The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-03-29

The Tablcaux,

end Is to palnt Tor us the scenes OF a
hette.. wwossiia. Il Europe, "a necessary
part of high education aud culture is
to travel, and nm important object of
| travel is to see and study the works
of the great artists, whose immortal
creations. have thrown divine nu-
reoln around the. land of the Cesars.
What crowds are ever pouring
through the galleries of the Uffizzi
| and the Vatican, where the gods of
ancient Hellas still demand from the
human heart that reverence for the
beautiful, which, combined with love
of country, was the religion of the
Greeks. And there is in beauty
something to be reveren ced-some-
thing to be worshipped-something
akin to the divine, because it lifts up
the soul from the earth, and things
earthly, TO that region of which it is
the type and symbol. The world
was not finished till God had planted
Paradise for man, ''and out of the
ground made Jehovah God to grow
every tree that is beautiful 10 The siqht
and good for food" thus stamping
forever with the divine impress
things of beauty, as we'll as those Of
use.
"a thing of beauty is JOY forever,
It's loveiiness increasing, it will never
Fade into nothingness."
We cannot all travel-we cannot
all behold the immortal creations of
the Greek chisel, which served to in
spire those great thoughts of heart
that made Of barren Atticn and sea
washed Athena the land of song for
evcr-we cannot feel our hearts burn
ing In us, as we stand before the al
most celestial splendors caught and
transferred to canvas, by the genius
of Raffalie and Coreggio. But if too
poor to travel as pilgrims to the
shrlnes OF art, or to tear away from
Italy her pictured glories. yet are we
rich-rich in fair women, pure and
lovely as the types of Hellenian
beauty-lovely as any white-arned
maidens that ever dipped their feet
in clear I.lyssus, or gathered flowers
from Taygetns for Orthic Ariemis.
We have the means of bringing be-
fore us pictures MS beautiful as any
that adorn the walls of the Borghesi
or Scarri, and it requires but the
conception and aid of plastic genius
and experience, such as we had ex-
hibited in the Tuesday evenings pic
lures, to summon the mighty g4nii
of art with his wand of enchantment.
We confess to surprise. as well as adj
mirntion, at the exhibition. Ordinnri-
ly, tableauX vivants are ordinary
things, for taste in the arraying and
arrangement, with knowledge of
the illusOry powers OF scenic repre-
sentation, is the genins that inspires
the artist. Again, the pictures are
generally seen too near, and there is
no power to produce illusion. The
imagination should have full play,
and when Iphigenia is led to the
sacrifice, or Volumniu appeals to her
son, we should not inquire or know
who is the beautiful Iphianassa, las
Homer calls her. or who that noble
looking Roman matron, appealing to
victorious power in behalf of what,
after God, is the holicst thing in the
universe; our conntry-our country
which nourishes and protects us
which biesses us with kind and bene-
ticent laws, and which gently leads
us with maternal hand along the
ways of truth and honor to higher
citizenship in better land, of which
she is or should be the true and per-
feet type; for none other can possibly
be our mother-country-none other
our father-land.
Nor would we have the "Fair Wo-
men, nor those "Three Queens" nor
yet those "Spirits of Peace" pass out
of the realms of fancy. If it had been
possible, they should not have de,
scended to the audience, or descend
ed, like the Goddesses of Pocsy.