government of the art, there is every reason | feeling; it is the settled expression of celestial to believe that it ultimately will rival the cele- beauty, and even the smile on her lip is not brity of foreign genius: And it is in this view the fleeting smile of temporary joy, but the that the continuance of the gallery of the lasting expression of that heavenly feeling Louvre, in its present situation, is principally which sees in all around it the grace and loveto be wished by the English nation-that the liness which belongs to itself alone. It apEnglish artists may possess so near their own proaches nearer to that character which somecountry so great a school for composition and times marks the countenance of female beauty design; that the imperfections of foreign when death has stilled the passions of the schools may enlighten the views of English world; but it is not the cold expression of past genius; and that the conquests of the French character which survives the period of mortal arms, by transferring the remains of ancient dissolution; it is the living expression of pretaste to these northern shores, may throw over sent existence, radiant with the beams of imits rising art that splendour which has hitherto mortal life, and breathing the air of eternal been confined to the regions of the sun. happiness. The paintings of Raphael convey the most perfect idea of earthly beauty; and they denote the expression of all that is finest and most elevated in the character of the female mind. But there is a "human meaning in their eye," and they bear the marks of that anxiety and tenderness which belong to the relations of present existence. The Venus displays the same beauty, freed from the cares which existence has produced; and her lifeless eye-balls gaze upon the multitude which surround her, as on a scene fraught only with the expression of universal joy. The great object, therefore, of all the modern schools of historical painting, seems to have been the delineation of an affecting scene or interesting occurrence they have endeavoured to tell a story by the variety of incidents in à single picture; and seized, for the most part, the moment when passion was at its greatest height, or suffering appeared in its most excruciating form. The general character, accordingly, of the school, is the expression of passion or violent suffering; and in the prosecution of this object, they have endeavoured to exhibit it under all its aspects, and display all the effects which it could possibly produce In another view, the Apollo and the Venus on the human form, by the different figures appear to have been intended by the genius which they have introduced. While this is of antiquity, as expressive of the character of the general character of the whole, there are mind which distinguishes the different sexes; of course numerous exceptions; and many and in the expression of this character, they of its greatest painters seem, in the representa- have exhausted all which it is possible for tion of single figures, or in the composition human imagination to produce upon the subof smaller groups, to have had in view the ex-ject. The commanding air, and advanced step pression of less turbulent affections; to have aimed at the display of settled emotion or permanent feeling, and to have excluded every thing from their composition which was not in unison with this predominant expression. of the Apollo, exhibit man in his noblest aspect, Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed, These words were said of our first parents by our greatest poet, after the influence of a pure religion had developed the real nature of the female character, and determined the place which woman was to hold in the scale of nature; but the idea had been expressed in a still finer manner two thousand years before, by the sculptors of antiquity; and amidst all the degradation of ancient manners, the prophetic genius of Grecian taste contemplated that ideal perfection in the character of the sexes, which was destined to form the boundary of human progress in the remotest ages of human improvement. The Sculpture Gallery, which contains above two hundred remains of ancient statuary, marks in the most decided manner the different ob-ful jects to which this noble art was applied in ancient times. Unlike the paintings of modern Europe, their figures are almost uniformly at rest; they exclude passion or violent suffering 'from their design; and the moment which they select is not that in which a particular or transient emotion may be displayed, but in which the settled character of mind may be expressed. With the two exceptions of the Laocoon and the fighting Gladiator, there are none of the statues in the Louvre which are not the representation of the human figure in a state of repose; and the expression which the finest possess, is invariably that permanent expression which has resulted from the habitual frame and character of mind. Their figures seem to belong to a higher class of beings than that in which we are placed; they indicate a state in which passion, anxiety, and emotion The Apollo strikes a stranger with all its are no more; and where the unruffled repose grandeur on the first aspect; subsequent exaof mind has moulded the features into the per-mination can add nothing to the force of the fect expression of the mental character. Even the countenance of the Venus de Medicis, the most beautiful which it has ever entered into the mind of man to conceive, and of which no copy gives the slightest idea, bears no trace of emotion, and none of the marks of human impression which is then received. The Venus produces at first less effect, but gains upon the mind at every renewal, till it rivets the affections even more than the greatness of its unequalled rival. The Dying Gladiator is perhaps, after the ( two which have been mentioned, the finest statue which the Louvre contains. The moment chosen is finely adapted for the expression of ideal beauty, from a subject connected with painful ideas. It is not the moment of energy or struggling, when the frame is convulsed with the exertion it is making, or the countenance is deformed by the tumult of passion; it is the moment of expiring nature, when the figure is relaxed by the weakness of decay, and the mind is softened by the approach of death; when the ferocity of combat is forgotten in the extinction of the interest which it had excited, when every unsocial passion is stilled by the weakness of exhausted nature, and the mind, in the last moments of life, is fraught with finer feelings than had belonged to the character of previous existence. It is a moment similar to that in which Tasso has so beautifully described the change in Clorinda's mind, after she had been mortally wounded by the hand of Tancred, but in which he was enabled to give her the inspiration of a greater faith, and the charity of a more gentle religion Amico h'ai vinto: io te perdon. Perdona Tu ancora, al corpo no che nulla pave Un non so che di flebile e soave Ch' al cor gli scende, ed ogni sdegno ammorza, The statues of antiquity were addressed to the multitude of the people; they were intended to awaken the devotion of all classes of citizens-to be felt and judged by all mankind. They are free, therefore, from all the peculiarities of national taste; they are purified from all the peculiarities of local circumstances; they have been rescued from that miserable degradation to which art is uniformly exposed, by taste being confined to a limited society. They have assumed, in consequence, that general character, which might suit the universal feelings of our nature, and that permanent expression which might speak to the heart of men through every succeeding age. The admiration, accordingly, for those works of art has been undiminished by the lapse of time; they excite the same feelings at the present time, as when they came fresh from the hand of the Grecian artist, and are regarded by all nations with the same veneration on the banks of the Seine, as when they sanctified the temples of Athens, or adorned the gardens of Rome. Even the rudest nations seem to have felt the force of this impression. The Hungarians and the Cossacks, during the stay of the allied armies in Paris, ignorant of the name or the celebrity of those works of art, seemed yet to take a delight in the survey of the statues of antiquity, and in passing through the long line of marbled greatness which the Louvre presents, stopt involuntarily at the sight of the Venus, or clustered round the foot of the pedestal of the Apollo;-indicating thus, in the expression of unaffected feeling, the force of that genuine taste for the beauty of nature, which all the rudeness of savage manners, and all the ferocity of war had not been able to de stroy. The poor Russian soldier, whose knowledge of art was limited to the crucifix which he had borne in his bosom from his native land, still felt the power of ancient beauty, and in the spirit of the Athenians, who erected an altar to the Unknown God, did homage in silence to that unknown spirit which had touched a new chord in his untutored heart. The character of art in every country appears to have been determined by the disposition of the people to whom it was addressed, and the object of its composition to have varied with the purpose it was called on to fulfil. The Grecian statues were designed to excite the devotion of a cultivated people; to imbody their conceptions of divine perfection; to realize the expression of that character of mind which they imputed to the deities whose temples they were to adorn it was grace, or strength, or majesty, or youthful power, which they were to represent by the figures of Venus, of Hercules, of Jupiter, or of Apollo. Their artists accordingly were led to aim at the expression of general character: to exclude passion, or emotion, or suffering, from their design; and represent their figures in that state of repose where the permanent expression of mind ought to be displayed. It is perhaps in this circumstance that is to be found the cause both of the peculiarity and the excellence of the Grecian statuary. The Italian painters were early required to effect a different object. Their pictures were destined to represent the sufferings of nature; to display the persecution or death of our Saviour, the anguish of the Holy Family, the heroism of martyrs, the resignation of devotion. In the infancy of the arts, accordingly, they were led to study, the expression of passion, of suffering, and emotion; to aim at rousing the pity, or exciting the sympathy of the spectators; and to endeavour to characterize their paintings by the representation of temporary passion, not the expression of permanent character. Those beautiful pictures in which a different object seems to have been followed-in which expression is that of permanent emotion ot transient passion, while they captivate ar admiration, seem to be exceptions from the gral design, and to have been suggested by peculiar nature of the subject represented, or a particular firmness of mind in the artist. In these auses we may perhaps discern the origin of the peculiar character of the Italian school. In the French school, the character and manners of the people seem to have carried this peculiarity to a still greater length. Their character led them to seek in every thing for stage effect; to admire the most extravagant and violent representations, and to value the efforts of art, not in proportion to their imitation of the qualities, of nature, but in proportion to their resemblance to those artificial qualities on which their admiration was founded. The vehemence of their manner, on the most ordinary occasions, rendered the most extravagant gestures requisite for the display of real passion; and their drama accordingly exhibits a mixture of dignity of sentiment, with violence of gesture, beyond mea play of the living mind. It is an abstraction of character which has no relation to present existence; a shadow in which all the permanent features of the mind are expressed, but none of the passions of the mind are shown: like the figures of snow, which the magic of Okba formed to charm the solitude of Leila's sure surprising to a foreign spectator. The same disposition of the people has influenced the character of their historical painting; and it is to be remembered, that the French school of painting succeeded the establishment of the French drama. It is hence that they have generally selected the moment of theatrical effect -the moment of phrenzied passion, or unpa-dwelling, it bears the character of the human ralleled exertion, and that their composition is distinguished by so many striking contrasts, and so laboured a display of momentary effect. The Flemish or Dutch school of painting was neither addressed to the devotional nor the theatrical feelings of mankind; it was neither intended to awaken the sympathy of religious pity, nor excite the admiration of artificial dispositions-it was addressed to wealthy men of vulgar capacities, capable of appreciating only the merit of minute detail, or the faithfulness of exact imitation. It is hence that their painting possesses excellencies and defects of so peculiar a description; that they have carried the minuteness of finishing to so unparalleled a degree of perfection; that the brilliancy of their lights has thrown a splendour over the vulgarity of their subjects, and that they are in general so utterly destitute of all the refinement and sentiment which sprung from the devotional feelings of the Italian people. The subjects which the Dutch painters chose were subjects of low humour, calculated to amuse a rich and uncultivated people: the subjects of the French school were heroic adventure, suited to the theatrical taste of a more elevated society: the subjects of the Italian school were the incidents of sacred history, suited to the devotional feelings of a religious people. In all, the subjects to which painting was applied, and the character of the art itself, was determined by the peculiar circumstances or disposition of the people to whom it was addressed: so that, in these instances, there has really happened what Mr. Addison stated should ever be the case, that "the taste should not conform to the art, but the art to the taste." form, but melts at the warmth of human feeling. While such is the object to which statuary would appear to be destined, painting embraces a wider range, and is capable of more varied expression: it is expressive of the living form; it paints the eye and opens the view of the present mind; it imitates all the fleeting changes which constitute the signs of present emotion. It is not, therefore, an abstraction of character which the painter is to represent; not an ideal form, expressive only of the qualities of permanent character; but an actual being, alive to the impressions of present existence, and bound by the ties of present affection. It is in the delineation of these affections, therefore, that the power of the painter principally consists; in the representation, not of simple character, but of character influenced or subdued by emotion. It is the representation of the joy of youth, or the repose of age; of the sorrow of innocence, or the penitence of guilt; of the tenderness of parental affection, or the gratitude of filial love. In these, and a thousand other instances, the expression of the emotion constitutes the beauty of the picture; it is that which gives the tone to the character which it is to bear; it is that which strikes the chord which vibrates in every human heart. The object of the painter, therefore, is the expression of EMOTION, of that emotion which is blended with the character of the mind which feels, and gives to that character the interest which belongs to the events of present existence. The object of the painter being the representation of emotion in all the varied situations which life produces, it follows, that every thing in his picture should be in unison with the predominant expression which he wishes it to The object of statuary should ever be the bear; that the composition should be as simsame to which it was always confined by the ple as is consistent with the development of ancients, viz. the representation of CHARACTER. this expression; and the colouring, such as The very materials on which the sculptor has accords with the character by which this emoto operate, render his art unfit for the expres- tion is distinguished. It is here that the genius sion either of emotion or passion; and the of the artist is principally to be displayed, in figure, when finished, can bear none of the the selection of such figures as suit the general marks by which they are to be distinguished.impression which the whole is to produce; It is a figure of cold, and pale, and lifeless and the choice of such a tone of colouring, as marble, without the varied colour which emo- harmonizes with the feeling of mind which it tion produces, or the living eye which passion is his object to produce. The distraction of vaanimates. The eye is the feature which is ried colours-the confusion of different figures— expressive of present emotion; it is it which the contrast of opposite expressions, completevaries with all the changes which the mindly destroy the effect of the composition; they undergoes; it is it which marks the difference | fix the mind to the observation of what is parbetween joy and sorrow, between love and ticular in the separate parts, and prevent that hatred, between pleasure and pain, between uniform and general emotion which arises life and death. But the eye, with all the endless expressions which it bears, is lost to the sculptor; its gaze must ever be cold and lifeless to him; its fire is quenched in the stillness of the tomb. A statue, therefore, can never be expressive of living emotion; it can never express those transient feelings which mark the from the perception of one uniform expression in all the parts of which it is composed. It is in this very perception, however, that the source of the beauty is to be found; it is in the undefined feeling to which it gives rise, that the delight of the emotion of taste consists. Like the harmony of sounds in musical composi the countenance is moulded into the expression of permanent feeling, and the existence of this feeling is marked by the permanent expression which the features have assumed. tion, it produces an effect, of which we are unable to give any account; but which we feel to be instantly destroyed by the jarring sound of a different note, or the discordant effect of a foreign expression. It is in the ne- The greatest artists of ancient and modern glect of this great principle that the defect of times, accordingly, have selected, even in the many of the first pictures of modern times is representation of violent exertion, that moto be found-in the confused multitude of un- ment of temporary repose, when a permanent necessary figures-in the contradictory ex- expression is given to the figure. Even the pression of separate parts-in the distracting Laocöon is not in a state of actual exertion: brilliancy of gorgeous colours: in the laboured it is represented in that moment when the last display, in short, of the power of the artist, and effort has been made; when straining against the utter dereliction of the object of the art. an invincible power has given to the figure The great secret, on the other hand, of the the aspect at last of momentary repose; and beauty of the most exquisite specimens of mo- when despair has placed its settled mark on dern art, lies in the simplicity of expression the expression of the countenance. The fightwhich they bear, in their production of one ing Gladiator is not in a state of present actiuniform emotion, from all the parts of one vity, but in that moment when he is preparing harmonious composition. For the production his mind for the future and final contest, and of this unity of emotion the surest means will when, in this deep concentration of his be found to consist in the selection of as few powers, the pause which the genius of the figures as is consistent with the development artist has given, expresses more distinctly to of the characteristic expression of the com- the eye of the spectator the determined chaposition; and it is, perhaps, to this circum-racter of the combatant, than all that the stance, that we are to impute the unequalled struggle or agony of the combat itself could charm which belongs to the pictures of single afterwards display. figures, or small groups, in which a single expression is alone attempted. Both painting and sculpture are wholly unfit for the representation of PASSION, AS EXPRESSED BY MOTION; and that to attempt to delineate it, necessarily injures the effect of the composition. Neither, it is clear, can express actual motion: they should not attempt, therefore, to represent those passions of the mind which motion alone is adequate to express. The attempt to delineate violent passion, accordingly, uniformly produces a painful or a ridiculous effect: it does not even convey any conception of the passion itself, because its character is not known by the expression of any single moment, but by the rapid changes which result from the perturbed state into which the mind is thrown. It is hence that passion seems so ridiculous when seen at a distance, or without the cause of its existence being known: and it is hence, that if a human figure were petrified in any of the stages of passion it would have so painful or insane an appearance. As painting, therefore, cannot exhibit the rapid changes in which the real expression of passion consists, it should not attempt its delineation at all. Its real object is, the expression of emotion, of that more settled state of the human mind when the changes of passion are gone-when The Grecian statues in the Louvre may be considered as the most perfect works of human genius, and every one must feel those higher conceptions of human form, and of human nature, which the taste of ancient statuary had formed. It is not in the moment of action that it has represented man, but in the moment after action, when the tumult of passion has ceased, and all that is great or dignified in moral nature remains. It is not Hercules in the moment of earthly combat, when every muscle was swollen with the strength he was exerting; but Hercules, in the moment of transformation into a nobler being, when the exertion of mortality has passed, and his powers seem to repose in the tranquillity of heaven; not Apollo, when straining his youthful strength in drawing the bow; but Apollo, when the weapon was discharged, watching, with unexulting eye, its resistless course, and serene in the enjoyment of immortal power. And inspired by these mighty examples, it is not St. Michael when struggling with the demon, and marring the beauty of angelic form by the violence of earthly passion, that Raphael represents; but St. Michael, in the moment of unruffled triumph, restraining the might of almighty power, and radiant with the beams of eternal mercy. TYROL.* It is a common observation, that the character of a people is in a great measure influenced by their local situation, and the nature of the scenery in which they are placed; and it is impossible to visit the Tyrol without being convinced of the truth of the remark. The entrance of the mountain region is marked by as great a diversity in the aspect and manners of the population, as in the external objects with which they are surrounded; nor is the transition, from the level plain of Lombardy to the rugged precipices of the Alps, greater than from the squalid crouching appearance of the Italian peasant to the martial air of the free-born mountaineer. pusillanimous race by which they are now inhabited, he looks in vain for the descendants of those great men who leapt from their gallies on the towers of Constantinople, and stood forth as the bulwark of Christendom against the Ottoman power; and still less, when he surveys the miserable population with which he is surrounded, can he go back in imagination to those days of liberty and valour, when Venice once was dear, The pleasant place of all festivity, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy." trained bands, to which every man capable of bearing arms is, without exception, subjected. It was in consequence of this circumstance, in a great measure, that they were able to make so vigorous a resistance, with so little preparation, to the French invasion; and it is to the same cause that is chiefly to be ascribed that intrepid and martial air by which they are distinguished from almost every other peasantry in Europe, From such scenes of national distress, and from the melancholy spectacle of despotic This transition is so remarkable, that it power ruling in the abode of ancient freedom, attracts the attention of the most superficial it is with delight that the traveller enters the observer. In travelling over the states of the fastnesses of the Alps, where liberty has imnorth of Italy, he meets everywhere with the printed itself in indelible characters on the symptoms of poverty, meanness, and abject character and manners of the people. In depression. The beautiful slopes which de- every part of the Tyrol the bold and martial scend from the Alps, clothed with all that is air of the peasantry, their athletic form and beautiful and luxuriant in nature, are inha- fearless eye, bespeak the freedom and indebited for the most part by an indigent and pendence which they have enjoyed. In most squalid population, among whom you seek instances the people go armed; and during in vain for any share of that bounty with the summer and autumn they wear a musket which Providence has blessed their country. hung over their shoulders, or some other ofThe rich plains of Lombardy are cultivated fensive weapon. Universally they possess by a peasantry whose condition is hardly offensive weapons and are trained early to the superior to that of the Irish cottager; and use of them, both by the expeditions in search while the effeminate proprietors of the soil of game, of which they are passionately fond waste their days in inglorious indolence at-and by the annual duty of serving in the Milan and Verona, their unfortunate tenantry are exposed to the merciless rapacity of bailiffs and stewards, intent only upon augmenting the fortunes of their absent superiors. In towns, the symptoms of general distress are, if possible, still more apparent. While the opera and the Corso are crowded with splendid equipages, the lower classes of the people are involved in hopeless indigence:-The churches and public streets are crowded with beggars, whose wretched appearance marks Their dress is singularly calculated to add to but too truly the reality of the distress of this impression. That of the men consists, which they complain-while their abject and for the most part, of a broad-brimmed hat, crouching manner indicates the entire politi- ornamented by a feather; a jacket tight to the cal degradation to which they have so long shape, with a broad girdle, richly ornamented, been subjected. At Venice, in particular, the fastened, in front by a large buckle of costly total stagnation of employment, and the misery workmanship; black leather breeches and of the people, strikes a stranger the more gaiters, supported over the shoulders by two forcibly from the contrast which they afford broad bands, generally of scarlet or blue, to the unrivalled splendour of her edifices, which are joined in front by a cross belt of and the glorious recollections with which her the same colour. They frequently wear pishistory is filled. As he admires the gorgeous tols in their girdle, and have either a rifle or magnificence of the piazza St. Marco, or winds cloak slung over their shoulders. The colours through the noble palaces that still rise with of the dresses vary in the different parts of undecaying beauty from the waters of the the country, as they do in the cantons of SwitAdriatic, he no longer wonders at the astonish-zerland; but they are always of brilliant ment with which the stern crusaders of the north gazed at her marble piles, and feels the rapture of the Roman emperor, when he approached, "where Venice sat in state throned on her hundred isles;" but in the mean and * Blackwood's Magazine, Sept. 1819. Written from notes made during a four in Tyrol in the preceding year. colours, and ornamented, particularly round the breast, with a degree of richness which appears extraordinary in the labouring classes of the community. Their girdles and clasps, with the other more costly parts of their clothing, are handed down from generation to generation, and worn on Sundays and festi |