The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-18 00:00:00

lint arts.

THE PICTCRES IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY.—
The public mind has been recently a good deal disturbed by
rumours of the threatened destruction of the great works of
the great masters of art collected within the walls of the Na-
tional Gallery : a warfare which, but for the importance of
the interests involved, would have been even ludicrous—which
has, in fact, furnished to the pleasant caricaturist of Fleet-
steet the figure of a war of soap-dishesand scrubbing-brushes
—ham been assumed as directed against the country's peculiar

temple of high art, at the deliberate instigation of the un-
faithful guardians who had charge of the citadel. The gods
of old pictures are represented as coming out of their clouds
of ages, stripped of their divine expression and clothed in the
earthly costume of the picture-dealers. Mysterious mean-
ings have vanished with the dirt of year, and the common-
places of thought have come in, with clean fine,. Pictures re-
covered from the jaundice have lost the a ntimcnta/ air
which imagination assigned to their yelloushood. Ruben,
dead muter, looks profanely alive at the hands of the modern
resurrectionists. Imagined back.grounda as seen through the
twilight of discoloration, have been suddenly revealed as
fore-grounds in the light of restoration. Colours have
changed their harmetues, and form is relations, in the
handling of rash empirica and, in a word, the text of these
fine old poems is corrupted, for learned intelligences, by
being rendered less obscure, and the inspiration itself is found
to have departed with the removal of the veil which, at any
rate, concealed it from common eyes.
If all this were true, even to the letter, it might yet
perhaps be reasonably asked if the public is, after all, so
great a loser by seeing its property, throughly stripped of
certain alleged proportions, which, to the alternative, it was
never to see at all ? It may be questioned if that be a very
beneficial possession which exists only by a continual act of
faith in the representations of the illuminati • and we are
reminded of one of the least satisfactory relies of Catholic
legend by such a demand on our transcendentalism of belief.
Es
.fumo dare listens seems no bad motto fur these
practical and inquiring times, even in matters so refined.
and to a great degree exclusive, as those of art. The fact
however is, that the matter in question will not bear thus
disposing of. There is, unquestionably. not--if such
a thing be even possible as a generality—that know-
ledge of art abroad amongst us which can take
our consciences out of the keeping of the duly in-
formed in matters of such high significance as this and
the charges that have been made involve catsiderations
much too serious to be overlooked by an intellectually-
awakening people. The suspicion of a tampering with inte-
rests which look none the less for being not yet wholly ap-
prehended, began to excite a very natural distrust ; and the
cry of " the National Gallery is danger" grew loud enough
to make inquiry necessary.
The first palliative to this alarm was administered by the
letters themselves which had aroused it. That no answer to
charges so serious, on a subject on which the public had a
right to be informed, came from the parties implicated, was
a significant circumstance, susceptible of two opposite read-
ings ; but it was not long ere this silence on the part of the
keeper of the National Gallery began to show an acquaint-
ance, on his part, with that proverbial wisdom which
allows a man to " spin his yarn" till he has twisted it into a
rope that performs a very different office front that which the
artificer intended. The particular newspaper in which the
denouncer appeared is kno en to be " nothing if sot" bel-
ligerent—and always moat self complacent when classical;
and accordingly the challenger on this occasion rode into it.
Cato came, armed for onslaught with an unsparing cut-
and-thrust, and Romanised into " Vera:." But the Times
is not famous fur knowing when to withdraw either itself or
its champions; and Vera: was allowed to pursue his rash
career till he ran his head visibly against the windmills. So
many several abuses did he successively set up to tilt spinet,
assigning one same cognizance to each and all of them—that it
became apparent he wasliaunted by another figure than those
nominally in the field. In plainer language, the complaints
of Verax multiplied suspiciously ander the encouragement
of their own vituperative utterance ; and it grew evident that
Mr. Eastlake was ever the picture uppermost in his mind
when speaking of the pictures in the National Gallery. A
mere feeling of the decent suggested that even if hif. East-
lake, in the exercise of hie difficult and responsible functions,
should have committed an error of judgment, it was nothing ,
essentially worse (however deplorable the consequences) than
an error of judgment, after all ; and not to mention that Mr.
Eastlake's judgment rests upon testimostlals probably as
sound as,
andcertainly more notorious than, Versx's—it was
felt that his character and position demanded some gentle.
manly consideration from a party honestly exposing
his mistake. The question of mere incapacity does
not justify personal abuse; and the earnestness of
an enlightened conviction, never employe it. The repe-
tition of Verax's letters betrayed an animus which
impeached the implication of his name. And this, as we
have said, first re-assured the public on the subject of his

This argument, however, was not sufficiently conclusive
as to the questions at issue ; nor could the matter be allowed
to rest on a mere moral inference. As regards simply the
noise of the accusation, had it been more fair in its tone, we
ourselves know well how necessary it sometimes is that the
cry of " Wolf" should be loud to rouse the sleepers, and
that very wholesome truths will yet be taken by many,
only in the shape of strong stimulants. The practices of
the press are too familiar to us, to permit our looking on
what is "sound and fury," as always " signifying nothing; "
and the Times, in especial, has the reputation of
belabouring many a true teat, as furiously as
if it were " sounding brew" They who know
much of the battles of the newspapers will not refuse
to believe that there may be • real danger, merely
because it is announced by the ostentatious voice of the
I trumpet. The matter was to be fairly inquired into for the
satisfaction of our readers; and on our way to that inquiry
we were met by a somewhat curious feet, whi:•b may be
worth mentioning, aa, perhaps, in some degree affecting the
character of the evidence against Mr. Rutlake and his
alleged Iconoclasts. In its adoption of those properties
which we have allowed to he • legitimate dramatic resource
with the newspaper for securing an audience, the Times, by
a casualty which would seem to show th►t the classical
is really instinctive with it, has borrowed, we believe
quite unconsciously, an idea from the old Greek drama.
The tragedy of the Picture Cleaners is rehearsed for the
newspaper after the Attic model. In that, the performer
was double—one gentleman delivering the words, and ano-
ther the action; and, in the same manner, if we be rightly
informed, the reasoning of the letters in the Times is sup-
plied by one party, and their language by a second. In
other words, Vera: is "two single gentlemen rolled into
one;" a compound whose individualities may be described—
for we, too, would be classical in such a presence—u in the
one case " car " put " faueibus hash," and in the other
"sox et prelerea nail." We suggest to the Times that,
under the circumstances, Cerberus would have been a more
appropriate name; would, besides, have included the snarl
among its meanings, and would have been yet more intensely
classical. The moral scholiast has great doubts about thui
name of Vera'.

In matters of mere opinion there will alwaysbe a plurality
of sides; and the more vague and untaftgible the question in
dispute, the more violent such opinions generally are.
Where the principles asserted can be referred to demonstra-
tions, the violence is a superfluity ; where the reference is to
nothing more substantial than the classical mind of a Verax,
such logicians are apt to think that the violence supplies the
demonstration. The talking part of the double actor overdoes
his part under the idea that he thereby helps outthedeflcient
authority of the thinking one. Honest opinions are respect-
able even when they are erroneous • and as they are of the
kind which yield to the force of gets when such are to be
had, it is worth while to go in search of facts for their sake.
Amongst those who haveceneured thecleaning of the pictures
in the National Gallery there is, no doubt, a class whoee
objections, though we consider them groundless, we believe
to be sincere ; and there are many more who, knowing little
of the matter as one of opinion, have yet, as we said, been
startled by the preposterous report of the double-barrelled
" great gun "of the Times. But were all men obliged to
sign their charges with their real, instead of their classical
names, a very useful comment as to probable motives would
be supplied on expressed opinions. The song of the swan
with two necks, like that of the leas artificial one, would,
perhaps, lose its authenticity by a personal examination of
the bird. The public, for example, knows nothing of the
innumerable offers of pictures foe sale with which the
truster of the national collection are beset, or they might
be led to speculate on the temper in which those who fail in
their applicationsarellikely to regard ever acquisition from a
rival dealer or from a private collection. That picture cleaners
should be jealous of a rival in their path who has his heaths fa
of employment, is of the commonest order of weal pima-
mena: and that artists whom the world has (Judy or an.
justly) refused to judge up to their own sedinateilteshroar
seek to depreciate thaw with whom it has seekamed
is a weakness which history forbids us to Wier (r we fain
would) impossible in the loftier region d sat. In answer,
then, to such authority as may be derived ham the testi-
mony on which the public alarm is grovelled, we mast say,
before entering on the reasons for our own OM that
we have made a point of extending the appeal to the -
ment of intelligent critics. We have gradually made our-
selves acquainted with the opinions of our first easteurs,
our most respectable picture elisson, end our best artists,
especially the colourists, and thole sgproval of the eleaninip
impugned we have found to be so general and
unequivocal that we an have no firths: hesitation in stating
our own.

Neither would it be right that we should omit from We
defense, es we now avow it to be, of the eleasines 5 qua-
ties, sea mere ordinary informer of weer end pod-
tion, as would have been ingumente in favour of the punka
int/motel if there land been use stranger. The mese
keeper of the National Gilkey, who her been brought be-
fore the pablie se Abash* in this description is WA le be
a perms wile might Misr be expseted to err from Itirtion
than from miaow. Ms is his eberamer with *SIM who
knowreem him Heendelism appl, tab (kir we prem. the
or mtens with e ..71:1ZZ
picture dome de the work reMinqu) ired.th All that
pictures amen be aimed sums shoe or other. How, then, is
the Gentry to be raged that it hes, in this instant" had
the senior of OM best sheer t Oa the *dewing promosp-
floss : bas me the Asset seliestions fu the Minim havebeem,
and still are eemmided to his nano. He Ins dame,
in this way, of her lieJenty's pictures, of the eeDsedres of
the Duke of W the Marquis of Wreaks:ter, Mr.
Hope, Sir Robert )fee and fifty other/. He hes already
cleaned pictures in the National Gallery. H. lum been edu-
cated from his youth under his father and brother, who fol-
lowed the same calling, to a thorough acqualwannee with the
methods of the meanie matters. Now, —seleg tee a mo-
ment that the keeper was not the cautions perm he is de-
scribed to be—assuming that, no matter from what muse, he
could counsel the overeleaning of picture by the great
masters, is Mr. Seguier, qualified as he so, and with a high
reputation to lose (not dealing with the pictures of
• country gentleman, but in the face of the whole world),
is Mr. Seguier likely to assent to such • thane, and to fall
in with an opinion and practice contrary to his experience
and judgment? It would be absurd to suppose it ; it is yet
more so to suppose that all the parties concerned are such
a set of desperadoes es the letters of " Verax" would assert,
bent upon destroying the works of the old masters on the
walls of the gallery, as witnesses against the academy oppo-
site. The themeless nature of this insinuation makes it re-
' toil on the party who conceived it ; and, again, the ques-
tion of motive arises with more than a common force,
derived from certain personal circumstances which fit
an argument of the kind. Mr. Eastlake did his
ditty in appointing a person of Mr. fieguier's reputation ;

and Mr. Seguier's reputation is the beat guarantee that the
work which was to be done is well done. As the answer in
one ease; if it be good, may be held to he an answer to the
same clans of objet ions in the others, we will simplify the
matter of our inquiry, by selecting fur it that one of the pie.
tures who'e destruction has been represented as the most
complete—the " Peace and War" of Ruben,. We choose
this one, fur the further rennin that the other instances
attacked by the twin-critic of the Times, have found de-
fenders as well as accusers in the press ; and indeed we be-
lieve there is Feareelr an exception to the satisfaction with
which these restorations are regarded. That fact alone of an
otherwiiie general assent may well dispose of such unsup-
ported objectors as Versa" and" Mr. Coniugham." [We
cannot help remarking it as an unfortunate circumstance
with reference to certain of these accusations, which should
have kept Mr. Coningharn out of the field, or civilised histone,
for the sake of avoiding inferences, that that gentleman has
himselr, if our information be correct, been an unenceeoeful
offerer of pictures for purchase to the Notional Gallery. If
this be not true, we give Mr. Cooingham an opportunity of
denying what at present we hear hinted against him as a
motive.] To return : Speaking of the Curp, one critic, who
is of opinion that it is " nearly uninjured," rays that the
distance is lost, and, the appearance of sunny haze removed ;
but these, he believes, it did not originally possera—a remark
which we ask our readers to hear in mind as having a direct
bearing on certain observations which we have hereafter to
offer. The fact is, the Cuyp is faultless ; and it may be
mentioned, to the credit of the present cleaner, that two re-
pairs which were before apparent in the sky have disap-
peered under his hands. The Velarquez is generally accepted
as a marvel of restoration—restoration, be it well under-
..

stood, meaning here only the removal of 'the superfluous—the
revelation of the old master himself by drawing away his
curtain. The patching up of pictures is another thing—
it is some one else interposing himself between us and the
master, instead of the curtain. Bad restoration and no re-
storation are precisely the same thing; with this exception,
that the no restoration leaves room ter a good restoration at
any future time. Meantime, both teach untruth. Time, the
dirtier, is as great a falsifier as any cleaner of them all. We
are quite willing to admit that we should rather see the cau-
tion exercised on the right side. It is better that the work
of cleaning should be imperfectly done than overdone. Pic-
tures buried under horny and darkened varnish are not
injured, we believe, thereby ; they are only lost. As regards
their beauties, de non ezistentibus et non apparentibur eastern
cot ratio. We have much sympathy with that reviewer who
sees the great bequests of genius touched with reluctance and
apprehension; but none with those who look on the old
dead masts rs as being dead in the sense that it is sacrilege to
disinter them.—Of the Vclasquez we may mention a circum-
stance which again speaks honourably for Mr. Seguicr's
fitness to discharge this delicate but valuable function. This
picture had been injured some yearn since when in the hands
of a Mr. Thane, a cleaner—in consequence of an accident
in the operation of lining. The middle portion was,
therefore, at that time, a little mended ; and, under
ill the difficulties of the case, too much can scarcely be said
in praise of the admirable manner in which M. Seguier box
cleaned, without injury, this still noble picture.
The " Peace and War " of Ruben., one of the finest of
this mister's works, and most 'minable of the possessions of
the gallery, is, so we have said, the great choral de Munn*
in this onslaught against the Academy; and we defer the
remarks which we have to make on the subject of this par-
ticular restoration for another opportunity.

UNIVERSITY AND CLERICAL NEWS.
CALMIZIK.C. JAS. I6.—Yenteeday, IL Andresen, 8.A., (formerly of
Pembroke College), and John Buckley, 8.A., were elected Fellows of
Queen's College.
. .

111.01.1L1C ..IYRAV.,—The Rev. Charles Perry, minister
of the di,triet church of St. Paul in thi, town, has roce,ved the offer of
the bishopric of Melbourne, about to be created in Australia Felix, and
we have rea.ent to believe that the reverend grntleinan ban signified
his acceptance of the offer. lie will he greatly missed in Cambridge,
and the church In the southern hemisphere will gain in his person •
devoted and most useful superinterident.—Conettrodge Chronicle.
PISEriIiMENTS.—Rev. C. Boated, jun., to Llownhani Market R., Nor-
folk, 403/. Rev. H. Barney, to Wavendon R., Bucks, 593/. Rev.
W. B. Bustiby, to Binewar R., Somerset- J. W. Carroll, Rik., to be
fourth master of St. Peter's School, York. 1t,.. R. 11. Kirby, to the
mathematical roashership of St. Peter's School, York. Rev. W. L. P.
Mercier, to the second mastership of the Birmingham and }.ltrbsston
Proprietary School. Rev. T. Ranier, to Healey P.C., Rochdale. Rev.
E. IL Tinting, to be • government immoctur of schools.
Vse.sant.....Brccon County Gaol, chaplaincy of, by the resignation
of the Rev. J. B. Evans. Bruton Grammar School, mastership for
higher mathematics and middle classic..., 1401. with board and kidging.
Buckingham union, chaplainry of, WI. Halton Gill P. C., 101; and
Hubberholmc P. C., Sul. Patron, the Visor of Arnehtfe; both in the
county of
.York and diocese of Ripon, and vacant by the death of the
ltev. Lualley. Jersey, St. James' ErgampolChapcl, 2001.; applica-
tion to the chapel-wardene. Liverpool. St. Martin C, tool.