New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-03-11

But Egyptian art never loses this character Of
solemn subiimity. Il is not simply infancy, il was
the law Of its life. 1t never offered to emanciPate
itself from this character-it changed only when
strangers came.
Greece fulfilled Egypt To the austere grandeur
Of simple natural forms, Greek art succeeded as
the flower TO foliage. The essential strength Is
retained but an aerial grace and elegance. an ex-
qusite elaboration followed, az Eve iollow
Adam. For Grecian temples have a fine fsmi-
nineness OF character when measured with the
| Egyptian. That hushed harmony Of grace-even
the snow sparkling marble, and the general i'm.
preston have this difference.
! Such hints are simple and obvious-and there
is no fsirer or more frequent flower upon these
charmed shores, than the revelations they make
of the simple natursness Of primitive art
THE Sun.
| The Sun is the secret Of the East. There seems
to be no light elsewhere. Italy simply preludes
the Orient, although Sorrento is near the secret
Sicily is like its hand stretched forth over the sea;
and Italian sunsets and dreamy days are delicious
| You may well read Haiz in the odorous orange
darkness of Sorrento, and believe that the ustrous
leaves languidly moving over you, are palms yield
| ing to the wooing of Arabian winds The song OF
the Syrens, heard by you at evening, from these
rocks as you linger along the shore of the Bay Of
Salerno is the same that Ulysses heard, seduc-
tive. sweet,-the same that Hadran must have
| leaned to hear, as he swept, silken sailed, east
1 ua
ern conquest in his young Antinous
But the secret sweetness Of that song is to you
what il was to Ulysses. Son of the East, it sang
| to him his native language, and he longed to re-
main. Son of the West, tary not thou for that
sweet singing, but push brsyely on and land where
the song is realized
The East is a vouptuous reverie OF nature. Its
| Egyptian DAYS are perfect. You breathe the sun
| light You feel it warm in your lungs and heart.
The whole system absOrbs sunshine, and ali your
| views of life become warmly and richly volup-
| tuOus Your day dreams rise, splendid with sun
sparkling aerial architecture. Stories are told,
songs are sung in your mind and ths scenery OF
| zach and the persons, are such as is Damascus
seen at morning from the Sslaheeyah, or Sala ed.
| Deem, heroic and graceful, In the rosy light OF
| chivalric tradition.
The Egyptian sun does not glare, it shines. The
| light has a creamy quality. soft and mellow, as
| distinguished from the intense Wilderness OF our
| American light The forms Of our landscape stand
sharp and severe and crisp in the atmosphere, like
frost work. But the Eastern outlines are smoothed.
and softened. The sun is the Mediator, and blends
| beautifully the separate beauties OF the landscape
1t melts the sterner stuff 81 your nature. The
| intellect is ihawed and meowed. Emotions take
| the place of thought Sense rises into the sphere
of soul. 1t becomes so exquisite aad refined, that
| the old landmarks in the moral world begin TO
! tOtter and dance. They remain nowhere, they
have no permanent place Delight and satsfac'
| ton, which are not sensual but sensuous, become
| the law of your being; conscience, lued all the
way from Sicily in the soft rocking lap of the Me-
ditenanean, falls quite asleep at Cairo, and you
| take your chance with the other flowers The
thoughts that try to come, masque no more as aus
| tere and sad .browed men, but pass az large eyed,
dusky maidens, now, with fair folding arms that
fascinste you to their embrace. They are thoughts
no longer, but reveries Even old thoughts throng
| TO GU in this glowing guise. The Howadv feels
once more, how the Nile flows behind history, and
| L. into fba nF n
| lopments, and stands in the pure presence OF
primitive feeling-perceivest the naturalness OF the
| worlds first worship, and is an antique Arabian,
devotee Of the sun, las he sails, as he sails
For sun-worship is an Instinct OF the earliest
races The sun and stars are the first great friends
of man. By the one he directs his movements, by
| the light of the other he gathers the fruit It's
warmth has ripened. Gratitude 10 natural to the
youth. and he adores where he loves-and of the
God of the last and wisest faith, the sun Is still
| the symbol.
This sun shines again in the briance OF the
colors the Easterns love. The sculptures upoA
the old tombI and temples, are OF the most post
tive colors-red, blue, yellow, green and black,
were the colors of the old Egyptans-and still
the instinct is the same IN their costume. Inc
| poetic Howadji would fancy they bad studied the
| beauty of rainboWs agaist dark clouds For golden
| and gay the turbsus wreathed around their
| duaky brows, and figures-the very people OF
| poetry-Of which Titan and Z aul divinely dream
|
| turbans-y Yellow, blue and white robes with red
| slippers crossed under them languidy breathing
| smoke over ALBANIA and Parphar, rivers of Damas.
| Gus Aud the buildings in which they sit, the
walls OF baths and cafes and mosques are painted
in the same gorgeous taste with broad bars OF red
| and blue, aud white. Over all this brance
streams the intense sunshine, and completes what
| itself suggested. So warm, so glowing, and rich
is the universal light and atmosphere, that any
thing less than this in architecture would be un'
natural. Strange and imperfect it is. you feel
the heart of nature tbrobbing all through Eastern
| art Costume and architecture now follow the
plsinest hints of nature in the antique architec
ture and costume. The fault OF oriental art springs
| from the very excess, which is the universal law
OF Eastern life IL is the apparent attempt 10 say
more than is sayabe. In the infinite and ex
quiste Celebrations Of Arabian architecture, there
is the evident effort to realize all the subtle and
strange whims OF luxuriously inspired magma
tion and hence results an art that lacks large
features and character, like the work OF man
| who loves the details of his dreams
The child faith that the Il asst lies nearest the
| rising sun is absurd until you there Then
YOU feel that it was his first born and inherts the
elder share of his love add influence. Wherever
your eye falls it sees the sun and the Sn's sag
! gestion Egypt lies hard against its heart. But
the sun is ike other fathers, aud his eldest is
spoiled.
| As you sweep sun tranced up the river, the
strongest most distinct desire OF being an artist,
il born of silence and the sun SO saturated are
you with light and color, that they would seem
to flow unaded from the brush. But not 50 rea-
Oily, mportunate reader, from the pen. Words
are uorsted by the East. ChiaTO Scuro will not
give it. a man must be very cunning to per-
susde his pen 70 reveal those secrets. But, an
artist, | would tarry and worship while In the
temples of Italy, then hurry across the sea iato
the presence of the power there adored There
| should find that Claude was truly consecrated
priest For it lie the spirit of this silence and sun
that breathes beauty along his canvas. bis pic.
lures are more than Italian, more than the real
sunset from the Pincio. for they are ideal Italy
which bends over the Nile and fulfills the South.
The cluster of boats with gay steamers at
Luxor and the turbaned groups under the TEN
Die columns on the shore, do justify those sunset
| -. of Clanda Lorraine that atateY architac-