The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Fine Arts Quarterly Review. No. 111.
Chapman and Hall.
The Second Volume of this superb periodical—
the quarterly organ of the fine arts—is now (by
the publication of this third number) commenced.
As a periodical, therefore, it may already be re-
garded as so far established with security among
its contemporaries, that its initial instalments have
been honourably relegated, or, it might perhaps
be said more correctly, promoted, from the
library table to the book-shelf—from the quarterly
stone-coloured paper to the half-yearly half-calf.
And the work, it will be apparent even upon a
superficial glance, is one more adornment to any
library—to an artist's or a connoiseur's library,
indeed, an invaluable acluisition. As yet, the
contents of the three numbers already published,
have to the full justified the goodly promise put
forth in the prospectus. They have now, during
three successive quarterlies, put the subscriber com-
pletely au courant with the general condition, pro-
gress, and development of art among civilised
nations. European art, especially, may be said,
during these three quarters last past, to have had, in
this, its fitting representative in the world of
literature. The third number, now lying before us,
is in no one appreciable respect any falling off from
its predecessors. In one or two particulars,
it is even in some senses an im-
provement upon them. The accomplished and
(evidently in the fulfilment of his task) conscientious
Editor of the publication, the Queen's Librarian in
Ordinary at Windsor Castle, Mr. Woodward, the
Keeper of the Royal Collection of Prints and Draw-
ings, has evidently got his hand well " in" to the
particular work of selection among the great mass
of valuable contributions doubtless submitted, by
competent authorities in art, to his consideration.
Hence the papers grouped together, in number
three, are more varied both in theme and in
treatment than those comprised in either
the first or the second instalment of the periodical.
" The Vase of Camirus" leading off the third number
and the second volume is, although brief, not un-
worthy of its conspicuous position. It is embellished
with a brilliantly coloured folding illustration of
the design and the hues of this wonderful specimen
of antique art—an amphora, in height about one
foot five inches and a quarter, found as recently as
in 1862, during the excavations then making by
Messrs. Salzmann and Biliotti, in the necropolis
of Camirus in Rhodes. Hence the name
given to this same treasure trove, " The
Camirus Vase," a not unworthy companion to that
exquisite Portland Vase some years back smashed
to atoms by a mischievous idiot in search of noto-
riety, and now marvellously patched together at
the British Museum, in the centre of the little room
still set apart there for its preservation. The
Camirus Vase, at least, is a not unworthy companion
to The Portland Vase in all except the shape—the
shape of the latter, to our mind, being just
simply incomparable. It is in the design
upon the Camirus Vase that lies its especial
and distinguishing beauty. How eminently
beautiful that design is, the illustration, already re-
ferred to, and the accompanying descriptive letter-
press, beginning the current number of the Fine
Arts Quarterly, reveal quite distinctly to our ap-
prehension. The elaborate article upon " The
Loan Collection at South Kensington," too long
to be compressed within the compase of a single con-
tribution, is here concluded. Then follows a charming
disquisition upon " Raphael's ' School of Athens,"'
illustrative in a wonderful manner of the marvellous
thought lavished by that consummate Painter upon
a single work. Genius, in this, emulating Nature—
of course at the infinite distance separating the
power Human from the power Divine I Nature
applying the same exquisite care (so to express it)
upon the creation and rolling forth of a planet, and
upon the germination and effiaresence of each indi-
vidual blossom upon the tenderest and most fragile
shrub. The blossoms every season being so afflu-
ently squandered, squandered in absolutely in-
calculable abundance over the earth's surface
as it turns and basks and blooms in the
sunbeams—and yet each one of those minute
and countless blossoms, as we well remem-
ber Leigh Hunt remarking to us a very few
evenings before his demise, each one of those
numberless and tiny blossoms touched into perfect
loveliness, as though it had been the one especial
care of some beneficent Fairy. As with Nature, so
relatively with true Genius—the whole and the
minutest parts being alike cared for with an
exquisite particularity. Instance, this any one among
the great works of the greatest master of Painting
who ever lived, the Divine Raphael—as in
this very masterpiece of his School of Athens.
Instance, in our own time, that matchless
delineator of fruit and flowers in water colours—
William Hunt, now, alas, we grieve to learn, no
more ! Who that knows old William Hunt's water
colour paintings of fruit—ripening apples, delicate
primrose blossoms, shreds of moss, pilfered birds'
nests with eggs in them, square inches of marl and
granite, tasselled sprays of cranberry, and so forth—
but knows, thereby, full well the tender minuteness
of touch peculiar to the hand of true genius in art,
no matter what the department in art selected by
that true genius for its manifestation. After
a most interesting chapter upon Modern French
Etchings—a chapter, the value as well as the inte-
rest of which are enhanced by the accompaniment
of some curious specimen illustrations—another
serial contribution is brought to a close, namely,
that devoted to the " Early History of the Royal
Academy." HORACE VERNET, it should be especi-
ally remarked, has been selected most judiciously ae
the subject for the most attractive papers in the
whole of this present number of the Fine Arts'
Quarterly—a paper at one and the same time
a Criticism and a Biography. A third serial con-
tribution, it should also be remarked, is here
brought to a conclusion, meaning the one entitled
interrogatively, " Who was Francesco da Bo-
logna ? " Dua note is taken of the recent addi-
tions made, here to the National Gallery, here to the
National Portrait Gallery. Besides the before-
mentioned contributions, and two others hardly
necessary to particularise—one an account of the
" Drawings by Nicolas Poussin in the Royal Col-
lection," the other a very curious Catalogue
.Raisonng of the Pictures (at Somerset House) in
the possession of the Society of Antiquaries—
No. 111, of the Fine Arts Quarterly closes, as
usual, with a carefully compiled record
of the Fine Arts, both abroad and in the United
Kingdom. Among the contributions unavoidably
postponed, but immediately forthcoming, we are
interested to see announced, that there are papers on
Ancient Stained Glass and on the Old Abbey at
Westminster.

THE EARL OF DERBY, at the opening of Par-
liament, had no sooner risen than it became evident
that he meant mischief. An eye-witness says :—A gentle-
man near us (not, surely, a member of the P. R.) said he
" went to work with the gloves off," And there can be no
doubt about it that he certainly gave Earl Russell some hard
and ugly knocks, beginning with the betrayal of Reform,
the "meddle and muddle" policy attributed to the Foreign
Secretary—a description which won't soon be forgotten—
fastening upon hiur the part of Moonshine, and comparing
him to Bottom the Weaver. There wasa burst of laughter
at the lion similes ; and wit must be very good in the House
of Lords to create such lend and general amusement. Earl
Russell retorted with Sheridan's taunt. The noble Earl
was relying for wit upon his memory, and for facts upon
his imagination. " The facts are his own ; the wit is
Shakspere's,' But it was not conveni-mt for Earl Russell
to wee just then that the wit was more in the application
than in the words employed. And the laugh in the end
certainly remained with " the Rupert of debate."
ANOTHER TITTLEBAT TITMOUSE AND LADY
CECILIA DRELINCOURT.—We aro told, says the
Court Journal, that a young lady of title, quite of the a ems
de la creme in society, has determined to ally herself to an
exceedingly wealthy manufacturer in the North, but whose
undesirable obscurity of origin is quite a trifle compared
with the utter want of the commonest refinement in his
habits and manners. Every possible family remonstrance
is being brought to bear in the matter, but the young lady,
it is said, is inexorable.
A SHARSPERE PERFORMANCE
is apparently
meditated by the managers of the Handel Festival
Choir. The programme of the last rehearsal at Exeter
Hall :included five well-known settings of Shaksperian
words : Stevens's " Blow, blow," and " Spotted snakes,"
Lord Mornington's "As it fell upon a day," Macfarren•
" Orpheus with his lute," and Purcell's " Sea nymphs
hourly ring his knell,"..