The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-20 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 20, 1858.

as heretical, and even the form itself the crude,
half-developed form of that heaven-rapt childhood
of Art, has received a sacramental consecration
and passed into the calm immutability of dogma.
It need scarcely be added that the glorious
legacies of Paganism arc exorcised as unclean
things by the followers of this intolerant art-
religion, whose logical pressure early forced its
enthusiastic apostle into the open arms of Rome.
The " Idealists" start from principles in many
respects antagonistic to the above. Art, with
them, is essentially the exponent of the poetic
principle wherever it exists. If she loves to
consecrate herself to religious contemplation, it is
only because this principle meets her there in
abundant purity. All exclusiveness is, however,
foreign to her nature, and the range of her sub-
jects is endless and diversified as the Universe
itself. Moreover,—

Overbeck and his friends make it a flied rule never in
any way to allow a prominent place, in their productions,
to the individuality of the artist. They renounce all deeper
independence of operation, in order to avoid estrangement
from their models. With Cornelius, on the contrary, the
richly and puissantly organized personality forms the
starting point of all artistic creation. Not that he obtru-
sively strains after a sithjective manner. His earnest aim
is rather to penetrate into the essence of the represented
idea; directing his course towards an ideal goal, and hence
most readily sympathizing with the antique. Nowhere,
however, does he abandon himself to a mere surface imita-
tion, or play the slave to hit models. In every case perfect
independence is preserved in the choice of form, and
where he seems to reproduce, it is only that an internal
and it pressure, it is only that his own nature has
guided him to the resumption of the elder type.
Remote, however, as are their theoretical points
de depart, these two schools manifest a certain
technical approximation which is very remark-
able. Both alike sacrifice the material to the
spiritual element of Art. In both alike the laws
of form and colour are neglected, in favour of
idea and expression.
That Overbeck and his school should fall into
this error, follows directly from their acknow-
ledged principles, as above stated. Where the
great original, Nature, is systematically set aside,
and the study of anatomy is denounced as in-
decorous and obscene, colour and form must
inevitably degenerate, either into weazen abor-
tions, or, at the very best, into mere symbols,
more or less proximate, of what they are meant
to represent. The pious horror of anatomy which
distinguishes this school, and seems shared to the
full by our English Pre-Raphaelites, is a senti-
ment which only with exceptional natures can
emanate from anything but innate coarseness of
mind. That Overbeck himself is one of these
exceptional natures, no one will for a moment
deny; and we esteem it a privilege to be able,
from kiersonal experience, to endorse our author's
following remarks upon the painter of the
" Triumph of Religion "

He who has ever had the opportunity of contemplating
the semi beatified (halbverkliirg) old man in his studio at
the Palazzo Cenci, must be well convinced that in Over-
beck these views have condensed themselves into a most
profound personal feeling. His very lineaments have
assumed something of the set of an artistic type, and, as
he is sail in his youth to have reminded one of Raphael,
he meets us now, in his later years, as a perfect exemplar
of the art-loving monk of the middle ages. Overbeck's
piety is not meant to replace his skill as an artist; it is
rather the source of his best and moat brilliant productions.
Not only in his pictures does he imitate the beati624
Fiesole—his nature itself has receind a kindred impre:s.
The origin, then, of the technical defects in the
works of Overbeck and his school, is, literally, a
sort of pious disdain for form and colour, as the
baser corporeal elements of art! It is a kind of
esthetic mortification of the flesh,—a pictorial
asceticism which—when we consider that the
incorporation of an idea is the first and absolute
condition of art's very existence—we may safely
leave to the tender mercies of our readers.

Although free from this fanatical scorn for the
material, the Idealists and their leader are be-
trayed into no less flagrant shortcomings by their
excessive worship of the spiritual. The techni-
calities of art are exposed, with them, not to con-
tempt but to neglect :

The works of Cornelius (says Dr. Springer) are only
appreciable by the aristocracy of education. He who seeks
in painting the gratification of the eye will not comprehend
this great master's fame. His power over his materials
lea►es, also, much to be desired. Cornelius canna paint
in oils, and even his Frescoes are executed by other hands.

Further on we are told that this painter—who
" in Munich had not only won the repute of the
" first German artist of the day, but actually
"passed for one of the greatest masters of any
" age "—commits constant oho egaihet the MU,