Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-08-13

In the hustle of Commencement Week,
and the Cable excitement, we had almost
overlooked the doughty rush of the Times
ION Monday last) to the rescue of the prero-
gatiyes of Art, ruthlessly invaded by the
Free Press. 1t is not too late, we trust to
express our admiration of the self-sacrifcing
impctuosty of the Times, and our sorrow
that its protest. should be so entirely
thrown away. But, as usual, the Times
was too fast. Barbarians as we are, we have
in no respect called in question the " license
of High Art" or interiered with its prero-
gatives. We had not, and have not, the
slightest idea of criticising or condemning
the &" Last Supper or the . Last Judg-
mcnt," or even that work Of one of the old
masters 60 co-e,o. hi.n,) depicting the
Sacrifice of Isaac, in which Abraham is
" drawing a bead" on his son with huge
horse pistol. We have trcnched nowhere
upon the domain of High Art. We have
not denied the right of the artist, in
any branch of his art, to deviate in unim-
portant particulars, from a rigidly exact
adherence to the actual reality which he at
tempts to represent and consequently most of
the talk of the Times is the merest quibbling.
The question is not whether Mr.. Leutze, in his
Washington crossing the Delaware" ought
to have given an exact likeness of every piece
of ice which was floating in the river on that
memorable occasion-it IS whether it is
proper for the State Of Vermont to purchase
and hang upon the walls of its capitol, paint
ings which, in their most prominent features,
violate the truth of History. The great
paintings to which the Times alludes do not so
violate the truth of History. Trumbull's paint
ings are, in many cases, very exact represent
atoms of the scene portrayed-the features of
the landscape being closely copied, the faces
Of tho principal characters being portraits,
and even the horses being licensees the
scene of the embarkation of the Pilgrims
is appropriately laid at Dolft Haven, and
not on the Heights of Abraham the
death of Wolfe is not located on Bunker
NH, Hor tnc idli vi W drrel oh hdnouciu
mountain.
We will rc-state our position for the benefit
ofour difficult neighbor, and not because we
suppose the Legislature will be likely to lay
out money at present on paintings Of any
sort. 1t would not be proper in our humble
opinion, for the Legislature of this State to
decorate its public buildings with "Last Sup
pers'' and Apollo Belvidercs. The paintings
it purchases should be illustrations of the
own country, and should not msrcpresent the
facts of that history We should not care to
see on the walls of the State House, IL paint
ing, which, as described by the Times, would
strike with sense of incongruity every Yer
monter who is at all familiar witt the locali-
ty, and history of the event it purpurts to
represent, and which, when point
ed out to strangers to the place and time,
would need the explanation that the scene of
embarkation represented was not the actual
scene of embarkation, or one from which any
emharkation was possible,and that the most
prominent parsonage on the canvas really
had nothing whatever TO do with theevent
portrayed.
The Times is right in calling those who
laugh to scorn the obviously sensible require
ments we have mentioned, as an "undistin-
guishable throng, they are undistinguish-
able and undiscoverable. In fact we will do
the Times the justice to think that under
other circumstances it would agree with US
in this matter. 1t is not always as foolish as
it seems. In this case it was nettled by the
exposure of its own historical plumbers, and
relieved itself by pitching into "thc next
man"