The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-06 00:00:00

JANUARY 6, 1855. her frout teeth broken. At Joroslaf, while the Englishwoman was staying there, the serfs of an estate were treated so vilely by the proprietor, a lady, that in desperation they laid their case before the Emperor, imploring him in the name of God, their common Father, to do them justice. A commission sent from St. Petersburg substantiated the truth of the co mplaints; the lady was deprived of her estate, and allowed only a small pension to keep her from want. Another proprietress was convicted of cutting and manning children on her estate, and was exiled to Siberia. Hence the reverence with which the Czar is regarded by the peasantry in general. He alone is their refuge when their oppression and sufferings become too cruel to be borne. According to this book the " Russians stand " infinitely more in fear of their Emperor than " they do of their Creator. The common say " ing, ' The Czar is near, but God is far off,' " gives a good idea of their feeling on the sub " ject." But the power of the Czar to redress wrong is confined only to glaring cases, and serfs may be cruelly ground down by their proprietors without other remedy for their sufferings than the revenge which Bacon de scribes us a kind of " wild justice." When an estate is farmed to a middle man, the pea sants are reduced to the last stage of misery that the rents may be punctually paid, and the agent enrich himself. To further illustrate this subject we have to quote from the second volume at the head of this notice, but for the present we break off, reserving further extracts and remarks for our next issue. Biographical Catalogue of the Italian Painters. By a Lady. Edited by It. N. Wornum. London : Murray. Ma. Woasum assumes too much in his state ment that " people are generally indifferent " about pictures and painters," and of those of Italy in particular, because they have not any ready means of acquiring knowledge of the painters themselves. The leading facts in the lives of the great masters are known to most intelligent persons, or may be easily acquired through the popular publications which already exist, while the works of in ferior artists will hardly excite sufficient notice to stimulate inquiry concerning them. The usefulness and merit of this " Catalogue" may be admitted without conceding that depth of ignorance which Mr. Wornum insists on, or without going so far as to say that, indepen dent of a guide like this, the finest picture "is " at most a pleasing distribution of masses of " light, and shade, and colour." Works of art inspire pleasure from causes irrespective of the personal history and character of their author. As well might it be said the Wa verly novels, before their writer was known, were at most a collection of letters and words impressed upon paper, or that the letters of Junius are but a harmonius combination of grammatical proprieties. Paintings have a life and language of their own ; they repre sent the pictorial ideas of their creator, are manifestations of his genius, and, apart from his existence, speak by their character and ex pression. and affect the mind by the senti ments of beauty, grandeur, pity, or awe, which they inspire. Appreciation of art is one thing, knowledge of its history another, and the latter is much the more common of the two. They may exist apart, though often there is some connection between them. The works of a painter must depend on their own qualities for the impression they make, but his characteristics will be better underst.ood by some knowledge of his epoch, position in art, and history. As a handbook to Italian collections, and a means of acquiring some distinctive know ledge of the various Italian schools, this volume will be found convenient Persons tolerably well informed on the leading facts of art-history will find this "Catalogue" of great service when viewing Italian works, as it must contain, we imagine, the names of 500 or 600 Italian painters, with some account in each case of their lite and labours, where their principal works are to be found, and to which school they belong: The information is 00l- viggri THE PRESS. lected from original sources, and the opinions expressed as to style and merits appear to have been gathered from the soundest autho rities. The matter is judiciously condensed, each biographical notice, however short, dis playing diligence, care, and taste. To have made the " Catalogue " complete, it should have been a little extended. In early Italian art sculpture cannot be dissociated from painting. Verocchio was the master of Leo nardo da Vinci, and Donatello was the master of Verocchio ; but we look here in vain for the name of Donatello, though his influence in impressing on the Florentine school the study of :form, by teaching his pupiAt that to draw was the alpha and omega of art, must have been cuusiderable. We must remark, besides, that it is an error in a popular hand book like this not to class painters under the names by which they are commonly known. The name of Veronese, for example, is not found here, and it is not every one who knows that he is to be sought for as Caliari. In the "Synchronous Table" of Italian mas ters accompanying the volume a great mis take has been made in assigning to each master a place according to the date of his death, in stead of the date of his maturity in art. By this fundamental misconception the table fails in giving the information for which it was constructed. Because Michael Angelo lived forty years longer than Raphael ho has a place assigned him in the table forty years after Raphael, though they were contemporaries, or rather Raphael derived instruction from the works of the great Florentine, as it is imagined that his style improved through his observation of Michael Angelo's practice in the great cartoon of Pisa. The handbook says truly that Andrea del Sarto was a follower of Michael Angelo, but, because he died before his master, he is placed before him in order of time. As Titian lived to ninety-eight, he is placed in the table some sixty years after the period which should be assigned him, and, as a consequence, lie is preceded by nearly all his pupils and followers. Girolamo da Santa croce, according to the " Catalogue," was "an imitator of Titian," but in the table he appears to have flourished about thirty years before him. Of Girolamo Romanino we read, in the " Catalogue," "The works of Titian seem to " have been the great models of Romanino " His Descent from the Cross,' is mentioned " by Ridolfi as having been praised by Palma " as a genuine Venetian work, alluding to his " rich colour and impasto in Titian's style ;" but the table shows hint to have preceded Titian by a quarter of a century. Bonifazio Veneziano was one of the principal of " Titian's scholars and imitators,' yet he pre cedes his master by many years. Giorgione, it is well known, was " the fellow-pupil and " rival of Titian :" they were horn in the same year ; but, as Titian lived sixty-five years longer than Giorgione, he is represented as being of sixty-five years later date. The chro nological confusion thus created is bad enough, but the synchronous confusion is still greater. The principal Italian schools all reached their highest development at nearly the same time. While Michael Angelo (of the Tuscan school) was painting the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, Raphael (Roman) gave to the world his " Transhgulation," and Sebas tian del Piombo (Venetian) the " Raising of Lazarus." • A very few years later Titian (Venetian) painted perhaps his finest work, the "Peter Martyr ;" and Correggio (Lombard) his " Ecce Homo." These great.masters were strictly contemporaries, their styles attained their highest beauty at the same time, and , their finest works were produced together, yet in the table different periods are assigned to each. Correggio appears Le. follow Raphael, Sebastian del Piombo to come later still, Michael Angelo to succeed Piornho, whom he instructed, and Titian to be separated from Raphael by an interval of about sixty years. Even the influence of a painter on the prac tice of art is more decided when his works first attract admiration by their originality than after they have become familiar. The epoch of a painter should be the maturity of his powers. not the date of his death. The table entirely fails to give, as it professes, " a synchronous view of the schools at once, in order to establish a " distinct notion of the time, locality, and 17 " relative position of the painter," and hence should be entirely reconstructed. The "Catalogue," well suited as a companion to most of the continental galleries, is likely, from the interest now felt iu art, to betome as popular as Mr. Murray's other handbooks, but it will bear a little expansion ; and for all purposes of reference the contents of the table might be more conveniently embodied in the work itself, on the plan of Blair's tables, than printed on a separate sheet, more especially as the only advantage possessed by such a chart of affording a perfect synchronous view of the schools has been lost by the blunder committed. Christian Politics. Au Essay on the Text of Paley. By the Rev. Henry Christmas, M.A. London • Hope and Co. Tax Rev. Mr. Christmas has here found time, from his other tasks of writing lives of con temporary crowned heads, to take up an in quiry which one would scarcely have expected to see revived at a period when the science of politics is so much more practically treated than it was a century ago. The book is a curious one, both as to the subject, the treat ment of it, and the time of publication. Even the dedication certifies that the " politics" of the anti-scriptural moralist of Broudlands, who asserts that " all men are born good," and are only debauched by beer and tobacco, are " Christian politics"—a praise that, probably, Lord Palmerston was not prepared fur, and will perhaps as little appreciate as Captain Wilson appreciated the compliment of the Pel lew islanders, that he " deserved to have a " horse's rib through his nose." Now, although we think that speculations as to the origin of Government and the duty of obeying it are now-a-days as well left to Dr. Sacheverell's folio sermon, or the quartos of the Scotch school of philosophers of the last cen tury, yet we cannot but recognise a certain • propriety in the publication of a volume on the functions of Government at a time when legis lation is left by Ministers to the charity of private members, and the executive as to the army is confided to collectors of old clothes, enthusiastic amateur nurses, and ladies who make plum-puddings at Warrington. We wish we could say, however, that there is much in the work before us to impress their duty upon rulers or subjects. If Paley's principles, as this author assures us, could have led him much further than he chose to go, we can assure Mr. Christmas that his principles are precisely open to a similar charge. We do not say that Proudhon would entirely agree with much that is laid down in the original chapters, but Louis Blanc could certainly nut be as tonished at it. Let us instance that chapter devoted to " Game Laws," and especially the case supposed as follows : But that the game laws are needless, is a very small part of the objection against them ; they are the fruitful source of demoralisation among the peasantry. A labotning man sees a hare on a common ; his own sense of right tells him that the hare is us much his property as that of an other man ; he knows that the creatur e consumes as much as would furnish the fourth part of the support of a sheep ; he knows that the farmer would in his heart thank him for destroying it; he knows that his family are fed on the coarsest fare. and have not for years tasted a meal so nou rishing, so wholesome, and so palatable, as the hare would afford them. On the other hand, he feels that he is doing no wrong to any man ; he approaches slowly, lifts his stick, knocks down the hare, and is seized by a man who leaps from behind the hedge as an offender against the game laws ! He is cast into prison, condemned to t l with the vilest of mankind ; his scruples are laughed at ; he is shown lunch easier and more ]usurious modes of lite than the course of simple industry ; his neitions of right and wrong are hopelessly confused by the man ifest in j ustice of which ' he has been made the victim ; he sees, as he supposes, and with too much reason, that there is one law fur the rich, and another for the poor • he exclaims—" The world is not, my friend, nor the world's law :" he finds his em ployment gone, his prospeoarnined, his character blasted, his family in the workhoust7aud all for an act which by every law of God and nature lie had a full right to do. The leaven ferments in his heart, and be leaves the prison • poacher, if not worse. There has thus arisen in the minds of the poor a well founded opinion that their interests, phy sical, moral, social, and spiritual, are deliberately set ouil4o, in order to facilitate a very questionable diversion fur the wealthy—a diversion which, iu addition, entails great damage to the agriculturist, and which, moreover, would be quite as well enjoyed without any of these mischiefs. Here the question of what the lawyers call mak prohibita is begged effectually throughout. The labourer (who, be it remarked, cannot