Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1856-12-13

straightforward, uncritical tests as will do for me
and for every body.
Here is Il fresco, which aspires to represent the
most impressive of all Christian subjects it i:
painted on the wall of Christian church, by &
man belonging to Christian COMMUNICATIVE
evidences Of religious feeling has it to show me
| look at the lower part of the composition first
and sea combination of the orthodox nurscry
notion of the devil with the heather idea of thu
conveyance to the internal regions in the shape o
a horned and tailed ferryman, giving condemned
souls cast across the river
Let me try and discover next what evidences o.
extraordinary intellectual ability the picture pre-
sents. look up towards the top now, hv wav o.
a change, and | find Michael Angeles conception
of the entrance of a martyr into the Kingdom o
Heaven, displayed before me in the shape of d
1ayed man, presenting his own skim as a sort o
credentia, to the hideous figure with the threaten
ing hand-which | will not, even in writing. id,n
tify with the name of our Saviour. Elsewhere,
see nothing but unnatural distortion and hope-
less confusion; fighting figures, tearing figures
tumblng figures, kicking figures: and to crown all
caricatured portrait, with pair of asss ears, o
a certain Messer Biagio Of Sienna, who had the
sense and courage, when the Last Judgment was
first shown on completion, to protest against every
figure in it being painted stark naked
| see such things as these, and many more equal
ly preposterous, which it is not worth while t.
mention. All other people with eyes in their heads
can see them, too. They are actual matters OF
taste. But | am nOt-on that account--iustifcd
nor is any other uncritical person justified in say
ing word against the picture. 1t may palpably
outrage all the religious proprietcs of the subject
but then it is full of " fine foreshortening," and
therefore we uncritical people must hold our
tongues. 1t may violate just as plainly all the in
tellectual prophecies, counting from the fayed
man with his skin in his hand, at the top, to Mes
RIas ppf& yr-ifI a.
bottom; but then it exhibits ''maserly anatomical
detail, and therefore we uncrticl spectators may
hold our tongues. 1t may strike us forciby that
if people are to be painted all, in this picture
rising out of their graves in their own bodies as
they lived, it is surely important Ito say nothing
of giving them the benefit of the shrouds in which
they were buried) to represent them as having the
usual proportions of human beings. Bt Sir
Joshua Reynolds interp0ses critically, and tells US
the figures the wall and ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel are sublime, because they don't remind US
of our own species. Why should they not remind
US of our own species Because they are prophets,
sibyls and such like cries the chorus of critics in
dignantly. And what then! If l had been on
intimate terms with jeremiah, or if had been the
ancient king to whom the sibyl brought the mys-
terous books, would not my friend in the one case,
and the messenger in the other; have appeared be-
fore me bearing the ordinary proportions and ex-
hibiting the usual appearance of my own species
Does not Sacred History inform me that the prOph.
ct was Man, and does not Proiane History des-
cribe the sibyl as old woman! Is old age never
venerable and striking in real life But am ut
tering heresies. | am mutilously summoning
reason and common sense to help me in estimating
an Old Master. This will never do, | had better
follow the examr le of all the travellers see about
me, by turning away in despair, and leaving the
Last Judgment to the critics and connoisssurs.
Having thus discovered that one masterpiece of
High Art does not address itself to me, and to the
large majority whom [ represent, let me 90 next to
the Vatican, and see how the second masterpiece
the TRANSPORTATION, by Raphael, car vindicate lis
ma gnfcent reputation among critics and cOnnOis
seurs This picture | approach under the advan
tage of knownng beforehand, that | must make
certain allowances for minor defects in it, which
are recognized even by the learned authorities
themselves. | am indeed prepared to be disap-
pointed at the outset, because have been prepar-
ed by an artist friend to make allowances:
. First, for the defects of color, which spoil the
general effect of the picture the spectator; all
the lights being vidly tinged with green, and all
the shadows being grimly hardened with black.
This mischief is said to have been worked by the
tricks of French cleaners and resl0rerS, who have
so futaly tampered with the whole surface that Ra
phael's original coloriDg must be given up as lost.
Rather considerable loss, this, to begin with; but
not Raphacls fault Therefore, let it by no means
depreciate the picture in my estimation.
Secondly, have to make allowances for the in
PRODUCTION of two Roman Catholic Saints, (St. Ju-
Ian and ST. lawrence represented by the painter
as being actually present at the TRANSPORTATION, in
order to please Cardinal de AIedici, for whom the
picture was painted. This is Raphae's fault
This sets him forth in the rather anomalous char
acter of great painter with respect for his art.
[ have some doubts about him, after that-doubts
which my critical friends might possibly share if
Raphael were only modern painter.
Thirdly, have to make allowances for the scene
of the TRANSPORTATION on the high mountain, and
the scene of the inability of the disciples to cure
the boy possessed with devil, being represented,
without the slightest division, one at the top and
the other at the bottom of the same canvass-bOth
events thus appearing to be connected by happen
inc in the same place within view of each other
when we know very well that they were only con-
nected by happening at the same time. Also, when
| see some of the disciples painted in the act of
pointing up to the TRANSPORTATION, the mountain
itself being the background against which they
stand, am to remember (though the whole of the
rest of the picture is most absolutely and unhlnch
lv literal in treament) that here Ra phac has sud
denly broken out into alegory, and desires to indI-
cate by the pointing hands of the disciples that II
is the duty of the afflicted to look TO Heaven for
relief in their caamitieS. Having made all these
rather important allowances, may now look I'M
partially at the upper half OF this famous compost
ton
| find myself looking away again very soon, in
deed 1t may be that three figures clothed in grace
fully flutterng drapery, and dancing at symmetri-
aly exact distances from each other IN the air, rep
resent such an unearthly spectacle that of the
TRANSPORTATION to the satisfaction of great judges OF
art can also imagine that some few select persons
nay be able to look the top of the high mountain,
IS represented in the picture, withoHt feeling their
gravity in the smallest degree endangered by see
ing that the ugly knob of ground on which the dis 4
,i0les are lying PROSTATE, is barely big enough to
hold them, and most certainly would not hold them
e - iii ,,,,,,1 b-;-kI, On n torether These