The Sun.
London, England, 1801-05-27 00:00:00

THE ARTS:

Tfi E Le&ures, which Mr. Fusati delivered at
the Royal Acad&y, as Professor of Painting to that
Institution, he has just presented to the Public. As
alway, mean to direct our attention to the state
and progress of THE Aa-rs, a brief account of those
Lalures was given in this Paper an attentive
penhal of them has fully 'confirmed the commenda.
Lion we bestowed on theta,, and increased our re-
5P' for the judgment, sagacity and learning of the
Author. The general plan of the Professor will be
hest conveyed in ;the following passage, taken from
the introductory part of his preliminary discourse :
"The First Lefinre exhibits more a critical than
an historic sketch of the origin and progress of our
Art, confining research to that period when fact and
substantial information took place of conjeaure ;
naturally divideS itself into two parts, the „art of
the Antients, and its restoration among the Mo-
derns. Each is divided into three periods, that of
trfftaratian, that of full establishment, and that of
refinement.
"The Second Leulure treats on the real subjects of
Painting and the plastic Arts, in contradistinction
to the subjects exclusively belonging to Poetry, en-
deavouring to establish the reciprocal limits of both
from the essential difference of their medium and
materials. It establishes three principal classes of
• : the Epic, the Dramatic, and the Historic;
"'"\)lheir.collateral branches of characteristic, Por.
trait and Landscape, and the inferior subdivisions of
Imitation.
the third, design, correctness, copy, irnita-
tion, style, with its degrees of essential, ebaraBer-
-4slic) ideal, and deviation into manner, are con-
sidered, and iheclasses of the models left us in the
remitim of ancient Sculpture, arranged.
"'The fourth is devoted to Invention, in its most
general and specific sense, as it discovers, selects,
combines, the possible, the probable, and the known
materials of nature, in a mode that strikes with
novelty,
" The fifth' follows with composition and express
slon, the dresser and the soul of invention.
1" The si.t.ih concludes with Colour, drapery, and
txecution." •

Such is the extensive range which the Pro-
-449r has proposed in discussing the essential
qual ;let
Of his great and interesting art. He has
delivered the three first Leaures, and those Lee-
'ttes only he has yet presented to ",the Public.—As
Our Readers will doubtless be gratified in read-
ing the observations of this penetrating and intel-
ligent Professor on those two wonders of Modern
Art, MICHAEL ANGELO and RAPHAEL.,
use _eX-
traß his charaCter of those unrivalled Masters.
", Sublimity of conception, grandeur of form,
and breadth of manner, are the elements of Ms cHAE L
ANGELO:s style. By these principles, he selefted
or rejected the objeas of imitation. As Painter, as
Seulptcir, as ' Architel, he attempted, and 'above
any other man, succeeded to unite Magnificence of
plan and endless variety of snbordinate parts, with
the utmost simplicity and breadth. • His line is
uniformly grand : charafter and beauty Were ad-
mitted only as far as they could be made subservient
to, grandeur. The child, the female, meanness, de-
formity, were by him indiscriminately stamped
with grancidur. A beggar rose from his hand the
patriarch of poverty : the hump of his dwarf is
impressed' with, dignity ; his women are moulds of
• generation ; his infants teem with. the man ; his
men are a race of giants. This is the " terribil
l'ia" hinted at by AtToosTi NO CARRACCI, though
perhaps, as little understood by the Bolognese, as
by the blindest of his Tuscan adorers, with VA.
3"1 at, their head. To give the appearance of
perfeft ease to the most perplexing" difficulty, was
tale exclusive power of MtcHAEL ANGELO. He is
'Be inventor of the Epic Painting, in that sublime
circle of the Sistene Chapel, which exhibits the ori-,
gin, the progress, and the final dispensation of
Theoeracy. He has personified motion in the groOps
•, the Cartoon Of Pisa ; embodied, sentiment on the
monuments of St. Lorenzo, unravelled the features
of meditation in the prophets and sybils of the
Chapel of Sixtus ; and in the last Judgment, with
eiverY attitude that varies the human body, traced
master-trait of every passion that sways the
Ira," heart. Though, as Sculptor, he expressed
enaraaer of flesh more perfectly than all whoent .
before him, yet he never submitted to copy an
individual
in 1 , Julio the Second, only excepted, and
- •
dm' he•repreSented the reigning passion rather
than the man. In Painting, he contented himself
17ith a negative colour ; and as the painter of man-
rejeded all meretricious ornament. The fa,
brie of St. Peter, scattered into inanity of jarring
Parts by BRAMANTE and his successors, be colleen-
, Crated : sUspended the .Cupola, and to the most
e2nlplex, gave the air of the most simple of Mi..
.Lces. ..Such, take him all ill all, was M. ANct LO,
the salt' of art : sometimes he, no doubt, had his '
moments of dcreliCtion, deviated into manner, or
Perplexed the grandeur of his forms with futile and
°stentatious anatomy : both met with armies of co-
P.
Yists, and it has been his fate to have been cen-
.sured for their folly. •
`The inspiration of MICHAEL. ANGELO wasfol-
,ed by The' milder genius of RAPHAEL SANiIO,
the father of dramatic Tainting,, the painter of hu-
41anity ; less elevated, less vigorous, but more in.,
6'll44ting, more pressing on our hearts, the warm"
toaster of our symphathies. What.effed of human
eonnedion, what feature of the mind, from the gen-
;lest emotion to the most fervid ,burst of passion,
has been left _unobserved, has not received a cha-
tatleristic stamp from that examiner of man M.
4110Eto came to Nature—Nature came to RA-
:Him/L-4e transmitted her features, like a lucid
i'aS4 unstained, unmodified. We stand With awe
before- M---AxOELo, and tremble at the height to
!licit he elevates us—we embrace RAPHAEL, and
follow him wherever he leads us. • Energy, with
fr6Priety of charaCter and modest grace poise his
line and determine his correctness. Perfeet human
beauty he has not represented ; no fate of RA'
AlL's is perkily beautiful; no figure of his, in
the ab"r4a, possesses the .proportions that could
raise it to a standard of imitation : form to hitn was
Ol
ly a vehicle of charaeter or pathos, and to those