The National Register.
London, England, 1812-01-26 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.

Ecit:id home est, nisi res fugitiva, .diurna ?
Nascimur et nun incur : Sonthium t t tintra swim%
At cunt eetlivromit venere ex nubibus Arta,
Splendiclus zterna luce refulbit bomo.

The Prince of the Lyric Potts, with his usual sublimity of thought
a7:l boldness of expression, describes, in a few words translated above,
what influence the fine arts ever had upon man. " Weed, without
the se heavenly-born daughters of Jove," bays he 66 man is nothing hut
a transient shadow. a dream, a handful of dust which the wind tosses
sip and disperses in the air : with them his life is attended with pleasure
and comfort; glory shines like the sun of his dais, and his fame endures
on the other side of the grave." This truth has been acknowledged and
corfirmed by the experience of all ages, and the eloquent Routtseau,
although he astonished, yet could not persuade his contemporaries that,
instead of benefiting, thefine arts had corrupted and injured, mankiud.
But th:se divine sisters, who acknowledge the muses for their tutelary
goddesses and companions, do not always dwell among us; like birds of
passage, thty come at their fated times and ily away when their mission
is performed and their duties fulfilled. Neither do they always alight on
the same spot of the globe; they migrate from one favourite place to
another, and their appearance is often as sudden as it is unforeseen.
Fron the &ttitful countries of etc Egyptian Delta, to the shores of the
/E,;ean Sea, from Athens to Rome, from Italy to Frauce and Germatiy,
they visited and blessed successively several nations of the known world,
and will, pr. haps, some centuries hence, tranzport their seat to the

Western Hemisphere.
In the midst of these considera& ns, it is gratifying to see that Albion
has now more than ever attracted their peculiar notice, and that Great
Britain, so long famous for her freedom and the bravery of her sons,
will have also to shine in the pages of history for the celebrity of her
artists. We cannot deny that liberty implies a certain austern yof man-
ners, a certain frown of severity which kelps oil, in general, the muses
and the fine arts. and that the daughters of Jove will rather visit the
rreisus of peace and luxury, than the land of freedom and the seat of
war. Their delight is in the palaces of the great ; they tune their lyres to
the tables of the rich, and if ever they wail away to the rural bowers
and sing, on the Boric reed, the innocent lives Of the shepherds,it. is when
the din-of war has ceased, and ph my and peace weave the olive branch
around the temples of their rulers. This truth is melancholy ; yet it is
useless to disguise it; and all the ingenuity of the elegant author of ihe
Seasons of Nature,could never prove that the works of the fine arts were
fostered by, and achieved under, the reign of liberty. Sculpture and
painting appeared when Greece mourned for extinguished freedom ;
Rome had witnessed the loss of her liharty in the waves of the Rubicon
and the plains of Pharsalia—'ere the Muses were ushered to the court of
Augustus! And when, after a long absence. or sleep, the tti.ne sister*
returned or awoke, were then the soidisant republics of Florence or
Venice; were the banks of the Tiber and the shores of Parthenore,
in
a state of freedom under the Medleis, Charles the Vth and the Pope ?
Certainly not. But when, by the blessings of a constitution like that of
England, liberty goes hand in hand with riches and .:flinence ; when we
have braves abroad to fight our battles, and Maxey:ars at home to en-
courage, by Ipiendid rewards, literature and the line arts, we can easily
fortel that our nation will soon hold cweparatively %vial ethers the tame
rank on Parnassus, as we have long oh: shoed by the succesa of our arms;
.that of transcendent superiority. Painting, sculpture, awl architecture,
are showing their-chef d'oeuvres every where, and improve so much
every day, that soon they will soar above all posssibiiity of com-
petition.
This glowing hope was ushered and nurtured in our bosom by .many
Instances of real success in all the districts of the flee arts, and is happily
substantiated by what we have lately witnessed of the efforts made by
our artists and students in the rooms of ths British L;stitution. In some
of our preceding numbers we have dared our °pillion upon the orlaioals,
offered to their imitation; Ave have submitted, with due deference, our
judgment upon the respective merit of the copies; rile. feel happy to an-
nounce, as a most gratifying result, that the pencil of several of our co-
temporaries of both sexes can translate the sublime works of Titian or
Itubens with as much facility of exectitioa and felicity of effect, as the
pen of Dryden and Pope did the immortal iosems of Virgil and Homer;
4:14 that we vutertaiu no doubt but the spontaneous cffusious of their

61

minds In-original compositions will, in the spxce of a few ye r 4, surpass
our most eager expectation.

These reflections have induced us to continue, with imabated zeal,
our strictures upon the fine arts; and henceforwards to devote regularly
a column or two of our paper to the desc.-iotion of new works in their
divers departments, as well as to the delicate ta•R of appreciating, with-
out partiality, the eil'utts of the artists. Hort/vier, mild, but just, ht
our animadversions; at equal distance from the forbidding frown of hy-
percriticisin aud the disgusting smile of flattery, we hope tube able
often to amuse, sometimes to irtStruct, and always to ylea3e our Intelli-
gent readers.

TILE -STREAM 01' TIME;

02,
EPHEMERIS FOR THE WEEis•

•
JANUARY. '
26. St:l.-rum:Elms SuNDAY.—Epistte, 1 Cor. ix. 24. Gospf4 Matt.
xx. I.—This Sunday is called Stl4mtgesi out Ponehtica , by analoiy with
the first Sunday in Lent, Oandragesi Inn ,whenve the Drench hasie derived
their word Careme " I ,tit.' The (buich:(4...fe•Aim:l was not improperly
so called, as it meant forty days of tastino before Easter, hut Quinqua-
ge.inta, Sexage,itna, and Septuagesima Sundays, havtl.tio other claim .to
their titlen ttit a similarity of sound, and a retrograde analogy---`'t. Po-
tycarp, disziple of St. John the Evange:i.t, and bf him ordained Bksliwp .1
Smyrna. Li the year lti:t lie NV3zi appreitentied and colqietnned to the
Dames in the middle of the An:pi:Hit:atm, where he (Cereal his /areas&
sacrifice to h.:ft %% ho had given Ins ow, 11 for us.
The sun rises at 7h. s7niiii.sets at 41t. :.:tail•,..
27. illonuday.—St. Joh:i Clirpostomv , 2.1-61:;ishop of Constantinople%
Dy his zeal against vice, w'hicli It:: prosLcuted With the nu,rt pcme!fil
eloquence, he raised many enemies, ati,l died is exile, after IOnZ 1, ritter.
ings, under which he gave the most admirable specimens of ahregation
and patience. His death happened in 407.—The Duke of Sussex's
birth day.
The sun rises at 7h. 36niin. sets at dih. 24 mia.
2S. Tu9sday.—St. Agues, Virgin and Martyr. The meekness of ter
temper, the innocence of her lite, have indtl,:ed painters of ancient and
modern times to place a laMb by her, as an appropriate attribute,-
1547. Death of Heilry VIII.
The sun rises at 71t. 3.sanin. sets at 4h. 2.smin.

Full moon at it noon.
29. Wedue.srlay.—St. Francis of Sales, Bishop and Confessor.; ittsti-
t uted the order of the 'Visitation for Women. He was peculiarly con-
spicuous for the mildness of his temper and eminent virtues; his ascetic
works breathe ali throughout that lave of God winch calla ai: fall to Us.
spire good thoughts, and excite us to good acdons. He died in the its.
ce.ltury. ..
The sun rises at 7h. 33rnin. sett at 4h. Cimin.
Jupiter continues to adorn the•lirmatiieut every night, and retrograda
Ing towards the sun, removes eastwards from the pieiades, or seven,starse
commonly so called, althOtigh we cannot discern but six.
X). nurselay.—l'he Martyrdotto of King Charles Lin the year 1649,
before the hatpieting-house at `X hitehall, where, a few years bef:re, he
hid caused Rubens to paint the.apotheosis of Iris father; apiece of ,w 4.141&...
manship which is still the admiration of • every beholder, as weit'arr a
• monument of the filial affection of a Prince who was aitewards the Nic-
. tim of party' zeal and impkierble- inhumanity. " He was sober, to in; e.-
rate, and chaste, a good nttsband, a good fatal., and a good mast: r," yet
he had been culpable in several points rrlativ.! to the duties ofd Nit.....
parch, w'ho ought to keep incessicotly in vie-.A the happiness and libertyl
of his subjects —Also Sr. St. Martina, Virgin and Martyr, 51'29,-1800.,
• l'he French sign a treaty to evacuate Egypt.
'fire sun rises at ;h. 3lntin. sets at 4h. Oniiii.
Si; Friday.—!it. Peter N .la co, instituted the most humane of all
order., that for the retholvion of thise unfortainate Christians made
captives by the Moors. - fir: lited, in the.year 11:56.-1600. Execution of
Guy Faux.
The sun rises at '7h. 30 min. sets at 411. t?,O min.
1 FEBR ',IA R Y XXIX DAYS.
The name of this m.iiith, arcordorg to 510/eral authors, is derived
from the god Februum, or from Jath.i Februa, because several purificatiods
il were practised in this mortlt among the Romans. The year began, at
first, ‘v i:11 them, at the period when the sun appears to come back to es
from the farthest decree of his solithern declination ; and thefirst month,
which was devoted 'to rejoicins on that occasion, being over, tiay
I thotigitt proper and wholesome iv purity themselves aglinst the retuni
of sring. On the IPth of this month the sun enters the sign Pisces, an
allusion to the great nrinihtt of good fish caught at this time of the year,
las well as 'to the quantity of rain which fell in Italy at that time.
iAmpiara, or Agaarius, in January, alludes to the same circumstance.
It was placed under the protection of Neptune,
Amtoscitqac sups Neptunas in eetlicre Pisces,
i and is composed of twe..ty-nine days, this year being a bessextileorliesip
it year.
g Satarday,--4t, Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr, be MO third Bishop of

1.

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