New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-04-12
RJTSKIN'S MODERN PAINTERS.

Dir. Ruskin, after pretty hard struggle for 1t, Ia
acknowledged to be the leading Art.critc Of En-.
gland. Even his enemies admit his talents while
they deny his Judgment. The lesser lights Of liter,
AZURE keep up running fire against him; but
among all thinking men he is felt to be power
His varied and accurate observation of Nature his
patient study of Art and his fine rhetorical abil-
ties are qualities which impress themselves on the
mind of every intelligent reader of bis books.
But Mr. Ruskin's writings are just of that kind
VIII oh must hang long while in suspense between
the conflicting opinions of his likers aud diskers,
before their value can be decisively settled. For
great and undeniabe as his merits are, his defects
are scarcely less apparent. With marked original
apt tude for his calling, be seems to have entered
upon it somewhat mpetuously, or before he was
prepared for it, and to have mistaken his fresh i'm
pulses for settled principles. Being man at the
same time Of positive English tenacity and concet,
he has found himself involved in inconsistencies
which he has not known how to escape gracefully,
or to surrender with fronkness. He has been com.
PEELED, therefore, to keep up long battle with CO.
temporary critics and artists, sometimes to their
terrible earnestness and spirit. In nearly all his
siDglebanded encounters, however, he has come off
the VICTOR and has suffered chiefly in those general
newspaper melees in which his opponents have
been many, and the objects of the dispute rather
miscellaneous.
This third volume of the Modern Painters is
even more characteristic than either of the former
a.
their strongest aspects 1t is full of vigorous and
brilliant writing, full of nice and sagacious crit-
cism, full Of felicitous illustrations of general prn
ciples, and Of rare artistic eruditiOn; but it also
abounds in caprices, the results of irritable fancy
or conceit-in shallow reasOnings and inveterate
prcjudices Like the first volume it discovers the
keenest sensibity to Nature, and profound APP
probation Of Art, and like the second it be-
trays quite superficial philosophy of both.
Where he speaks directly from his instincts,
his judgments are admirable, penetrating, clear,
aud persuasive; but when he attempts to systema
tize or to assign the deeper grounds of his opinion
he gets perplexed and irascible. His function is
manifesty that of critical discernment rather than
of philo,ophic calculation.
This third volume is preparatory to fourth,
which promises complete analysis of all Turner's
more important works, and expouDds the princi-
pies on which the critic expects to unfold the sur
passing greatness Of that master. 1t begins ac-
cordingy with an elaborate inquiry into the char
aceristcs of true greatness in Art. All the world
admits that there is grand style and low style
in artistic productions; and the point OF import
ance is to determine in what way the one is to be
distinguished from the other. Sir Joshua Reynolds,
in some papers contributed to The Idler, has said
that grand style is poetic, dwelling upon uni
versa and invarable truths, while the low style Is
historical dealing in minute and accidental details;
but Mr.. Ruskin cOntrOyerts this view, aud pro-
nounces the marks of the grand style to be, first;
habitual choice of elevated subjects or Of those
which excite the nober passions; second: All the
beauty compatible with truth; third; AS much
truth as is consistent with harmony; aud fourth;
Imaginative power. Every work of great art, he
alleges, possesses these unfailing characteristics,
and works which do not possess them, fall into
some inferior category OF skill. In the enduring
remains of antiquity, aud in the masterpieces of the
works of few moderns; but the greater part of
the moderns fail in one or the other particular, and
sometimes in all. They have neither tho soul
which delights in lofty themes nor the Imagination
which confines itself to truth, nor the exuberance
and fertility which spring from profound and pa
tent thought. On the other hand, being destitute
Of faith, they have no sympathy with the highest
concerns of humanity; disregarding truth they
suffer the imagination to run into fantastic license
aud cloudy in their conceptions and impatient OF
restraint, they are satisfied with the most super
fetal execution of details. The German painters,
for instance undertake religious subjects but hsv
ing no genuine call to the work, their pictures
Prove to be weak and unmeaning; and the English
landscape painters boast Of their fidelity to Nature,
while their best efforts are often only deceptive re-
temblances TO il and not true Nature. We shall
have word to say Of this estimate OF the modern
hereafter; but at present let go on with our alb
stract of Mr.. Ruskin
Having determined true greatness in Art bis
next question relates to that endlessly. debated
point, as to What is the True Ideal Of Art. False
ideals of two kinds he describes: first; The Re
lgious, where the imagination Of the artist, instead
of representing the events and persons Of Sacred
History, as they are really given to us in the
record, seeks to sggrandize them by all kinds Of
artificial gloy-making stately Roman Senator's
out of poor ignorant fishermen, and a splendidly
becurtained bed-chamber out of stable; and
second: The Profane, which, cultivatiag beauty
without regard to truth or goodness. soon degener,
ates into vulgar. debasng luIuriance and love OF
ornament and display. OF the former sort may