The American Quarterly Review Part 19

"When the curtain rose, the scene was that of a parlour, seated. On the entrance of Rosa Taddei, she was greeted with loud applause by her old friends and confiding expectants.

She appeared to be about thirty years of age, and, though small, her uncorsetted chest gave ample s.p.a.ce for the important action of her powerful lungs. She was dressed as a private lady. Her pale face indicated a studious life, but her forehead was low and narrow, though her head was broad; her little sunken eye was quick in its movements, and when it looked intently out, to fas.h.i.+on the measure of a thought, was accompanied by a slight contraction of the brow that banished all suspicion of coquetry. Her nose was small, and her mouth would be called ordinary; but when it was about to speak, it quivered delicately with the rising emotion, and varied its expression according to the pa.s.sion of her discourse.

"A servant now advances to the front of the stage, holding a little casket, destined to received the papers which are handed from different parts of the house, containing subjects proposed for recitation. When about forty of these are received, the casket is placed on a side table. Without reading them she folds and returns them to the casket. This is an operation of some time, and serves to give the appearance of business, and, perhaps, composure to the performer. Advancing to the side boxes and orchestra, she offers successively to different persons the casket, out of which, each time, a paper is drawn and presented to her.

With a grave, deliberate, and emphatic voice she reads the theme proposed. If the subject is hackneyed, dull, or unfit, a lamentable and deep-toned ah! synonymous with our bah! is heard from various parts of the house; on which she tears up the paper with an impressive look, which seems to say--such is your pleasure. When six or seven subjects are approved by the cries of yes, yes, she places them on her side table, selects one, and, advancing to the piano, decides upon a musical harmony, which the professor immediately begins to play, and continues delicately; during which she walks in measured steps across the stage backwards and forwards, looking earnestly down, occasionally pausing, sometimes raising her hand to her mouth or forehead. The crowded house is silent as death, and she is only influenced by the measure of the music and the arrangement of her unseen materials of thought. This being completed, she suddenly advances, and begins with a burst of language, in which she continues with unhesitating volubility and moderate action, occasionally uttering some fine expression that draws forth from experienced critics an approving bravo! It was to be remarked, that as she advanced to the termination of every line, couplet, or stanza, according to the compa.s.s of the sentiment, there was a dwelling on the syllables and a monotonous chanting, very much resembling the cadence of a Quaker preacher; thereby permitting her thoughts to advance and fas.h.i.+on the commencement of the following line, couplet, or stanza, which was always eagerly and expressively p.r.o.nounced at its commencement, and as regularly terminated in the thought-resolving chant.

"Among the subjects which she treated, some of which she began with little preparation, were the following:--The discoveries of Galileo and Columbus, and the ingrat.i.tude of their country; two Doctors, a Lawyer and Jealous Woman; a Lawyer's Inkhorn; and a Dialogue between the Dome of St.

Peter and the Dome of Florence. This last appeared to perplex her a little, and it was some time before she could fas.h.i.+on it to her mind; indeed, there was an expectation, from the frequency of her turns across the stage, and her contracted brow, that she would be obliged to acknowledge a failure; but when she advanced and began in elegant strains to state the difficult nature of the singular task imposed on her, to give tongues to the domes so long silent, and listen to so distant a dialogue between the Duomo, the boast of Florence, and the Dome of St. Peter, suspended in mid air by the divine Buonarotti; and then with increasing enthusiasm, made them recount, in strains of honourable emulation, the great events of which they had been the witnesses, the delight of the audience knew no bounds in the thundering repet.i.tions of bravo!

"Some of the pieces she composed with terminating words, suggested by acclamation from the audience as she proceeded; other pieces were so conceived as to introduce a particular word into every stanza, proposed by any voice at its commencement. It was a singular and interesting exhibition, in which a little feeble woman, during a whole evening, could afford the most refined entertainment to a crowded theatre. Such is the homage paid to mental superiority."

From Florence, Mr. Peale proceeded to Pisa, and thence along the plains or alluvial grounds between the mountains and the Mediterranean, on the road to Genoa. At Carrara, he visited and examined the studios and work-shops, where the various works in the marble of the celebrated quarries are made. This marble is obtained in the ravines of the mountains, from two to five miles distant from the town. It is generally taken from their base, but frequently great ma.s.ses are tumbled from situations many hundred feet high, to which the labourers are an hour in ascending, and where they work with cords around them, to secure them against the danger of falling. The whitest marble is found only in occasional layers, some at the base of the mountain is most beautifully so.

On entering Genoa, the streets through which Mr. Peale pa.s.sed, though of moderate width, presented the appearance of much magnificence, being lined with the palaces of the king and n.o.bles. In other parts he remarked, however, but little of the splendour which would ent.i.tle it to be called a city of palaces; the houses are in general plain and high, and the pa.s.sages of communication wide enough only for persons on foot.

From Genoa, Mr. Peale turned again to the east, and, crossing the extremities of the Maritime Alps, pa.s.sed through the broad and beautiful plain which spreads far and wide on either bank of the Po. At Parma, he visited the plain and simple palace where the Empress Maria Louisa resides, and a beautiful new theatre contiguous to it lately built by her; he saw also the more splendid palace once inhabited by Napoleon, which is at the extremity of the city, surrounded by fine gardens, and contains some good frescoes and fine old tapestry. The pictures which crowd the churches, are not, however, in the best style, but the marbles are frequently rich and well wrought.

Bologna presents the singular character of a city composed of streets, lined, with a few exceptions, with arcades, many of which are of lofty and elegant proportions, and the arches supported by stone pillars with handsome bases and capitals, while others are of plastered brick. These long ranges of columnated arcades, impart great elegance to the general aspect of the place. The public square is ornamented by a magnificent fountain, which ranks among the greatest works of John of Bologna. In the gallery of the fine arts are some admirable pictures of Guido, Domenichino, and the Caraccis; and the Pontifical University is attended by a great number of students, while its halls are well filled by an extensive library, and large collections relating to natural science.

From Bologna Mr. Peale proceeded through Ferrara to Venice. His description of the entrance into that celebrated city of the sea, does not offer the glowing picture which novelists and poets have delighted to paint, but perhaps conveys a more correct idea of the reality.

"Early the next morning we beheld the queen of the ocean, at the extremity of the lagune, stretching across, and almost united with the mole of fishermen's dwellings, called Palestrina. The steeples and domes were relieved by an extensive range of gray mountains, rising high in the distance, upon the tops of which the snow was bright with the rising sun. For many miles our boat was towed by another boat with oarsmen. At length we reached some old walls and ruinous houses, the outskirts of Venice, and pa.s.sing these, opened into a magnificent harbour, resembling a great river, lined with good houses, and animated by a variety of s.h.i.+pping and boats in motion. Crossing this great harbour, we approached a point of land embellished by a beautiful edifice as the Porto Franco, and then opened into another great but less s.p.a.cious ca.n.a.l. In front, the singular but beautiful palace of the doges, and the lesser palace of St.

Mark were close by, with a fine terrace or wharf extending along the water's edge. As our boat pursued its way to the post-office, down the great serpentine ca.n.a.l or river, the magnificence of the palaces, and their peculiar style of architecture, rich in bold ornaments, balconies, and sculptures, excited us to frequent exclamations of admiration. What must have been their beauty when Venice was in her full glory, and these marble palaces were new or in bright repair? From many which were built of brick, the plastering was falling off, and others, with broken windows, were uninhabited: yet, as an evidence of renovation, since Venice has been made a free port, we pa.s.sed a large new edifice, rising from an old foundation, and others undergoing repair.

"The _Gondola_, about which so much is said and sung, is a ferry-boat, very much resembling an Indian canoe, floating lightly on the water, and rising pointed at each end, the front being ornamented with a large sharp-edged piece of iron, something like a battle-axe. In the centre are cus.h.i.+oned seats, with an arched covering of black cloth, where two grown persons and two children may conveniently sit, or, on an emergency, six grown persons may squeeze together, either with open door and side windows, or closed with gla.s.s or black Venetian blinds. The boatmen, without a rudder, and only one oar at his right side, stands on the little deck of his narrow stern, and bearing his weight on his oar, which seldom rises out of the water, not only urges the gondola straight onwards, but by dextrous movements, which are practised from infancy, turns it in all directions with surprising facility and accuracy.

"Having reached the post-office, and a.s.sorted our baggage, we entered one of these gondolas, and returned to the Hotel de l'Europe, which we had pa.s.sed on entering the port. I found that the use of one oar produced an unpleasant rocking of the boat, to which those are not subject who employ an additional boatman at the front of the canoe, whose oar, striking simultaneously with the other, at opposite sides, corrects the evil, and it affords the advantage of greater speed when long excursions are to be made. We landed on marble steps rising a few feet out of the water to a vast hall, in which the light gondola, when only for private use, may be deposited; first divested of its covered chamber, which two men lift off the seats and carry up.

"It had begun to rain before we entered Venice, and a mist obscured the magnificent mountains which we had seen at sun-rise stretching beyond and extending far over the low lands of the adjoining continent. As it cleared up, however, the view from our elevated balcony, of splendid edifices stretching in various directions into the broad expanse of waters, was as delightful as it was novel."

Mr. Peale remained in Venice, only sufficiently long to make a rapid survey of the works of art which it contains, especially the masterpieces of t.i.tian, Paul Veronese, and Tintoretto, which are found in its palaces and churches. Though the necessity of pa.s.sing generally along the ca.n.a.ls, and the narrowness of the streets which do traverse the city to a much greater extent than is supposed, give a gloominess to Venice, yet the place and arcades of St. Mark offer a gay scene not often surpa.s.sed. The leisure and excitement of a Sunday afternoon especially, make them lively with the fas.h.i.+on and curiosity of the city; among which the gay modes of Paris are less to be admired than the fine features and rich complexions of the descendants of those men and women, who have served as models for the glowing pencils of the masters we have named. In the evening, the crowd may he seen still to increase, enjoying the soft mildness of the sea atmosphere, and basking in the blaze of the patent lamplight which attracts them round the coffee-houses; whilst a fine band of military music, stationed in the centre of the place, with music-books and lamps, greatly increases the popular enjoyment at the expense of the government. The grand ca.n.a.l, in length two miles, presents on each side a great number of elegant palaces, intermingled with some ordinary buildings, all in a degree blackened and injured by age and neglect. Some of the palaces of the ancient n.o.ble families are in a grand style of architecture, enriched with a profusion of bold sculpture, according to the taste of the times, and the peculiar propensity of the Venitians to this exuberance of decoration.

From Venice Mr. Peale again turned across the peninsula. Pa.s.sing through Padua, Vicenza, and Verona, he reached Milan, where he visited the celebrated works of art, which however do not seem to be numerous.

There, however, he took leave of the arts of Italy, and bent his way towards the Alps. Near the village of Arona, he saw and inspected the colossal statue of San Carlo Borromeo, which he thus describes.

"It is made of sheet copper, and stands on a pedestal about forty feet high; and judging by a ladder which was placed at one side, and the proportions of the persons who ascended it, I computed the height of the statue to be about seventy feet. This agrees with the statement of my companions, who ascended under the skirt of his tunic, and climbed the iron bars which united the circ.u.mference of the bishop's garment with the brick core that rises through it. The head, they agree, is about eight or nine feet in height, so that only a boy or a very small man can stand in the nose. Yet it is not only a very stupendous, but I think it rather an elegant statue. My companions were amused with the singular animation which they found in the head of the saint, the dark asylum of a vast number of bats, which darted past them to escape out of a trap-door in the neck."

Crossing the Alps by the route of the Simplon, Mr. Peale reached Geneva, on the 29th of May, and after a short stay, set off for Paris. The dirt and incommodiousness of most of the Italian cities, gave increased enjoyment to his return to the n.o.ble quays of Paris, the Boulevards, and the gardens of the Luxembourg, Tuileries, and Palais Royal. After the course, too, which he had made through Italy, it became an object of no little interest to examine the treasures of the Louvre. He acknowledges that the specimens of the Italian painters there preserved, sunk a little in his estimation as he compared them with the best works in the galleries he had visited; but at the same time, he derived increased pleasure from many of the productions of what may be termed the old French school--especially from those of Poussin, Vernet, and Subleyras.

From Paris, he crossed the channel to England. He was astonished at the great improvements of late years in London, especially in the vast amount of buildings and ornamented squares, erected in the place of green fields, and the improvements effected in opening and widening many streets. _Regent street_, lined with splendid shops and dwellings like palaces, including its circular sweep of fluted cast-iron columns, and connecting St. James's park with the Regent's park, encircled with splendid mansions, he thought perhaps unequalled by any thing of the kind he had seen. Among the artists, he found our countrymen, Leslie and Newton, holding a distinguished rank, and he bears especial testimony, not only to the genius and reputation, but to the urbanity and moral worth of the former.

From London he proceeded to Portsmouth, and embarking there, reached America after an absence of nearly two years, on the last of September, 1830.

We have already remarked, that in this volume a reader is not to look for those reflections, either on ancient or modern Italy, which are to be found in the pages of scholars and travellers, who have visited it to revive the memory of former studies, or to gratify emotions which are excited by the contemplation of the fading relics of the grandeur of Rome. Yet, we collect among the notices of Mr. Peale, many remarks which occurred to him in the necessary attention he paid to the antiquities that abounded on his route, from one part of the country to another; and while he was exploring, with the curious zeal for which he is distinguished, all parts of the various cities and towns in which he stayed. Of these his narrative is perfectly simple. He enters into no antiquarian discussions; he quotes no pa.s.sages of familiar poets and historians; he feels no peculiar glow from standing upon spots, or gazing upon scenes, which would have filled to overflowing a heart imbued with the remembrance of Virgil and of Livy. He paused in the midst of the Forum, but not for him

"Did the still eloquent air breathe--burn with Cicero."

He wandered among the heights of Tivoli, but though the "praeceps Anio"

and the "domus Albuneae resonantis" were still there, they seem not to have excited one thought of him, who not only preferred them to the favoured cities of Juno and Minerva, but gave them as lasting a fame.

This is not in our opinion an objection to the volume of Mr. Peale; the task of cla.s.sical ill.u.s.tration has been well performed in the travels of Eustace, whose book, censured as it may be, will ever be a favourite with scholars; and it has been yet more brilliantly performed by the wonderful genius of that man, who has given new fame in his immortal poem to spots already consecrated by the n.o.blest and sweetest inspirations of the muse. As to most travellers, indeed, we had infinitely rather that all cla.s.sical allusion was omitted, than have inflicted upon us the long string of hackneyed quotations, and the vapid recollections of schoolboy studies, which go for the most part to make up such portions of their journals. What we find here on the subject of antiquities, is just what we might expect from an inquisitive man of taste, making no pretensions to extraordinary research or information.

When at Naples, Mr. Peale of course visited the buried towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and has described them with much minuteness, so as convey a very distinct impression of their present state.

"The first house which was shown to us was the _Villa of Diomedes_, of considerable extent, comprising a variety of apartments and gardens. We descended into his wine cellar, where there still remain some of the jars that contained his wine. In this s.p.a.cious cellar seventeen skeletons were found, probably persons of his family who had sought this place for safety. They were smothered and entombed, with all their ornaments of gold upon them, by the flood of hot water and ashes, which had evidently flowed in through the little windows where light had been admitted, and where the traces of the fluid may still be seen.

"The houses were generally of only one story, though, in a few instances, we found a small stair-way leading to some upper apartments. They consist of a great many small rooms surrounding a court-yard, with a kind of piazza all around, as a protection against the sun and rain. In two private court-yards we were shown gaily decorated fountains, in alcoves or niches, curiously and elaborately ornamented with mosaic and sh.e.l.lwork, the sh.e.l.ls being in perfect preservation.

"We looked into many shops, the counters of which were incrusted with bits of marble, of various colours, fitted around the narrow mouths of large earthen jars, which were imbedded in solid brick work, to hold oil and wine.

Sometimes there were little shelves, like steps, covered with marble, upon which small articles were displayed close to the window.

"The basilica, or great hall of justice, was an oblong hall of great size, surrounded inside with n.o.ble columns, which, from their size, must have supported a lofty roof. At the farther end was an elevated throne, on which the judges sat; and beneath it a chamber, where three skeletons of men were found, fastened by their legs to iron stocks. From the public promenade we entered the tragic and the comic theatres; walked over the stone scats, now moss-stained; looked on the shallow stage, which allowed no scenic effect; stood in the prompter's central niche, and read the names of the managers, recorded in mosaic letters on the pavement in front of the orchestra; but its best sculptural decorations had been removed to the museum."

In the museum at Naples are preserved all the articles taken from the houses at Herculaneum and Pompeii, and they offer specimens of almost every thing that, even at the present day, domestic establishments seem to require. The visiter may here behold the charcoal form of a loaf of bread impressed with the baker's name; a plate of eggs, or rather egg sh.e.l.ls, some of which are not broken, retaining their natural whiteness; thread nets for boiling vegetables; figs, prunes, dates, olives, and nuts of various kinds; the golden ornaments of the ladies; vases of gla.s.s of various colours; utensils of the clearest crystal; bronze candelabra of singular and beautiful forms; and all the apparatus of a household, exhibiting taste, convenience and luxury. Here, too, are seen the fresco paintings taken from Pompeii. Those first discovered, happening to be found in a part of the city inhabited by tradesmen, did not furnish the most elegant specimens of the arts. The judgments which were consequently propagated from one antiquarian critic to another, were unfavourable to the ancient painters, who were p.r.o.nounced inferior to contemporary sculptors, and ignorant of grouping, foreshortening, and perspective. Subsequent excavations have been made in a portion of the city where splendid temples, halls of justice, theatres, and s.p.a.cious dwellings, gave occasion for the best employment of the arts. The result has been the discovery not only of statues and sculpture far superior to that formerly developed, but of fresco paintings of great excellence and beauty. Very different from those previously collected, they decisively indicate a high state of painting, as it must have been practised in Greece and Italy at the time the statues were executed, which yet exhibit such perfect knowledge of the human form, and of the principles of grouping. They prove that the ancient painters were perfectly acquainted with the rules of perspective and foreshortening. Indeed, we may fairly believe, from these beautiful works, done on walls, and probably by inferior artists, that on other occasions, as in moveable pictures, their best artists must have painted in a manner to correspond with the high rank of their sculpture, and the extraordinary accounts given of them by contemporary writers.

"These specimens of ancient fresco painting have been cut out of the walls, where they were executed, with great care, and transported here in strong cases, which serve as frames.

When first found, they are pale and dull; but, on being varnished, their colours are brightened up to their pristine hues, and exhibit to the astonished eye every stroke of the brush, slightly indenting the fresh mortar, which was given by hands that perished, with the genius that directed them, nearly eighteen hundred years ago, yet appearing as the rich and mellow pencilling of yesterday. Most of them are taken from shops and ordinary houses, and represent all kinds of objects, drawn with remarkable spirit and truth. Many of the better kind served to decorate apartments in which there were no windows, where they must have been executed, and afterwards seen only by lamplight. But the best were found in the porticos of open court yards, or on the walls of dining-rooms or saloons. In looking closely into these, I was surprised to find such spirited execution and knowledge of anatomy, combined with the most exquisite beauty, perfection of drawing, colouring and expression of character."

It is, however, to the works of modern art that Mr. Peale has turned his princ.i.p.al attention. Travelling himself as an artist; seeking for the subjects of his own studies, the masterpieces wherever found; exercising a criticism, not as the picture-dealer who sees in every dingy canva.s.s which bears, truly or falsely, the name of some celebrated master, the marks of pre-eminent genius, regardless of the time or circ.u.mstances under which it was executed--nor as the connoisseur or virtuoso, who has to maintain or to gain reputation by the singularity, the rashness, or the accidental correctness of his opinions; but viewing them at once with the devotion of an artist who had long heard of and known the works he was now to see, as the various efforts of genius, sometimes successful, but sometimes also less happy, and having no end to gain but the improvement of his own style, and the gratification of his own taste, Mr. Peale must be allowed the credit of candour, and entire freedom from affectation in the judgments he has pa.s.sed. At the same time we should not omit to notice the variety, extent, and minuteness of his examinations. No church, gallery, or collection, was pa.s.sed by, and most of the individual pictures are separately and carefully noticed. At Rome, especially, he admired and copied many of the works of her immortal artists, and in the loggie of the Vatican he gazed on their matchless productions with the enthusiasm of a painter, but without yielding up his senses to the praise of tablets, famous only in name, and disfigured by smoke, damp, and age. The walls of the celebrated Sistine chapel were painted by various artists of merit in their time, but they are now much injured, and offer little worthy of notice; but the ceiling, designed and executed by Michael Angelo, is eminently worthy of admiration, as exhibiting the best productions of his pencil, and as among the few paintings of that great genius not yet destroyed by smoke, and giving evidence of the grandeur of his invention and the boldness of his execution. The _Last Judgment_, so familiar in name to every one who reads the history of art, now excites no attention except from its former celebrity, as it is dimly traced in the dark, through stains of damp and mould, and blackened by smoke. Of his great rival, and in some respects superior, the fate is scarcely different, whilst some of the smaller works of Raphael are tolerably preserved, the celebrated frescoes in the Pauline chapel are so much injured by time and smoke, and the lances of soldiers who have occupied the rooms as barracks, that they excite but little pleasure at first sight. Artists, however, of all nations may be seen continually copying them, some mounted on scaffolding up to the ceiling, some drawing, others painting, and all seeking out with almost idolatrous or rather superst.i.tious admiration, the beauty of every head, hand, limb, and fold of drapery.

They obtain permission to copy, without difficulty from the Pope's secretary, when the places are not occupied, or whenever a vacancy may occur; but so numerous are the applications for some celebrated pictures, such as the _Transfiguration_, that they are frequently engaged for years in advance by artists of various nations.

It is, indeed, by foreigners chiefly, that the galleries of Italy are filled. The praise of superiority is no longer due to the painters of the peninsula, and amidst the precious models which they have around them, few have, of late years, maintained or restored the departing glory of their country. Fresco painting, so admirably calculated to call forth and give display to grand and spirited invention, as well as to promote careful and beautiful drawing, by the elaborate cartoons which it requires, has almost ceased to exist as a branch of works of design.

Mosaic is still cultivated with considerable success, but it is seldom applied to original works. We may rejoice, however, that this happy art will preserve to future and distant ages, accurate copies of those great productions which have faded, and are still quickly fading, beneath the touch of time.

In the Vatican, there are apartments especially a.s.signed to workers in mosaic, and placed under the directions of the historical painter, Camucini, who is zealous in endeavouring, by means of this curious art, and the great skill of those artists who at present execute it, to preserve the best paintings of the great masters, now imperfectly seen in several churches, and in danger of peris.h.i.+ng. In these rooms may be found various workmen, some copying small pictures, for the purpose of learning and practising the art; and others, who are more experienced, occupied with larger works for the churches. In a great hall is a store, arranged on shelves, of the semi-vitreous porcelain, or coa.r.s.e enamel, in cakes half an inch thick and several inches in diameter. These cakes are of every colour that may be required, all arranged, numbered, registered, and weighed out by an accountant to the workmen as they are wanted to be afterwards broken into bits. Some of the cakes consist of two or more colours, gradually blending into each other; and there are said to be no less than sixteen thousand a.s.sorted tints. The large pictures are wrought by being placed nearly erect, with the one to be copied, so that the effect may be compared from time to time; when not more than three or four feet long, they are done on sheets of copper, stiffened with strong iron bars within a rim of metal; but those of a greater size, especially such as are intended for permanent fixture in churches, are executed each on one great slab of stone, from eight to twelve inches thick, which is excavated about an inch deep, leaving a raised border all round. The irregular surface is then nearly filled up with a level ma.s.s of cement. On this, when dry, the artist carefully traces the contours of his picture; he then procures from the adjoining magazine an a.s.sortment of tints to suit the part he purposes working at; and is furnished with a little table, on which is fixed a chisel, with the edge upwards, in the manner of an anvil, on which, with a hammer, he breaks the semi-vitreous composition into small squares or other shapes, to suit the part to be copied. Along side of this is another table, furnished with a horizontal grindstone on a vertical shaft, made to revolve rapidly by a cord which pa.s.ses round a larger wheel, turned by a pin at its periphery. This is moved with the left hand, while the right is employed in fas.h.i.+oning the bits of stone into squares, triangles, circles, crescents, &c. of various dimensions. The artist then chisels out of his composition, within the lines of his drawing, any spot he chooses to fill up with his mosaic; which, being inserted, stone by stone, with fresh cement, enables him either to pursue the continuity of an outline, or the ma.s.ses and directions of similar tints; so that he can work at any spot, and fill up the intervals, or take out any portion of what he has done, and do it over again. The stones are from half an inch to three quarters in depth, and in breadth, of all sizes, from an eighth to half an inch in diameter. After the picture is finished, and the surface of the stones ground down to a level, and perfectly polished, the white cement is carefully sc.r.a.ped out of the interstices to a little depth. A variety of painters' colours, in fine powder, are then each mixed with a small portion of melted wax, and put on a palette. With these, by means of a hot pointed iron, like a tinman's soldering-iron, the artist melts a little of the coloured wax to match the stones, and runs it from the point of his iron into all the crevices--then sc.r.a.pes off the superfluous wax, and cleans the surface with spirits of turpentine.

In an art kindred to painting, but perhaps more impressive on the imagination and the senses, that of statuary, the Italians of the present age may bear a more honourable comparison with their predecessors. It is true, they cannot aspire to that wonderful excellence, which we are able to appreciate in the few fragments that have descended to us from the great sculptors of ancient times; but, still, the works of Canova, Thorwaldsen, and others, may be added to those of Michael Angelo and John of Bologna, and given as evidence of great powers of invention and a profitable study of the ancient remains.

Thorwaldsen, who, since the death of his great rival, Canova, holds the first place as a sculptor at Rome, and whose taste and skill are known in America by a graceful statue of Venus, executed for and in the possession of a gentleman of Philadelphia, is remarkable for his careful cultivation of the antique taste, and the extreme simplicity of his statues. To become an artist, he studied at Rome, with singular a.s.siduity, although contending with the most distressing poverty, till the age of thirty. His practice at the academy was to draw from the life only those parts of the figure which chanced to please him. He modelled in clay numerous spirited compositions, which he was obliged to destroy for want of the funds necessary to put them into marble or even plaster of Paris: and it was owing to the taste, judgment, and liberality of an English gentleman, that he was at last enabled to execute his first work in stone. In his workshop, Mr. Peale was shown a ba.s.so relieve to the memory of his patron, who is represented supplying the lamp of genius with oil.

Statuary, however, at the present day, appears to be an art altogether different in its mechanical and practical details from that of former times. The genius of Michael Angelo was frequently fatigued before he could approach in his blocks of marble, the forms his imagination conceived, and he often hastened to chisel out a part as a guide in the development of the whole figure, which was sometimes spoiled by his impatience. Now, however, a sculptor is scarcely required to touch his marble, or even to know how to cut it. He first models the figure in ductile clay, which is kept moist by wet cloths, during any length of time, so that he may give it the utmost perfection of form. This model he places in the hands of a careful mechanic, whose art is to make a mould upon it, and to produce a facsimile in plaster of Paris, the colour of which enables him more readily to judge of its effect, and to add to its beauty. When the model is thus perfected, the artist may either copy it himself in stone, or employ workmen who generally do nothing else all their lives, and who proceed without any of the inventive enthusiasm of genius, but with wonderful mechanical accuracy.

The model is marked all over with numerous spots, which are transferred by the compa.s.ses to the block of marble; two well defined points may serve as a base for fixing the position of a third, and the workman continually measures as he advances to the completion; and in this he is expert or excellent, in proportion to the attention he has paid to his studies in drawing, modelling, and anatomy. The accuracy with which these workmen copy the model, is such as to induce the ablest sculptors to trust to them their choicest works. Many of the most skilful reside at Carrara; and, to save the expense of transporting large ma.s.ses of marble, it is becoming very customary to transmit thither the model very carefully packed up, and to have it either accurately copied there, or roughed out for the sculptor to complete. Thorwaldsen, whose models are seldom remarkable for the delicacy of the finish, is so well satisfied with the general accuracy of the work done at Carrara, that statues which he is making for his native country, will be boxed up there and sent to Denmark, without being once seen by him.

As a school of art, Mr. Peale seems to consider the great advantages of Italy, as arising less from her academies, or from any direct facilities which are there offered to the student, than from the treasures of ancient sculpture, and the sublime works executed by the greatest masters, which offer admirable models, and serve to infuse a kindred spirit. In regard to the peculiar excellence exhibited in these, he admits that nothing has more puzzled the professors and critics of art.

He thinks that, although much must have depended upon the capacity of the artist, and his means of information, and a great deal on the nature of his employment and encouragement, yet that almost as much advantage has been derived from accidental circ.u.mstances. The Italians, who enjoy a clear sky, and witness in their sunsets the most glowing colours, are surprised that the Hollanders, living in an atmosphere of gray mist, should have produced so many excellent colourists. It may be from that very circ.u.mstance that they were so. A vapoury atmosphere which reduces all colours at a distance to one hue of gray, serves, at the same time, to render every colour which is near, not only more distinct, but more agreeably illuminated; but, under a blue sky, the shadows are necessarily tinged with blue, and the eye becoming accustomed to vivid colours, too easily rests satisfied with the most violent contrasts, both in nature and the works of art. The atmosphere of England, in like manner, has contributed to produce a good taste in colouring, which was confirmed by the example and authority of Reynolds, who so well understood the principles of the Flemish masters. Giorgione, t.i.tian, and Paul Veronese, were, it is true, Italians, and rank at the head of good colourists; but the situation of Venice, built in the water, essentially softens its atmosphere, and combines the advantages of Holland and Italy. The happy genius of Corregio derived his theory of light and colour certainly not from his visit to Rome.

Accidental circ.u.mstances have probably influenced several distinguished artists. Vandyck happened to learn the use of a certain brown colour from Germany, called Terra de Ca.s.sel, by which he softened and harmonized his shadows; hence the English artists call it Vandyck brown.

Holland, enjoying the commerce of the East Indies, which furnished her with a variety of pigments, likewise produced from her own soil the best quality of madder, from which her chemists and manufacturers procured the richest and most durable dyes. Van Huysum, and other painters of that country, must have learned the use of this and other rich pigments, the knowledge of which they could not entirely keep to themselves, but which were probably known to Andrea del Sarto and the good colourists of Florence. It is not improbable that the fas.h.i.+on of wearing changeable silks, reflecting opposite colours in different angles, may have influenced the old painters to represent their blue draperies with red shadows and yellow lights, as in Raphael's picture of the _Transfiguration_: certain it is that such things being found in the master works of the great painters, which are copied with the most scrupulous exactness, even to the most palpable fault, the painters of the present day in Italy pursue the same system of colouring, with as much pertinacity as they display in their hard-earned accuracy of outline.

Besides, the revival of the art in Italy was by fresco painting, the peculiar nature of which required that the artist should first prepare his compositions in finished cartoons. At all events, it was the practice of painters, derived from each other, and pa.s.sing from generation to generation, to bestow their chief study on a cartoon executed in black and white chalk of the full size of the intended fresco. Many of these are preserved in the galleries and churches of Italy, and are to be considered among the most precious relics of the art; displaying the finest skill of the master, in composition, drawing, light and shade, and execution. Of these original and spirited drawings, what are called the original pictures are but copies in colour, sometimes executed by the master himself, but more frequently by some of his pupils.

When oil painting was introduced into Italy, and adopted by those who had practised in fresco, the habits which they had acquired led them to practise the methods with which they were most familiar. Their oil paintings were therefore generally painted from drawings, and, hence, the colouring was often from imagination or recollection, which sufficiently accounts for its deviation from nature; although it is frequently spread out with great beauty and airiness. Those painters who, it is agreed, excelled in colouring, almost always painted their studies in colours, by which they had a double chance of success, without vitiating their own powers of vision by the continual contemplation of highly wrought colourless forms, or transcripts in fanciful hues.

We had desired, after these observations on the subject of the arts, which it must be confessed form the topic of chief interest in perusing the volume of Mr. Peale, to add some remarks on the political and moral character of the Italians, as it appears in the unaffected and occasional observations which occur in regard to the people themselves and their inst.i.tutions. There is in general a freedom from prejudice; a temperateness of expression; a mildness of judgment, and a clear and natural manner of relation, which do great credit to the author, and while they a.s.sist a reader in forming an opinion of his own, give strength to that expressed by the writer himself. Our limits, however, do not permit us to do so, and after the expression of this general opinion, we must refer to the volume itself for the evidence of its correctness. In concluding, we may respond to the sentiment of Mr.

Peale, when on leaving Milan, he bade farewell to the arts of Italy.

"An Italian, not exempted from bigotry, discovered a new world for the emanc.i.p.ation of man. May America in patronizing the arts, receive them as the offspring of enlightened Greece, transmitted through Italy, where their miraculous powers were nourished in the bondage of mind. Let them in turn be emanc.i.p.ated, and their persuasive and fascinating language be exalted to the n.o.blest purposes, and be made instrumental to social happiness and national glory!"