New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-06-10

negro slave in front of the Roman women lois on
the front Of the box, caressng monkey type OF inc
lowest sensuality; a child in one corner runs
beside the gray bearded bard ready to throw
stone when an opening occurs; while IN the cap
tives are told all Of dignity under insult heipiess
beauty or of frenzied and powerless Impotence
which design is capable of rendering 1t is in fact
a passionate retrospective remonstrance by Ter
man against Roman tyranny, and as such is
splendid success But in its technical qualities it is
entitled to no such commentator. In it's compost
ton il is academical and conventional in high
degree The commonplace device of putting Thus
Media in white robes in the center Of the canvas and
the principal mass of light, while conventional
shadow surrounds this mass Is too like
all Dusseldorf. The color is not above
the general excellence of German genre
pictures wenmanaged gray tones filing the greater
part Of the canvas and the few touches of positive
color crude and out of keeping with the general
tone. The Emperor is ill-drawn and needlessly re-
pulsive, while the foreground is very stacy and
awkward. There are episodes Of great beauty,
especially that of Thusnelda and her son. which Is
in every way admirable; and the figure OF the red
haired German woman, her hands tightly bound to-
gether lest she vent her wild anger with tooth and
nail turning her passionate fair face to aront the
insulting gesture of her Roman foe is superb; but,
ill-drawn, and the whole wants fusion.
Opposite hangs picture by Canon one of the
sheer and uuequlvocal limitations Of the Italian
masters which make the delight of ignorance
tastelessness and the despair of true artists and
thoughtful critic 1t is little like Andrea del Sarto
and more like Fra Bartolomeo, and when all is said
of it that can be said it remains another proof that
new art has enemy like the old. 1t is religious
picture as religious pictures go, and contains
meaning which might once have had a value but
has none now. IL upright arched picture,
Moses sitting judgment seat at the top, holding
on his kuees a book on which stands the infant
Jesus, bearing his cross IN one hand and
pointing up with the other. John Baptist
sits on the step at Moses's feet and points
in a senseless, almess way across, the picture,
while four saints doctors, or popes are ranged in
all The felicity Of triumphant academicism across
the lower half of the picture each gestculatmg and
performing on his own account, and without any
kind of connection apparent to the untheoloHcal
critic. The color is with all it's imitation of old
masters fine and strong-the child, knock -kneed
and most commonplace in model, is particularly
good in color; but John Baptist is almost ne
gro. and the others are palpable academy models
without spark of animation originality. In
every respect the opposite of this is little picture
by G6rome, representing the doorway of Turkish
armorers shop, at which two mounted Bashi- Bazouks
have halted, apparently TO drink, for the shrewd
face of water-carrier questions the strangers from
beneath his turban he holds up the water bottle of
earthenware to one of them. The shOpis filled with
types Of the many-raced Mussulnans; an Alban-
ian leans against a column of the portico, and the
innumerable dogs of all Turkish towns are repre-
sented by three capital samples Of the bazaar species
There is no story. no moral; only passage of the
most picturesque humanity we have access TO,
painted in gray and quiet tones in most exquisite
drawing and painting of detail, every face and cos
tune being as true vision
Close by this hangs a strong marine scene, the one
fine sky so far shown in the exhibition but without
name or indication of the nationality Of the pam
ter other than a strong Teutonc tone of color, and
precision Of execution tbs the final scene of the
career of an old Sea Knights funeral The houored
body in robes of scarlet and scale armor, with his
shield on his breast and his gray hair flying in the
gale. lies the deck of his SHIP which set adrft
for the pleasure of the gods is cast by their min
isters on a ledge of rocks and lies with the spray
and foam flying over it, the mast gone by the board
and the white sail lying over the side down on the
rocks even the rune-inscrbed flag hutterng
over him, the Wild rugged clouds and the dense
vail OF rain bearing down on the shattered
craft, whose few adherent timbers will
soon give up their charge. A flaming sunset, not
unlike something of Churchs, lights up the scene
and at the horizon bit of thin sky remains TO con-
trast the gloom of the storm. The rocks the ship,
its sails and draperies with the dropping fragments
Of the stOrn-cloud, catch the red sunlight and are
painted with the full force of the palette making
picture of surprising effect But as in all marines
Of this school, the ultimate triumph of art is far off,
the sea is formal and well kept in; may be
i+o hoe tbot harm
be done than the stage manager intended its waves
are all right but its swing ali wrong its propnety
is perfect you doubt in fact if it will ever do its
duty by the old norseman and bury him properly
1t is fine aud admirable as study and paint but a
little Of natures savageness were better. What
should be hell of waters is comparatively bit
of drawing-room decOrum; grand in sentiment but
of studio subhmity in achievement. And in this
may be stated the unfaihng character Of Teutonic
art Grant it decorum and ask il for no imagination
OF mystery, and you have everything else needed
for good art 1t is not saying very much to rank
this picture as the best of its kind in the exhibition
there is nothing in its vein worth noting beside.
In this room also hangs a small picture by Tn.
Rousseau, marvellous piece Of broken melting
sky and fiat indefinite distance-a perfect render
ing of the fact with the highest degree of artistic
feeling and executive power. A group of oaks in
the middle Of the picture is heavy and poor but
the sky as sky, breathing air and vapor, in which
the sunlight is entangled and struggles, reflected
from fleece to fleece. here absorbed and there steal
ing out again, is in my acquaintance with art, un-
surpassed. The distance painting is no less refined
and truthful while execution it is marvellous in
suQpestveness Of detail. in the power of rendering
with the least possible labor the greatest possible
truth. 1t aims at and succeeds perfectly in render
ing that sense of light and space which Claude
tried 10 render, only succeeding partially, and in
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