The Press.
London, England, 1853-05-07 00:00:00

18

German Reboots to imitate the defects of the
earlier painters, their had drawing. false per-
spective, and formal compositions. Theme can
easily be imitated as well as the gold leaf and
jewellery of those primitive performances ; hut,
alas ! we cannot assume the good faith and
simplicity of those painters, their conscien-
tious efforte of excellence, their anxious
struggles at improvement. We canna ig-
nore the progress of centuries. A man can-
not assume the grace and innocence (if the
child by crawling on all fours, and should be
attempt to do so he would remind us rather
of the decrepitude and imbecility of age.
While we feel much admiration for the genius
of the early founders of modern art, it is
rather to their successors that we WOlll4
direct the attention of the young artist. We
are delighted to find our own opinion delivered
in the volume before us in wordf: we should
vainly attempt to paraphrase. whom.-
says Sir Joshua, should the pupil rely, or
who shall show him the path that leads to cx-
cellene,e? The answer is obvious: those great
musters who have trmelled the SHI' road with
sttecess are the most likely to conduct others.
rue works of those who have stood the test of
ages have a claim to that respect and venera-
tion to which no modern can pretend. The
duration and stability of their fame is
sufficient to evince that it has not. been sus-
pended upon the slender thread of fashion and
caprice, but bound to the human heart by every
tie of sympathetic approlaition."—Discoorpte
But. much as we respect the authority of Sir
Joshua, we feel bound to state when, we ven-
ture to differ from him. There is no counsel
that he urges with greater pertinacity than the
imitation of the works of Michel Angelo. We
do not yield to Sir Joshua in our apprecia-
tion of the works of that great. num. but we do
think a more unsafe model c4m141 hardly le
followed. llis genius is too vast. his conceit
lions are too sublime to lw approached. Ilis
works may be studied with IVVCIIIIIP, bid imi-
tation should in considered In ppeless. Invaria-
bly grand in his designs, he not unfrevently
approaches the extravagant. and, diadaimugthe
beautiful, he is content to awe and astonish.
That be was not II NOV 11114C1 we think might
have been proved to himself, before he closed
his long and glorious career. by the failure of
all his imitators. To them and to their works
might be applied with more 'propriety that.
quotation from Shakspere which Sir Joshua
rekroduces to qualify the style of the Venetian
painters—" A tale told by an idiot. full of sound
and fury, and signifying nothing."-41k Pipp-
room
Ntichel Angelo. he „bseeees, studied and
revived the works of the Greeks (and the eeh•-
hrated torso may be traced in various positions
amidst the academic. mulities of The 1 titst
Judgment.), and on this additional account he
reeommends that master to the study of his
pupils. Would he have given this advice had
we ptiS?“'Nfietl, IVlll'll he delivered it. the i117"14111-
Paniblespoils nt. Atilt"' We think 1101 and.
if Michel Angelo studied the antique, it. must
be remembered that the masterpieces which
tyc possess were unknown to hint. 81111 that to
them the student. had better be referred. as an
example that I'7lllllld Lr tilllpaSSl4l. 711111 a gulche
that cannot err.
We think the judgment of Sir Joshua still
farther at fault in the preference he gives to
the colouring of the Bolognese school over
that of Venice.- 4th Pi:icolirse. I We are tar
from estimating the eariteci and their scholars
the low rate to which the fashion 11l the
present day has sunk them. but we can only
account for the partiality of Sir Joshua under
the supposition that few of the masterpieces
which we now possess had at that time tra-
velled from ltaly : perhaps even yet we cannot.
I,4,ast of more than two or three specimens of
first rate exeellent.e.
•

vaa. • ifi • liltvkioil of the young painter
ultite the 4.010110 m; Titian
:1(1411I of liattiielle ith the
•
kiwi Angels, we •lesiatit• of
• • ri• we do not even think the at-
-," ir -0" hitt if ever All 11111)1%1Xilllitiltill
,'0
-\ *O*
• • W war& this degree 01 Ill'Eft•t•-
• A.
r , iijk • *lmo ODIN' that it. will lie found. We
V6A4,1. Titian s •• Martyrdsint ()ISt.
fottlketinseW Tkultle.,s irrvdttetnnt et humn a