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

THE PRESS.

their natural genius does not supply. It
would not be difficult to show, did the eiTor
merit a serious refutation. that the most en

thusiastieally religious people have often been
the most devoid of skill and art ; anti we re-
gret 10 record it that some of the greatest
artists. those to whose works a tender and

reverential character particularly belongs. have
frequently been careless in their religious
(hit ies and dissolute in their livet4.

Whatever tends to reline the taste and cul-
tivate the understanding. with the as:sistotkee
of native genius and deep study. will un-
doubtedly assist in forming the artist ; but it'.
neglecting these aids. he trusts, through
crazy mysticism, which he calls faiith,'' to
find a road to exeellence, he will pea the

disappointment which too frequently attendm
better-chosen short cuts to the temple ot
Fame. _ _

We have yet heard of no artist who has pro-
fessed himself a believer in Jupiter in the ex-
pectation of rivalling Phidias. but we think.
should he ever accept for gospel every table
in Tooke's "Pantheon." he would not be
nearer his object than the devout renegade
who swallows all the contents of Newman 's
Hagiology " will by that miraculous proof of
faith become a Haltingly. _ _ _

In the attempt to dignify the ultimate 01044
of art. the immediate purpose of the artist has
been far too much kept out of view. It' it is
his mission "to refine, to inst•uet and ele-
vate, the instrument by which it is to be ef-
fected, and therefore the first nun of the artist.
is to please : ifart fails in this particular it can
succeed in no other. We do lint Meath that the
artist should choose subjects only that are sooth-
ing and agreeable. but that he should convey at
once to our minds the idea he intended
to suggest. that he should explain his story so
as to reach our feelings, that he should pot,
tray nature so as to satisfy us with the fidelity
of his representations. We cannot expect
that he should speak with equal power to all
minds alike ; but we think, it' a work of art,
whether picture or statue, is beyond the com-
prehension of a well-educated person of ordi
nary observation, the fault is in the artist him-
self ; and, whatever merit the ingenuity of the
advanced critic may discover in the details, as
at whole the production must be considered
defective. We suppose that the deepest study
MI artist eould bestow would teach him but to
clothe loftier and truer conceptions, in truer
and more beautiful forms: should his study not
lead to this result, it would but prove his
method false or his judgment deficient.

We need not seriously embamtss ourselves
with the hypothesis that first-rate art may
address itself to a barbarous age : such a ease
has never existed, though perhaps ninny a
young student in the pangs of disappointment
fondly flatters himself it is his own. Let not
the student indulge the delusive belief that
his genius is beyond the eomprehension of his
contemporaries : nothing is more hopeless
than the expectation of it posthumous fame
which is denied by the living generation.
Those artists who have held the longest pos-
session Of the world's favour au•o those who
have enjoyed the greatest share of popularity
during their lives. In the infaney of art.
while mechanical dexterity was in progress,
each popular artist was surpassed in manual
skill by his immediate successor; but poste-
rity has been just, and each has been restored
to that niche in the temple of fame to which
his genius entitled him, and from which he
had been temporarily displaced. Dante tells
us that the eontempmltt•ten of Cinutbue imagined
he had reaehed the summit of an unap-
proachable fame. but that his sveee.:;.,or
(iiotto had already supplanted him in pub-
lic favour ; and he admits at least its a
poetical possibility that even in the existing ;
generation a higher genius might tu•ise to push
the popular favourite from his stool. A very
few years aceomplished the prophecy, yet
Giotto keeps the reputation to which his
genius entitles him, freed from the exagge-
ration of contemporary flattery. lie may be
considered indeed the founder of the modern
school of painting : if he wits surpassed in
t'acility of execution by his suecessoors, his
spirit animated their design. lie wits the
precursor of Masaceio, the real inspirer of