The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-23 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 23, 1858.

Another instance of the desecration to which the
relics of Italy's golden age are subjected, is
connected with the masterpiece of the same
painter, executed by him in his own native town
of Borgo S. Sepolcro

It is the Resurrection of our Lord. The Saviour,
bearing aloft the red-crossed banner of victory, and
gathering the grave-clothes about him, leaves the tomb
with solemn step. There is an awful and unearthly
majesty in His countenance, in the large eyes fixed on
vacancy, and in the still placid features. Beneath, buried
in a death-like sleep, lie the guards. The cold grey
morning creeps above the hills, and the dark trees stand
motionless in the twilight. The glory of the rising Christ,
and of His shining garments, casts a pale subdued light
around Him. No painter has ever so painted the scene !
And what does the reader suppose has befallen this
sublime conception ? The hall which it adorns, once that
of the Palace of the "Conservatori," has been converted
into the storehouse for the pledges deposited in the Monte
di Pieta, the Government pawubroking establishment.
The windows have been carefully blocked up to exclude
light and air. Copper caldrons, pots and pans, instru-
ments of agriculture, spinning wheels, and balls of cotton
twist—all the furniture of an Italian peasant's cottage,
upon which a few pence can be borrowed—are piled
against. the walls. If a stranger should ask to see the
fresco, he must wait the convenience of the several
directors of the institution, who have separate keys as a
check upon each other's honesty.

Such being the present melancholy fate of
those noble monuments of mediwval art, it is
some consolation to know that it has become the
practice to remove frescoes of interest from the
walls on which they were painted, either for
sale, or for preservation in public museums.
The process, however, is one of considerable
difficulty and delicacy, and involves, moreover,
in such of them as were executed in part only
in " buon fresco" and finished in "tempera,"
the risk of losing the finest touches, or destroying
the painting altogether. In addition to these
measures for the preservation of the originals,
two modern inventions, photography and chro-
molithography, are being successfully employed
in producing copies, in the dissemination of which
the Arundel Society gives valuable aid by its
publications.

Whether the ulterior object of the Society, and
of others who are labouring in the same cause,
that of reviving the art of fresco-painting, espe-
cially in connection with architectural decoration,
will ever be attained, must for the present, we
fear, be considered rather doubtful. The result
of the attempts to effect such a revival in Ger-
many, in connection with the dreams of political
and social regeneration that roused the Teutonic
mind to activity during the earlier part of the
present century, is decidedly unpromising for the
restoration of an art which, as is ably shown in
the article before us, had its root in the depths
of the national and religious life of the country
and of the age that gave it birth. Nor can we
in this country, notwithstanding the efforts that
have been made to obtain for high art the posi-
tion which of right it ought to occupy, boast as
yet of any great progress. The account given by
the reviewer of the fresco paintings in the Houses
of Parliament is not of a very gratifying na-
ture ; the discussions on the estimates on the
floor of the House of Commons are not calculated
to elevate the taste, or to beget any violent en-
thusiasm, for art; the materialistic and mer-
cantile spirit of the age is not favourable
to the development of deep feeling or of
lofty conception; and the religious element in
•ur national life,—the most potent, the absolutely
indispensable influence in the revival of an art
essentially Christian in its origin,—has received
and continues to receive such deep wounds in the
miserable conflicts between the foppery of clerical
mediwvalism and the coarseness of iconoclastic
Puritanism, that from this quarter obstruction
rather than encouragement is to be looked for at
present. For these reasons we cannot help fear-
ing that the writer of the essay before us is too
sanguine in his expectations; at the same time,
looking at the few indications of advance to a
higher standard among the artists engaged both
in the Houses of Parliament and in Lincoln's-inn
Hall. and at the earnestness in their cause which
the apostles of the proposed revival exhibit, we
may perhaps venture to indulge in brighter hopes
than the present aspect of affairs would seem
to warrant ; and most hearty, at all events, is
our wish that the noble aspirations of the writer
whose remarks we have perused with so much
pleasure, and those of the Society whose services
he has brought under public notice, may even-
tually be crowned with success.