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by the present eulogizing Secretary. Flattery, however gratifying to the objects which it addresses, ill becomes the pages of a publication purporting to be an Inquiry, and to contain statements deducible from such investigation.

In our list of the primitive exhibitors, we felt no ambition to avail ourselves of the honest accuracy of Highmore and Hudson, nor the classic correctness of Hoare;' and the names of Dance and Reynolds are insulted by any comparison with Battoni and Mengs, especially with the former, the very dreg of the dregs of impotent Art!-Neither is it advantageous to the honoured name of R. Wilson, that he should share the palm with Vernet and Zuccarelli; it would be equally odious to class together Raphael and Carlo Maratti, or Michael Angelo and Lémoin. Mr. H. makes judicious mention, however, of our countrymen Scott, Brookings, More, Hodges, Morland, Cozens, Girtin, and Thomas Sandby in landscape and in architecture. Many of these excelled in the management of tinted drawings, of which class of art it is but candid to mention that the venerable and very ingenious Paul Sandby is the father; yet this kind of performances ranks only in the Arts, as in literature the Pastoral may be compared with Epic Poetry.

To the scope of the third Part of Mr. Hoare's Inquiry, we have adverted in the earlier parts of this article; and it is farther connected with his Supplementary Sketch of the present State of the Arts of Design in England, which opens with some remarks that well illustrate the subject, and confirm our obser

vations:

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 introductory lecture of last winter:

"The efficient cause, therefore, why higher art at present is sunk to such a state of inactivity and languor, that it may be doubted whether it will exist much longer, is not a particular one, which private patronage, or the will of an individual, however great, can remove, but a general cause founded on the bent, the manners, the habits, the modes of a nation; 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 instruction has never ceased to direct the

student,

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 display of great and athletic powers, condemned, if not to the beasts, at least to the dic tates of fashion and vanity? what, therefore, can be urged against the conclusion, that the Arts are sinking, and threaten to sink still lower, from the want of a demand for great and significant works?”

Mr. Hoare's estimation of the powers of Sir Joshua Reynolds seems to us so justly appropriate, that we shall transcribe it in his own words:

The historical efforts of Reynolds discover beautiful, but vague, combinations, and impressive, but desultory grandeur; these are germs of historic talent which, had they been matured by an earlier disposi · tion of the nation to the encouragement of the Arts, would, no doubt, have risen to a much higher degree 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.'

Of Hogarth, but one opinion can be entertained: a Phoenix in the Art which probably never before appeared in any country, he was in painting a moral satirist: not a painter of graphic comedy and farce,' as Mr. H. expresses it. We conceive that comedy had no farther existence in Hogarth's representations, than as a mere agent to convey to the mind those sublime moral truths, which appear to be the only objects of his endeavours in his particular line of Art. Shakspeare wrote to the passions connected with moral sentiment, so did Hogarth paint for the instruction of every age, and "through the eye correct the heart." With these qualifications, and a few other exceptions, we admit the propriety of Mr. H.'s remarks:

As

In subjects of sportive fancy, and in domestic or familiar history, the native and characteristic powers of our English painters have been chiefly shown. 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 conspicuous prominence of the intellectual 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 picture 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 à la Mode, several of the subjects are painted with a breadth, force, and clearness of colour, which have seldom

beca

been surpassed; the Breakfast Table is the most striking instance of

these merits.'

On the state of Sculpture, and the Artists who have contributed to its rise, with the exception of one name, we heartily concur in the sentiments of the author; and with the highest satisfaction we quote the following passage:

Banks was among those who most zealously sought the enlargement of professional 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 productions an air of ancient art. He gave to his Cupid the softness of characteristic form, and spirit and manly energy to his Caractacus. But he returned to a country not yet capable of feeling his worth; the statue of Cupid which he brought home in 1779. found no purchaser, and he was induced, in 1781, to carry it to St. Petersburg, where it was bought by the Empress Catharine, and placed in the gardens of Czarsco zelo. Banks did not remain at Rome late enough to witness the rising 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 improvement of his art, but drew from the researches of others sufficient food for an active and ready fancy. His conceptions were quick and sparkling, his execution polished, and his whole work characteristically graceful. A Britannia brandishing her thunderbolt, and an infant Orphan imploring shelter for his shuddering frame, are alike the productions of graceful and tender feelings.'

The best specimen from Bacon's chisel, and an admirable specimen it is, was erected at the expence of the country to William Pitt the great Earl of Chatham, in Westminster Abbey. The design is chaste, classic, and sublime: but the materials are said to have been given to the sculptor by a celebrated dramatic author, which will be readily believed, since the generality of Bacon's compositions exhibit no features of learning, no fine powers of intellectu faculties, no display of genius curbed by science. His general style of composition, as in Guildhall, is divested equally of the pathos and of the sublime, which are so necessary to the decorous completion of monumental representations. Yet Bacon could not fail to satisfy the generality of observers, by his flowery wreaths and dimpled smiles, garbed in silks and sattins:

Emilium circa ludum faber imus et ungues

Exprime, et molles imitabitur ære capillos;
Infelix operis summi, quia ponere totum

Nesciet

HoR. de Arte Poet.

Banks, with an uncommon discernment of all that constituted excellence in sculpture under the prosperous governments of

REV. FEB. 1807.

Trajan

Trajan and the Antonines, raised in his mind an elevated stand. ard. Generally speaking, his conceptions were manly and appropriate; he seldom betrayed any low and vulgar conceits; and, properly rejecting the imitation of puerilities, his compositions were impressive, and his manner of execution was equally striking. Yet, from whatsoever cause it may have arisen, his last great works, the two national monuments in St. Paul's Cathedral (especially the last,) have wholly deceived public expectation: a remark which we must extend also to the other monuments which have been recently placed in that edifice, and some of which, considered as compositions, are indeed contemptible. From the want of a more efficient mode of proceeding in the selection of designs for our public monuments, it is too probable that we shall lose the advantages which might hence be derived to our national character, and that they will be converted into a source only of wasteful expenditure and eventual contempt. So entirely have the ends and objects of those which are already erected been overlooked by the persons under whose direction they were ordered, that even the propriety of inscriptions seems forgotten; and the only index to the very names of the heroes who fell in the service of their country, and to whom that grateful country has devoted these monuments, is exhibited by the vergers in formidable charcoal! Is this omission intended to avoid remarks similar to those of the judicious and refined Addison? Had that elegant critic been alive to have observed the public Monument to General Wolfe, he would have pronounced it not less a satire on the employers than a libel on public taste; yet for this vile production was the model of Roubilliac set aside, Nothing less will correct this evil than a general and candid address to liberal artists of every description, who are qualified to practise the imitative arts, from the managing committee empowered by the executive government to solicit the production of designs; under the condition that each unsuccessful candidate shall be handsomely remunerated, and that each design. so procured shall be publicly exhibited with free admission, until the final decision takes place : -then, and not till then, can all suspicion of partiality subside. A few hundred pounds thus expended would be money well bestowed, and might save reproach in the expenditure of many thousands. The famed monument of Cardinal Richelieu was designed by Charles Le Brun, and executed by the sculptor Gerardon; and no person, however elevated his station by the accident of life, should consider it as beneath his dignity to correct past errors:

The first of virtue, vice is to ablor,
The first of wisdom is to err no more."

With regard to Architecture, Mr. H. thus remarks:

Although the consideration of the national importance of Architecture has not been made a part of the principal subject 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 Architecture are necessarily more obvious to general observation 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 undefined 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, renders the construction of great public edifices very rare in England. Projects 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 neglected; 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."

Thus far we agree: but we cannot acquiesce in many assertions made in subsequent pages. We allow and join in all the praises bestowed on the public edifices of Blenheim, the Bridges of Westminster and Blackfriars, Newgate, and the late building. in Oxford Street called the Pantheon; though why it was so named, we are at a loss to say.

Before undeniable praise is established respecting Somerset Place, be it noted that, in the designs and construction, every possible assistance from patronage, aided by the public purse supplied by a liberal Parliament, gave to Sir William Chambers opportunities rarely known in this country. The Bonk affords a similar instance. The question is, whether Sir William Chambers, and others under nearly the same opportunities of following their own devices, have sufficiently availed themselves of every advantage that protection and accident flung in their way. Somerset House is composed of many imitations, and some not of the most approved examples: it is a jumble of the French and the Italian, the best parts being feeble imitations of Caprarola and the Papa Julia. As to the Bank, Goddess-like, it disdains comparison !

Mr. Hoare's comment on Inigo Jones having introduced Palladio into England, (as he is pleased to phrase it,) as well as Hogarth's opinion, is almost unworthy of any notice. Hogarth's remark relative to Palladio, as here quoted, is merely the sarcastic observation of a sensible and discriminating mind, that the best examples are liable to be abused in their application. The intelligent use, which Inigo Jones made of Palladio's works, will be readily seen by those who are qualified to decide on the intrinsic

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