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ART AND ARTISTS.

THE universal voice of enlightened men renders it necessary in the present day to argue upon the value of a due cultivation of the Polite Arts. It is no longer an open question whether they have or have not an influence upon the morals of a nation. It is admitted on all hands, that where they flourish in the greatest perfection, there the ruder elements of human nature are subdued to the limits of cultivated life, and the fiercer passions of men are modified or controlled.

Individual nations have become famous for luxury, splendour, bravery, or policy, but they have ever been considered as merely competing with each other as to the relative value of their respective qualities, and not as having claim to universal admiration. That proud distinction has ever been preserved for, and awarded to, that one nation which-combining with either policy, bravery, splendour, or luxury, or any or all of these attributes, the full and unbounded culture of the Fine Artshas presented to the contemplation of mankind the spectacle of a people no less admired for bravery in war, than the polished refinements of peace.

One nation, and one alone, do we find recorded in the page of history holding this glorious station. Seek we the land where the warrior vied with the statesman, the orator, the philosopher, the poet, in the noble struggle to elevate their common country--where the study of painting, of sculpture, of architecture, were deemed to ennoble those who cultivated them-where the critic exercised his duty for the encouragement of merit, and the historian beheld his chiefest reward in the recording of the virtues, the heroism, the refinement of his countrymen?-Our eyes are turned at once, and there fixed, as in an eternal gaze, on Greece, and especially on that one state, transcending all its compeers in its galaxy of intellectual splendour-Athens.

Brave without ferocity-polite, yet not effeminate-a Grecian citizen owed his distinctive character to the soothing influence of the Fine Arts. War may afford opportunities for the display of generous actions, and in like manner tranquillity may engender the rancour of hate, and the voluptuousness of sensual delight; but the very nature of the Arts is to incite to bravery, generosity, peace, and love. To a people cemented and bound together by their mysterious power, the orator no longer inveighs for mere gratification of popular applause; nor does the poet celebrate his hero only to depreciate a rival. Under such influence, the aim of each was the moral and intellectual exaltation of the whole community; and the glorious light then displayed has served as the securest beacon to the endeavours of succeeding generations.

Such were the high purposes for which the Arts were created-such was the effect, the unerring effect, of their due and careful cultivation on a Grecian soil. Changeless as the tides, immutable as the stars, the laws of civilization operate now as they have ever done; and, the same causes combining, the same effects will follow in this our native country.

A few cursory remarks upon the Fine Arts in Great Britain appear peculiarly called for at the present time. Ere another year will have half-passed away the Exhibition of the Royal Academy will take place in the new building in Trafalgar Square. The public mind is intent upon this first display, and let us hope, as we have sufficient reason to

believe, that the artists will not disappoint the expectation thus aroused. A mighty effort should be made by the great body of them, that the classes of history and poetry should present numerous specimens of their talents, leaving the subordinate branches, as far as they can possibly do so, to the hands of those who make such their immediate practice.

Nor let us be less sanguine in our trust that such exertions, if made, will meet with a corresponding liberality on the part of those who by habit, wealth, and station, are best able to extend their patronage to Art. Allusion is not made here to merely the money compensation to be paid, but to the real stimulus to exertion-patronage on the part of the affluent, to the several artists, in those branches of art in which they peculiarly excel. Thus would honour form some part of the remuneration, and in that the artist who panted after fame would discover that the indulgence of his native genius had not been in vain.

Hitherto in this country there has been but scanty patronage afforded to the practitioners in painting, sculpture, and architecture; though the latter have reaped by far the greater harvest of the three. Ecclesiastical and other public buildings have, at various periods, called for the exertion of native genius in that art; and sculpture, from the beginning of the present century, has been in some degree fostered by the erection of statues in honour of our naval and military heroes, our poets, our statesmen, and our philosophers. Historic painting, however, has not been so fortunate, for the grave discipline of the Protestant worship sanctions not those pictorial decorations of sacred edifices, which afford such splendid opportunities for the pencil in the Romish Church.

Sculpture has, in another instance, had the advantage over painting, for in several parts of the metropolis statues have been erected to the memory of persons of eminence. The climate of England, however, is not congenial to these exhibitions in the open air, and the vast consumption of coal tends greatly to the defacing of them, by reason of the blackness by which they are so immediately overspread.

The last-named advantage of sculpture over the sister art is in some degree detracted from, because those statues were the result of commissions given to the artists as employment, and not as a matter accompanied by honour, as is the case where such testimonials are erected with the concurring voice of a whole people. In recording the valour or virtue of the heroes, the philanthropists, and philosophers, the sculptor who does the bidding of a nation signalises her own honour as the artist appointed from amongst his fellows, and the marble that transmits to future generations a memorial of the virtues, the achievements, or the intellect of his subject, is the best monument to his own fame.

The propriety at any time of exhibiting the resemblances of prominent characters in the streets of a great city, where they have not been awarded by the national voice, is a matter of grave consideration. The glory of wearing a crown-the merit of great abilities-the honour of a fluent tongue, are little of themselves; and if party-spirit, vanity, or selfinterest are called into action, as is but too frequently the case, in the statues now under notice, the art is degraded to a pandering to bad passions, instead of being elevated to its proper sphere. But if a monarch from his throne issue the dictates of prudence and justice-if a states

man devotedly pursues the good of his country-if the orator advocates the cause of humanity with the eloquence of truth-then let a grateful nation decree the honour of a statue to the memory of its senator, its orator, or its king. Such was the practice in the states of Greece, and its effect tended beneficially in a tenfold manner. Erected as the reward of virtue, of eloquence, or of valour, these statues invited the beholders to the cultivation of similar qualities; whilst they afforded employment, and conferred honourable distinction upon those who studied the softer arts of life. The sculptor embodied the outward form and semblance of a good man, who had already, by his virtues, created an imperishable monument in the hearts of his grateful fellow-countrymen.

It may not be foreign to the purpose to offer a few remarks upon the advantages or disadvantages, to artists, of the two great institutions--the National Gallery and the Royal Academy-existing under the same roof. The point whether such is to be the case is now finally disposed of, and whether it will be a beneficial arrangement or not, is the only remaining question. Many consider that the proximity of the works of the ancient schools will have the effect of stimulating artists to increased exertion; and, at the same time, the public having before them those works, and the latest from the easels of English professors, will be enabled to judge of their relative merits. Doubtless, the candid, the liberal, and the discriminating, may form a just estimate of native talent, by a careful comparison of the works of earlier artists with those of our own. But it must not be forgotten that every one who views a work of art is not in reality a competent judge of its merit; hence arises one of the many difficulties with which artists have to contend in the exercise of their profession. Every man is naturally prone to consider himself as qualified to form a just conclusion on art; nor is he altogether wrong, for if he have his organs of vision unimpaired, he can tell whether an intended representation of a face or a tree actually resembles those objects in nature, and to that extent he is a judge; but, with regard to the expression and character of the one, or the form and effect of the other, it requires more than a commonplace observer to discriminate as to their peculiar excellencies; and thus each man is not capacitated to form a just opinion.

Where, then, the mind and the age are unschooled to discriminate of themselves, they are naturally anxious for a guide to instruct them: thus, the services of the critic are called into exertion. If he be himself incompetent or corrupt, the fate of the artist is soon told. Our hope in the artists' exertions in the forthcoming Exhibition, and our trust in the just extension of patronage to them, must be accompanied by a no less fervent aspiration that the stream of criticism may flow on unpolluted from its source. If the public be taught, as they have but too frequently been, that art is at a low ebb in this country, though the efforts of artists may not be unavailing, their struggles will be against accumulated difficulties. For the honour of the nation, then, let us trust that the press will not be backward in lending its aid to just criticism at this important time. Let us hope that, in paying due homage to the stern exactness of Leonardo da Vinci, the dignity of Michael Angelo, the purity of Raffaelle, or the mellowness of Titian, critics will no longer force invidious comparison with the works of the English

school. Let them point out to the uninstructed the encouragement of art, when those great artists lived, and the difficulties experienced by our own: nor let them forget to name the honours bestowed by princes and potentates in other ages and in other climes, and the feeble support that has hitherto been awarded in a British soil.

If such be the course pursued by those whose task it more particularly is to guide the public taste, we doubt not but that the works of our own artists will bear full competition even with the splendid treasures of the National Gallery. The actual difference in the hues of an ancient and a modern picture is sufficiently apparent even to the most inexperienced eyes; but how far that difference is to be accounted for, on the score of age, is a matter of acquired knowledge or judicious speculation. This point, therefore, should be carefully brought under notice, lest those who view a modern picture should deem every instance wherein it differs from an ancient one as a defect.

With the exercise of caution and candour, a comparison may safely be courted, and those who honour the arts of England may leave the result with calmness to the good sense of persons of taste and judgment -a calmness not founded either upon over-confidence or indifference, but a tranquillity engendered in the mind by a conviction that if justice be rendered to the merits of British artists, whether they be the living or the dead, their works will bear the test of rigid scrutiny, and that this country will have sufficient reason to pride herself that her school of painting, with its almost overwhelming disadvantages, has attained such an exalted rank in the scale of eminence.

With this qualification, or rather with this proviso, the issue of a junction, in one building, of the Royal Academy and the National Gallery, may prove of great advantage to the interests of art. But, were there one other feature in the establishment, namely, a gallery for the reception of the works of the most eminent artists of the English school, then there could be no question of the entire usefulness of the plan. Persons even the most prejudiced in their views against the claim of Great Britain to assume to herself a School of Art, would then have conviction thrust upon them of the fallacy of their views. Proof would then be glaring that native artists, notwithstanding they have experienced rather neglect than encouragement, have exerted themselves beyond even the most extravagant expectation, and succeeded far above the most sanguine hope. The honoured names of Hogarth, Reynolds, Wilson, Gainsborough, Barry, Opie, Moreland, Fuseli, West, and Lawrence, and others who have passed away, are a triumphant body of evidence in support of such a proposition; nor would those of living artists detract from the fame acquired by their deceased brethren.

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April.-vot. XLIX. NO. CXCV.

LEARNED SOCIETIES.

The Medical Art in China.—At a recent meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Rev. C. Gutzlaff read a paper on the present state of the medical art in China, which furnished a curious illustration of the attachment of that extraordinary people to ancient habits. They aver that the art of healing was invented by one of their ancient emperors, Shing-Nong, who studied the properties of plants, and laid down rules for the treatment of disease. Diseases are said to consist in five elements in a state of disturbance; their equilibrium constituting health; and no physician is permitted to vary from the original mode of treatment. If he should do so, and the patient dies, he is punishable for manslaughter. The practice of surgery is scarcely known in China, except in the use of the moxa and acupuncturation, but great attention is paid to dietetics, by a proper regard to which some of their most distinguished men maintain that all medicine will be rendered unnecessary.

The Poisoned Valley of Java.-At a subsequent meeting of the same Society, Colonel Sykes read some account of the poisoned Upas Valley, in Bettur, in Java, extracted from a letter written by Mr. Loudon, after his visit to the place in July, 1830. According to this gentleman's statement, the valley is twenty miles in extent, and of a considerable width; it presents a most desolate appearance, the surface being sterile and without vegetation. The valley contains numerous skeletons of mammalia and birds. In one case the skeleton of a human being was seen with the head resting upon the right hand. According to tradition, the neighbouring tribes were in the habit of driving their criminals into the valley to expiate their crimes. Mr. Loudon tried the experiment of lowering some dogs and fowls into the valley, and in every case animation became quickly suspended, although life was prolonged, in some instances, for ten minutes. The valley proved to be the crater of an extinguished volcano, in which carbonic-acid gas is generated, as it is in the Grotta del Cane, at Naples. The fabulous influence imputed to the Upas tree is, therefore, without foundation, the mortality being caused solely by the deleterious agency of the gas.

Russian Characters.—It is well known, on the testimony of Arab authors, that the Russians used written characters in the beginning of the tenth century, but the nature of these characters has been hitherto unknown. A M. Frähn, of the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, now says that they were carved on wood, and had no analogy whatever with the Sclavonic or Runic; but there is a remarkable resemblance between them and the still unexplained inscriptions on the route between Mount Sinai and Suez, attributed by common report to the early Christians, who, before the sixth century, passed that way on their pilgrimages to the Monastery of the Transfiguration.

Royal Asiatic Society.-At the meeting of this Society held on the 18th ult., the President, the Right Hon. C. W. Wynn, M.P., very feelingly alluded to the loss it had sustained in the death of the late Lieut.-Col. Colebrook, the founder, and, for many years, the director of the Society. Col. Colebrook had been a meritorious and distinguished officer in India, was much celebrated as an Oriental scholar, and by his subsequent labours and exertions has greatly promoted the cause of Eastern learning and science.

Ancient British Coins.-At the meeting of the Numismatic Society held on the 16th ult., Mr. J. Y. Akerman, the Secretary, read a paper on the coins of the Ancient Britons, in which he showed that the account of Cæsar, who distinctly states that the Britons had no coined or stamped money, is not entitled to implicit credit, since many specimens exist which are obviously of very early fabric, long anterior to the arrival of the Romans in this country. Mr. Akerman contended that the objects represented on British coins have no reference to the habits or customs of the people by whom they were minted, but are, in fact, copied from the coins of the Greeks.

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