The Express.
London, England, 1855-05-18 00:00:00

THE PARIS EXHIBITION.-FINE ARTS.

(MOM ♦ COIIIITAPONDENT OT THE DAILY NSW.)
Fond of neutral tints, as a means of setting off
their brightest ornamentation, the Parisian decorators
have not tasked their imagination very much to
adorn the pillars, girders,. and iron shooting ribs of
their Crystal Palace. They are of a uniform grey
throughout, gaily ornamented with Bags of every
colour and of every nation, vanishing in remote
perspective. The lack of broad masses of drapery,
on which the eye could rest when in search of relief,
was evidently felt, and the aspect of the Exhibition
at once gained immensely by the liberal assortment
of crimson velvet, spreading out from the throne.
Its effect was so satisfactory that you felt a desire to
retain this effective stop gap even after the pageant
was over; but then the imperial purple overshadows
a goodly slice of the United States' department; and
that, few, besides those immediately interested, would
like to see eclipsed. As our business at present is to
glance rapidly at the artistic treasures which were,
for the most part, uncovered yesterday for the first
time, we must cross over from the American
side to the lengthy array of French wares'
immediately opposite. The metal - casters have
been excessively active. Two superb trophies—
a military and a naval one—indicate where
the national heart beets at present. Without any
wish to play upon words, it may safely be said that
the "genie" corps have shown real genius in the
disposal of their ordnance piece. As it the sculptors,
too, had caught up the trick of strife, they tarnish
almost without exception specimens of tough encoun-
ters between man and beast. Is this a playful allu-
sion to Russian antagonism ? Being in close proxi-
mity to guns of no slight calibre, wags will not be
backward in fancying that bronze-casters and scalp-
ton have sought the bubble reputation at the cannon's
mouth. Here is M. Ramey's famous Tuileries-garden
group of Theseus combating the Minotaur, which
improves on acquaintance, and looks better with the
black bronze complexion than in white marble.
Fratin revives the death straggle between a horse
and a tiger, which Kiss was the first to bring into
vogue. The limbs of both quadrupeds are admirably
modelled; but the mischief is, that from all points
you see little else. The forequarters of the horse and
the hind ones of his antagonist are first-rate anato-
mical studies; but a group should have at least one
side reserved for favourable inspection. Those who
go a round-about way to see the group will be repaid
for their trouble.

M. Ottin exhibits an able group of an Indian
warrior on horseback, shooting a serpent with an
arrow, which is very spirited in execution. The dimi-
nutive stature and energy of attitude remind one of
the heroes of the Egina marbles; but the torso of the
Indian combatant seemsto want revisal, being a trifle
compressed in the loins. Unfortunately, the rasp and
file may be made to pare an excrescence, but can't
add a pound of gone flesh.
An eagle and a vulture feeding upon an alligator
is the somewhat carnivorous subject selected by Cain.
Mich sculpture of this kind would warrant the much
abused "nil admirari." A wood-cutter, by Fran-
ceschi, is executed on the scale suited to a boy,
though it is hard to state the age allotted to him by
the artist. Not more successful, though larger than
life, is the preaching St. Joha, by Barre, who we
hope "has no connexion" with M. Barre who makes
such admirable profiles for the French Mint. The
artist has sculptured the saint in clumsy muscular dis-
proportion ; the ankles are positively out of joint.
Those are blemishes not to be detected in a single
Florentine work, even on its decline. The gates of
Paradise, as Ohiberti's gates were called by Michael
Angelo, belong to Florentine art at its zenith.
M. Barbedienne exhibits them in his gorgeous stall,
which is replete with the most accurate reductions of
antique and Renaissance sculpture. Before leaving
the subject of bronzes we cannot omit mentioning
the fountain executed from the design of Barbet for
the foundry of Pussy, in the department of the
Meuse. The nymphs are pleasantly adapted from
Jean Goujon's Graces, and of course left a trifle of
their slender delicacy behind &Atli( their metamor-
phosis into cast iron. Close to this is the "Eagle
Slayer"—by Bell, if wimistake not east by the Coal-
brookdale Company, which looks remarkably well on
its high perched pedes.tal.
Since 1851, the mimetic arts seem to have made
wonderful strides; and it is quite curious to see what
an indefatigable host of earnest spirits, outsider" of
the arts for the most part, can do. The son, we be-
lieve, of Niepee de St. Victor, who invented the
daguerreotype, has a stall: French counts and
English squires shine in the dexterous manipulation
of sensitive paper. Evidently on this ground
amicable contest will be the rage. Who will
have the best of it ? We think England
will be foremost in the landscape department,
and quite unapproachable in the reproduction of fac-
simile designs. Ottley, whose work one used to fancy
the me plate ultra in that line, must bide his dimi-
nished head. Mr. C. Thurston Thompson exhibits a
series of Raphaeleeque sketcher, eleven in number,
which the French, in their lively emphatic way, have
pronounced " etour diseant"—" stunning" being the
only corresponding word in our vernacular. They
come from the recondite collection of the Queen at
Windsor, and seem to us much finer than the Italian
design in Oxford. Mr. Roger Fenton and Mr.
White are amongst the ablest in the landscape de-
partment. The French come out in force ia architec-
t ura photography • Messrs. Belden, Nam, and
IBilardeau fill a compartment which will be not the
least interesting in the Exhibition. Leseoq is pecu-
liarly felicitous in Gothic architecture, and brings
home fins fragments from Chartres.
M. Martens has performed a feat akin to that of
Mr. Albert Smith—he has stormed Moat Blanc.
For eight consecutive days, whinh,strafge to say for
deedless