The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-04-24 00:00:00

THE STATESMAN.

men. of ware is not to strict as to prevent alt corn.
obnication with it.
In Consequence of the Atimber of robberies
littely Committed on the road between this place
and Fiume, the Governor-General has issued pH
order, rendering the Communes responsible for
the restitution of, the property taken from trit.
yellers, and directing that two hostages shall !se
taken frota the Como►uoe where any robbery ►►r
assassination is committed, for every individual
attacked, and that they shall be confined iii our
citadel until the culprits are delivered up to abide
the sentence of a court-martial. The bodies of
the culprits arc to be hung up in chains on the
highway.

. _
of works;) and IMO masters bed, the titles of first
psiutera and first architect. It was obsoletely.
necessary to cOnciliatiitheSe 144, In anted tib.
tain pfiges in the schools' employment, ,or the ti
l.
of AcedemFcian. In this artists succeeded by imi.
tail% their wanner, and adopting their taste's, or
their aversions ; or by not daring to atlempt-any
thing beyond whit they kneW, end particularly
by respecting their habits. Arno - was the coin-.
mon law by which alt the art,4l mid the academies
were governed. It writ that wine)) at all times opa
posed every kind of progress.; but %hick was
most absolute with respect to the fine arts under
the reign of Louis XV.
The contrast which then existed between the
sciences, philosophy, and literature on the one
hand, and the fine arts on the other, has some.
thing very singular in it,,; the former boldly at.
tacked all their limits for the purpoao of extend.
lug them, whilst the others continued under the
most disgraceful servitude whichthey had ever sub.
mitted,te ; under the necessity of conforming to
the ettgaims, and almost to the orders, of two or
three artists, who
,could only form disciples of
greater mediocrity . than themselves. But they
Were the distributors of empluynient and hono.
rary titles ; they termed the standard of opinion,
mid of the favours of the Prince: submission was
cumpelaory. Accordingly we find in the arts,
daring the whole age, only one name worthy of
being inscribed with those of Montesquieu, Bel.
fon, J. J. Rousseau, and Voltaire: it is that of
Viet', who pat an end to that state of things.
Let nut the other nations of Europe avail them-
' selves of that humiliation : no one of them could
cuter into competition, if, instead of considering
The general causes of the prosperity or decline of
the fine arts, we made a selccti of their works,
eyes since the regency. A monst die painters. the
Cuypula, Restont, Carle Vanlou ; Boucher hint.
self, whom Nature had gifted with imagination,
wit, and facility ; the statuaries Bouchardon, Pi.
gene,. G. Coustou, Falconet ; ovoid yet form a
respectable last, which would admit of no rival.
ship, except in architeetitre ; in which we should
have to quote only three or four edifices worthy of
esteem, until the year 1572. (.2)
In 1759, painting titled:heti in the Frenef3l
school, because it possessed both. M. Vien, and
his principal pupils. The former is always the
object of our veneration, and the latter exec•ite
great works, which chew that their talents are
still in their full vigour. We are indebted in them
for a new generation of painters, its different
branches, and in every one worthy of their mas-
ters. Front their schools annually prooeed the
young artists who obtain the great prizes, anal re-,
pair to the Imperial School at Ramie, to complete
their instruction.
Painting is therefore not only flourishing in
France, but it never was inure so.
'llse same may be said of sculpture, with this
difference, that the latter has yet formed only one
generation since the art has been brought back to
good taste, and the principles of the beautiful.
The same statuaries who have thus restored it,
continue to afford examples of success. But, as
well .11,1, in puinling, the first pupils enjoy a repu.
talent established on beautiful works.
Of all the arts, sculpture is that which has
achieved the greatest conquest since 1789. It
never appeared with more distinction during the
whole century, in its relation with architecture ;
and the grand liasso.reliearo of the Pantheon, as
well as those lately executed in the court of the
Louvre, .end the ornaments of the triumpli3l arch
of the Carousel, are incomparably superior to all
the sculpture of the kind since the age of Louis
XI V. and even ander the reign of that Prince.—
. The art of the statuary is therefore also in •stite
of progrosion.
Amongst the wishes which we are authorized by
your Majesty to submit to you, is this: that an
error, which would shortly become an abuse very
prejudicial to sculpture, may not bo allowed to
extend any farther ; that of submitting it to ideas
foreign to the subject, and which, not being con.
ceived in the spirit of the art, could only prodatec
discordances, more or less offensive.. the more
prudent it is to require that sculptors. should con•
form to the general system of a monument, the
more necessary it is that they should be at liberty
to dispose their subjects according to the con.
ception of the statuary ; for every art has its
poetics, its principles, its language, its means (we
might say its conscience), which 'nestle respected,
to avoid introducing disorder by confounding the
styles.'
Engraving in meda', which remained far be.
hind sculpture, though it should have kept pace
with it, had approached it in 1189. One artist
only showed wore knowledge of design, purlieu.
tarty of the talent 9f a' statuary, which mast be
found in an engraving of medals (3). During the
revolution, a new engraver, still more distinguish.
ed, added to our Popes (4). We .have lost him,
and the former has ceased to, produce works before
the usual age of inactivity. Both leave a void in
the art, which however still possesses some able
men,. whom we shall quote hereafter; but it does
not appear to have made that progress which
might bare been expected . from the great [lumber
of medals melded within the last. (en years.—
We apprehend that too much precipitation is the
cause.