Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected Volume I Part 17

[Footnote 32: The celebrated traveller, natural philosopher, and botanist.

He has the direction of most of the scientific inst.i.tutions at Munich.]

[Footnote 33: I remember Madame Devrient, in describing the effect which music had upon herself, pressing her hand upon her bosom, and saying, with simple but profound feeling, "_Ah! cela use la vie!_"]

[Footnote 34: "A l'exposition de Paris (1822) on a vu un millier de tableaux representant des sujets de l'Ecritoire Sainte, peints par des peintres qui n'y croient pas du tout: admires et juges par des gens qui n'y croient pas beaucoup, et enfin payes par des gens qui, apparemment, n'y croient pas, non plus.

"L'on cherche apres cela le pourquoi de la decadence de l'art!"]

[Footnote 35: Of this celebrated picture, Sir Joshua Reynolds says, that it is miscalled, and certainly does _not_ contain the portraits of the Earl and Countess of Arundel. Perhaps he is mistaken. It appears that the Earl of Arundel, of James the First's time, (the collector of the Arundelian marbles,) with his Countess, sat to Rubens in 1620, and that "Robin the Dwarf" was introduced into this picture, which was not painted in England, but at Brussels. Rubens was at this time at the height of his reputation, and when requested to paint the portrait of the Countess of Arundel, he replied, "Although I have refused to execute the portraits of many princes and n.o.blemen, especially of his lords.h.i.+p's rank yet from the Earl I am bound to receive the honour he does me in commanding my services, regarding him as I do, in the light of an evangelist to the world of art, and the great supporter of our profession."--(See Tierney's History and Antiquities of the Castle and Town of Arundel.)]

[Footnote 36: In Southey's Thalaba.]

[Footnote 37: Now removed with the other Vand.y.k.es to Chatsworth.]

[Footnote 38: See a curious letter of Pirkheimer on the death of Albert Durer, quoted in the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 21. "In Albert I have truly lost one of the best friends I had in the whole world, and nothing grieves me deeper than that he should have died so painful a death, which, under G.o.d's providence, I can ascribe to n.o.body but his huswife, who gnawed into his very heart, and so tormented him that he departed hence the sooner; for he was dried up to a f.a.ggot, and might nowhere seek him a jovial humour or go to his friends." (After much more, reflecting on this intolerable woman, he concludes with edifying _navete_;) "She and her sister are not queans; they are, I doubt not, in the number of honest, devout, and altogether G.o.d-fearing women, but a man might better have a quean who was otherwise kindly, than such a gnawing, suspicious, quarrelsome, _good_ woman, with whom he can have no peace or quiet neither by day nor by night."]

[Footnote 39: Schleissheim is a country palace of the king of Bavaria, about six miles from Munich; it has originally been a beautiful building, but is not now inhabited, and looks forlorn and dilapidated.

The pictures are distributed, without any attempt at arrangement, through forty-five rooms.]

[Footnote 40: Natives, I believe, of Cologne.]

[Footnote 41: Albert Durer was the scholar of Wohlgemuth.]

[Footnote 42: I particularly recollect a picture, containing many hundred figures, all painted with the elaborate finish of a miniature, and representing the victory of Alexander over Darius. All the Persians are dressed like Turks, while Alexander and his host are armed to the teeth, in the full costume of chivalry, with heraldic banners, displaying the different devices of the old Germanic n.o.bles, the cross, the black eagle, &c. &c.]

[Footnote 43: The observations of Mr. Phillips, (Lectures on the History and Principles of Painting,) on Giotto, and the earliest Italian school, apply in a great measure to the early German painters, and I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of quoting them.--"As it appears to me, that painting at the present time, is swerving among us from the true point of interest, tending to ornament, to the loss of truth and sentiment, I think I cannot do better than endeavour to restrain the encroachment of so insidious a foe, to prevent, if possible, our advance in so erroneous and fatal a course, by showing how strong is the influence of art where truth and simplicity prevail; and that, where no ornament is to be found--nay, where imperfections are numerous; where drawing is frequently defective, perspective violated, colouring employed without science, and chiaro-scuro rarely, if ever thought of. The natural question then is, what can excite so much interest in pictures, where so much is wanting to render them perfect? I answer, that which leads to the forgetfulness of the want of those interesting and desirable qualities in the pictures of Giotto, is the excitation caused by their fulness of feeling--well-directed, ardent, concentrated feeling! by which his mind was engaged in comprehending the points most worthy of display in the subject he undertook to represent, and led to the clearness and intelligence with which he has selected them; add to this the simplicity and ability with which he has displayed that feeling."

* * * "This is the first true step in the natural system of the art, or of the application of it, and this was Giotto's more especially. The rest is useful, as it a.s.sists the influence of this, the _indispensable_.

This, to continue the figure, taken from the stage, (in a previous part of the Lecture,) is as Garrick acting Macbeth or Lear in a tie-wig and a general's uniform of his day; the pa.s.sion and the character reaching men's hearts, notwithstanding the absurd costume. If the art be found thus strong to attract the mind, to excite feeling and thought, and to engage the heart, by the mere force of unadorned truth in the important points, and without the aid of the valuable auxiliaries I have above alluded to, is it not manifest that in its basis it is correct? and that the utmost force of historical painting is to be sought by continual emendation of this system, maintaining the spirit of its simplicity, supplying its wants, calling in the aid of those auxiliaries within reasonable bounds, not permitting them to usurp the throne of taste and attraction, but rather requiring them to a.s.sist in humbler guise to maintain and strengthen the legitimate authority of feeling.

After reading these beautiful pa.s.sages, written by a man who unites the acute discriminative judgment of a practical artist with the finest feeling of the ultimate object and aim of high poetical art, I felt almost tempted to expunge my own superficial and imperfect notes, (above written,) and should have done so, but for the hope that my deficiencies will induce some one more competent in taste and knowledge to take up the subject of the early German painters. It is certain that the modern historical painters of Germany are working on the principle here laid down by Mr. Phillips, particularly Overbeck and Wach, which they have derived from a study of their national school of art; but other enthusiasts should remember that the redeeming excellence of this school was feeling, and that feeling can never be a matter of mere imitation.

I cannot understand why the omissions of ignorance should be confounded with the achievements of native genius, by those for whom "knowledge has unlocked her ample stores," and to whom the recovery of those "rich spoils of time," the antique marbles, must have revealed the wide difference between "the simplicity of elegance" and "the simplicity of indigence."]

[Footnote 44: See p. 56.]

[Footnote 45: See p. 66.]

[Transcriber's Note: Errata as given in the original have been applied to the text. Other than the most exceedingly obvious typographical errors, all inconsistent spelling, hyphenation, diacriticals, archaic usage, etc.

have been preserved as printed in the original. The equals signs used to bracket the signature at the end of part I indicate characters in a Fraktur typeface.]