New-York daily tribune., 1851-05-29
THE FINE ARTS.
The National Academy Of Design.

a6l. have attracted much attention and adnlna'
lion They belong 10 the Dusseldorf schooi III
spirit and treatment, although we oei''o VI
artist is a Fleming. These pictures d'0
dangerous works, however, to hahy "Pon -,
walls where Young artists are 10 sluuy' iii'n
.o,.;l : e,onisite in parts they are oeautnnl.
rr,o.- 49,. .droit and skillfu, and are splendid
..ao,,oons not of art, but of srtifciality They
-. 10, broad in conception or IN treat
mon, They have little Nature, and therefore
-.la.se a superficial sense and not genuine SEN
,ment But the fatal fault Of these and similar
works is their tendency None can be more Just
10 their exquisite elaboration than we--but that
is the very front Of their offending They belong
TO a style which leads legltlmately to an annihi-
Iation Of art They are results OF that tendency
carried out into fatal success, which should be
the most carefully suspected and restraIned-the
tendency, namely, like that of the Dusseldorf PIC
tures. TO imitation. The grand difficulty with tins
,tyle is that its perfect success achieves moth
ing but what was better done before the attempt
was made Art is clearly not copy OF Nature,
because nothing would be so absurd as the at
tempt to reproduce by pigments the actual mo-
tion of water and foliage and the real sunlight.
Moreover, if it were possible, 1t would be
equally foolish, because what Nature has herself
perfectly done we may spare ourselves the trou-
bic Of doing.
This is the fact practically forgotten by the ar
fists of this style, and the result in their WORKS
is frantic rivalry with nature into which no
man Of genuine artistic instincts can ever fall.
When its result is most triumphant, what mel
ancholy triumph it is It is a very poor virtue
in portrait painter TO paint his satin and velvet
sothatthe hand is involuntarly raised to touch 1t.
That Is artihce, not Art II is deception, not rep
resentaton, and the deceived spectator is only
amused, and if he be an artist-somewhat dis
gusted with the Jugglery. Thus, IN No. l42 IN
the Exhibition, there is a tin-pan painted with
rreat effect Ii is most veracOus and trlum-
phant tin.pan Nobody in the world would ever
suppose it TO be anything else than tln-pan, and
by a skillhl arrangement Of light, even very
safacious child might be induced to try It's sound
with his own knuckles. We will exaggerate
little for the argument and suppose that the force
of imitation Of tin-pans could no further go. But
when all is said and done what has this to do
with Art If the object of the picture is to per
suade us that we are looking at a real pan why
not ingeniously fit a real pan into the canvass, as
the old artists used to introduce crowns OF genu-
inc gold, and to complete the deception of chll-
dren beating metallic substance, introduce also
machinery, by which real sticks shall strike the
real pan and make real noise. Shall we then
have advanced any further toward the Just and
beautiful ends of art Michael Angelo came in
10 the villa Fanesina where Raphael was paint
ing the Galatea, while Raphael was gone to din
ner, and with his charcoal he sketched the bare
outline of face upon the wall. 1t would not he
possible under any skillful arrangement of light
to mistake this sketch for a living human head.
But will any one doubt what il has to do with
Art Rough and rude and royal, it puts all the
triumphant tin-pans of every kind to the most
sudden and panic ic-strcken fight
An unintelligent imitation-by which we mean
precisely that of which these pictures and the
satin and velvet of several others IN the Exhlbl-
ton, are examples - thus leads to results
equally unworthy of Art and artists, and this is
the insidious snare into which most German and
German.inhuenced artists are aptest to fall.
they dexterousy render every reticuation of the
leaf, the broad beauty of the forest escapes them.
While each heck OF foam is finely penclled, the
sea does not surge and roar and whisper through
their pictures In the degree that the artist pos
sesses the eye quick TO seize the form and dis
crminate the color-the hand nimble and light
and vigorous-and the most analytical apprecla-
tion of quality and natural relation, IN that de-
gree will his success be sure-but always upon
the condition that the analysis, and the eye, and
the hand are sternly subjected to genuine feel
ing of the scope Of the aims and materials OF Ant
II is idle 10 suppose that this subugatlon OF de-
tailed imitation to general effect favors superb
cial study Of Nature. Ii is notorious, IN Art as
everywhere else, that rapidlty and breadth are
the result Of long and intelligent labor. To i'm
part a general idea Of face IN few strokes, the
character of the man and the peculiarly of his
features, must have been carefully noted. We
believe in the attainment of the capacity of the
closest imitation but simply as a step. To treat
a headache successfully, the most accurate anat.
omy and the most intimate investigation OF habit
and life will not be useless, but so much the more
useful, to the physician. Yet he must beware Of
parading his anatomy And the artist must be-
ware of showing the skeleton which he clothes
with flesh and colors with health.
Just the opposite of all this is the tendency Of
the Dusseldorf and Belgian schools Instead OF
musical and poetic motion we have the steps OF
the danoing-master. Look at Nos. 357 and 36l,
what .irelesS detail, what leaves, what spires OF
grass and bits of unexcepuonable moss and old
wall. What sufhciency of still life that is never
sufficient Take the tree in the left of S57--it is
beautiful piece of work. We must commend
that tree as we do the last Judgment of Michel
Angelo, carved IN ivory, about 2 feet square, by
two German monks, working 80 years, and now
IN tha door of q cabinet IN the Cnlnnna palacn Of