The National Register. — London, England, 1812-01-26 00:00:00

3AN. CQ. FINE ARTS. Ec i t:id home est, nisi res fugitiva, .diurna ? Nascimur et nun incur : Sonthium t t tintra swim% At cunt eetlivromit venere ex nubibus Arta, Splendiclus zterna luce refulbit bomo. The Prince of the Lyric Potts, with his usual sublimity of thought a7:l boldness of expression, describes, in a few words translated above, what influence the fine arts ever had upon man. " Weed, without the se heavenly-born daughters of Jove," bays he 66 man is nothing hut a transient shadow. a dream, a handful of dust which the wind tosses sip and disperses in the air : with them his life is attended with pleasure and comfort; glory shines like the sun of his dais, and his fame endures on the other side of the grave." This truth has been acknowledged and corfirmed by the experience of all ages, and the eloquent Routtseau, although he astonished, yet could not persuade his contemporaries that, instead of benefiting, thefine arts had corrupted and injured, mankiud. But th:se divine sisters, who acknowledge the muses for their tutelary goddesses and companions, do not always dwell among us; like birds of passage, thty come at their fated times and ily away when their mission is performed and their duties fulfilled. Neither do they always alight on the same spot of the globe; they migrate from one favourite place to another, and their appearance is often as sudden as it is unforeseen. Fron the &ttitful countries of etc Egyptian Delta, to the shores of the /E,;ean Sea, from Athens to Rome, from Italy to Frauce and Germatiy, they visited and blessed successively several nations of the known world, and will, pr. haps, some centuries hence, tranzport their seat to the Western Hemisphere. In the midst of these considera& ns, it is gratifying to see that Albion has now more than ever attracted their peculiar notice, and that Great Britain, so long famous for her freedom and the bravery of her sons, will have also to shine in the pages of history for the celebrity of her artists. We cannot deny that liberty implies a certain austern yof man ners, a certain frown of severity which kelps oil, in general, the muses and the fine arts. and that the daughters of Jove will rather visit the rreisus of peace and luxury, than the land of freedom and the seat of war. Their delight is in the palaces of the great ; they tune their lyres to the tables of the rich, and if ever they wail away to the rural bowers and sing, on the Boric reed, the innocent lives Of the shepherds,it. is when the din-of war has ceased, and ph my and peace weave the olive branch around the temples of their rulers. This truth is melancholy ; yet it is useless to disguise it; and all the ingenuity of the elegant author of ihe Seasons of Nature,could never prove that the works of the fine arts were fostered by, and achieved under, the reign of liberty. Sculpture and painting appeared when Greece mourned for extinguished freedom ; Rome had witnessed the loss of her liharty in the waves of the Rubicon and the plains of Pharsalia—'ere the Muses were ushered to the court of Augustus! And when, after a long absence. or sleep, the tti.ne sister* returned or awoke, were then the soidisant republics of Florence or Venice; were the banks of the Tiber and the shores of Parthenore, in a state of freedom under the Medleis, Charles the Vth and the Pope ? Certainly not. But when, by the blessings of a constitution like that of England, liberty goes hand in hand with riches and .:flinence ; when we have braves abroad to fight our battles, and Maxey:ars at home to en courage, by Ipiendid rewards, literature and the line arts, we can easily fortel that our nation will soon hold cweparatively %vial ethers the tame rank on Parnassus, as we have long oh: shoed by the succesa of our arms; .that of transc e ndent superiority. Painting, sculpture, awl architecture, are showing their-chef d'oeuvres every where, and improve so much every day, that soon they will soar above all posssibiiity of com petition. This glowing hope was ushered and nurtured in our bosom by .many Instances of real success in all the districts of the flee arts, and is happily substantiated by what we have lately witnessed of the efforts made by our artists and students in the rooms of ths British L;stitution. In some of our preceding numbers we have dared our °pillion upon the orlaioals, offered to their imitation; Ave have submitted, with due deference, our judgment upon the respective merit of the copies; rile. feel happy to an nounce, as a most gratifying result, that the pencil of several of our co temporaries of both sexes can translate the sublime works of Titian or Itubens with as much facility of exectitioa and felicity of effect, as the pen of Dryden and Pope did the immortal iosems of Virgil and Homer; 4 :14 that we vutertaiu no doubt but the spontaneous cffusious of their 61 minds In-original compositions will, in the spxce of a few ye r 4, surpass our most eager expectation. These reflections have induced us to continue, with imabated zeal, our strictures upon the fine arts; and henceforwards to devote regularly a column or two of our paper to the desc. - iotion of new works in their divers departments, as well as to the delicate ta•R of appreciating, with out partiality, the eil'utts of the artists. Hort/vier, mild, but just, ht our animadversions; at equal distance from the forbidding frown of hy percriticisin aud the disgusting smile of flattery, we hope tube able often to amuse, sometimes to irtStruct, and always to ylea3e our Intelli gent readers. TILE -STREAM 01' TIME; 02, EPHEMERIS FOR THE W EEis• • JANUARY. ' 26. St:l. - rum:Elms SuNDAY.—Epistte, 1 Cor. ix. 24. Gospf4 Matt. xx. I.—This Sunday is called Stl4mtgesi out Ponehtica , by analoiy with the first Sunday in Lent, Oandragesi Inn ,whenve the Drench hasie derived their word Careme " I ,tit.' The (buich:(4...fe•Aim:l was not improperly so called, as it meant forty days of tastino before Easter, hut Quinqua ge.inta, Sexage , itna, and Septuagesima Sundays, havtl.tio other claim .to their titlen ttit a similarity of sound, and a retrograde analogy---`'t. Po tycarp, disziple of St. John the Evange:i.t, and bf him ordained Bksliwp .1 Smyrna. Li the year lti:t lie NV3zi appreitentied and colqietnned to the Dames in the middle of the An:pi:Hit:atm, where he (Cereal his /areas& sacrifice to h.:ft %% ho had given Ins ow , 11 for us. The sun rises at 7h. s7niiii.sets at 41t. :.:tail• , .. 27. illon u day.—St. Joh:i Clirpostomv , 2.1 - 61:;ishop of Constantinople% Dy his zeal against vice, w'hicli It:: prosLcuted With the nu,rt pcme!fil eloquence, he raised many enemies, ati , l died is exile, after IOnZ 1, ritter. ings, under which he gave the most admirable specimens of ahregation and patience. His death happened in 407.—The Duke of Sussex's birth day. The sun rises at 7h. 36niin. sets at dih. 24 mia. 2S. Tu9sday.—St. Agues, Virgin and Martyr. The meekness of ter temper, the innocence of her lite, have indtl,:ed painters of ancient and modern times to place a laMb by her, as an appropriate attribute,- 1547. Death of Heilry VIII. The sun rises at 71t. 3.sanin. sets at 4h. 2.smin. Full moon at it noon. 29. Wedue.srlay.—St. Francis of Sales, Bishop and Confessor.; ittsti t uted the order of the 'Visitation for Women. He was peculiarly con spicuous for the mildness of his temper and eminent virtues; his ascetic works breathe ali throughout that lave of God winch calla ai: fall to Us. spire good thoughts, and excite u s to good acdons. He died in the its. ce.ltury. .. The sun rises at 7h. 33rnin. sett at 4h. Cimin. Jupiter continues to adorn the•lirmatiieut every night, and retrograda Ing towards the sun, removes eastwards from the pieiades, or seven,starse commonly so called, althOtigh we cannot discern but six. X). nurselay.—l'he Martyrdotto of King Charles Lin the year 1649, before the hatpieting-house at `X hitehall, where, a few years bef:re, he hid caused Rubens to paint the . apotheosis of Iris father; apiece of , w 4 .1 4 1& ... manship which is still the admiration of • every beholder, as weit'arr a • monument of the filial affection of a Prince who was aitewards the Nic . tim of party' zeal and impkierble - inhumanity. " He was sober, to in; e.- rate, and chaste, a good nttsband, a good fatal . , and a good mast: r," yet he had been culpable in several points rrlativ.! to the duties of d Ni t ..... parch, w'ho ought to keep i nces s icotl y in vie-.A the happiness and liberty l of his subjects —Also Sr. St. Martina, Virgin and Martyr, 51'29,-1800., • l'he French sign a treaty to evacuate Egypt. 'fire sun rises at ;h. 3lntin. sets at 4h. Oniiii. Si; Friday.—!it. Peter N .la co, instituted the most humane of all order., that for the retholvion of thise unfortainate Christians made captives by the Moors. - fir: lited, in the.year 11:56.-1600. Execution of Guy Faux. The sun rises at '7h. 30 min. sets at 411. t?,O min. 1 FEBR ',IA R Y XXIX DAYS. The name of this m.iiith, arcordorg to 510/eral authors, is derived from the god Februum, or from Jath.i Februa, because several purificatiods il were practised in this mortlt among the Romans. The year began, at first, ‘v i:11 them, at the period when the sun appears to come back to es from the farthest decree of his solithern declination ; and thefirst month, which was devoted 'to rejoicins on that occasion, being over, tiay I thotigitt proper and wholesome iv purity themselves aglinst the retuni of s ring. On the IPth of this month th e sun enters the sign Pisces, an allusion to the great nrinihtt of good fish caught at this time of the year, las well as 'to the quanti t y of rain which fell in Italy at that time. iAmpiara, or Agaarius, in January, alludes to the same circumstance. It was placed under the protection of Neptune, Amtoscitqac sups Neptunas in eetlicre Pisces, i and is composed of twe..ty-nine days, this year being a bessextileorliesip i t year. g Satarday,--4t , Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr, be MO third Bishop of TIIE NATJ(3NiL REGISTER: _