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June 30, i860.] The Leader and Saturday ...
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THE STORY OF ITALY.* A T any time a well...
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* The History of Italy from tho Abdicati...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Kusktn's Modern Painters.* Xt Qt Withsta...
his own liking , till they run against one another , and then turn back sulkily - " by a watchful instinct , far apart , they anticipate their companions' courses as ships at sea , and in every new unfoldin « - of their edged tissue , guide themselves by the sense ot -each other ' s remote presence , and by a watchful penetration of leafy purpose in the fur future . So that every shadow- which one casts on the next , and every glint of sun which each reflects to the next , and every touch which in toss of storrri each receives from the next , aid or arrest the development of their advancing- form , and direct , as will be safest and best , the curve of every fold and the current of every vein . " ,
In such writing as this life breathes in every line , every sentence is vital . For what the , author recognises is life ; nor life only , but a life of progress and will . Nor are these statements meant as metaphors , but as truths . He would have us recognise the living intelligence of nature . Old faiths revive in him ; the faith of the Greek , and the faith of the Hebrew . To have all this illustrated in beautiful and musical language , with epithets that throb like a human heart ! Mr . Kuskin ' s favourite illustrations are , of course , drawn from Mr . Turner ' s paintings . Hear him on what he calls " the infinitude of foliage . " That quality , he tells us , in Turner ' s execution attaches not only
to his distant work ' , but in due degree to the nearest pieces of his trees . He perfected the system of art as applicable to landscape , by the introduction of this ' mfiniteness . " In other qualities he is often only equal , in some inferior , to great preceding- painters ; but in this mystery he stands alone . He could not paint a cluster of leaves better than Titian ; but he could a bough , much more a distant mass of foliage . No man ever before painted a distant tree rightly , or a full-leaved branch rightly . AH Titian ' s distant branches are ponderous flakes , as if covered with seaweed , while Veronese ' s and Raphael ' s are conventional , being exquisitely ornamental arrangements of small perfect leaves . . See the background of the Parnassus in Yolpato ' s plate . It is very lovely , however . "
In this kind of art-gossip the book abounds . To the veritable art-scholar nothing can be more delightful . But to pass from the leaves to ; the clouds , their beauty finds a loyal worshipper in Mr . Buskin . He , like Wordsworth , reads in their silent faces unutterable joy . Alas ! we can pii . lv indicate tire , sections l-elative to them . These arc four : —'• < The Cloud-balancings , " " The Cloud-flocks , " " The Cloud-Chariots / " and "The Angel of the Sea . " Such are the titles of theTihapters y fantastic , surely , but intelligible . Turner is incomparable for his " cloud-drawing . " The word is vised advisedly . " OUier great men coloured clouds beautiful h- : none but he ever drew them truly ; , this pqjver coming from his constant
habit of drawing skies , like everything else , with the pencil point . " The " Angel of the Sea" is the Rain-Cloud . And Mr . Ituskin , indeed , writesgrandly on it . Sometimes the Sea-angel becomes a Sea-fury , or rather a Seu-gorgon ; the latter is the true stormcloud . " The highest storm-cloud pur author identifies with Medusa ; " therefore , " he adds , ' - ' the hail-cloud or cloud of cold , her countenance turning all who behold it to stone . ( 'Hecasteth forth his ice like morsels . Who . can stand before his cold ? ' ) The serpents about her head are the fringe of the hail , the idea of coldness being connected by the Greeks with the bite of the serpent , as with the hemlock : " Other classical fooling of this kind may be f . mnd in ~ adj-oii nmf-se « fci-ons-r-w-hei s evei l -w < j-ino * it-ifc ,-andJn _ i \ diatc \ uui ^ ha . pe ^_
it is alike exquisite . The two chapters that concern " Ideas of Relation " are . of course , more metaphysical in character than the preceding . _ Here we have much profound reasoning on composition . The principle contended for is . that every part must be helpful to all the others . The following division of men , according to their -employments , suggests a world of associations : — " 1 , Persons who see . These , in modern language , are sometimes called sight-seers , that being an occupation coming more and more into vuguo every day . Anciently they used to be called simply seers . -2 . Persons who talk . These , in modern language , are usually called talkers , or speakers , as in the House of Commons and elsewhere . They used to he called prophets . 3 . 1 ' ersons who make . These , in modern language , arc usually culled manufacturer * . Anciently they were called poets . 4 . Persons who think , Thero seems to bo no very distinct modern title for this kind of person , anciently called ^ philosophers ; nevertheless , we have u few of them among us . 5 . Persons who do : in modern languuge , called practical persons ;
anciently , baiievors . " A reaction ,. Mr . Ituskin thinks , is taking place in modern tirnos , out of which a now spiritual art may bo developed . He culls it the contemplative . There can be no doubt ho is philosophically right . Merely religious painting and religious literature is always defective , for which he gives some excellent reasons . As u fact it is indisputable . A soa life is the best for the removal of a merely ceremonial belief , though it generates superstitions of a different kind . Much in Venetian art was owing to au oceanic state of existence . The Venetian school of art was " the last believing
school of Italy . Although always quarrelling with tlio Pope , tHero ia alltlio TnoVe ^^ ^ o iii their religion " . Peoplo who trusted the Madonna less flattered tha Pone more . But down to TintorottiV time , the Roman Catholic religion was still real and sincere at Venice ; and though faith in it was compatible with much which to us' appears criminal or absurd , the religion itself was entirely sincere . " , This is the remark of a thinking ' man , and goes deep into questions of real importance . The illustrations of the topic are numerous and beautiful—particularly Veronese !* picture of his own family . In all its roots of power and modes of work , —in its belief , its breadth , and ita
judgment—Mr . Ruskin finds the Venetian mind perfect . But its aims were reckless—the purpose was mean where the motive was high . The holiest subjects were selected simply for ends of decoration . Perhaps it was because their , selection was limited to religious subjects . If so . it was owing again to their culture being exclusively religious . Art thus conduced to desecration , and hence its decay and fall in the Venetian schools . . . ' : ' Sirhilar speculations as to Durer , Salvator , Claude , Poussin , Rubens , Cuyp , and others , are ventured by Mr . Ruskin , into which iii any detail it is impossible to follow him . Salvator is lamented
as a fallen soul ; Durer is hopefully erect . Claude and Poussin were men of classical . taste , * ' a state of mind not in high favour with our art critic , who prefers natural genius . He prefers " spasmodic " composition to that of the school of reserve . To the former he thinks belong Solomon ' s song , Job , and Isaiah . Subsequent painters are animated by a worldly spirit , even when their subjects were sacred . Faith and Hope in the seventeenth century were at a lo-w temperature ; and the pictures of Reubens and Rembrandt show it . The Dutch paintings ignore religion altogether . Teniers and Wouvermans present insuperable difficultiesto Raskin ' s appreciation . He recognises mere mechanism in their works .
We regret that we cannot pursue further the analysis of this work , nor discuss the theory which Mr . Ruskin proposes of Turner ' s theory of colour . The reader must refer to the work itself for all this ; nor does the excellence of Mr . Raskin ' s book depend upon any svstem or creed that it contains . It presents no conclusions , but the process of thinking . We are called upon to think with the author , not to adopt his opinions , which he reserves to himself the privilege of changing , whenever he sees occasion . Such a work teaches mental discipline , and the present is eminently serviceable , if perused in a proper spirit , in inducing habits of sincere thought both in art and morals .
June 30, I860.] The Leader And Saturday ...
June 30 , i 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 613
The Story Of Italy.* A T Any Time A Well...
THE STORY OF ITALY . * A T any time a well-written history of modern Italy would be an acceptable boon , but the subject derives an , extraordinary interest from the nvoveineuts of the time , Italy , after long centuries of suffering and oppression , is coining forth from the furnace of political affliction with a new and regenerated life . Civilization bids fair to gain 2 < 3 > 6 OO , O 00 of devoted adnerents , who are organizing themselves into a nation , composed of individuals remarkable for many of the subtlest and noblest qualities of our race . They may have their internal dissensions , and they may take a part in those collisions ' of armed hosts which are hot likely to . cease untiLthe predominance of freedom has put an . end to aggressive war ;~ but Europe has iiothin" - to fear from the reconstruction of a powerful -State , in the
localitv from which the Csesars dominated over the world . That free and united Italy to which so many movements , seem to tend , will be an unmixed gain ! for the human race . Art , Science , and Literature will be found , as of old , native , to the soil ; and when the blighting influences of foreign despotism are removed , no country will contribute more to the intellectual advancement of humanity ; audit may be predicted that the continent will experience no great religious reformation until the yoke of authority has been broken on the Seven Hills of Rome . When emancipated from the contemptible tyranny of its petty princes , Germany will take rank as a foremost wo ^ H-essive-pmvei ' T ^ nd-F ^ tnoe-irM ^ althoh it stimulate
leoiiic fever whichdegrades her moral character , ug s her energies in particular directions . But European civilization must want completeness and variety unless the Italian element is fully represented and developed . It is impossible to contemplate the Italy of the middle ages without being impressed with the force and richness of individual life . The German Emperors ami the Popes laboured with tremendous power to hammer all into , the lint level ot uniformity , but nowhere did individuality more successfully assert its pretensions , and nowhere did so many . men stand out from the mass in bold contrast ; pre-eminently distinguished for the loftiest genius and--patriotism , or sometimes for the most outrageous
me . The brutal tyranny of the lowest , the meanest , mid the most ; ignominious of all despotisms—that of the House of Hapsburg—has kept down this spirit to a very groat extent , and would have succeeded with a less impulsive and indomitable race ; but in Italy , whenever the evil work lias seemed to bo accomplished , some Ma /// . ini , some brothers Bandiim ,. or some Garibaldi , has proved by zeal , by martyrdom , or by success , that a real national Hie existed which tlio most perfidious and sanguinary despot has been unable to . tramplu out . There is a Divine Justice in history , which marks its judgments in hard and . massive strokes , and alter centuries of success in crime , wo now have tho satisfaction of seeing 1 the House of Austria in its dotage , decrepitude and decay , whilo Italy exhibits tho hopeful freshness of youth , ami Hungary waits calmly and proudly for the restitution of her riifhts .
_ . . . . ., . Mr . Butt has wisely introduced in his work an excellent summary of the inodiiuval history of Italy , a subject which bewilders tho student from Us confuHion and complexity , as much as it doligiits him by tiie startling' variety of its incidents and tlio romantic grandeur of its chaructora . Italy forces upon us strongly the connexion between tlio present and the past , the value ot historical associations , and the importance of making men fool that they are inheritors of past glory , and must one day " stand before tho judgment soat of posterity , to roceivo the reward of their deeds j t Milan had not fought so nobly in tho middle agos , if liberty JiaU
* The History Of Italy From Tho Abdicati...
* The History of Italy from tho Abdication of Napotaon I . -By JsAAO Butt . 0 httum ' '& Hull .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1860, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30061860/page/13/
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