The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-01 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Meteyard's Life of Wedgwood Completed.
Life and Works of Josiah Wedgwood. By Eliza

Meteyard. Vol. Two. Hurst and Blackett.

We may very cordially congratulate publishers,
artists, and authoress upon the completion of this
elaborate and magnificent work, which affords con-
spicuous evidence of the enterprise, the taste, the
skill, and the perseverance of one and all concerned
in its accomplishment. On the appearance of the
first volume some little time back, which we noticed
at considerable length, we entered into the various
merits of the work, commending, as it well deserved,
the very admirable manner in which it had been
undertaken. Those commendations we have only
now to reiterate even more emphatically, upon
the appearance of the second volume which
completes the work—a work in every way worthy
of the mechanical genius of Josiah Wedgwood and
of the biographical skill of Eliza Meteyard. The
illustrations, which are profusely scattered over the
pages, present to us most lovely specimens of the
delicate designs of the Etrurian and Wedgwood
ware, many of them designed by Flaxman. In re-
ference to the selection of that since world-famous
sculptor as Wedgwood's art-modeller, we read here
in this Life of Wedgwood—

Bentley had already made other attempts to carry out
the highest artistic work—he had looked around him for
a modeller—that modeller was Flaxman. Wedgwood's
words in response, aro memorable. "I am glad you have
met with a modeller, and that Flaxman is so valuable an
artist. It is but a few years since ho was a most supreme
coxcomb, but a little more experience may have cured him
of this foible." This must allude to Flaxman's competition
for the gold medal of the Royal Academy, and his subse-
quent disappointment. Reynolds, who knew comparatively
nothing of sculpture, and too often depreciated its merits,
showed little judgment in his award of the prize to an in-
ferior artist like Engleheart. Time proved that Flaxman's
certainty of success arose from no overweening conceit of
his own merit, but from an intuitive perception, however
offensively expressed, of his possession of high artistic
power. But as yet the world saw only an untutored
stripling, in whom self-reliant genius wore the appearance
of vanity. Wedgwood, who always visited the Academy's
Exhibitions, had probably caught the current story, and
born it as we thus see in his vigorous memory.
Among the illustrations are many cameos with
portraits of Admiral Keppel, Samuel Johnson,
William Pitt and many others, while with regard to
the originality of Wedgwood's cameos we meet in
the body of the work with the following interesting
particulars—

Speaking of the originality of his labours in this direc-
tion, Wedgwood writes to Darwin, "I only pretend to have
attempted to copy the antique forms, but not with abso-
lute servility. I have endeavoured to preserve the style
and spirit, or if you please the eloquent simplicity of an-
tique forms, and so doing to introduce all the variety I
was able, and this Sir Wm. Hamilton assures me I may
venture to do, and that it is the true way of copying the
antique. You ask Was anything of consequence done in
the cameo or medallion kind before you ?' Iu real stones
and in imitation of real stones in paste, or soft coloured
glass, much has formerly been done. Witness the
Portland vase and numberless pieces of inferior
note. Basso-relievos of various sizes have likewise
been made of a warm brown earth of one colour. But
of the improved kind of two or more colours, and a true
porcelain texture, none were made by the ancients or at-
tempted by the moderns that I ever heard of till some of
them begun to copy my jasper cameos." Such is Wedg
wood's own testimony to the truth and originality of this
branch of his art, and of which, considering the vehicles
he employed, the ancients had not seen a conception.
It is, however, unnecessary for us here to attempt
any lengthened summary of the artistic marvels
contained in this gigantic volume ; let us rather be-
fore taking leave of the great Artificer contemplate
him for a moment in his magnificent home—the
scene perennially during the later years of his life,
of—