular faculti£s of the 
 inind are combined in those general terms 
 capacity, comprehension, energy, when we 
 find reason to believe that there are such 
 distin6l divisions of mental qualities as judg- 
 ment, imagination, and taste, itv;i!i j^carccly 
 be possible to deny, that as most, if not all 
 men, are found to be partially and unequally 
 endowed with the gifts of nature, mental 
 as well as corporeal, the various distributions 
 of strength in these several properties of 
 intelledl must cause, in different men, a de- 
 cided difference of power to attain such ac- 
 quisitions as are conceded to a superior 
 degree of these respeftive faculties. Nor 
 will it probably be contended, that in 
 order to form a wise and just judge, the 
 powers of an ardent and brilliant imagina- 
 tion are so requisite as those of cool and 
 profound judgment, or that, in order to 
 
 become 
 
l64 OP THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 become an accurate logician, the same de- 
 grees of lively fancy, or refined taste, are 
 exuecled, as are indispensable in the growth 
 of a poet or a painter. 
 
 AV ithout acceding, therefore, to the vio- 
 lence of the do6lrines on either side, a vio- 
 lence to which our feelings deny assent, and 
 by which, even without examination, we are 
 sensible that common experience is outraged, 
 may it not be safer, and nearer to the truth, 
 to steer a middle course, and to believe, that 
 i?i all those pursuits which require similar 
 faculties of the mind, cmd in those only^ an 
 equal degree of excellence may indiferently 
 be attained P To ascertain the precise de- 
 gree of connexion between those various 
 powers of the mind by which the summit of 
 excellence is reached, in the extensive rano-e 
 of human pursuits, would embrace a scope 
 of investigation and discussion, to which, if 
 the talents of the writer were adequate, the 
 task would be superfluous on this occasion. 
 It will be sufficient for his design, to examine 
 with what properties of the mind the excel- 
 lencies 
 
RESPECTING AUTS OF DESIGN'. 1 ()5 
 
 kncics of painting and sculpture are con- 
 nedied, and whether they are such as the 
 English nation never can hope to ex- 
 hibit. 
 
 Before we proceed to this second division 
 of the subject, a few words yet remain to be 
 ofrered, which the reader is entreated to ad- 
 mit by way of corollary. Under the name 
 of genius two things have frequently been 
 confounded together, namely, the capacity, 
 or pow'er of acquisition, and an uncontrol- 
 able bent or disposition to a particular study ; 
 but the difference between them is in reality 
 total. They may, and sometimes do, reside 
 together, but they have no farther concern 
 with each other than as they inhabit the 
 same mansion, and as the latter serves as a 
 stimulus to the former. The demonstra- 
 tion of this appeals to experience. The 
 numberless failures of youths whom no dis- 
 suasions could deter from the fatal pursuit 
 of the arts, demonstrate the insufficiency 
 of inclination to ensure success, and the 
 probability that inclination alone may con- 
 stitute 
 
l66 OF THE GENIUS OF THE EXGLISH 
 
 stitute that uiihapyy propensky or bias, so 
 often misleading the fond confidiiig parent, 
 and finally condemning its victim to penury 
 and despair. Such failures arc never to be 
 contemplated without pity ; they seem to 
 take their rise in a native scnsibiliiv of mind, 
 which m'ght have led to happier conse- 
 quences, 
 
 " Si sic Fata dedissentj" 
 
 and the inquiries of the speculatist have 
 often been called forth to examine the cause 
 of such a seeming self-contradiction in the 
 impulses of nature. 
 
 Why appearances of contradiction should 
 exist in nature is doubtless inscrutable, un- 
 less by beings of a more exalted state than 
 ours; yet in the present instance, without 
 incurring the imputation of arrogance, it 
 may be allowable to hazard a simple conjec- 
 ture respecting the cause which gives a bias 
 to any particular study ; which bias, when 
 it fortunately coincides with the peculiar 
 and superior gifts imparted by nature to 
 
 the 
 
RESPECTING ARTS OP DESIGN. ] 5/ 
 
 the Individual, constitutes in after life the 
 form, and direds the force, of true genius. 
 
 Discovery, as it is at all times the 
 strongest, is probably also the earliest in- 
 tellectual pleasure we receive, and it can 
 scarcely be doubted, that with the first in- 
 tellectual discovery which we make, a positive, 
 indelible idea of pleasure mustconnedl itself. 
 Is it not therefore highly probable, that what 
 is in this sense called genius, viz. a supposed 
 pre-disposition from nature to the study of 
 any art or science, would, if there were 
 opportunities of accurate investigation, be 
 found to appertain to that particular art or 
 science in which an infant makes the earliest 
 accidental discovery ? By discover?/ is here 
 meant any momentary disclosure of, or 
 insight (however slight) into, the methods or 
 constitutional parts of any art or science; — 
 such a disclosure as would be sufficient to 
 fill the infant mind with a consciousness of 
 superiority to its former state, as well as 
 to the state of most other minds with 
 
 which 
 
l68 OF THE GENIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 which it is in habits of communica- 
 tion*. 
 
 But to return from this digression. 
 
 SFXT. II. 
 
 Of Genius, in relation to Painting. 
 
 It appears, that the degree of ex- 
 cellence to be attained by minds whose 
 powers are congenial with the obje6l of pur- 
 suit, depends on the combination of greater 
 or smaller portions of the qualities from 
 which those powers result. The applica- 
 tion of this argument to painting is now to 
 be made. 
 
 * What efFefts the pleasure of discovery may produce 
 in riper minds, ami with what momentous consequences 
 it may be attended, has been examplified in Sir I. New- 
 ton, whose faculties were roused to the investigation of 
 all nature's laws by the accidental discovery oi a single 
 particle of her ordinations. 
 
 Genius 
 
BESPECTIXG THE ARTS OF UESIGN. l6g 
 
 Genius in the plastic arts appears to com- 
 prize three distinct qualities, taste, judgment, 
 and imagination, together with an organic 
 impulse, or extraordinary sensibility of some 
 particular organ conducive to the desired 
 purpose. There may be also other subor- 
 dinate divisions*, but these four requisites 
 appear principally to subsist separate from 
 each other. 
 
 With regard to the former three, is it ne- 
 cessary to mention that imagination, judg- 
 ment, taste, are each sometimes visibly adVive 
 in men of various descriptions, without any 
 mixture, or at least with a very inconsider- 
 able one, of the others ? Proofs of common 
 experience are too obvious to need a com- 
 ment -j~. 
 
 As 
 
 * A distin£lion of a different kind is familiarly in use ; 
 the cliarafler of genius is given to a felicity of forming 
 extraordinary combinations, and that of taste to extreme 
 delicacy of sensibility ; but these are confined and infe- 
 rior definitions — they speak only of a part of genius and 
 a part of taste. 
 
 t I do not pretend to make the discriminations in 
 I oiher 
 
J 70 OP THE GENIUS OP THE EXGLISff 
 
 As lo \v]iat has been denomhiated or- 
 gnnic impulse, this quality, of however 
 inferior a rank in the scale of excellence, 
 will be found to be no less essentially re- 
 quisite than the others. Of what avail were 
 it to a inusician to possess eminently the 
 powers of imagination or taste, if he w-ant 
 either natural sensibility or correcSlness of 
 ear? of what to the candidate in painting, 
 if Heaven have withheld the finest discrimi- 
 nations of sight with respet5l to colours ? 
 
 Nor is it a quality less distin6l from the 
 others. It will be obvious to the sliofhtest 
 rcfledion, that it is to be observed in many 
 f)ersons wholly destitute of the higher mental 
 
 other arts with which I have beenless conversant (although 
 I do not doubt they may be found in those likewise), 
 but I may be allowed to offer an opinion, that, ivithout 
 the alsolute exclusion of any one qualiti/ hy the superiority 
 of others in the same man, RalTaelle possessed more taste 
 and judgment than imagination j Michael Angelo more 
 imagination and judgment than taste ; Titian a consider- 
 able portion of all three in nearly equal degrees ; Rubens 
 mostly imagination; Corregio mostly taste. I repeat, 
 that this remark cannot be made without the qualijica' 
 iion with which I have prefaced it. 
 
 faculties; 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OF DSSIGI'^. J 71 
 
 faculties; and, in this case, those very per- 
 sons may be found dull with regard to the 
 general perception of art, or study of nature. 
 In proportion as the organic impulse is more 
 or less mixed with the higher qualities of 
 genius, the niiud must feel a power of relish 
 in different dea:rees of extension. 
 
 To venture an instance on this head; 
 Donienichino appears to have been greatly 
 deficient, nay (it may almost be said), nearly 
 -destitute, of this organic sensibility, and the 
 demonstrations of his great pov.crs of mind 
 always wear the appearance of labour and 
 constraint : on the other band, Corroo-io 
 
 ^ to 
 
 may perhaps be singled out among j;ainters 
 as possessing this quality in a most dis- 
 tinguished degree. U we except grace, it is 
 hard to give a definite name to any intel- 
 lectual accomplishment displayed in the 
 works of Corregio. They are neither the 
 schools of drawing, expression, character, 
 nor historic propriety. They are the off- 
 spring of a mind justly conscious of its own 
 superior, but unexamined, powers. In re- 
 i 2 turn. 
 
172 OF THE GENIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 turn, there appears to be a peculiar power 
 annexed to organic sensibility, to which 
 every one imperceptibly, bat irresistibly, 
 yields. This may likewise be best explained 
 by examples : Dr. Yoang, for instance, is 
 more melancholy than his readers ; he pre- 
 vails over them, exclusively of other causes, 
 by his superior sensitiveness of melancholy. 
 It is no matter that I sometimes neither 
 admire nor approve, — I fctil. The same re- 
 mark may be made wiih regard to the late 
 amiable and regretted Cowper. 
 
 But, on the principles already defined^ 
 viz. that in those pursuits which require 
 similar faculties of the mind, a similar de- 
 gree of excellence may indifferently be at- 
 tained, and that the degree is regulated by 
 the greater or less combinjUion of requisite 
 qualities, it is easy to form tliis farther obvious 
 proposition ; — that, in all in'e!ic<5tual studies 
 which arc of a similar nature, and require 
 the exertion of siinihic powers of the mind, 
 the same person will reach, or be capable of 
 reaching, equal excellence in whichsoever 
 
 study 
 
EESPECTING THE ARTS OF DESIGN'. ]7^' 
 
 Study the earliest decision of accident or 
 Giber circumstance, shrdl make the objec!^ of 
 his pursuit, provided he shall combine, in 
 equal degree, the natural faculties conducive 
 to the display of his powers. 
 
 Let us see whether this reasoning be at 
 all auspicious to the probability of English 
 eviinence in the plastic art. 
 
 It would be only to trespass on the 
 reader's patience, to repeat the numerous 
 expressions which have been used by writers, 
 to shew the intimate mutual participation 
 of the natures of poetry and painting, and 
 the dependence of their power on similar 
 exertions of genius ; from the lively sallies 
 of Horace, 
 
 " Pi<5ioribu.s citqiie Poetis 
 
 " Quialibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas ;" 
 
 down to the sententious declaration of De 
 Fresnoy, 
 
 " Ut pidura poesis erit," 
 
 Let us hasten to what is of far greater im- 
 portance^ to consider the distincl causes 
 I 3 of 
 
274 OP T»E GENIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 of this entire coincidence of effe(5l. To 
 state these in few words, it is sufficient, 
 after what has been already explained, to 
 observe, that the powers derived from those 
 faculties of the mind which have been men- 
 tioned as necessary to the formation of a 
 painter, viz. imagination or fancy, judg- 
 ment, and taste, are precisely those which 
 evmce the existence of poetical genius. 
 
 These two arts, of poetry and painting, 
 deriving their excellence from similar sources 
 in the mind, and subsisting in the exercise of 
 similar powers, it follows, that, as far as re- 
 gards their higher and intelle6lual depart- 
 ment, that is, in all that depends on imagi- 
 nation, judgment, and taste, a very fine poet 
 might have become a very fine painter, and 
 vice vei'sd,' or, that, of all such painters and 
 poets, if each had, by early and original 
 choice, applied himself to the other jyo- 
 fession, lie might, and probably would, 
 have carried that other art precisely to the 
 same degree which he reached in his own. 
 
 In 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OF DESIGIST. 1/5 
 
 In fadl, what more resembles the suhlini^ 
 parts of Homer's poems, than the lofty con- 
 ceptions of tlie painter of the Capella Sis- 
 tina ? What are more like to his dram-atic 
 excellencies than the living, tiie ever-living 
 characSlers of the painter of the Vatieaii r 
 What more equals the majesty of Virgil, than 
 the serene eftalgence of Titian ? What more 
 like to the abrupt grandeur of Pindar, than 
 the bursting splendours of Rubens and Tin- 
 toret ? Who more congenial with the ten- 
 der but mellowed sweetness of Sappho or 
 Tibullus, than Corregio or Parmiginno? 
 
 As a farther proof of this similarity of 
 genius in the two arts (and by which one 
 may be induced to think there is a strong 
 similarity also in the organic impulses), if we 
 examine attentively the writings of the 
 poets, we shall find that, in proportion as 
 authors stand high in rank, or in degree of 
 general estimation, their imagery is more 
 accurate, and is proved to be more satisra61:ory 
 to the eye of a painter. 
 
 To take a few instances from among ,the 
 1 4 poets 
 
176 OP THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLfSH 
 
 poets of our own country. In Akenside, 
 who, though endowed with strong and ner- 
 vous conceptions of thought, must still be 
 regarded as a poet of a second class, we 
 find the following examples of incompetent 
 imagery : 
 
 Foo]s ! who of God, as of each other deem j 
 Who his invariable afts deduce 
 Prom sudden counsels tmnsient as their own; 
 Nor farther of his bounty, than th' event 
 Which haply meets their loud and eager pray'r. 
 Acknowledge; nor beyond the drop minute 
 Which haply they have tasted, heed the source 
 That flows for all : the fountain vf ids love, 
 AVhich, from the summit ivJiere he sits enthron'd, 
 Pours health andjoj, vfifailing streams, throughout 
 The spacious region flourishing in view I 
 
 He, God most high (bear witness earth and heaven), 
 
 The living Jountains in himself contains 
 
 Of beauteous and sulUme, With him enthron'd^ 
 
 Ere days or years trod their ethereal way. 
 
 In his supreme intelligence cnthrciiM, 
 
 The Qut'en of Love holds her unclouded state, 
 
 Urania.—— 
 
 What can be more incongruous to the 
 
 majesty 
 
EESPECTING THE ARTS OP DESIGN. 177 
 
 majesty of the author's theme (not to men- 
 tion the company of the Queen of Love), 
 than this image of the two fountains of beau- 
 tiful and sublime contained in the Supreme 
 Being ; or the two streams of health and 
 joy constantly running down from under 
 his throne ? Images nearly bordering on 
 the ludicrous, in the midst of a description 
 where every thing ought to impress the 
 mind of the reader with the most sublime 
 and awful ideas ! With how much stronger 
 efFedl does Thomson^, a poet justly of a 
 higher name, describe the majesty of that 
 being, 
 
 " Whom noug'it can image !" 
 
 It is from such want of picturesque 
 energy, together with other deficiencies, 
 perhaps essentially of a similar nature, that 
 Akcnside stands, as a poet, in the rank he 
 now holds, and no higher. 
 
 If, on the contrary, we look to Milton, 
 1 5 eminently 
 
178 OP THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 eminently placed in the first class of poetic 
 genius, we shall find his imagery chiefly, 
 if not wholly, such as may with the stridest 
 propriety, and fullest consent of our feel- 
 ings, be transferred to canvas ; and his de- 
 scriptions abounding with bold and lofty 
 subjects of figurative painting. To give a 
 few instances of both : 
 
 Morn , 
 
 Wak'd by the circling hours, with rosy liand 
 Unbarr'd the gaLes of light. 
 
 Where the great luminary 
 
 Aloof the vulgar constellations thick, 
 That from his lordly eye keep distance due. 
 Dispenses light from far ; they, as they move 
 Their starry dance (in numbers that compute 
 Days, months, and years), tow'rds his all-cheerin: 
 
 lamp 
 Turn swift their various motions. 
 
 • His sail broad vans 
 
 He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke 
 Uplifted spurns the ground. 
 
 -Straight behold the throne 
 
 Of Chaos, 2iid his dark pavilion spread 
 
 Wide 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OF DESIGN. 179 
 
 Wide o'er the wasteful deep ; willi him euthron'd 
 Sate sable-vested night*. 
 
 Of beriming sunny rays a golden tiar 
 
 Circled his head, nor less his locks beliind 
 Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings 
 Lay waving round. 
 
 ' iWhere the river of bliss through midst of lieaven 
 
 Rolls on Elysian llow'rs its amber stream. 
 
 With these that never fade, the Spirits cleft 
 
 Bind their resplendent locks enwreath'd with beams. 
 
 Of this excellence of the poet we have seen 
 ample specimens in the series of subjedls 
 painted from his poems, and exhibited in 
 the Milton Galleryl-. 
 
 Last, but not least, Shakspeare, the pride 
 of every English heart, seems to have 
 equally participated the gcnins of either art, 
 and to have shewn an intention of displaying- 
 
 * The propriety of this description is a striking con- 
 trast to that of Akenside, above-mentioned. 
 
 f The artist whose creative fancy renders unneces- 
 sary any other source of prototype for the productions of 
 his pencil, would not have had recourse to Milton, if he 
 had not found him in this respeft perfedly congenial 
 with the mind of a painter. 
 
 1 6 the 
 
180 OP THE GENTIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 the mental powers of both. Look at the 
 stru6lurc of his dramas ! a species of com- 
 position most dire6lly corresponding with 
 the art of the painter. He has indeed clothed 
 his scenes with words — and words 
 
 " Of such sweet breath composed, 
 " As made the things more rich j" 
 
 but of him it may be safely said, — and it can 
 be said of very few, and those the greatest 
 dramatists, — that, if his scenes were to pass 
 before the spectator in dtmib show, many, if 
 not most of them, would be in a very effec- 
 tual degree expressive of the mind of the 
 author. Examples may be found in every 
 play. To sele6t only a few; 
 
 In the historical play of Richard III. on 
 the day previous to the important battle 
 which is to decide the fate of an usurper, 
 who can contemplate without admiration 
 the magnificently awful spe6\acle which the 
 imagination of Shakspeare prepares ! In 
 front of the rival armies are seen the tents 
 of the two commanders. Richard's is placed 
 
 on 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OP DESIGN. 181 
 
 on the fore-ground, Richmond's is discovered 
 at a little distance. It is night, whoso shades 
 are interrupted only by the glimmering fires 
 of either army. Amidst this gloom the 
 ghosts of those relatives whom Richard is 
 known (in the former a61s) to have murdered, 
 rise slowly from the earth, and address them- 
 selves with menacing aspe6l, to the bloody 
 tyrant, and with gentle demeanour to the 
 avenger of their wrongs. The prophecy of 
 the fate which awaits Richard on the mor- 
 row is the whole amount of accessory know- 
 ledge from language in this scene; through 
 all the rest of the action words may be said 
 to be superfluous, the sentiments are already 
 in the breast of the spe6lators; yet a scene 
 more awfully impressive than even the pre- 
 sent mutilated representation of this power- 
 ful conception, is scarcely to be found on 
 any stage. Nay, to proceed a step farther, 
 even the subsequent soliloquy of Richard, 
 when he starts from sleep, is generally less 
 distinguished by the language, than by the 
 a6lion, of the performer, to vi'hich the cir- 
 cumstances 
 
182 OF THE GENIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 cumstances above related are calculated to 
 give the fullest scope. 
 
 Let us next turn to a scene which may 
 be placed in contrast with that just men- 
 tioned, a scene wherein the tender pas- 
 sions are painted with the same force which 
 the poet displays in representing the violent 
 and terrible ones, namely, the parting of 
 Komeo and Juliet in the garden. Apprized 
 as the spectators are of the preceding his- 
 tory of their loves, who does not readily 
 interpret the fond reluctance and desires 
 which give rise to a hesitating tardiness of 
 departure in Romeo, and the anxious and 
 impatient earnestness of the tender, en- 
 amoured and startling Juliet ! The dialogue 
 is indeed beautiful, but though it contributes 
 much to the delight, it adds nothing to the 
 information of the spectator. 
 
 Another instance of the graphic powers 
 of his mind, is to be found in the painting of 
 a dream, in the play of Henry VIII. Every 
 reader of taste will know, that the dream of 
 Queen Catharine is here alluded to; which, 
 
 in 
 
KESPECTING THE ARTS OP DESIGN. 183 
 
 in the midst of so many splendid decorations 
 lavished by our theatres on trivial objedts, is 
 left, in representation, without any of the 
 appropriate ornaments designed by our im- 
 mortal bard. Let us read the account of 
 his design in the language in which the 
 heads of the scene are quaintly couched, in 
 the usual editions of his works. Catharine 
 is supposed to be fallen gently asleep, to sad 
 and solemn music, when she is greeted by 
 tlie following 
 
 Vision. 
 *' Enter solemnly, one after another, sik 
 " personages, clad in white robes, wearing 
 " on their heads garlands of bays, and 
 '' golden vizards on their faces, branches 
 " of bays, or palm, in their hands. They 
 '* first congee to her, then dance, and at 
 " certain changes the two first hold a spare 
 " garland over her head, at which the other 
 " four make reverend curtsies. Then the 
 " two that held the garland, deliver the 
 " same to the other next two, who observe 
 *' the same order in their changes, and 
 
 " holdino- 
 
184 OP THE GENIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 *' holding the garland over her head : which 
 *' done, they deliver the same garland to 
 " the last two, who likewise observe the 
 *^ same order. At which, as it were by in- 
 *' spiration, she makes in her sleep signs of 
 " rejoicing, and holds up her hands to 
 " heaven. And so, in their dancing, they 
 ** vanish, carrying the garland with them." 
 
 Although this description is certainly far 
 from adequate to the poet's idea, as expressed 
 in Cathanne'L^ speech a few minutes after her 
 awaking, when she inquires of her attend- 
 ants, 
 
 "■ Saw ye iv-^t a b'-^ssed troop 
 
 " Invite me lo a banquet.. \ 'lose l)nght faces 
 " Cast thousand beams udl me, like the sun !" 
 
 yet it will rcarcely be dispv.ted, that it con- 
 veys a sufficient idea of ;;ne of the most 
 magnificently graceful and interesting scenes 
 of pantomime, that have ever been exhibited 
 on any stage. 
 
 Let us look at one instance more, in the 
 scene of the banquet, in Macbeth's palace. 
 Macbeth having defeated his enemies, and 
 
 hy 
 
RESPECTING THE AUTS OF DESIGN. 185 
 
 by artful treachery removed the friendly 
 Banquo from the path of his ambition-, 
 assembles all the nobility of his kingdom to 
 be the tributary witnesses and partakers of 
 his new glories. He prepares a sumptuous 
 feast in a hall decorated with all the splen- 
 dour that royal ostentation can supply. The 
 glittering tables are spread with the richest 
 luxuries. The guests, vying with each other 
 in magnificence, are seated; the table is full, 
 except one seat, prepared for the master of 
 the feast. He descends from his throne, 
 and from the side of his regal partner, to 
 mix in the flow of festivity ; he approaches 
 his seat, he turns to it — it is filled : with 
 what ? — in the midst of the gorgeous pomp 
 and roseate gaiety of the assembly, he beholds 
 the pallid spectre of the friend he had 
 treacherously consigned to destru61ion. — • 
 What spedacle could be presented more 
 awful ! what contrast more strikine; ! what 
 charm more powerful than such a form of 
 horror to put to flight the thoughts of exult- 
 mg crime, and make " all the pomp" of 
 
 " TaperSj temples, swim before his sight." 
 
 It 
 
186 OP THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 It may surely be pardonable to doubt, 
 whether all the rules of Aristotle will ever 
 furnish a scene of more instructive terror, 
 than that which Shakspeare's pencil has here 
 d'-awn. 
 
 The word pencil is here applicable in its 
 stri6l figurative sense. Sight is the organ by 
 which the poet designs to rouse the mind, 
 and awe the spectator into the conviction of 
 moral truths. To paint to sight the soul- 
 subduing terrors of guilty remorse, he 
 chooses the ghastly image of a bleeding 
 phantom, breaking on the splendour of the 
 night. To give the utmost force to this 
 graphic investiture, he sets wide the lofty 
 columned hall, he flings over it the lustre 
 of a thousand lights, he fills it with youth, 
 beauty, and elegance ; all is previously pre- 
 pared for the Hash of contrast ; the pale 
 murdered friend, invisible but to guilt, com- 
 pletes the magic effect of the scene. 
 
 Every thing that passes subsequently to 
 this astonishing moment, is also most ade- 
 quately expressed by the painting of a6tion. 
 
 Lady 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OF DESIGN". J 87 
 
 Lady Macbeth hastens to her clistra<51ed 
 lord — she remonstrates, she looks round in 
 vain for the obje6l of his alarm — she strives 
 to compose his spirits ; he becomes more 
 and more violent, and she finally dismisses 
 the assembly. 
 
 It will scarcely be requisite to repeat the 
 admiration before expressed (and which the 
 whole world feels), of the beauties of Shak- 
 speare's dialogue, but the assertion may be 
 repeated, that in this scene its beauties are 
 accessory ornaments only. 
 
 After delivering these sentiments resped- 
 ing the truly wonderful powers of picluresque 
 efFecl displayed in the above scenes, it would 
 be an office not more ungrateful than 
 foreign to the present purpose, to call in 
 question the ingenuity of critic lore, which 
 lias so often divested Shnkspeare of this 
 splendid union of powers ; or to notice in 
 this place the negligence of custom, which 
 robs him of those advantages of scenic ma- 
 chinery of which his own time was so little 
 apprized, and in wiiich ours is so abundant. 
 
 These 
 
188 OP THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 Tiiese circumstances equally contribute to 
 the honours of our immortal bard, and de- 
 monstrate, that when his scenes are deprived 
 of their theatric substance, the very shadow 
 is still worth preserving. 
 
 But, if there be this similarity between 
 the essential powers of the mind, rcspecfively 
 necessary, v^hat then is yet wanting to shape 
 distinctively these faculties, floating within 
 the grasp of either art, and fix them in that 
 of painting? nothing bat a more especial 
 possession and equal determination of that 
 organic disposition v.hich has been men- 
 tioned, and which, in order to establish 
 a deduction of the impossibility of the ex- 
 istence of Painting in this country, must 
 be supposed never to have existed here ; 
 for if it once exist, it may, on every propi- 
 tious occasion, appear united with those 
 greater qualities of intelleii. Bat there 
 can be little doubt that this inferior boon of 
 nature has been, and is, observable every day 
 in numberless instances, in every country ; 
 a late admired artist, Mortimer, might be 
 
 adduced 
 
RBSrECTING THE ARTS OP DESIGN-. 18^ 
 
 adduced as an instance in our own ; and, 
 to seek, no other example, the ornament of 
 English art, Reynolds, may be held forth as 
 one, who (together with higher qualities) 
 was n)Ost eminently endowed in this parti- 
 cular point; who sometimes, by the aid of 
 this quality alone, diffused an inexplicable 
 charm over pictures which possess very little 
 other claim to admiration. 
 
 On the whole, therefore, we are come by 
 easy dcdudions to form a conclusion, nearly 
 amounting to demonstration, that, if it be 
 once allowed that there have been English 
 poets, since the same qualities of mind which 
 constitute the poet, constitute also the 
 painter, and since the other natural faculties 
 requisite to the especial excellence of paint- 
 ing are found to have existed in England, 
 England is capable of producing a painter. 
 
 SECT. 
 
IQO OF THE GKNIUS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 SECT. III. 
 
 Of tjie Criticisms of Foreign ff'riiers. 
 
 In dire(5l contradldiion to the whole of 
 the preceding statement, forth come the 
 dogmas of Winckehnan and Du Bos, who 
 deny to the climate of England the bare 
 possibility of the birth of a painter. Winck- 
 elman, after speaking of the influence 
 which he concludes climate, government, 
 education, and customs to have on the arts, 
 respectively, in various countries, adds, 
 
 " lo lascero che altri giudichi se da queste 
 *' medesimc cagioni proceda che gli Inglesi 
 ** non abbiano mai avuto ne' tempi andati 
 ** alcun celebre pittore*." 
 
 Du Bos gives an equally gracious account 
 ofsucli climates, in peueral, as that which 
 we inhabit. 
 
 '^ Les arts naissent d'eux memes sous les 
 
 * See the translation from the German by the learned 
 Carlo Fea. Book i. chap. 2. 
 
 *^ climats 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OF DESIGN. IQl 
 
 ** climats qui leur sont propres. Les peoples 
 *•' chez qui Ics arts n'ont pas ileuri, sont Ics 
 *' peuples qui habitent un ciiniat, qui n'est 
 " point propre aux arts. lis y seroient nes 
 *' d'eux-memes sans cela, ou du moinsilsy 
 *^ seroient passes a la faveur du commerce.'* 
 
 He then proceeds to pronounce the fol- 
 lowing verdi6l on England : 
 
 " Le climat d'Angleterre a bien pousse sa 
 *' chaleur jusques a produire de grands 
 " sujets dans toutes les sciences et dans 
 " toutes les professions. II a meme donne 
 *^ de bons musiciens et d'excellens poetes, 
 " mais il n'a point produit de peintres, qui 
 " tiennent parmi les peintres celcbres le 
 " mcme rang que les philosophes, les sa- 
 " vans, les poetes, et les autrea Anglois 
 " illiistres tiennent parmi ceux des autres 
 " nations qui se sont distingues dans la 
 *' meme profession qu'eux. Les peintres 
 " Anglois se reduiscnt a trois faiseurs de 
 *'^ portraits *," 
 
 * Reflexions critiques sar la Poesie et sur Ja Pcinturc. 
 JXora. ii. sea. J3. 
 
 It 
 
tQI OF THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 It is doubtful If the following- farther re- 
 mark be designed to extend to England, but 
 it affords, in the last sentence, a singular 
 Ilustration of the system of the writer. 
 
 " Tout le monde sait qu'il n'est sorti des 
 ^ extremites du nord, que des poetes sau- 
 ^ vages, des versificateurs grossiers, et des 
 ' froids coloristes. La peinture et la poesie 
 ^ ne se sont point approches du pole plus 
 ' pres que la hauteur de la Hollande. On 
 ' n'a. m^me dans cette province qu'une 
 ' peinture morfondue. Les poetes Hol- 
 ' landois ont montre plus de vigueur et 
 ' plus de feu d'esprit que les peintres leurs 
 ' cfxPipatriotes. II semble que la poesie ne 
 ' crnigne pas le fro^d autant que la pein- 
 ' ture*." 
 
 It is not here intended to examine mi- 
 nutely the grounds of condemnation which 
 have been assumed by these authors, rela- 
 tive to their favourite systems of influential 
 ■ ■■■ — ■ 
 
 * Reflexions critiques sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture. 
 Tom. ii, se6t. 13. 
 
 climates. 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OF DESIGN-. 103 
 
 influential climates. The appreciation of 
 the former of the two shall be resigned to 
 those patient readers who shall have made 
 tliemselves masters of the whole train ot his 
 learned and laborious reasoning. It must 
 at the same time be owned, that it may be 
 considered fortunate for the advocates of 
 English graphic talents, that the dedu6lion 
 above insinuated respedling the inability 
 of our artists, is, in great part, formed 
 from some preceding observations on our 
 national poetry. The passage containing 
 them shall be presented to the reader, 
 who, if he be an Englishman, may, from M. 
 Winckelman's system, claim, at least, the 
 full prerogative of a cool judgment. 
 
 " Que' talenti che aveano i Grcci per le 
 ** arti si ravvisano ancora quasi general- 
 '' mente negli abitanti delie provincie meri- 
 " dionali d'ltalia, ne' qualTla viva imagina- 
 *' zione sublima lo spirito, laddove in altri 
 *' popoli, e principalmente presso ITnglese 
 " pensatore, troppo domina la fredda ragi- 
 *' o)ie. E stato detto, nc senza fondamento, 
 K *' che 
 
IQ4 OF THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 *' che i poeti oltramontani parlano bensi un 
 " llngLiaggio imniaginoso, ma poche imma- 
 " gini ci presentano ; e diffatti convenir si 
 '* deve, che le terribili descrizioni, nelle 
 *' quali tutta consiste In grandezza di Mil- 
 " ton, non sono piinto oggetti per un sublime 
 '' e nobil pennello, anz.i iti nessnn modo po- 
 " trebbono dipingersi* .^'' 
 
 With regard to the author next quoted, 
 fair endeavours shall be used to give a proof 
 of the just estimation due to his judgment, 
 by calling him forth on plain and denjon- 
 strable ground, where the force of his criti- 
 cal discernment may, of consequence, be 
 tried with precision. 
 
 The following observations on one of the 
 historical Cartoons by Raffaellc, now in the 
 palace atHampton-Court, arealso transcribed 
 in the writer's own language, without trans- 
 lation, lest any doubt should arise of an 
 attempt at unfair representation of his text : 
 
 " Tout le monde connoit le tableau de 
 
 * See the Italian edition before quoted. 
 
 " Raphael, 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OF DESIGN. IQ5 
 
 Raphael, ou Jesus Christ confirme a St. 
 Pierre le pouvoir des clefs en presence 
 des autres Apotres; c'est une des pieces 
 de tapisserie de la tentiire des Ades des 
 Apotres que le Pape Leon X. fit faire 
 pour la chapelle de Sixte IV. et dont les 
 Cartons originaux se conservent dans la 
 gallerrie du palais que Marie Stuard, Prin- 
 cesse d' Orange, Jit batir a Haiiipton- 
 Court. 
 
 " St. Pierre tenant ces clefs •est a genouil 
 devant Jesus Christ, et il paroit penctrc 
 d'une emotion conforme a sa situation ; 
 sa reconnoissance et son zele pour son 
 maitre paroissent sensiblement sur son 
 visage. Saint Jean TEvangeliste repre- 
 sentejeunecommeiletoit, estdepeint avec 
 I'aclion d'un jeunehomme; il applaudit 
 avec le mouvcment de franchise si naturelle 
 a son age, au digne choix que fait son 
 maitre, et qu'on croit apercevoir qu'il cut 
 fait lui-meme, tant la vivacite de son ap- 
 probation est bien marquee par un air 
 de visage, et par un mouvcment du corps 
 K 2 " trc^ 
 
IQO OP THE GENIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 " tres empresse. L'Apotre qui est aupres 
 " de lui, semble plus age et montre la 
 " physionomie et la contenance d'un hom- 
 " me pose ; aussi conformement a son 
 " caraclere, applaudit il par un simple rriou- 
 " vement des bras et de la tete. On dis- 
 *' tingue a I'extremite du gronppe un homnie 
 " bilieux et sanguin ; il a le visage haut 
 *' en couleur, la barbe tirante sur Ic roux, 
 " le front large, le nez quarre, et tous les 
 *' trails d'un homme sourcilleux. II re- 
 '• garde done avec dedain, et en fronqant le 
 " sonrcil, une preference qu'on divine bien 
 " quil trouve injuste. Les homines de ce 
 '' temperament croyent volontiers ne pas 
 " vaioir moins que les autres, Pres de lui 
 '•' est place un autre apotre, emharrasse de 
 '" sa contenance : on le discerne pour etre 
 " d'un temperament melancolique a la mai- 
 " s^rcur de son visage livide, a sa barbe noire 
 '•' et plate i a r habitude de son corps ^ enjin 
 " a tous les traits que les naturalistes ont 
 •' assigne's a ce temperament. II se courbe, 
 " et les yeux Jixement attaches sur J. C. il 
 
 *' est 
 
EESPECTING THE ARTS OP DESIGN. 1Q7 
 
 *' est devore crane jalousie morne pour nn 
 *' choix dont il ne se plaindra point, mais 
 ** dont il conservera longtems un vif ressen-- 
 " timent : cnfin on reconnoit Ic) Judas aussi 
 *' distinSement, qua le voir pendu an 
 *^ Ji^uier ; une bourse renversie au col*J^ 
 
 What reader, having attended the Abbe 
 through this intricate investigation of the 
 charadters of the various Disciples (and pro- 
 bably attended with pleasure, and a readintps 
 to admit the plausible ingenuity of his re- 
 marks), will not be a little startled at finding 
 that the figure reserved by the critic, for the 
 final stamp of his descriptive as well as dis- 
 cerning powers, should be declared to be 
 that unfortunate Disciple who, the relation 
 given by St. Mathew convinces us, could 
 not possibly be present at the scene described. 
 Raffaelle, it seems, had been more attentive 
 to the Scriptures than the Abbe Du Bos, 
 and had carefully omitted the figure of 
 Judas, partly (to adopt a mode of statement 
 used by an eminent orator), because Judas 
 
 * Rdlexions Critiques, tome i. sect. li. 
 
 K 3 would 
 
]98 OF THE GENIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 would have been a very unfit spedlator of 
 such a scene, and partly, because he was 
 hanged before it took place. 
 
 Criticisms of such a nature more fairly 
 expose their author to ridicule than to serious 
 animadversion. — What opinion shall we form 
 of a critic so little disposed to attend to a 
 stridt description of the obje6ls before him, 
 that he will not even condescend (if a vulgar 
 phrase may be pardoned) to count noses? 
 Had he taken the trouble of this species of 
 investigation, he would have found, that 
 there are in this celebrated picture eleven 
 DivSciples and our Saviour. 
 
 What authority, then, shall we concede to 
 such remarks ? If thus vague in obvious 
 fa61s, what shall we conclude to be the ac- 
 curacy of the writer's sentiments, when he 
 sallies forth into metaphysical regions, more 
 suited indeed to the free excursions of his 
 ■fancy, but not equally capable of suppljing 
 demonstrable proofs of his error and pre- 
 sumption ? Ex pede Herculem*. 
 
 It 
 
 * It would be unjust to omit iht- extreme viodesly of 
 
 the 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OF DESIGN. IQQ 
 
 It is not here m^ant to derogate from the 
 general merits of this ingenious work ; we 
 are all apprized that 
 
 " Opere in longe fas est obrepere somnum *." 
 
 But if the author be much given to this kind 
 of mental refreshment, it is not always cer- 
 tain in what part of his work this bounty of 
 nature may overtake him, and consequently, 
 on grounds of merely fanciful speculation, it 
 may be difficult to ascertain with precision 
 if he be nodding or waking. 
 
 It would, moreover, be truly uncandid to 
 detradl any thing from the praise of an 
 author who seems, in some other respedis, 
 so well inclined to our nation, if it be indeed 
 
 the Abbe's remark immediately following the above ex- 
 quisite description : " Jf. n'ai point prete d'esprit a Ea- 
 " phael," says he, f?arfal, no doubt, that the render 
 should thiiik he had concealed himself behind tlie name 
 of the painter, for the sake of giving addiiiojial lustre Iq 
 Rafael. 
 
 * In works of great length, an occasional nnp is the 
 poet's privilege. 
 
 K 4 our 
 
'iOO OP THE GENIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 our nation to which he alludes in the fol- 
 lowing passage, where what he takes from us 
 on the score of genius, he compensates in his 
 record of our moral exertions. In speaking 
 of the moral uses of painting, he says, 
 
 ** Dans quelques pays protestants, ou sous 
 ^' pretexte de reforme, les statues et les 
 tableaux ont ete bannis des Eglises, le 
 gouvernement ne laisse pas de mettre en 
 oeuvre le pouvoir <^ue la peinture k na- 
 turellement sur les hommes pour contri- 
 buer a tenir le peuple dans le rcspe6l de:^ 
 ** loix. On voit au dessus des Placards ou 
 " les loix sont ecrites, des tableaux repre- 
 sentant le supplice auquel les infra6leurs, 
 qui les violeroient, seroient condamne:^. 
 II faut que dans cet etat, rempli d'obser- 
 vateurs politiques qui etendentleur atten- 
 tion sur bien des choses auxquellcs on 
 ne daigne point faire reflexion en d'autres 
 pays, nos observateurs ayent remarque 
 que ces tableaux etoient propres a donner 
 " du moins aux enfans qui doivent iinjour 
 
 " deveuir 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OP DESIGN. 201 
 
 '^ devenir des homines plus de craiiite des 
 " chatiments prononces par laloix*." 
 
 This is a moral use indeed ! such an 
 encomium may recommend tlie study of 
 the Arts even in Bow-street ; but whether 
 this moral example be drawn from an ob- 
 servation of faCls, equally accurate with that 
 already quoted respecting the Cartoon of 
 Kaffaelle, shall be left to the reader's deci- 
 sion. 
 
 One word more of Du Bos before we 
 return to our subject. In what a lament- 
 able state of ignorance, with respecl to the 
 Arts, must the whole world have been at the 
 time of his writing, or what an extraor- 
 dinary idea must he have formed of his own 
 singular endowments of sagacity and powers 
 of discovery, when he makes the following 
 remark regarding the distin6tion of the two 
 arts of painting and poetry ! 
 
 " Personne ne doute que les poemes ne 
 
 * Ibid, tome i. se£t. 4. 
 
 K 5 " puissent 
 
202 OP THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 *' puissent exciter en nous des passions arti- 
 *' ficielles ; metis il paroitra peut-etre extra- 
 *^ ordinaire a bien du monde et menie a des 
 *' peintres de profession, d'entendre dire que 
 " des tableaux, que des couleurs appliquees 
 " sur une toile, puissent exciter en nous des 
 ** passions, cependant cette verite ne pent 
 " surprendrc que ceux qui ne font pas 
 ** d'attention a ce qui se passe . dans eux 
 " memes *." 
 
 Why it should appear more surprising to 
 the learned critic, that the passions should 
 be expressed by " des couleurs appliquees 
 " sur une toile," than by ink applique on 
 paper, must, it is presumed, be referred to 
 the chapter of occult causes ^. 
 
 * Ibid, tome i. se6t. 4. 
 
 -j- Tlie charader of the Abbe Du Bos is thus given by 
 the authors of the Nouveau DiSiionnaire Historique: "II 
 " ne scavoit pas la musique, il n'avoit jamais pu faire 
 *' des vers, et n'avoit pas un tableau ; mais il avoit beau- 
 *' coup lu, vu, cntendu ou reflechi." A ground-work 
 worthy of the superstruQiure ! 
 
 With 
 
RESPECTING THE ARTS OP DESIGN. 203 
 
 With these ravishers of our lawful claims, 
 the author of the Inquiry into the real and 
 imaginary OhstruBiom to the Arts in Eng- 
 land, has combined the far more formid.ible 
 name of the President Montesquieu ; but, 
 though a due deference must ever be paid to 
 the learning, spirit, and manly sense of that 
 treatise, candour also exa^ls the observation, 
 that in the ardour of patriotic zeal, Mr. 
 Barry appears to have over-rated the offence 
 here supposed to have been offered to our 
 country*. Montesquieu calls in question 
 our propensity to the refinements of taste, 
 in distin6\iou from the native f(;rce and bold- 
 ness of invention which he is willing to 
 allow us. 
 
 *' Leurs poetes (the poets of England) 
 •' auroient plus souvent cette rudesse origi- 
 " nale d'invention qu'une certaine deii- 
 *' catesse que donne le gout ; on y trou- 
 " veroit quelque chose qui approcheroit 
 
 * I do not fear that I shall offend by honest difference 
 of opinion. 
 
 k6 */ plus 
 
204 OF THE GENIUS OP THE ENGLISH 
 
 *• plus de la force de Michel Auge, que de 
 ** la grace de Raphael *." 
 
 There does not appear any thing very 
 discouraging in this sentence. He does not 
 deny taste to the English, but is of opinion 
 that the boldness of their spirit would be 
 superior to their taste — that they would be 
 more like Michael Angelo than Raffaelle. In 
 another passage, he says, "Us auroient plus 
 " d'esprit que du gout." On the whole, 
 his remarks on the genius of the English, 
 are such as ought rather to be stated in 
 opposition to Du Bos and Winckelman. 
 The propensities of mind which, under this 
 head, he attributes to the English, are cer- 
 tainly of a very high class. 
 
 Here, then, dismissing these futile, though 
 insrenious criticisms, founded on occult causes 
 and secret influences, let us draw the fair 
 conclusion, and fix it in our minds, that 
 the nation which has produced a Milton and 
 a Shakspeare, may justly aspire to the equal 
 
 f Esprit des Loix 1. xix. c. 27. 
 
 honours 
 
PiBSrECTING THE ARTS OP DESIGM-. 205 
 
 Iionours of an Apelles, or a Michael Angelo ; 
 but that an equal cultivation must prepare 
 the mind in both cases. 
 
 It has likewise been said, tliat a commer- 
 cial people cannot direct its mind to the 
 study of the liberal arts. This insinuation 
 will hardly require an answer, while it is yet 
 fresh in our memories, that the same remark 
 has been passed on us respe6iing the exer- 
 tion of national ivarlike energies ; and while 
 the whole world contemplates with rcspedl 
 the unprecedented armed union of our na- 
 tion, derived from no source but the love 
 of freedom and independence (though haply 
 a while slumbering, not extinguished nor 
 enervated in our bosoms), and for so long 
 a time maintained at no charge or burthen 
 but that which each individual voluntarily 
 .took upon himself. 
 
 If any trifling argument to the same efFe6l 
 have been drawn from the want of organic 
 perfedibility in our cloud-encompassed island, 
 the refutation of such a charge is left to the 
 
 scientific 
 
206 OF THE GENIUS OP THE EXGLISH 
 
 scienlific judgments of those who have re- 
 cently witnessed, on a stage destined to the 
 talents of a brighter atmosphere, the highest 
 powers of voice and music in the natives of 
 this country, of bcth sexes. 
 
 This chapter wili be aptly closed by a 
 selection of some observations from the 
 above inenLi'^ticd work of Mr. Barry, re- 
 specting the causes which, at one particular 
 period, impeded the progress of the Arts 
 amongst us. 
 
 " It will appear that the accidental cir- 
 " cumstanceofthe change of religion, which 
 *' happened just at the time we should have 
 *' set out in the Arts, gave us a dislike to 
 " the superior and nobler parts : the sub- 
 " jefK-.of the Christian history, which might 
 *' be generally understood and felt, were 
 *' theu prohibited ; so that except land- ■ 
 " scape, portrait, and still life, every thing 
 " else was either unintelligible or uninte- 
 ** resting to the people at large ; the artists 
 " then were led to praClice only the baser 
 
 ♦' and 
 
'respecting the arts op DESrGX. 207 
 
 *' and lower branches; the farther they ad- 
 *' vanced in these, the wider they wandered 
 *' from the truth and dignity of art *." 
 
 *' It appears that, until the time of Ed- 
 '• ward IV. and Queen Elizabeth, what- 
 '* ever little painting was practised in Eng- 
 '* land was of an historical nature, taken 
 '' from the legendsof the Saints, or from the 
 '* Old and New Testament. These were, as 
 " many as could be come at, destroyed, and 
 ^' the pra6lice of all such interdidied for the 
 " future. The taste of the public and the 
 " labour of the artist, was from this period 
 " turned into a new channel, and has spent 
 " itself upon portraits, landscapes, and other 
 " inanimate matters, in which the human 
 " mind, and consequently the genius of the 
 *' artist, if there were any, had little or 
 " nothing to employ itself upon ; so that 
 *' historical painting was proscribed just at 
 " the time we were going to receive the 
 
 * Inquiry into the real and imaginary Obstrudions. to 
 the Acquiaitiou of the Arts in England, chap. v. 
 
 ** qualifi- 
 
208 OF THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH 
 
 '•' qualifications that would have enabled us 
 *^ to succeed in it ; at the time when 
 " Spenser, Fairfax, and numbers of other 
 ** ingenious men were cultivating andgather- 
 *^ ing in knowledge of all kinds ancient and 
 '' foreign ; and when Lord Bacon, like 
 *' another Columbus, was leading us to the 
 ** discovery of new worlds in the regions of 
 " knowledge. 
 
 " It is a misfortune," adds this ingenious 
 author, " never entirely to be retrieved, that 
 
 * painting was not suffered to grow up 
 
 * amongst us at the same time with poetry 
 ' and the other arts and sciences, whilst 
 
 * the genius of the nation was yet forming 
 ^ its chara6ler, in strength, beauty and re- 
 ' finement. 
 
 " It would have received a strength and a 
 ^ polish ; and it would, in its turn, have 
 ' given to our poetry a greater perfe61ion 
 ' in one of its master-features, in which 
 ' (Milton and Spenser excepted) it is rather 
 
 * somewhat defedive. But the nation is 
 
 *' now 
 
BESPECTING THE ARTS OP DESIGN. 20^ 
 
 " now formed, and perhaps more than 
 ** formed, and there is cause to fear that 
 ** it may be too late to expe6l the last de- 
 ** gree of perfeclion in the Art from what 
 " we are now likely to produce in an age 
 " where, perhaps, frothy afledtations, and 
 " modish, corrupt, silly opinions of foreign 
 " as well as domestic growth, have but too 
 " generally taken place of masculine vigour 
 " and purity of taste, so necessary both for 
 *^ the artist and his employer*." 
 
 The favourable opportunity lost to the 
 Arts at the moment just described, is here 
 painted in so forcible a manner, that it 
 may be doubted if it will not appear to many 
 to be lost for ever ; but v-hosoever will take 
 into consideration the present enlightened 
 state of the public judgment, combined with 
 the a(5lual circumstances relative to the art 
 which thus vanished at the Reformation, 
 
 Ibid. chap. ix. 
 
 will 
 
210 OF THE GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH, &C. 
 
 will be inclined to indulge more pleasing 
 hopes. 
 
 These remarks have insensibly led to the 
 following brief inquiry into the present state 
 of the Arts in England. 
 
 SKETCH 
 
2J1 
 
 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Oh when shall Britain, conscious of her claim. 
 Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame ! 
 
 POPK, EPIST. TO ADCI60N, 
 
 The present moment is considered by 
 artists as teeming with the crisis, not of their 
 own destinies, but of the destiny of their Art 
 in England. The accomplished artist, lately 
 Professor of Painting in the Royal Academy, 
 thus warmly expressed his thoughts, in his 
 introdu6lory le61ure of last winter : 
 
 " The efficient cause, therefore, why 
 *' higher art at present is sunk to such a 
 *' state of inadlivity and languor, that it may 
 '•' be doubted whether it will exist much 
 
 *' longer. 
 
212 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 *' longer, is not a particular one, which 
 *' private patronage, or the will of an indi- 
 *' vidual, however great, can remove, but a 
 *' general cause founded on the bent, the 
 ** manners, the habits, the modes of a na- 
 " tion ; and not of one nation alone, but of 
 *' all who at present pretend to cultivation. 
 
 " If the Arts are to rise and flourish, 
 ** grandeur and beauty must animate the 
 " public taste, the artist must be occupied 
 '^ by significant, extensive, varied, important 
 ^* works. What right have we to expect 
 *' such a revolution in our favour ? 
 
 " We have now been in possession of an 
 ** Academy for near half a century : all the 
 ** intrinsic means of forming a style alternate 
 *' at our command ; professional instrudlion 
 " has never ceased to dire6l the student, 
 " and stimulate emulation ; and stipends 
 " are granted to relieve the wants of genius, 
 •' and to finish education by excursions to 
 " the former seats of Art. And what is the 
 *' result ? If we apply to our Exhibition, 
 *' what does it present but a gorgeous dis- 
 
 " play 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 213 
 
 '* play of great and athletic powers, con- 
 *^ demned, if not to the beasts, at least to 
 *' the di6lates of ftsliion and vanity ? what, 
 *' therefore, can be urged against the con- 
 ** elusion, that the Arts are sinking, and 
 ** threaten to sink still lower, from the 
 " want of a demand for great and significant 
 " works ?" 
 
 The statement presented to us in this en- 
 ergetic language, is the expression of a mind 
 zealous for the interests of a favourite art, 
 and with the solicitude of genius, it may be 
 hoped, fondly ovc^-rating its danger. Little 
 hesitation will be requisite in allowing, that 
 during the course of the last fifty years, 
 partly previous to, but more generally since, 
 the incorpoi'ation of the Artists under the 
 patronage of the Sovereign, Painting has, 
 in this country, made a gradual regular ad- 
 vance. It is superfluous to examine mi- 
 nutely to which of these years the absolute 
 balance of merit or success may be more 
 favourable; whether the scale incline now to 
 one painter_, and now to another ; it is not 
 
 the 
 
214 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 the less true, that the general mass of know- 
 ledge and power in pamting is increased 
 within that period. 
 
 Yet it is but too evident, that the channel 
 of the Arts, which, generally speaking, has 
 alone been hitherto open to tlie Englisli 
 painter, viz. that of portraiture and the sub- 
 ordinate branches of Design, cannot exclu- 
 sively admit of much farther progress. It is 
 a narrow riv^er, whose banks have all been 
 explored and occupied, and if it does not 
 finally open into some great ocean, Genius, 
 like a wearied navigator, must be content to 
 relinquish hope, to take shelter in his narrow 
 cell, and watch the lapse of ages in silence 
 and obscurity. But all is not lost while the 
 spirit of the artist remains unexhausted. 
 Should brighter hopes disclose their dawn, 
 should the artists of our country once 
 find, in the advance of national encourage- 
 ment, that opening of wliich they are so 
 ardently in search, they yet dare to look 
 forward to prospe61s of enchanting bright- 
 ness ; they conceive they see the Spirit of 
 
 the 
 
ARTS OP DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 215 
 
 the Arts- ready to expand his wings over their 
 destined path, 
 
 " To shed his thousand splendours on the ah" ;" 
 
 they feel a confidence that they could sted- 
 fastly keep in view his arduous flight, and 
 that, even if the progress of Fate be too 
 slow to admit of their reaching the promised 
 region, they shall at least be able to point 
 it out distindily to succeeding aspirers. 
 
 An inquiry, therefore, into the actual 
 situation of men who so earnestly express 
 their alarms and wishes, cannot be devoid of 
 interest. 
 
 Painting. 
 
 Of all the countries that have yet been 
 blessed with civilization, England is that in 
 which the Arts, in latter times, have most 
 tardily disclosed their growth ; and, if the 
 remark of Lord Kaimes be true, that " had 
 " the art of painting made a slower progress 
 " in Italy, it might have continued in vigour 
 •' to this day ;" its abode, when it sliall be 
 
 once 
 
21 6 PRESENT STATE OP THE 
 
 once established among us, may fairly be 
 supposed to promise a duration little short 
 of eternity. The walls of our palaces have 
 been, from the period of the Reformation, 
 successively covered with the works of foreign 
 artists. Holbein, Rubens, Vandyck, Lcly, 
 Kneller, nay, Verrio, Gennari, and La 
 Guerre, have by turns enjoyed the numerous 
 favours of our Sovereigns, adorned the halls 
 and filled the cabinets of the nobles ; while 
 scarcely a few portraits by the pencils of our 
 own painters, of Dobson, Jamesone, Cooper, 
 Greenhill and Riley, were thought worthy of 
 notice ; and some even of these have been 
 thrown aside to furnish moments of surprise 
 to future virtuosi, or some futile topics to 
 pedantic research. 
 
 In the present day our country has begun 
 to emerge from this state of insensibility to 
 the merit of her native artists, who, if they 
 hiave not yet ascertained their superiority in 
 the highest provinces of painting, have at 
 least in portraiture claimed the laurel for 
 their brows^i approved their native force, and 
 
 with 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 217 
 
 with the magnanimous spirit of a Chatham, 
 disdainfully sent home all auxiliaries*. From 
 the time of Highmore and Hudson, in an 
 extensive course through the works of Hoarc, 
 Dance, Gainsborough, Reynolds, and others 
 of less distinguished name, to the con- 
 spicuous efforts of the present painters, 
 whatever may have been the merits of 
 foreigners, whether drawn hither by ambi- 
 tion in their art, the report of national 
 opulence, or the hope of shelter from 
 domestic violence, the English painter of 
 portrait stands in no dread of competi- 
 tion -j-. Nay, far advanced above the 
 greatest strength of such accidental visitors, 
 our country may securely look around her, 
 and, during the period that has been men- 
 
 * It would be impertinence to suggest to the reader's 
 recolle6tion, the condu6l of the great Lord Chatham on 
 the subjea of the fortign troops, at one time employed 
 in the service of England. 
 
 t The English portrait painters seem to have awakened 
 tlie highest attention of foreign nations. The French are 
 become coUedors of English prints. 
 
 L tioned, 
 
^18 PRESENT STATE OP THE 
 
 tioned, may challenge the proudest preten- 
 sions of all Europe. 
 
 If the honest accuracy of Highrnore and 
 Hudson, the classic correctness of Hoare, 
 the bold fidelity of Dance, the airy pencil 
 and individual resemblances of Gainsborough, 
 may be placed above the common level of 
 industrious talent, in what words shall we 
 speak of him who stands pre-eminent in the 
 list ? what foreign rival will be found of his 
 transcendent powers ? how do the names 
 of Battcni and Mengs, unquestionably the 
 greatest foreign painters of our times, per- 
 ceive their laurels tremble as they reach our 
 shore ! how quickly does the dainty minute- 
 ness of the one, and the insipid labour of 
 the, other, shrink before the broad, majestic 
 fervour of Reynolds ! The triumph, indeed, 
 of superiority over such competitors, adds 
 little boast to the allowed rival of Vandyck 
 and Titian. 
 
 The honours deservedly obtained by this 
 great master have been, in various modes and 
 degrees, continued to us by his successors, 
 
 whose 
 
ARTS OP DESIGxV IN ENGLAND. IIQ 
 
 whose works form annually such a splendid 
 display of justly confident and cultivated 
 talent, as cannot be at present equalled in 
 any other country. The meed of portrait- 
 painting seems as truly our own as that 
 of naval combat, and is so decidedly ascribed 
 to us by foreign critics, that those who 
 have wished to depreciate our merits in 
 the arts, have charged us with this single 
 -excellence as a proof of defe6l in our more 
 general powers. 
 
 In landscape, the laurels of Wilson and 
 Gainsborough do not yield pre-eminence to 
 Vernet, Zuccarelli, or any other of their con- 
 temporaries. Gainsborough added to the 
 choice of all the fascinating scenery of fami- 
 liar nature, the exquisite charm of facile exe- 
 cution ; and he enriched his landscape 
 with the most interesting groups of cot- 
 tage-life. The poetic mind of Wilson 
 adopted a more elevated style. Solemnity 
 of composition, sele6lion of form, and a 
 tranquil richness of colouring, are among 
 the attractions of his works, which called 
 forth praises from the cotemporary foreign 
 L 2 artisis 
 
220 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 artists above mentioned. Besides these two 
 great exemplars, Scott and Brooking (in 
 shipping), Wright of Derby, Moore, Hodges, 
 Barrett, Wlieatley, and Morland (the two last 
 also in pi6luresque and domestic scenery), 
 have left behind them works which do honour 
 to the English School, and which no school 
 would blush to own. 
 
 Nor is the fame of our present day less 
 equal to that of other nations. Every Eng- 
 lish Exhibition presents instances of just 
 and skilful composition, of accurate design, 
 of rich and harmonious colouring, in short, 
 of a successful study of nature in all her 
 varied forms, hues, and efFec'^s ; and amongst 
 the artists of this class, some are found to 
 contest the palm with the celebrated of other 
 
 ages. 
 
 In the particular species of execution also 
 in water colours, in which modern art stands 
 vsnriviillcd, no pretensions are juster than 
 those of England. In the Exhibition rooms 
 of Somerset-house of late years, and in the 
 separate colle6\ion of last year in another 
 place^ examples have been presented of 
 
 strength 
 
ARTS OP DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 221 
 
 strength and mellowness of efFe6l, of rich- 
 ness of tint and fuHness of colour, which 
 yield little superiority to oil painting, and 
 leave little farther to be desired. 
 
 Two names in this branch of art may be 
 mentioned, which cannot be read without 
 emotions of sensibility by the lovers of genius 
 and art, — Cozens and Girtin. The former, 
 in the comprehensive, essential seizure of 
 his subjects, usually chosen from amidst the 
 phaenomena of nature's semblances ; and the 
 latter, in the almost magic expression of 
 form and efFecl in the ohjedls that sur- 
 rounded him, alike lay claim to the most 
 unlimited praise. 
 
 With these is to be recorded T. Sandby, 
 excellent in architecture and landscape. 
 
 Happy were it for us, if we coulcl with 
 equal triumph remove the charge brought 
 against us by other nations, of deficiency in 
 historic painting. It cannot be denied that 
 emulation, the great source of excellence, is 
 less a61:ive in this than in the former de- 
 partments (the cause of which has been 
 L 3 already 
 
222 PRESENT STATE OP THE 
 
 already assigned), and that works in the 
 higher provinces of this cla&s_, do not con- 
 stitute the prominent feature of our school. 
 
 The pencil of Sir James Thornhill first 
 disclosed the steps of our returning art. 
 The cupola of St. Paul's, and the ceiling 
 of Greenwich Hospital, exhibited an ample 
 display of composition, of well arranged and 
 diversified groups ; the Shipwreck, and the 
 Conversion of St. Paul, cannot be slightly 
 estimated in this respe6l ; but he made no 
 effort to enter on any forcible or high ex- 
 pression of mind; all is comprised in general 
 forms. His talents are to be compared, in 
 hind, to those of Pietro da Cortona, but the 
 ceiling at Greenwich may fail of keeping its 
 place, in degree, at the side of that of the 
 Barberini, because the Roman painter, like 
 the inse6l that forms the Device of his 
 patron, had extracted more rich and various 
 sweets from the fragrant garden in which he 
 ■was nursed. 
 
 After Thornhill, we look in vain for speci- 
 mens of epic art worthy of notice, almost until 
 
 the 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IX ENGLAND. 223 
 
 the period of the Royal Academy, since whose 
 institution, amidst the zealous and frequently 
 successful efforts of artists, have been wit- 
 nessed the inefFe6\ual struggles of historical 
 painting to stem the tide of public negledl. 
 The patroncge of our gracious Sovereign has, 
 indeed, in a single instance, given employ- 
 ment to historic art ; and it is to the exertions 
 made under that illustrious patronage that 
 the fame of British painting owes much of 
 its consequence in all parts of the Continent. 
 Liberal signs of encouragement have also 
 been shown by some public bodies, princi- 
 pally by the Society for the Encouragement 
 of Arts, &c. But all these unfortunately are, 
 alike, insulated examples, all have failed of 
 exciting emulation where it was chiefly to 
 be expelled, — unless the present be the 
 long-desired, auspicious moment of their 
 influence. 
 
 The historical efforts of Reynolds discover 
 beautiful, but vague, combinations, and im- 
 pressive, but desultory grandeur; these are 
 L 4 germs 
 
224 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 germs of historic talent which, had they been 
 matured by an earlier disposition of the na- 
 tion to the encouragement of the Arts, would, 
 no doubt, have risen to a much higher de- 
 gree of excellence ; at the same time it would 
 partake of infatuated partiality to assert, that 
 the compositions or the conceptions of 
 Reynolds would ever have equalled the 
 Homeric poem of the Capella Sistina, or the 
 no less Homeric drama of the Vatican. 
 
 In subjeds of sportive fancy, his produc- 
 tions neither envy the past, nor fear a future 
 age. In this province, and in domestic or 
 familiar history, the native and chara6leristic 
 powers of our English painters have been 
 chiefly shew^. At the head of the latter 
 class stands Hogarth, a painter unequalled 
 in the graphic Comedy, and Farce (if the 
 term may be pardoned) of nature. His 
 eulogy has been so often written, and lately 
 so amply displayed by a learned and noble 
 author, that it would be here superfluous ; 
 but it may be allowable to remark, that in 
 
 the 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 215 
 
 the conspicuous prominence of the intel- 
 le6tual and moral properties of his art, in 
 the wit, humour, and patriotism of his 
 scenes, his powers in other professional 
 points have been chiefly overlooked. The 
 pi6lure of the Boys playing on the Tomb- 
 stone, at the same time that it lays claim to 
 some of the highest moral historic merits, is 
 an instance of the most skilful, and it may be 
 added, grand composition. In the series of 
 Marriage a la Mode, several of the subje6ls 
 are painted with a breadth, force, and clear- 
 ness of colour, which liave seldom been 
 surpassed ; the Breakfast Table is the most 
 striking instance of these merits. 
 
 Immediately after this great painter, none 
 are to be mentioned in his school, who are not 
 eminently surpassed by the artists now living. 
 In the Exhibitions of late years have been 
 seen specimens of genuine humour, worthy 
 to confirm our pre-.^minence in a branch of 
 historic art in which we have once stood 
 so unquestionably without a rival. In c nn- 
 L 5 positions 
 
226 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 positions of familiar, serious moralj the 
 present day affords also numerous instances 
 of merit, which will not bow the crest to the 
 interesting ?m?y pencil of Greuse, or of other 
 foreign painters of the same class ; the ex- 
 amples of this kind are the most numerous 
 of any in the class of history in our Exhi- 
 bitions. 
 
 In these provinces, therefore, we have 
 much to boast, and, in the class of higher 
 history, the excellent but rare specimens 
 which have been produced during an inferior 
 state of encouragement, authorize a doubt 
 whether our deficiency be not greater in 
 number than in strength. 
 
 Few of our artists have devoted them- 
 selves exclusively to the pra6lice of any class 
 of historic painting ; the name of Mortimer 
 is almost the only one in the records of past 
 days; far the greater number have conceded 
 a large portion of their time and study to 
 portraiture, with the success already men- 
 tioned ; they have seldom been able to divert 
 the attention of opulence and rank to the 
 
 abstract 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. '227 
 
 abstract beauties of their art, or the inde- 
 pendent efforts which they themselves have 
 made in it *. 
 
 The genius of Reynolds sometimes pre- 
 vailed also in this difficult point ; his Ugo- 
 lino, his Natiiity, his Infant Hercules, be- 
 came sulijedls of attention to nobles and 
 monarchs. The endeavours of most of our 
 other painters have met a different fate. 
 Their greatest exertions have been made in 
 the various galleries which have in turn 
 deservedly excited the attention of the 
 people. One of these galleries was formed 
 by the vigorous efforts of an individual 
 artist, the others were derived from employ- 
 ment established on commercial specula- 
 
 * If circumstances did not so distinftly point out the 
 causes of the slender growth of historic painting amongst 
 us, I shouM be induced to hazard a conjecture, that the 
 peculiar propensity to portraiture among English artists 
 was, in some mode, conne6ted with, and springing from, 
 the national love and study of humour, which must be 
 too evidently of assistance in portraiture, to need a re~ 
 mark, and much less an argument. 
 
 L 6 tions. 
 
428 PRESENT STATE OP THE 
 
 tions, certainly not favourable to the severer 
 process of art. The merits of these gal- 
 leries are now appreciated by the public, and 
 their result has been already noticed. 
 
 It is lamentable to refle6l, that the cir- 
 cumstance which has of late chiefly contri- 
 buted to the support of the historic artists, 
 should, at the same time, have conduced to 
 the depression of the historic art, viz. the 
 employment afforded by the zeal and bounty 
 of the printscllers. This is the natural re- 
 fuge of painters when unpatronized by the 
 great in rank, or greater public authority ; 
 and, as Goldsmith has observed respe6ling 
 booksellers and authors, " there cannot be, 
 " perhaps, imagined a combination more 
 *•' prejudicial to taste than this." The 
 principal objedl in view is, for the most 
 ]jart, the producStion of such works as 
 (when engraved) will make a competent 
 appearance in a periodical publication, or a 
 new edition of a favourite author, to supply 
 the ordinary demands of the metropolis, or 
 the larger market of the Continent. " In 
 
 " these 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 229 
 
 " these circumstances," says the same writer, 
 " the autlior bids adieu to fame, and writes 
 " for bread ; and for that only imagination 
 *' is seldom called in*." 
 
 Yet it must be confessed that even under 
 this humiliating veil of national art, its de- 
 portment not unfrequently betrays its ex- 
 alted birth. How often, in the most trifling 
 of these compositions, are we surprised by 
 the dawnings of grace in outline and com- 
 position, the boldness of efFe(5l, the accuracy 
 of tbrm, the truth of expression ! qualities, 
 of power to withdraw and detain the eye of 
 the reader from the verse he loves, and 
 sometimes to contest with the poet the 
 v.reath of intellectual triumph ! qualities 
 worthy of nobler patronage ! 
 
 To the printsellers and booksellers, how- 
 ever, the art of painting will perhaps, in a 
 great measure, owe its future eminence. 
 They first seem to "have discovered the 
 cravings of the public spirit in this respeci ; 
 
 * Inquiry into the Present State of Polite L arning. 
 
 and 
 
230 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 and have justly furnished hopes that a 
 brighter aera is approaching ; but what pa- 
 tron in a higher station of Hfe in this im- 
 mensely opulent nation, what individual, 
 rich or great, has dared to vie with a print- 
 seller ! BOYDELL, MaCKLIN, BoWYER, 
 
 these are the only names which exacl the 
 tribute of gratitude from the modern class 
 of historic artists in England*. Nay, it may 
 almost be asked what single work of an 
 historic nature has been painted for any 
 other patron ? If there be exceptions, as 
 no dpubt there are, they are yet so few as to 
 amount, in the general scale of the question, 
 to little more than nothing. For him, the 
 enlightened, the liberal-minded Maecenas, 
 
 ■* Mr. Josiah Eoydell, the co-partner of the under- 
 takings of the late patriotic Alderman, has proposed a 
 judicious and liberal scheme for the encouragement of 
 the Arts, on a commercial basis. Such comprehensive 
 schemes of encouragement are by no means included 
 under the remarks which have just been made, but may 
 be regarded as in the highest degree deserving of public 
 favour. 
 
 who 
 
ARTS OP DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 231 
 
 who shall arise to open this new path of 
 national triumph, who shall vow the first 
 temple to the permanency of the arts in his 
 country, 
 
 BONIS ARTIBUS MANENTIBUS 
 
 for him a place is prepared in the gallery of 
 English fame, for him a wreath is already 
 wove by the consent of every muse*. 
 
 It is next to wonderful, that an ambitious 
 design of this kind should not sooner have 
 
 ■* It would be an unjust neglect on tins occasion, not to 
 mention two names well deserving the regard of artists j 
 those of Mr. Bernard, governor of the Foundling, and 
 Mr, Hardman, of Manchester. 
 
 Mr. Bernard possesses a colle6lion which consists 
 cluefly (or entirely) of the works of modern English 
 artists. This gentleman, whose life is a series of a6tive 
 benevolence, is said to have annually set apart, during 
 many years past, for the purchase of works of his own 
 countrymen, such a sum as he esteemed proportionate 
 to his station and wealth. 
 
 Mr. Hardman has also formed a coUedion of piftures 
 by modern artists. I believe these are the only col- 
 ie^Sors of this kind, but I sincerely hope they are not. 
 
 suggested 
 
232 PRESENT STATE OP THE 
 
 suggested itself; that amidst the expensive 
 colle6tions of use and ornament, of ores, of 
 flowers, of fossils, grasses, and butterflies, 
 while the material produ6ls of our land are 
 carefully and scientifically arranged, one col- 
 ledlion of its mental stores should be deemed 
 unworthy of regard. 
 
 It is with pleasure that the writer of these 
 pages again finds himself called on to advert 
 to the recent and yet infant establishment of 
 the British Institution. The benevolence 
 and bounty which have graced its birth, will 
 continue to diffuse their cheering influence 
 over the labours of the artist, and will find 
 in his frratitude their best reward. It is 
 ardently to be wished by every lover of his 
 country's fame (and it is little to be doubted), 
 that so zealous a patronage may not dissipate 
 its strength in the gratifying emotions of 
 momentary beneficence, but may be solidly 
 concentrated in some plan which will extend 
 and perpetuate its operations, so as to render 
 tliem efl^e6i:ive of the continual advance of 
 the Arts towards their highest glories; every 
 
 mode 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 233 
 
 mode of progress is within the power of such 
 a combination of rank and wealth. It is 
 not to be expe6led that the attention re- 
 quisite to so arduous a projedt can equally 
 be paid by all, but it may be reasonably 
 looked for among those enlightened and 
 amiable men, who combine the ardour of 
 pursuit with the relish of intelledlual plea- 
 sure, and may properly be said to cultivate 
 the tasle of science and social virtue. 
 
 Nor does it appear from the statement 
 which has been given, that the high en- 
 couragement so much desired, would at the 
 present moment be improperly conferred. 
 It is a melancholy satisfa6lion to remark, 
 that the Arts in this country are as hig-h in 
 power and pretension as in any other part 
 of the globe *. The Plastic Art, if it be in- 
 deed expiring, may boast the dignity of 
 
 * Some modern artists at Rome are mentioned with 
 considerable praise by Kotzebue, in his late Travels 
 through Italy. The subjeds of their pencils are chiefly 
 of the heroic kind. 
 
 drawing 
 
234 PEESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 drawing in with its last breath the air of 
 every region and climate. In the breast, 
 however, of the ardent lover of his native 
 soil, far different hopes will open their blos- 
 soms; he will forebode to Britain the re- 
 newal of those important honours which 
 the Arts have formerly brought on na- 
 tions ; of those moral benefits which have 
 been derived from them ; he will build his 
 confidence on the slow but sure genius of 
 his country, whose energies, not easily 
 roused, rest only in victory. 
 
 It does not appear requisite to notice the 
 subordinate divisions of Painting into Crayon, 
 Miniature, and Enamel, in which the various 
 degrees of national ability are generally pro- 
 portionate to the state of the higher pro- 
 vinces of art. 
 
 Sculpture. 
 
 In the examination of the other branch 
 of the Plastic Art, Sculpture, it W\\\ probably 
 strike the reader with surprise, when he shall 
 
 be 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 235 
 
 be told that almost until the present day, 
 until the cotemporaries of Wilton, Bacon, 
 and Banks, England has not been able to 
 boast a single native sculptor of eminence 
 since the aera of the Reformation. Previous 
 to that time theie are to be found many 
 English names in this department of art ; 
 a circumstance which corroborates the state- 
 ment already given of the causes of our na- 
 tional deficiency in this respedt. 
 
 The fanaticism of l648 renewed the de- 
 vastation which the Reformation had first 
 authorized. At the return of royalty, al- 
 though the arts returned not, artists flocked 
 in crowds to the court of unceasing gaiety, 
 profusion, and luxury. The strength of the 
 native artist was still drooping under the fatal 
 anathemas of reform ; the inability which 
 prohibitory laws and penalties had induced, 
 became a ground of reproach, and a suc- 
 cessive train of foreigners obtained an easy 
 triumph. Cibber, Gibbons, Scheemaker, 
 R} sbrach, Bertocini, and Roubillac, occupied 
 in turn the post of superior talent. All 
 
 [these 
 
236 
 
 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 these have left behind them works of inge- 
 nious labour, of which some may justly be 
 considered ornamental to our country, but it 
 was not to be expe6led that the Arts should 
 rise to the highest honours during the 
 exclusive employment of foreigners, or that 
 they should be diredled to exalted uses by 
 men who had no other interest in their suc- 
 cess than as they procured the passing fa- 
 vour of employers in a strange land. The 
 Arts wdll never ascend to noble purposes, will 
 never pnt forth the great uses o!" which they 
 are capable, unless guided by patriotism. 
 It is that vital principle, that concentrate 
 sentiment of public achievement, which 
 alone can elevate, inspire, immortalize. 
 
 Banks was among those who most zea- 
 lously sought the enlargement of profes- 
 sional knowledge in the stores of Rome. A 
 mind ardently roused to competition with 
 the works of excellence which he beheld, 
 and a hand trained from infancy to a ready 
 expression of his conceptions, imparted to 
 
 his 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 237 
 
 his produ6lions an air of ancient art. He 
 gave to his Cupid the softness of charac- 
 teristic form, and spirit and manly energy 
 to his Caraciacus. But he returned to a 
 country not yet capable of feeling his worth; 
 the statue of Cupid which he brought home 
 in 177Qj found no purchaser, and he was 
 induced, in 178I, to carry it to St. Peters- 
 burg, where it was bought by the Empress 
 Catharine, and j)laced in the gardens of 
 Czarsco-zelo. Banks did not remain at 
 Rome late enough to witness the risinjr 
 glories of Canova, the only sculptor who 
 could then have contested the palm with him 
 in Italy. 
 
 Bacon's genius was of native growth ; he 
 traversed no distant regions for improve- 
 ment of his art, but drew from the researches 
 of others suihcient food for an a61ive and 
 ready fancy. His conceptions were quick: 
 and sparkling, his execution polished, and 
 his whole work charadleristically graceful. 
 A Britannia brandishing her thunderbolt, 
 
 and 
 
238 PRESENT STATE OP THE 
 
 and an infant Orphan* imploring shelter 
 for his shuddering frame, are alike the pro- 
 dudlions of graceful and tender feelings. 
 
 The genius of Wilton, not less cultivated 
 by study, was of inferior energy to that of 
 Bacon or Banks. 
 
 To this slight memorial of departed ta- 
 lents, must be added another name which 
 calls forth the regrets of those who wish the 
 advance of the Arts, 
 
 " And in a Pkocter's fate, a Phidias mourn f .*' 
 
 To the unwearied studies of the artists 
 just mentioned, and of others now living, 
 whose names will, at a future period, do 
 equal honour to the history of our country, 
 is to be attributed the revival of sculpture in 
 England. The custom of visiting Italy, the 
 
 * The figure of a destitute child asking protedtion from 
 Charity, was first executed for the Marine Society, and 
 afterwards copied for the Bloomsbury School : the work 
 is every way worthy of immortality. 
 
 f Rhymes on Art. Mr. Shee's note on this passage 
 furnishes an additional argument for the watchful care of 
 patronage. 
 
 once 
 
ARTS OP DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 23^ 
 
 once peaceful Elysium of the Arts, has stored 
 the minds of the students with inteile6lual 
 treasures. From that source have flowed 
 the purer conceptions which our sculpture 
 has of late displayed. A competition with 
 the fine forms and beautiful outlines of the 
 antique statues has banished the vitiated 
 taste of Puget's and Bernini's school, 
 which had so long and undisputedly flou- 
 rished under the foreigners before enume- 
 rated ; and our Exhibitions have afforded 
 examples of a pure and correct style. 
 
 The vote passed in 1798 by the House of 
 Commons, for the ere6lion of sepulchral 
 monuments to the heroes who had died in 
 the defence of their country, although it did 
 not primarily spring from a regard for the 
 Arts, afforded to the sculptors a happy 
 opportunity of doing honour to themselves 
 and to Endand*. The monuments ered^ed 
 
 in 
 
 * In consideration merely of ihe advantage to be de- 
 rived to the Arts, it were here again to be wished, that 
 the respe^ive execution of each monument had been 
 
 allotted 
 
2-10 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 in the two cathedrals of the metropolis, to 
 the memory of various officers of our navy 
 and army, will stand as records of the sud- 
 den elevation of sculpture at the present 
 period. 
 
 And i^ay not this instance of talents thus 
 honourably called forth by accidental pa- 
 tronage in one department, naturally entitle 
 us to analo2;ous presumption in respe6l of 
 the other classes of art ? May it not justify 
 the supposition, that while the Exhibitions 
 
 allotted to the sculptors by the judgment of their fellow- 
 artists. Every other interference is in danger of being 
 prejudicial to the result of their efforts. So judicious in 
 this instance is the sentence of Pliny, " De pi6tore, sculp- 
 *' tore, fiftore, nisi artifex jndirare non potest." 
 
 Critics, unacquainted with prjftice, are, in every art, 
 apt to persuade themselves, >hat they could dire6t the artist 
 to the execution of such works as would be more proper 
 for his peculiar talents, and mure creditable to his reputa- 
 tion, than those which lie chooses for himself: they judge, 
 therefore, by their opinions or prejudices derived from 
 extr-^neous sources ; but a jury of artists would judge by 
 their knowledge, not only of the art, but of the power 
 of execution adually possessed by the artist concerned. 
 
 of 
 
AllTS OP DBSIGX IN ENGLAND. 241 
 
 of every year demonstrate various talents 
 inadequately exerted, and genius stooping 
 its powers to custom, or sacrificing them to 
 casual employment, the shackles which a 
 nation forbears to loose, are worn by hands 
 worthy of superior toil ? 
 
 In the peculiar branch of Sculpture of 
 Gems, English skill is likewise of very mo- 
 dern date. 
 
 In medals, or engraving in steel, the name 
 of Thomas Simons is justly conspicuous dur- 
 ing the time of Charles I. the Common- 
 wealth, and part of the reign of Charles II. 
 Tliis artist excepted, far the greater praise 
 has been due to foreigners, who have resided 
 among us, such as Tanner (by whom is a 
 head of Milton), Dassier, Nattier (excel- 
 1-ent also in Gems), and, in a later period, 
 Droz, &c. 
 
 In the present reign, Kirk has left works 
 (both in steel and stone), of considerable 
 merit; but our coins have long been, and 
 still are, inadequate to the just expe(5^ations 
 of Art. 
 
 M Our 
 
14'% PRESENT STATE OF THB 
 
 Our present day boasts of art in Gem- 
 Sculpture, that vies with the greatest merits 
 of Pichler, or Andrieu, in their respective 
 works. 
 
 jirchiteSlure, 
 
 Although the consideration of the na- 
 tional importance of Architedure has not 
 been made a part of the principal subjecSl of 
 the foregoing chapters, yet in a general view 
 of the present state of the Arts in England, it 
 cannot fail to demand an equal attention. 
 
 The productions of Archite61ure are ne- 
 cessarily more obvious to general observa- 
 tion than those of the two former branches 
 of art, but its progress is more difficult to 
 be ascertained, on account of its multifarious 
 operations, and of the great number of unde- 
 fined degrees which it is capable of admitting 
 both in works and artificers. The leading 
 features by which it is to be distinguished in 
 our country are few ; the nature of our state, 
 with regard to its financial regulations, ren- 
 ders the construdion of great public edifices 
 
 very 
 
ARTS OP DESIGN IN ENGLAND. ^43 
 
 'rery rare in England. Projedls are often 
 discussed, and long deferred. Plans of a 
 Residence for our Sovereign, and of a Senate- 
 house for our Parliament, have been by 
 turns proposed and negle6led; new churches, 
 and new mansions of our nobility, have 
 been sufficiently numerous; but amongst 
 our recent buildings nothing is yet to be 
 seen resembling the " solemn temple," or 
 ** the gorgeous palace." 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, this general 
 statement, the architedts of England, since 
 the days of Sir Christopher Wren, have con- 
 structed the PUBLIC EDIFICES o^ Blenheim, 
 the Bridges of JVestminster and Blackfriars, 
 the Bank^ the India-House^ Newgate, Somer" 
 set-House, the Pantheon, and the Theatres s 
 all of them works of considerable importance, 
 even in comparison with other nations. 
 
 No one of the fine arts is more especially 
 under the dominion of the artist's employer 
 than Architedure. The painter or the 
 sculptor may venture to execute a single, 
 work of art without total despair of indem- 
 nification for his labour; but palaces and 
 M 2 temple 
 
2d 4 PKESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 temples can o«ly be built at the public risk, 
 and,' with whatever treasures the mind be 
 fraught, the hand of the architect is chained, 
 unless the state demand the advantage of his 
 skill. 
 
 From no less distant a period than from 
 the time of Inigo Jones, who may be said to 
 have brought Palladio into England, there 
 subsisted among us an unceasing, but inferior, 
 imitation of the Italian modes of building. 
 Devotion to this species of A.rchite6lure was 
 so great, and so deeply rooted, that every 
 deviation from its standard was thought a 
 trespass against Common Sense. '^ Were 
 " a modern archite6l," says Hogarth, " to 
 " build a palace in Lapland, or the West 
 '^ Indies, Pallndio must be his guide, nor 
 ** would he dare to stir a .step without his 
 " book." 
 
 Pile Italian modes of building were un- 
 fortunately ill adapted to our climate : the 
 unremitting glare of Italian suns required 
 precautions which our milder sky does not 
 make necessary; and the oppressive fervour 
 of an Italian summer diclated the refuge of 
 
 secluded 
 
ARTS OP DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 115 
 
 secluded apartments which our softer at- 
 mosphere induces us to avoid, and which 
 the moisture of an insular situation renders 
 dangerous. Nor were those modes unfre- 
 quently employed to the annoyance of the 
 a6lual inhabitants of such houses as were 
 ere6led under the influence of this prejudice; 
 ponderous cornices threatened, each moment, 
 destruction to the banquet and the bed, and 
 clumsy mouldings, round the doors and 
 windows, occupied tlie spaces most important 
 to grace and comfort. 
 
 From this slavery of taste we have been 
 emancipated by a fortunate revolution in 
 the art, which has gradually taken place 
 within the course of the last fifty years, 
 during which the British nation has enjoyed 
 the glory of having rescued from impending 
 oblivion the invaluable remains of Grecian 
 Archite(?.ure. 
 
 The labours of Stuart and Revett* gave, 
 
 * To whom Stuart was principally indebted for the 
 accuracy of his measurements, 
 
 m3 not 
 
246 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 not only to therr own country, but to the 
 whole world, correal measurements and de- 
 lineations of the existing monuments of 
 Greece. Le Roy, a French architect of no 
 mean desert, visited that country about the 
 same time, but the merits, not only of greater 
 energy of study and investigation, but of 
 greater accuracy also, rest on this occasion 
 with the English artists. From the period 
 of those communications the adoption of 
 the beautiful mouldings of Athens began to 
 take place of dull, cumbrous, monotonous 
 proje6tions ; and the tasteful apartments 
 and edifices constru6led by the Adams, com- 
 pleted an universal change from heavy in- 
 sipidity to grace and elegance. 
 
 Stuart, possessing some learning and con- 
 siderable general information in the arts, 
 judiciously forbore to attempt any deviation 
 in. style from the models he had brought 
 liome ; his plans and designs were such as 
 be had seen exemplified in Greece, and such 
 as he justly conceived worthy of imitation. 
 
 The mind of Pvobert Adam was more 
 
 aspiring. 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 247 
 
 aspiring. Having studied his art in Italy, 
 and bringing home with him a great stor« 
 of drawings oF all that Italy could furnish to 
 the eye of an architedl, he introduced a style 
 of decoration, which was chiefly derived 
 from the antique Baths and the Loggie of 
 RafFaelle in the Vatican, but which his na- 
 tural strength of capacity, incorporating 
 with its individual powers the taste displayed 
 in those works, had rendered distindly his 
 own. 
 
 Something of a similar kind had been pre- 
 viously attempted by Kent, an artist of great 
 celebrity, under the patronage of the Earl 
 of Burlington, in the reign of George II. 
 but the attempt was at best but feebly ex- 
 ecuted. 
 
 Besides this new rise of taste, atid the 
 beauty of the ornamental parts introduced 
 by these various artists, nothing is more 
 remarkable in the progress of Archite(5lure 
 in this latter period, than the great and 
 general diffusion of good sense, elegance, 
 and convenience in our dwellings ; a source 
 M 4 of 
 
248 PRESENT STATE OP THK 
 
 of comforts of which every one is sensible 
 from daily experience. 
 
 Taste, however, unchecked by the exist- 
 ence of any great standards of art in this 
 country, deviates hourly into numberless 
 eccentric paths, and our modes of building 
 are now nearly as various as the humours of 
 our minds. 
 
 The reader will not be displeased to see, 
 on this occasion, the following extradis from 
 the remarks of one of the most eminent 
 iiichitecls of our time: 
 
 " The advance of the sister arts of Paint- 
 " ing and Sculpture, have a great influence 
 '' over tiiat of Architedlure. The grace of 
 '* form and proportion can but little be ex- 
 " pe(5ied from tlie mere use of the rule and 
 '* compass. Archite^lure arrived at its per- 
 " feclion when Painting and Sculpture, at 
 ** Atliens, were in all their glory, and the 
 *• ardent pursuit of those delightful arts in 
 *• this country, at the present moment, will 
 *' probably influence and refine the taste 
 " of our architccfts. 
 
 " For 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. I^Q 
 
 " For a great number of years this art 
 *' has been exercised under the dominion 
 •' of a sort of bigotry to what has been blindly 
 " denominated the rules of Archite6tnre. 
 " It would be difficult to shew in what these 
 " rules consist, independently of tho.se 
 *' proportions of the orders of columns 
 " which have been laid down by different 
 '' Italian masters, but in which none of them 
 " agree. It may, however, be observed, 
 *' that the silent acquiescence in these un- 
 *' defined rules had the efFed of preventing, 
 *' in some measure, that mischief which 
 " might be expecled to arise from the un- 
 " governed whims of unskilful professors. 
 " Danger may also justly be feared from 
 " the present almost licentious pra6lice 
 '• which is to be observed in some of onr 
 " recent works, to say nothing of the grow- 
 *' ino; fashion which induces our noblemen 
 *' and gentry to fortify themselves in Castles^ 
 ** or to retire into the gloomy apartments of 
 '•• Gothic Abbeys of their own construc- 
 •' tion. 
 
 M 5 " Con si- 
 
250 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 ** Considerable powers of mind are iin- 
 *■* questionably requisite in the higher de- 
 *' partments of this art, not to mention the 
 " deep knowledge of mechanics required 
 *^ occasionally by the great archite6l. But 
 ** although its principal objedl involve the 
 *' highest efforts of imagination and inven- 
 " tion, it seems to have been the invariable 
 ** do6lrine inculcated universally throughout 
 " Europe, almost ever since the revival of 
 " the arts in Italy, that the architedl was 
 " to give himself up to implicit imitation. 
 " The result has been, that a few modes 
 *' have been adopted, and, like sheep, all 
 " have followed in the same track. Look 
 '* at the Italians since the fifteenth century, 
 " and behold the result of this acquiescence 
 *' in fashion, among the innumerable build- 
 *' ings of Italy ! A monotonous imitation of 
 ** these, a little better or a little worse, has 
 *' filled Europe with samples out of the 
 " same work-shop. This art, which is 
 ** capable of giving full exercise to the 
 *' most extensive faculties of the mind, has 
 
 " hitherto 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IX ENGLAND. 251 
 
 ** hitherto laboured under the same sort of 
 *' predominant influence as that which re- 
 " gulatcs the modes of design and work- 
 ** manship in the most ordinary parts of our 
 <* dress. 
 
 " The great scope afforded to the inven- 
 " tive faculty by this art, therefore, has 
 " hitherto been of but little avail. From 
 " the time of its exercise amongst the 
 «* Greeks to the present period, a favourite 
 " mode once adopted has been followed im- 
 ** plicitly without peculiar adaptation. The 
 '* Greek temple, for its purpose, was p^r- 
 *' haps as near to perfedion as human art 
 " can hope to arrive ; but what are we to 
 " think of the nature of this art, when 
 " we see the most appropriate emblems of 
 " Pagan rites transferred, in such a country 
 *' as this, to buildings of a different or even 
 *' opposite import* ? 
 
 '' It 
 
 * I profess myself strongly impressed with the justness 
 
 of these remarks. I have never been able to conteive 
 
 why the flower wUich suggested a form for the capital 
 
 >i6 of- 
 
232 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 " It is not by servilely imitating mould- 
 *' ings, or the ornaments of antiquity, merely 
 *' because they are antique, that works can 
 '•' be produced which will endure the criti- 
 " cism, or obtain the approbation, of poste- 
 " rity. There is in all works of Taste a 
 " ground of invariable good sense, without 
 " which, though paltry produ6)ions mav 
 *• endure an ephemeridal period, they will 
 *' quickly sink to their true level, and be lost 
 *' in the great gulph of thi)igs of no value.'''' 
 Besides the artists who have been men- 
 tioned as the chief improvers of English 
 laste, the most eminent architet^ls (from Sir 
 C. Wren to those now living), have been 
 Sir J. Vanbrugh, the Earl of Burlington, 
 Gibbs, Isaac Ware, and Sir William Cham- 
 bers. 
 
 of a column in Greece, should be thought indispensablj 
 applicable to the same use ia Italy, France, and Eug- 
 land. Are there no appropriale ornameuts of ^ch 
 country? would the blended oak-leaf and acorn form 
 less beautiful masses to crown our colum.;s than the 
 foliage of an acanthus ? 
 
 The 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 253 
 
 The respe6live merits of all these are 
 well known. Of the^r^^, only, so often un- 
 justly depreciated, it may be proper to say, 
 that his powerful and comprehensive mind 
 was well calculated to give birth to great 
 nobleness of general effedl in his public edi- 
 fices, but tliey were loaded with heavy parts, 
 and this defe6l soon attradled the notice of 
 criticism, exposed him to the shafts of sar- 
 castic wit, and fixed on his works a repu- 
 tation, which, for a long time, superseded in 
 the mind of the public the sense of their real 
 value. 
 
 Of the last, Somerset- House is the most 
 conspicuous work. 
 
 In the space of the last thirty years, the 
 number of professors of this art in Great 
 Britain has increased tenfold. Many students 
 have prosecuted their studies in Italy ; and 
 from the additional means of improvement 
 furnished by the Royal Academy, a clearer 
 road has been open to genius, 
 
 " And emulation hath a thousand sons 
 " That, one by one, pursiie." 
 
 In 
 
254 PRESENT STATE OP THE 
 
 In a view of national competition, it is to be 
 regretted that the education of architedls 
 in England is inferior to that which they 
 receive in other countries ; it is less regular, 
 less scientific, than in France. Nor is the 
 public attention to forward the advancement 
 of the art and to correal its abuses, in any 
 measure equal to that which the Spanish 
 government at present pays to the regula- 
 tion of its powers, and the adaptation of them 
 to general utility. 
 
 Yet such has been the persevering in- 
 dustry and emulation of individuals, that 
 from the specimens of skill and knowledge 
 daily exhibited amongst us, there is every 
 reason to believe the architeds of this 
 country equal to the construction of build- 
 ings that would do honour to any time or 
 nation. 
 
 To this general statement of English Art, 
 it remains to add a few words respe6\ing 
 Engraving, evidently influenced in the high- 
 est degree by the state of Painting and 
 
 Sculpture, 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 255 
 
 Sculpture, and influencing in its turn the 
 celebrity of either art. 
 
 Ejigravmg. 
 
 From the period of the Restoration, Eng- 
 land has given birth to Faithorne, Gay- 
 wood, Place, and White, and, for our greater 
 honour, to Barlow and Vertue. Bar- 
 low, indeed, can hardly be considered 
 under the especial head of Engraving ; his 
 works are the produ(5^ions of genius of a 
 general description, replete with various ex- 
 pressions of nature, and with rich effect. 
 He was chiefly excellent in the delineation 
 of animals, in which, although less corredt 
 in outline and form than Rydinger and some 
 others in that branch of art, he far surpassed 
 them in expressing the distindlive chara6ier 
 of each particular species of animal. 
 
 Vertue succeeded to White, and contri- 
 buted to raise the honour of an art whidi 
 he practised with eminent success. Rich- 
 ness of ornament, variety and discrimination 
 of surface^ delicacy of execution, and inge- 
 nuity 
 
2o6 PRESENT State of the 
 
 Euity of invention, are among the chara(5!er- 
 istic powers of Vertiie. 
 
 With his name may be miited those of 
 Pine and Pond ; but notwithstraidino- the 
 merits of these various professors, the art, 
 soon after the period of their works, sunk to 
 so low a state of estimation ; and so rapid has, 
 since, been the return and rise of Encrravins: 
 in the present reign, that, about the time of 
 the birth of our gracious Sovereign, this art 
 may be said to have been born again to 
 England. 
 
 The first engravers of distinguished merit 
 in this latter period, were Strange, in history 
 and portrait, and Woollett in figures and 
 landscape; both acquired the rudiments of 
 their art under the tuition of masters of very 
 inferior abilities. Strange afterwards visited 
 France, where Engraving was in a much 
 higher state than among us. 
 
 IVille, ylliamet, Beauverlet, Lempereiire, 
 and others of lesser public name, were in- 
 contestably the best engravers of that time. 
 The first of these was deservedly celebrated 
 
 for 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. 257 
 
 for the peculiar beauty of his line^ and bril- 
 liancy of his graving. He is allowed by 
 professional judgment to have carried the 
 manual art of Engraving to a point of ex- 
 cellence in which he is scarcely in danger of 
 being at any time surpassed. With this 
 eminent artist, Woollett entered into a cor- 
 respondence, which promoted the mutual 
 introduction of their works into each king- 
 dom. 
 
 It is a singular circumstance, that the two 
 English artists who have been mentioned, 
 raised at once the fame of this country to a 
 level with that of any other. The Fenus 
 attired by the Graces, from Guido, and the 
 Niobe, from Wilson, were the first of their 
 produdlions that attradled the notice of the 
 public, and it is questionable whether they 
 may not still be counted among the most 
 deserving of public admiration ; Woollett's 
 reputation, however, lost nothing of its lustre 
 by his exquisite produclions from the cele- 
 brated pidures of the Death of Wolfe, and 
 
 the 
 
"558 PBESENT STATE OP THE 
 
 the Battle off La Hogue, works whose high 
 value is known in every part of Europe. 
 
 The softness given to the flesh by Strange, 
 and the appropriate expression of different 
 substances by the graver of Woollett, may 
 be regarded as standards of excellenee in their 
 respective kinds. 
 
 The great merits of the Florentine, Barto- 
 lozzi, so long resident, and so justly famous, 
 with uSj did not eclipse the names of these 
 our native artists ; but it would be ingratitude 
 to his labours to omit remarking, that, besides 
 the emulation inspired by his accomplished 
 talents, this country is in no little degree 
 indebted to him for the general improvement 
 of taste in various departments of his art. 
 The Diploma of the Royal Academicians, 
 from a design by Cipriani, is one of his finest 
 works ; the portraits of Lord Thurlow and 
 Lord'Mansfield, from Reynolds, are examples 
 of the highest delicacy of workmanship. His 
 engravings of ornamental designs, emble- 
 Uiatic embellishments, and other similar parts 
 
 of 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN ENGLAND. I5g 
 
 cf art, imparted a superior value to works of 
 that kind. 
 
 Vivaret also, at the same time, contri- 
 buted to the advancement of the art in 
 landscape. 
 
 To these is to be added the name of Ryland, 
 who, the first in our country, became emi- 
 nent in chalk, or dotting Engraving, an art 
 of which, however, he was not the inventor, 
 having acquired it in the school of Paris 
 (where Desmarteau had carried it to a 
 considerable degree of excellence), but which 
 he pra61ised with some variation from the 
 French method. 
 
 Rooker also deserves to be here noticed, 
 on account of the high merit of his ar- 
 chiteclural engravings, in which he derived 
 much improvement from the works pub- 
 lished by Piranesi at Rome. 
 
 It reflects no small credit on the artists 
 fvho have been mentioned, and on other 
 engravers now living, that their successful 
 rivalry witli talents of allowed eminence, was 
 
 able 
 
260 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 able to turn the tide and profits of importa- 
 tion from France to their own country. 
 By their strenuous pursuit of excellence 
 in their works, the reputation of Eng- 
 lish Engraving became so universally esta- 
 blished, that, instead of an annual sum, 
 amounting from fifty to a hundred thousand 
 pounds, paid till their time by English pur- 
 chasers for French Engravings, the balance 
 ■was in a few years found to be, to a much 
 larger amount, in favour of England ; in 
 which state it continued for a considerable 
 period. The causes of its present decline are 
 well worth the investigation of the public. 
 
 The merits of our Engravers, certainly, 
 are not fallen into inferior estimation. Their 
 talents, on the contrary, like those exercised 
 in other provinces of the arts, are ade- 
 quate to much higher efforts than opportu- 
 nity calls forth. 
 
 Of their rivals on the Continent, Bervie 
 in France, and Morghan in Italy, are the 
 most conspicuous : the former is known here 
 by a much admired print of the late King of 
 
 France. 
 
ARTS OF DESIGN IN EXGLAND. 2()1 
 
 France. The latter -adds to the studied cor- 
 re(5lness of his master, Volpato, a considerable 
 resemblance of the peculiar merits of Strange ; 
 his execution is more laboriously finished than 
 that of either. But even in the view of these 
 justly eminent artists, England, in the pre- 
 sent moment, has no cause to fear the test 
 of comparison. Some instances of the works 
 of our living engravers, and particularly in 
 portrait, might easily be adduced, fit to con- 
 tend with the highest fame of any nation. 
 
 The foreign schools of Engraving are, in 
 general, more remarkable for the corredlness 
 of drawing (and for \v'hat is by engravers 
 called touch) in their works, and the Eng- 
 lish for the breadth of light and shadow. 
 One distinguishing feature of Engligh En- 
 graving is peculiarly deserving of notice : 
 our artists have adopted a mode of exjjress- 
 ing the local colours of objcdts represented 
 in painting*, (chiefly by the proportionate 
 degrees to which the lights are brought in the 
 respccStive obje(5ls) . 
 
 The 
 
 * This distiiii^tion is carried to so nice a point, that a 
 
 skilful 
 
262 PRESENT STATE OF THE 
 
 The advantages obtained in effeSl by this 
 method are easily to be conceived, as it evi- 
 dently increases the approach of the en- 
 graver's art to the original achievement of 
 the painter. It is not less remarkable, that 
 this advance in art, the invention of our ar- 
 tists, and invariably exhibited in their works, 
 should remain, to this day^ the pra6lice of the 
 English school alone. 
 
 Two other branches of Engraving, Mezzo- 
 tintOi and j4quatinto, are also peculiarly culti- 
 vated in England. The former was brought 
 hither by Prince Rupert in the time of 
 Charles 11. and communicated by him to 
 Mr. Evelyn in the year 1660, from whom 
 others of our countrymen also acquired the 
 principles of an art which they have since 
 carried to a rare degree of excellence. 
 The numerous examples every day presented 
 to public view, require no explanation of 
 their merit. 
 
 skilful engraver is nearly able to ascertain in an English 
 print, what is the colour of each separate objeft, as in 
 draperies, whether they be yellowy, blue, red, &c. &c. 
 
 The 
 
AUtS of design in ENGLAND. 263 
 
 Among the most able professors in this 
 branch, previous to those of the present mo- 
 ment, have been G. White, Smith, Fisher, 
 Luttrell, Mac Ardell, Dixon, and the Wat- 
 sons. 
 
 AqualintOi of recent invention, and intro- 
 duced into England by a living artist, has 
 also been brought to its present state of im- 
 provement in this country. 
 
 Such, briefly summed, is the state of 
 the Arts of Design in England *, at a mo- 
 ment when they are declared. to be in danger 
 of perishing for ever. They stand there- 
 fore on the brink of splendour or annihila- 
 tion ; they plead before a profoundly refle6l- 
 ing nation; they demand a trial. 
 
 * In this general statement of the arts, the render will 
 perceive niany omissions, which perhaps lie will not 
 always be disposed to pardon. The names of Wootton, 
 Cotes, RoMNEY, Hall, and some others, may well be 
 thought to deserve a place in the account of moderii 
 English art. The reader will easily allot to them their 
 proper classes. 
 
 CONCLU- 
 
264 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 THE admirable author of the " In- 
 ' quiry into the present State of Polite 
 * Learning," has remarked in the con- 
 cluding chapter of that work, that " every 
 subje6l acquires an adventitious import- 
 ance to him who considers it with appli- 
 cation. He finds it more intimately con- 
 ne61ed with human happiness than the 
 rest of mankind are apt to allow ; he sees 
 consequences resulting from it which do 
 not strike others with equal convi61ion; 
 and, still pursuing speculation beyond 
 the bounds of reason, too frequently be- 
 comes ridiculously earnest in trifles or 
 absurdity." 
 
 The 
 
CONCLUSION. 165 
 
 The Influence thus described has been 
 occasionally felt by the writer of these pages, 
 in the course of his refle61ions on a favourite 
 Art. Sometimes, wrapt in admiration of its 
 faculties, he has regarded it as a gift of such 
 superior wonder, as to appear a perpetual 
 remembrancer (at however awfully infinite 
 a distance) of the a6l of creative power. At 
 one moment he has asked, whence can it 
 proceed, but from superior interest obtained 
 in the minds of men, that, among the dis- 
 tindlive series of liveSj which have been the 
 theme of grave and polished writers, at the 
 side of kings, conquerors, and philosophers, 
 stand, in so distinguished a degree, those of 
 the poets and the painters? At another, 
 crowns, conquests, and poems, have sunk in 
 comparative estimation, and he has been 
 ready to exclaim with Euripides, 
 
 First worthy, fokm! to reign 
 
 But of what kind soever may have been the 
 N momen- 
 
266 CONCLUSION, 
 
 momentary enthusiasm of his thoughts, he 
 has diligently endeavoured to confine his pen 
 to the expression of more temperate senti- 
 ments, to such sentiments as may reasonably 
 hope to meet the impartial judgments of 
 those, in whose hands are placed the des- 
 tinies of the Arts. He has ranked the 
 Plastic in the general class of the liberal 
 Arts, and the inference he has assumed is, 
 that they claim an equal share of cultivation 
 with other Arts of that class, in the public 
 institutions of liberal education. 
 
 The reader will, therefore, recollect with- 
 out surprise, the regret that has been ex- 
 pressed at the total separation which, in this 
 respect, subsists between the Arts of Design 
 and the other Arts and Sciences. 
 
 The causes of the general depression of 
 the Arts of Design, have been sufficiently 
 shewn in INTr. Barry's account of the efFecls 
 produced on them by the spirit of reforma- 
 tion, in the reign of Elizabeth. 
 
 Under Charles I. they revived; were again 
 beaten down by the revolutionists who suc- 
 ceeded 
 
CONCLUSION. 1%1 
 
 needed that elegant and accomplished mo- 
 narch ; and, as if stunned with this second 
 blow, they remained languid and prostrate 
 until the present reign, 
 
 " Confounded, tho' immortal." 
 
 Never did any art, in any country, strive 
 so long against persecution and neglect. 
 Neither prohibition, nor the coldness of pub- 
 lic regard, could wholly extinguish their 
 fires; those fires which even now struggle 
 in the bosoms of our living artists, and pre- 
 pare the splendours of our future triumph. 
 
 Whatever be the shades of national varia- 
 tion in the English climate, genius, or cha- 
 ra6ler, the experience of ages has shewn that 
 on the genius of existing governments de- 
 pends the state of the Plastic Arts ; and on 
 that, in England, likewise must depend their 
 final establishment or failure. 
 
 Oil ! never may it be said, oh ! never 
 may the awful record be wafted along the 
 stream of ages, that, while sparks of indivi- 
 dual lustre broke forth beneath the stroke 
 of accident, sufficient to ascertain intrinsic 
 N 2 value. 
 
2^8 CONCLUSION. 
 
 value, the band of power disdained or ne- 
 gle6led to polish the precious ore ! Let it 
 not cloud our fame, that, in the most dis- 
 tinguished period of our greatness, one 
 source of those refinements of mind, of 
 those enjoyments of intellect, from which 
 spring the solaces, the virtuous ornaments, 
 and delights of life, was devoid of interest, 
 was thought unworthy of regard ! Save 
 us from portentous darkness, propitious 
 Heaven ! let us be enabled to try each lance 
 of national intellect in open combat! 
 
 *' If we must perish, we thy will obeyj 
 " But let us perish in the face of day !" 
 
 A calm and unbiassed attention can alone 
 determine the real value of the obje6l of 
 this Inquiry. England requires no incentive 
 to generous zeal. The consideration of so- 
 cial good is alone sufficient at all times to 
 call forth her highest exertions. It is not by 
 exaggerated argument, that the attention of 
 English minds is to be interested. In the* 
 
 hour 
 
CONCLUSION. i6q 
 
 hour of tranquil refle61ion, after a just, and 
 (of course) a full discussion of their merits and 
 their claims, lie the hopes of the English 
 
 AllTS. 
 
 But were it possible that any stimulus 
 could be wanting from external causes, 
 would not such be found in the splendid 
 earnestness of other great states at the pre- 
 sent moment, to foster and exalt the Arts ? 
 
 It is to be diligently born in mijid, J hat 
 no moderate degree of emulation can give 
 us a superiority over the efforts of surround- 
 ing governments. Other great establish- 
 ments of the Arts in Europe, are hitherto 
 on a more enlarged scale than our own ; 
 the national employment of artists more 
 conspicuous than amongst us. But, degrees 
 of competition may at last be questionable; 
 we can rise to decided pre-eminence m this 
 intelle6lual pretension, only by being the 
 first in the solemn restoration of the Arts 
 of Design to the illustrious purposes they 
 have, once in the world, achieved ; by 
 
 the 
 
270 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the public authorized dired^Ion of their 
 powers to utiHty and social civilization ; by 
 the dedication of them to national virtue 
 and glory. 
 
 THE END* 
 
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 A NORTHERN SUMMER; or, TRAVELS round 
 
 the BALTIC, through DENMARK, SWEDEN, 
 
 RUSSIA, PRUSSIA, and part of GERMANY, in 
 
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 The high charader which Mr. Carr has established by means of his' 
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 shall observe, that these Northern Travels iiave met with tl'.e most 
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 TRAVELS in EGYPT, during the Campaigns of 
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 TRAVELS in GERMANY, HOLLAND, FLAN- 
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 volumes, price 5I. 5s. in boards. 
 
 A VOYAGE ROUND the WORLD, in the years 
 1800, 1 80 1, 1802, 1803, and 1804, in which the Author 
 visited the principal Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and the 
 English settlements of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, 
 
 and 
 
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 an impartial narrative of the proceedings of the Mis- 
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