is a desponding insensibility in the look which the latter casts on his new companion in servitude, that makes one feel for what the stranger will have to endure. The young page is gayly dressed with a curious quaint cap: Joseph has lost his robe, and has nothing but a small piece of white cloth (painted very hard) round his middle. His golden hair is hanging gracefully on the farther side the face. The third group is larger.-It contains six figures.-An old man, the leader of the party seemingly, with an attendant, is concluding the bargain with four of Joseph's brethren. The costume is simple and primitive, but not poor :- sandals, pouches, horns, skins, cloaks, staffs, and a good display of the naked-that is, arms and legs. The characters of the brothers are well varied, and strongly stamped. One is a vulgar, hard featured face, with a sandy complexion: another is more gentle, young, and sensible, doubting and pitying: a third with a deep sunk eye, has a sort of Buonaparte cast of countenance, -wicked and clever. The author of the plot has a guilty conscious expression, but inflexible: he looks hard at the purse. The old man, who is giving it, is a fine venerable character, with grey silvery hair. The white and red dress, the furs, the pink sash, bags of money, and walking stick, are all well painted in many respects, but mostly hard and cutting. -At some distance, to the left, is a shepherd with sheep; one of the brothers, no doubt;-and not far from him are four others, in a group, cutting a ram's throat over the partycoloured garment of Joseph. Two of the small figures are very good indeed; and so are three or four others, (part of the caravan) coming down a rocky hill with a natural arch on the right side of the picture. There is much to admire in this work, but a good deal to condemn, especially for an English eye. The effect of chiaroscuro is so very weak that the colours seem inlaid, and no part is well relieved; and further, though the colours of the draperies are extremely well chosen and placed, yet there is no harmony, every thing being as cutting and violent as possible. Intellectual power, and a fine delicacy in the conception of the expressions are its great merits, and these are not trifling ones. No. 2. Joseph and Potiphar's Wife. Weit.* No. 3. A Mother and her Children starving. Overbeck.-This is an allegorical representation of Egypt suffering under the seven years' famine. As an allegory, perhaps, it is not quite complete, but as a picture it is sublime and full of imagination. The expression of the woman's head is profound, intense, suffering in mind and body:-but it is not the suffering of a common being. There is a grandeur in the forms, and a dignity in the action, that sustain the rank which the figure claims. The work is heroic, epic; and the impression, made on my mind by the countenance was never surpassed by any effect of Michael Angelo's. There is the mind of the latter in this; but neither as much practical power, nor so grand a scale. The head hangs over, and the mouth is drawn down with a shudder of maternal affection, which cannot be mistaken for any other passion. The head-dress, as well as the cast of features, reminds one of the Capella Sistina: I doubt if this could have been produced in any other country but Italy. The picture is a bright reflection of the genius of Buonarotti. But to the detail.--To the left is a wolf, gaping, famished, sharpshouldered, ravenous, growling; his ears thrown back; his eyes too small and human. Near is a very fine group of two boys, struggling for a loaf: it is well composed: their arms are ingeniously locked: energy is shown in the hands and the squeezing of the fingers, instead of the commonplace grace of most modern pictures. In the first boy there is a great expression of misery, without any of that skinny hardness perceptible in some of the others. A third, turning to the mother for sustenance, is young er. The mother, as I have already said, and as I shall repeat, is a sublime being, sinking under a weight of internal and intense suffering.-Her figure is full of dignity: her expression is not confined to the head, admirable and forcible as it is: it is carried through the whole figure : even the hand has the true pressure * We omit the description of this piece, as containing nothing very interesting. of the mother finely felt in it. One cannot stay to find fault with the length of the arm. The infant she holds is beautiful and well coloured. The turn of its head is very good; full of weakness and disappointment. It tells you the mother's breast is dry. The figure on the mother's left hand (another boy-seven children being introduced to indicate the number of years the famine continued)--is finely posed and composed. The expression is admirably languid. The next child is a very fine profile: a famished look well expressed, except in the corners of the mouth, which injure the rest of the face much. With the right hand he is rousing the mother, and with the other he pulls the basket from the last figure in the picture. This boy is very well: selfishness and fear form his character and expression: he is robbing the almost exhausted store. A dying horse finishes the group, whose head and neck fill the angle of the picture, and balance the wolf at the other end. No. 4. Joseph declaring himself to his Brethren. Cornelius. This composition is ingenious, of very difficult plan, and very successful execution. The subject is one of the class of the Cartoon of Peter receiving the keys. The artist has varied the brethren well, with great gradation of expression, which is a thing I always look for. They are not all equally moved; and it is very proper that they should not be so. In the Transfiguration of Raphaël there is every degree of expression, from the Possessed and his relations, to unconscious standers-by. How much does the apathy of one part display the interest and animation of another! Not only some repose is necessary in itself, but its opposition adds such energy to action. There is no place like Rome for assisting studies of this kind, and affording examples of those niceties relating to expression, movement, grace and energy of action, which can only be judged of in great originals. Theory in England, as well as practice, is exhausted on colour and the mechanical: these are very desirable, but should be deemed subordinate. To the picture of Cornelius, however:-the first head that presents itself is a portrait of the Baron himself. He appears as Joseph's chief Butler, and he is more prominent in effect, and more strongly painted, than are in general those Mecenas's who take a place in the scenes they are the means of creating. Such introductions are by no means uncommon in old pictures, even when the story is laid in paradise itself. The Baron-Butler is looking with hearty complacency, and some reflection at the same time, on the meeting. The likeness is strong rather than fine. He shows, down to the breast (the rest being hidden by Joseph's splendid chair) a sort of middle-age costume. His tranquil look forms a fine contrast to the emotion of the principal figure, whose rapidity consequently catches the eye immediately. Nothing can be better than this. Joseph can resist his feelings no longer. The sudden step with which he has risen from his seat is given to perfection. The whole figure is beautifully conceived and represented, and in harmony with the head, fine as it is. It is not so difficult a subject as Overbeck's two chief faces, but perhaps it has hardly been surpassed by any thing ancient or modern. One can easily see that if the Apollo had not been known, this face would never have been painted. The painter's mind must have been filled with that master-piece of antique beauty. Numerous as the ancient statues of high class are, all over the world, but above all in Rome, it is astonishing how few first rate faces there are, compared with torsos and limbs, (I mean, of course, faces of ideal beauty; not portraits, or mere athletæ, or common men):-a Mercury, and one or two of the Niobe family, are all that can be in any way brought in competition with the Apollo, and they are vastly below that sublime countenance. How one regrets that the numerous and valuable specimens from the Parthenon, do not include one head, except those small profiles, in low relief, of persons in a procession. There are two heads, however, which, though it is now a long time since I have seen them, have still left a strong impression on my mind. One is that of a Venus (so called) found at Capua, and now in the Studji at Naples. It is a fragment, with the body. The head is looking down, and it struck me as combining as much beauty as has ever since been produced, with the purity of the finest antiques. I was in some measure the means of bring ing it into notice and fashion, and, malicious. A head looks over the from the manner in which it has taken, others at the kneeling group with I am inclined to think my impression some marks of regret:--then come two of it was not altogether wrong. I younger; one in horror and surprise, have tried long, but in vain, to get a and the other hiding his eyes through cast from it, or even a mask or squeeze sorrow or shame; the last leans gracefrom the face: but I am glad to hear fully on the shoulder of the first; both that some one else has been more suc- are very elegant. Beyond is a head cessful, and has procured one for our in profile, seemingly sick, to account king, which I hope will be published for being last, and put there to make in London for the sake of the arts. up the eleventh. The colours are To this object you may contribute by treated and chosen with greater speaking of the fact. The other face breadth than in the others. The ac I allude to is less beautiful. It is of cessaries are rather numerous-Gothe severe class, and altogether of thic architecture-window-fountain less consequence, being a very small outside, with the brothers' asses drinkfragment: the head only remains, al- ing, one braying: the Millini most without the neck, and mutilated. tower, and Colonna pine introduced. They call it a muse, and it is to be None of the advantages of Rome are seen in the British Museum. To re- lost to these men! turn however from this digression. The head of Joseph in the picture by Cornelius, is fair, very handsome, and noble. The face is longer than the Apollo, and it has the most touch ing expression; eye swelled with a tear; nostril sharp; mouth indicating a slight sob. In short the whole countenance shews a man overcome. It is a profile, and brought close against young Benjamin's face, which makes the effect of both much stronger. The latter is clinging to his brother with unmixed, innocent, and childish joy. He has just sprung to his neck, and Joseph's left hand is round his head. Nothing can be more happy in every way. Joseph's sleeve is capital. Da not smile at my coming to the sleeve. I must look at every part; besides see what Mengs says about a sleeve in Raphaël's Spasmo di Sicilia. The next figure is full of vulgar devotion, (his eyes shut) kissing the other hand of Joseph which he holds with both his. He has a pouch and a shepherd's pipe. The next has a round cap; he has an expression of mean awe, and seems as if just venturing a look. The next to him has a queer ugly cap, but displays a more refined character under the influence of a sullen shame. Another, with long yellow drapery, and very Jewish, shows a bolder scrutiny, but still feels his awkward situation. This is a very fine expression indeed. These four are kneeling, and well composed. Two envious figures stand a little back. One of them (with a staff) old, dark, and showing some remorse; the other more ugly and No. 5. Joseph interpreting the dream in prison. Schadow. The first object is the door. A dark grating before it is natural and hard enough; near it stands the jailer in a leaning position, very well done, except that his legs are small, and he is a lit tle knock-knee'd. A guard close by is quaint, and as Gothic as any painted glass; both are at some distance, or ought to seem so; but from their being badly painted, as to perspective effect, they seem puppets, and near. Joseph is well intended. The idea is beautiful and Raphaëlesque, but the execution is not quite successful, I mean as to action; and the character of face is not only young, but effeminate also; at the same time it must be acknowledged that he is elegant, mild, and inspired, though rather in a mild, quiet way. He is explaining a dream, and evidently with regret. The unfortunate Baker (a good title for a tragedy by Crabbe?) sits clenching his wrist with one hand, and his chains with the other. He is a fine figure, or rather a fine intention again; he sits fronting; it is a full face and full figure; his draperies are rich, and I do not see that on that account they take from the grandeur of the figure which is very imposing; they are of different reds, and green and gold; there is one long fold from his left shoulder to the ground, which is very grand, or rather would be, if it were less hard and wooden; he sits in the midst of his finery in sullen gloom, looking as it were into his fate with an absent stare. The more happy...* Butler is not so well dressed; his left hand is very thick, and his face a portrait in profile of an ugly thin fellow, but he is full of attention and hope. In their expressions these Germans seldom miss their object, and when they do, their good intentions are pretty evident. The back ground of this picture is dark, and there is more effect in it than the others, but still not enough. The dreams are given in circles of light against the upper part (in imitation of Raphaël). The figures in them, are in nearly the same coloured dresses as the men below, but not quite. I have three more pictures still to send you an account of, which I hope to do soon. Always yours, MIDNIGHT HOURS. TO NIGHT. Oh! Night! oh lovely, gentle, dark-eyed Night! That sparkles in thine eyes, than are the bright * The iteration of the same concluding word in the second and fourth lines of the above verses, is common in French pieces of this description. 2.0 A RECOLLECTION. She sang-and as the liquid tones And then her mild blue eyes would shine As if to banish thoughts that pain'd her soul- April, 1820. THE JEWELS OF THE BOOK. See here be all delights, That Fancy can beget on youthful thoughts. Things are now come to such a pass, that it is scarcely possible to start a hare or a wild fawn among female writers, or the red stag or wild boar of prose or poetry, without being pretty sure that the northern keepers will intercept the course, and caution you against amusing yourself at their expense. The moment one lets a gun off at a flighty subject,or the pointer of the fancy stands at a glorious covey of ideas feeding, it may be calculated upon, that no second shot must be fired, and that the daring intruder will instantly be threatened with the heavy consequences of a trespass. We are inclined to pay as much respect as our betters to the rights of private property; but we are enemies to the game laws, both of the field and of literature; and shall, as far as in us lies, carry into practice our opposition to the monopoly of woods and wildernesses. Thus far our metaphor has kept upon its legs admirably,-and it may be as well, therefore, now to dismiss it; but before doing so we wish to announce that we have stumbled on a preserve, and that we intend to sport in it to our hearts' content, until all the game be bagg'd, or until our friends be weary of the amusement. Mr. Egan, the celebrated author of Boxiana, has in a little octavo volume, contrived to amass together 岩 all the particulars of horse, dog, and Milton. man, worthy of being known :-but before proceeding to analyze a work of such exquisite composition, we must indulge ourselves in a few sentences of laudatory prose on a gentleman who caters more pleasantly for the public. mouth than any other person now living. Mr. Egan writes (as we are informed by a young gentleman in the law) the accounts of the fights in the Newspapers, and gives all the little pithy paragraphs of pugilistic information which announce to the world the arrangements of the matches. We cannot for a moment question our friend's communication, for we continually detect the hand of a master in those interesting records: And who is there but must admire the ability with which the brutalities and severities of bruising are softened to the taste and timidity of a young gentleman in stays, or a lady at her breakfast table! A pathos-a humour, -or gaiety, is thrown into the recital, with "infinite variety -so that a broken jaw comes before the reader under favourable and attractive circumstances. A man is not felled to the earth;-he only goes down distressed. His breath is not crushed out of his body, he is only queered a little in the bellows. The face that is beaten to a mummy, is "rendered unintelligible" merely; and the blinding of the eyes is relieved into the milder expression of dimming the ogles. The reader Sporting Anecdotes, &c. by Pierce Egan-London: Sherwood and Co. 1820. |