The Sun.
London, England, 1825-11-18 00:00:00

ROYAL ACADEMY.

The Introductory Lecture to the Course upon
Anatomy, was yesterday evening- delivered by
the new Professor, Mr. GREEN, the successor of
Sir ANTHONY CARLISLE. Mr. THOMPSON took
the Chair in the absence of Sir T. LAWRENCE.

The PaorEssoit commenced by hoping that his audience
would not accuse hint of the affectation of that Greek sophist,
who, when Hannibal entered the ttehool, immediately turned
his discourse to a treatise on war. If ever his office, as Lee-
turar upon Anatomy, as subsidiary to painting and sculp-
ture, caused him to touch upon points of taste, he trusted
that they would consider him, not as a high priest at the
altar of taste, but as a humble devotee.—Notwithstand-
ng this preface, most of the Lecture was upon taste,
which, however, the Lecturer treated in a manner which
proved he had not slightly studied it. Among the points
of more general interest which the tenor of his discourse led
him to, was the ancient and vulgar error, that tastes are,
not to be disputed—that the elpollo Belvidere may accord with
Vie taste of people here ; a pagod with those of China; and the
monstrous forms of their artificial deities, with the taste of the
inhabitants of the Friendly Isles ; and that there is no criterion
to determine to which taste the preference is to be given. This
• gregious error arose from the false idea that the arts of paint.
and sculpture were exact imitations of nature, just as it IS
presented to the eye without selection or combination. If such
a principle wee admitted, the wax-worker would be the great-
est. artist, since he is the most exact imitator of her parts. The
Professor opposed to this mistake of considering individually
alone as beauty, the contrary and of forming an abstract idea
of beauty without any reference to nature. The rapid insipi-
dity which necessarily results from this practice Is exemplified
in the prints from Cipriani.
The Pa OF Esson had, at the commencement, stated that he
would not declare unconditionally that anatomy was essential
to painting and sculpture. In this he alluded to the Greeks,
who had attained such eminence in their arts without a know-
.ll sge of anatomy, as the evidence of Pliny and l'ausanias, and
t ie blunders of their medical books testify- ; but this is no rea-
son why the modern artist should not avail himself of the op-
portunities which are afforded hint of studying that science.
71.. he Greeks beheld a constant exposure of the human body at
their games and festivals ; their climate admitted this, and their
manners were agreeable to it. These advantages the moderns
possess not; it behoves them, therefore, to make use of those
advantages which they have, in the place of those which are
denied them.

The PROFESSOR declared painting to be a language, of
which anatomy was a grammar and syntax: these not only
enabled us to attain correctness, but, by habitual correctness,
to acquire such confidence that a noble thought may instanta-
neously and involuntarily, as it were, find its true expression.
lie compared the progress of the human mind, in its prepara-
tion for any of the noblest arts, to the progressive revolution of
a wheel. In the first instance, in the difficult acquirement
of rudiments, the spokes are singly and deliberately counted ;
as the student advances they pass quicker and quicker, until
at last the revolution of the wheel is entirely lost in its
powerful products. With whatever astonishment we view
the facility with which the sublinscst thoughts of Milton and
Michael Angelo were followed by powerful expression, such
were at first their tedious and laborious effbrts, and such their
regular progression, till at last thought and execution, review
and approval, became respectively one. The Professor con-
cluded by observing the difFerent powers and acquirements
essential to the artist, who he considered would be great in pro-
portion
as the man was great, and instanced Leonardo da-Vinei,
the great father of modern art; and perhaps the most extraordi-
nary and universal genius the world has ever seen—The ap-
plause was loud at the conclusion.

A letter from Calcutta, dated June 18, has
been received by a mercantile house in the city,
which states that the whole of the transport ship-
ping, which the Government at Calcutta had an-
nounced would not be required, had been again
taken up, owing to the failure of the negociations
at Prome. Another campaign in Ava was there-
fore considered inevitable.

The last accounts from Bogota mention the
death of MATTHEW MACNAMARA, Esq., formerly
Cotnmissary-Ge►ieral of the Irish corps in the
service of Colombia. Ile was drowned near
Hunda. His son, a boy aged 15 years, was in-
humanly put to death at Maracaibo, by Morales,
some years since.

DORMANT BEQUEST.—It is at length ascer-
tained that the sum bequeathed to the different
parishes in the City of Winchester, about 50
years ago, and which had been accumulating
unknown to any one, till its recent discovery by
the Commissioners of Charities, is about 1,2501.
The expences attending its division, &c., are ex-
pected to be between 501. and 100/., so that each
parish (six in number) will ultimately receive
a sum little short of 2001.