The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1818-11-10 00:00:00

ROYaIL AC4DEM7.

Last night the Lectures fur the season were com-
menced at the Royal Academy, by A. CARLIJILE,
E.q. F.A.S. the Prrifemor of Anatomy, who flail-
vered opening di.course nu the study of Ana-
tomy, as applicable to the art of Palming. The
genetal stack of elementary knowledge which is
arryttged nr and teonveyed by Lectures at the Royal
Academy, fur insttucting the Student in the rudi-
ments of his art, has, fur a few seasons past, receiv-
ed little augmentation from fresh application or
study. The Student ha., from year to year, heard
the borne oo itt elides and rules enforced in nearly
the same words, with an almost tiresome repetition.
New Lectures have been talked of among the Pro-
fessors, but the Strident has soot for some time had
the advantage of being enlivened by their variety,
or cheered and directed in his pursuits by the fresh
light• which new study and pens lice may have
discovered in the path which he has to tread. It is
due, Ito‘ever, to Mr. C4itl.tat.E, to state, that he
last night set the example of a new Lecture to the
other Professors—an example which, no doubt, will
he followed, as it is given by the Professor of that
branch of study, the principlss of which are of a
more fixed and permanent character than those of
any other Professor.

Mr. CASUALS commenced his Lecture by observ.
ing that the arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Archi-
tecture, were deteututioded the Fine Arts, thong')
they ought rather to have been called the refined or
beautiful Arts. The study of Anatomy was essential
to the knowledge of form, proportion, and attitude,
which were the essentials of character in art. It
was true, that persons of great natural genius had
*Misled proficiency in art without a previous study
of the necessary elements which they ought to have
considered at the outset, but the blemish. s of such
men 'Mewed the great disadvantages to which they
exposed themselves by an instiention or disregard
of prelim in rudiments. The Professor then
adverted in die study of Perspective, and said, that,
though the rye was formed by Nature to act in
obedience to geometrical ruler, the study of the
true principles of Perspective was no less required
to fix on the mind the urcessary information which
it was the duty of the Artist to possesa and apple. Ise
modern times the progress of epitomical knowledge
had greatly advanced the character of victoria! art.
Au awful reverence for the sacredness •f the hu-
man frame prevented the ancient Greeks from cul-
tivating this branch of neural history. They con-
sulted in their dissections the brute creatiou alone;
and as there was no common principle of analogy
between the anatomy of the lower animals and the
human species, they were led into numerous errors
111 this branch of their pursuit. The ancient Greeks,
like the Asiatics of the present time, were denied
the permission of unveiling the sacied vestment of
the human form, and oiopfying the organization end
action of its parts to the study of the Arts. The
improvements of modern philosophy had banished
this superstitious awe, and the study of Anatomy,
when pursued with propriety and decorum, was now
allowed to the Painter and Sculptor, to whom it fur-
Mehra the great materials by which he must be
guided in the correct delineation of form and atti-
tude. The Professor eloquently impressed the
Students with the moral necessity of pursuing the
seedy of Anatomy, with that reverence and humility
which the subject must naturally inspire in every
well.regidated mind. It war, he Paid, in the fif-
teenth century, that, owing to the patronage of the
Arts, and particularly to the cultivation and general
diffusion of the important arts of printing and en-
graving, that the study of Anatomy, as applicable to
the stink of design, was first introduced arid culti-
vated. LEONARDO DA VINCI and TITIAN were the
first great artists that skewed the importasece of
thus study. LEONARDO cultivated Anatomy riot only
for the purposes of Ins art, but also as a curious
brooch if natural philosophy. He has left on re-
cord an amazing proof of his skill, in tracing the
physiology of the brain, and its connexion with
adjacent parts, iu the book of his Sketcher, now
in the kiteg's Library. CARTE, who has lately pubs
tithed a hook on the same subject, has actually
embellished it with tile very same tracings that tire
to be found in the old work of LEONARDO DA
though it is not perhaps known that the
hook in the King's Library had ever fallen into
his hands. TITIAN, in his study of Anatomy,
faithful to nature, pointed out the p Apatite errors
of GA LEN its his dereriptions of the human
traine, errors which originated in the ancient
practice of confining the dissections to the brute
creation. The Professor produced the work of
V Irk:MAUS on Asottimay, which he preferred to that
of A I.IIIN US, .sow the best in the Academic Library.
There was More of the truth of nature in %Timm-
mum...awl it was, mi the whole, a safer and better
guile Car the Student's information. He then exhi-
bited some curious auatnniical engraving., but
they were so small as trot to be visible to auy per-
sons ou the back Prato. One of them was the first
print supposed to be in existence, of an estiatomical
subject ; it was executed in 1485, and oterelY re-
presented the operator marking an incioon into the
first section of the belly, not opening the .whole, or
developing any of the divisions of the 1111111411 frame.
He also shelved a book of Anatomical Waiving%
wade by Juno Hoane, one of the surgeons to
HENRY VIII.; these were an improvement un the
feigner work, but still extremely imperfect in their
dttinitiou and character. The reputed means by
which I.rearttipo DA VINCI, 'l'm An, and MA-
CAI A Arias:l.o, attained unrivalled perfection an
their delineation of the human form, of course
drew the atteistion of Athols to the study of
Aitatuiiiy—they cultivated it with ardour and suc-
cess. Sublimely unbowed as were the parts of
the body for the performance of their rumens's'''. they
were yet hidden by mysterious vestineirto. and cat-
rislatrd to atVorel a fund of reflection in their ems-
'eau. 7hr humanskeleton was a ghastly
sight for the cuntruiplocive eye, hot it was less so
than the pile omit sun aspect of the emaciated being
who hail shortly before been the owner of it. In
taking a review of the advantage a now possessed by
the plural Academy fur the srudy.of the Fine Arts.
the Professor pariteularly alluded to the Greek
casts, and pointed them met to the attention
owl examiteatuni of the Soletit. Ile then re.
&ned to the pleilitude of resources which Na.
sue furnished lir animal life bur her variety of
display, and pointed out dm necessity of merely
cuitivitiez the study of Anatomy, ro far as to gam