evidence of this truth. If then the arts of poetry and painting and architecture and music, gradually flourish, as wealth and power and wisdom and science gain ground, there must be, as there is, some necessary connexion between these attainments; for if there be an axiom in metaphysics, it is, that constant concomitance affords the only proof of necessary connexion. I rejoice therefore that such men, as West and Copley, and Turnbull were Americans, little as we profit by this nationality. I reflect with pleasure on such a collection even as that of Mr. Hamilton at the Woodlands, as a private one, very respectable in any country; and I look forward with patient hope, to the conse. quences we may reasonably expect in a few years, from such an institution as the academy of arts. Frugal, even to parsimony, as the representatives of Pennsylvania are, and perhaps ought to be, I do not despair of their being brought to think ere long, that a few thousand dollars appropriated to the objects of that institution, would not be an appropriation devoid of national utility. Should this be the case, I hope the managers would then venture to turn out the overgrown daubing of Mr. West, and the gloomy paintings of Smirke, by no means so valuable as the engravings to which they have given birth. How Mr. Barlow could think of employing the Hogarthian talents of Mr. Smirke, to delineate the sombre subjects on which his pencil has been employed for the Columbiad, I could never divine. I hope they are not exhibited as specimens of coloring or excellence in the execution. In that very fine engraving of the prison-ship by Schavoretti, the arm stretched out, instead of being the arm of a famished man, is that of a brawny well-fed blacksmith. I do not recollect whether the original exhibits the same fault. If it does, it is unpardonable in Smirke, who must have contemplated with great delight the exquisitely painted hand of the dying cardinal de Beaufort, in sir Joshua Reynolds's picture, hung up in the same room with Mr. Smirke's master Slender, and his Falstaff's ragged regiment. It is in this picture of sir Joshua's, that I find great fault with the devil, for poking up his head from behind the cardinal's pillow, in the midst of so much good company. He might have waited patiently, till the cardinal was actually dead. By the way also (for I find that wanderings and garrulity greatly increase with declining years) Smirke's Mrs. Ann Page, "I pray you sir, walk in," and Stodhart's Mary Queen of Scots' receiv ing the news of her approaching execution, are the finest and most characteristic specimens I have seen, of the attitude, manner, physiognomy, and style of beauty of the English female character. Another remark I would make in the nature of an aside speech in a play (not that I have any mercy on the aside speeches of other writers than myself) which is, that although Smirke's prison-ship is well imagined, with the exception above made, yet I greatly doubt about the propriety of exhibiting in a public institution a painting calculated to keep alive animosities that ought now to be forgotten. If our ancestors, on the one side or the other, were unjust, cruel, and ferocious, it is no sufficient reason why we should imbibe the same spirit. I wish the Academy were able, with the consent of the proprietors, to purchase and concentrate in that institution the collection of Mr. Hamilton, and some few things worth looking at in Philadelphia. Such as the tribute money by Reubens, a cabinet picture belonging to Mr. Sansom, certainly of great merit. My eye is no longer skilled in the mechanical part of the art, sufficiently to decide whether it be an original or not. This must be judged of by the freedom or otherwise, of the handling and the outline; for an experienced eye, will generally detect some stiffness in a copy. But the story is well told; and the group of character is that of a master. I have seen in Philadelphia, two very fine flower-pieces, which however inferior this style of painting may be, are not to be despised as specimens of skilful execution. The outline in a late Port Folio, of the Madonna della Sedia, Seglia, or Seggliola, does not give the youthful innocent sin plicity of the painting. I speak of copies only: of which there are two in the city, one by an Italian artist in the possession of Mr. Smith (a gentleman of highly cultivated taste, and to whom the Academy is greatly indebted) and another by Mr. Sully in his own possession. It is a very pleasing representation of quiet, untutored, good-tempered rustic simplicity in the mother; and the child promises, if he grows up, to make a good-looking sturdy ploughman. For although this be a picture of the divine Raffaelle's, I cordially accede to Dr. Moore's criticism (travels, v. 2. p. 475.) Fine paintings are expensive, and not easily procured. Till the funds of the Academy admit of the purchase of paintings, why not import engravings of the first order? There are in Philadelphia several Italian engravings from the pictures of good masters, such as the Aurora, the St. John, and Madonnas of Guido. The St. John of Guido, in my opinion, is superior to Raphael's St. John, in the Christ Church library at Oxford; and his Madonnas, are certainly more interesting than Raphael's. There is no painter, in my opinion, so perfectly master of the physionomie spirituelle, as Guido; which is well preserved in all the prints. Philadelphia, also, in the apartments of some of its citizens who have travelled with taste and intelligence in their train, possesses excellent engravings, from some other great masters, such as the Supper of Veronese, some engrav ings from Cortona, the Madonna della Sedia, &c. all which I should rejoice to see in the room of the Academy: for although they do not exhibit the magic effect of coloring, they inform us in what manner, and with what concomitants, the best artists have told their story. There are also in Philadelphia, two copies of that most superb specimen of engraving the Louis XVI of Bervic, whom I believe the sanguinary spirit of the French revolutions has spared to the arts. There is also one copy of John Hunter, the anatomist, the chef d'œuvre of Mr. Sharp, certainly the best stroke engraver in England, if not in Europe. I know not that the art of engraving has hitherto produced any thing to equal these specimens, which are fit to adorn any apartments, public or private, where taste is permitted to preside. I much wish also, that the Academy possessed the prints from ancient paintings, by Turnbull, and Bellori, although the engravings are devoid of merit, they are extremely instructive on the subject of ancient art. Turnbull's is general, and contains the marriage preserved in the Aldobrandini palace, the best of the ancient frescos. Bellori (see Græv. Collect. v. 12) published the paintings in the sepulchre of the Nasonii in the Flaminian way. Mr. Smith, already mentioned, with the respect due to his correct taste, and great knowledge of painting and sculpture, brought over an extremely interesting set of drawings, exhibiting the ac tual state and style of ornaments in the compartments of an ancient Roman house, either from Herculaneum or Pompeia. Such things would interest and inform, if the Academy could procure similar copies. Turnbull and Bellori, remind me of a subject, which, in fact, has induced me to scribble these unconnected remarks. For some years, there has been exhibited in Philadelphia, a painting by Wertmuller, a Jupiter and Danae. The painting has some merit in point of execution. I highly value the art of painting. It is a source of great pleasure: it is more: it may be employed to the best purposes of public good, by recording great men and great actions, with all the circumstances likely to give effect to the story, and through the eye to speak to the heart. Who does not regret that no national tribute has been paid to the memory of general Washington, by the hand of an historical painter, or sculptor of adequate talent? Painting contributes also to all the endearing associations of social life, in the portraits of those we love, whether regretted among the dead, or gazed on with delight among the living. Who does not feel the appositeness of the story related by Pliny, as the origin of portrait painting: a female tracing her lover's shadow on the wall? But this noble art is basely perverted and abused, when it is made a pander to those desires, that public expediency requires to be controlled, and when employed to portray those scenes, that public decorum requires to be shut out from the eye of day. Is it any credit to the art, or any credit to the city, that a picture should be publicly exhibited, which no modest woman would venture to contemplate in the presence of a man? and that particular days should be set apart by public advertisement, when the female sex have the exclusive privilege of indulging their culpable curiosity? A curiosity certainly excited rather by the nature of the subject than the merit of the artist. Would Stewart's general Washington prove equally lucrative and attractive? This is not all. The painting itself is a gross and impudent plagiarism. It is stolen. I know painters make no great scruples about this. Sir Joshua Reynolds stole his count Ugolino. So I am persuaded did Fuseli his witches, from a painting I saw at Versailles. But these men embellish what they borrow. Quod tetigerunt, ornaverunt. Wertmuller's own share of the pic ture, affords decisive evidence of want of sense, want of taste, and want of decency. I had occasion many years ago, to cite the collections of Turnbull and Bellori (3 Manch. Trans. 517) with allusion to the color employed in the original fresco painting of which the second or third of Turnbull's is a copy. Wertmuller's female, her attitude, the apartment, the couch, the drapery, the ornaments, and I believe the exact coloring of each particular part (for Turnbull gives it) are to be found there. Wertmuller has made some additions. First he has converted a mere representation of a naked female figure, reclining (and not immodestly) on a couch, into that of Danae: and endeavoured to represent a lover in the form and shape of a shower of gold. The allegory of the story of Danae, illustrative of the power of gold over the female heart, is well enough: probably too just in many instances. But that a man should be weak enough to attempt a literal representation of it, shows that he wanted both sense and taste. Secondly. There is no remarkable expression in the homely countenance represented by Turnbull. Wertmuller, has delineated a face of vulgar lasciviousness, without one feature to express the slightest passion of ardor, intelligence, or passion. I cannot contemn the feelings, which the scenes are intended by nature mutually to inspire. They may be violent, vulgar, selfish, merely animal; and they may be, as they sometimes are, the foundation of the noblest and most disinterested conduct, and the sources of the highest, the purest, and the chastest pleasure. But it is not for the public good that they should be needlessly and unnaturally excited, or that the eyes of our youth of both sexes, should be debauched, by the public exhibition of wanton delineations. I do not know whether Turnbull, is among the collections of the Academy, but I know that it is in the city at Mr. Sansom's and that a reference to it will justify these remarks. Carlisle. T. C. |