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neruuttuMj bka . to call her his Valentine , and . wear h * name in her hat ' SSr attending an English-fe ^ t- on May-day * at WTuteloeke ' s house ; and StLg that the grave and wily lawyer , then near his . fiftieth year , should dance with her at a wedding festival- . ItSiSnow to note how simile things recur in the pages of history . In thie Yotoes we hear of a-King , of , Denmark with a wife by aleft-handed SaSSSi . ihe Sound-dues , now so hotly questioned , by the Yankee . ; the SSnteof the arms of Liege ; . and the central subject is that alliance with Sweden , offensive and defensive ,- which we- are seeking , now . We should do Whitelocke an injustice if we . left , the reader to suppose thii the whole nay that even any considerable part of his time was taken „ ' witn the levities of the court . There are here recorded grave discourses on affairs of state , both with the Queen , her Chancellor , and his son , the nrince who succeeded Christina , and the foreign ambassadors . There is much that is noble in Whitelocke ' s conduct , ashore and afloat , in command of a squadron , on his journey , in his own house , and especially in his bearing towards others in all state affairs touching the honour of England . No minister ever upheld with more dignity the honour and greatness of his
country . He would have the High Chancellor and all others nrst call on him ; once in court , he coolly pushed the Swedish High Admiral on one side , and took precedence , applauded by the Queen ; on a third occasion , he and the Danish ambassador were invited to a ball . It was known that the Dane would insist on taking precedence . Whitelocke made it a point of honour that he should have precedence or he would not go at all . The Dane , who had been invited , was w ? iinvited again . While he was at Upsal , Cromwell made himself Protector , and this led to some questioning of Whitelocke ' s authoritv and the stability of the British Government ; but bravely and Government tne
Ably the British envoy insisted that in essentials the was same , and would admit of no calling England to account for the form which she chose to give to her constituted authority . It is indeed pleasant to look back upon this time when the foreign policy of England was so enlightened , so open ,, and so manful , and when the alliance of England was courted by all even by the haughty monarchies of France and Spain . Cromwell , indeed , , made , his country respected ; and in representing England at the court of the then powerful Swede , no man could have better performed his part than Bulstrode Whitelocke , Lawyer , soldier , courtier , and politician , the friend , of Selden , and the trusted servant of Cromwell .
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* HANDBOOK OF PAINTING . Handbook of Painting . The Italian Schools . Translated from the German of Kugler . By a Lady- Edited , with Notes , by Sir Charles Enstlake , F . R . S ., President of the Royal Academy .-Third Edition ; with more than One Hundred Illustrations . In Two Parts . London , 1855 : Murray . The student who wishes to acquire sober and almost always-exact information on the history of Italian Art will do well to have this elaborate epitome in his possession . As it at present appears before the public it is the result of . the labours of many judicious persons . When some of the appreciations in the text are biassed by the peculiar predilections of the German authors they are sure to be corrected or qualified by the careful notes of Sir Charles Ea 3 tlake ; so that it would be difficult to point out a more complete or . more trustworthy manual .
... _ , . A' peculiar opportunity is given to this publication by the recent reappearance , and it would seem revived popularity , of a work on Italian Art , which , in spite of some agreeable qualities , constitutes a most dangerous companion for young readers on such matters—we allude to the Poate Chrelimne of M . Rio , which we are surprised to see quoted , without proper warning , as an authority , even by professors . The crude theories it contains haveilong ago " . beendiscussedand forgotten elsewhere . —M .-Rio ' s- object had little relation to the development of artistic ideas . He wrote from a sectarian , or rather Jesuitical , point of view , and in France his work is considered us merely a bulky pamphlet got up in the interest of the church party , and designed to lead , attract , or delude-incautious persons back into the fold or prison from which they had strayed . M . Rio had a very fair knowledge of the history of Art in Italy , and a considerable power of elegant appreciation . But he wrote entirely in the spirit of an advocate or . a priest ; and
distorted facts with an audacity rarely equalled , except at . the bar , or in ultramontane pulpits . Those who have perused his volume will remember how bitterly he libels poor Filippo Xiippi—guilty of two unpardonable sins in the eyes of the Church , namely , refusing to remain a . monk , and running away with a nun ! He tells this romantic story with tolerable exactness nearly to the end , and then says : " The Pope , in order to palliate the scaudnl , offered to give him a dispensation to marry Lucrezia , but he did not doi < m to take advantage of the offer , thinking that between him and her this ceremony was superfluous . " M . Rio forgets to inform us that the bigoted relations of poor Lucrezia Luti poisoned her lover ; and what he saiys of the refusal of . Lippi to accept the dispensation is , when we consider- the epoch , as evidently against probability as it is against fact . Ku " ler ' s Handbook ( p . 197 ) gives the true and sensible account of the transaction . Poison did its work too rapidly . The dispensation arrived " too
late . " Wo might multiply instances of passionate misrepresentation equally extraordinary from the work of M . Rio , comparing them with the reserved and well-weighed statements in the volumes under notice . This , however , would T > e beside our present purpose . But we cannot refrain from pointing out a literary delinquency of a moat amusing character , which may be taken as a . fiiir sample of M . Rio ' s manner of dealing with his materials . Although hie , spQciol favourites : among the painters of the fourteenth century wore to 1 ) 0 found at . Sienna ) he cannot afford to throw over Giotto , whom , nevertheless- innumerable traditions describe as a lkht-hearted scoffer . lie defends thte-frank shepherd , therefore , against the charge of Rumohr , namely , that lvc- gave Art almost a profane direction ; and having told us in un astounding parenthesis that Giotto nppeure'd at the period " when modern architecture woe throwing off the classical yoke ! " ho g ^ ocs on to quote Ghiborti to prove that he changed painting from Greek to Latin , and so forth . He then cautiously approaches dangerous ground , with a firm determination to got over it in
perfect safety . " One of the novels of Saccbetti , " he says . ; " in which Oiotto figures aa an amusing and joyous personage ^ very fertile < in > happy repartees , throws a great light on the personal character of this artist . One day as he was returning with his friends from the festival of San Gallo , . he entered with them the church of St . Marc , where , at right , is a picture representing a Holy Family . They asked him why the Virgin was always painted with that melancholy air , a custom which he was well able ' to justify . ' All his answers denote a clear and . cold intelligence , a penetrating and observing spirit , which is far from disdaining the positive things of life . " Our recollections of Sacchetti were very different ; yet , as this quotation was made in so circumstantial a manner , we turned to- the volume . The truth is , that the friends of Giotto asked him why Joseph always looked so sulky and melancholy—motinconoso ; and the answer was , " Non ha egliragione , che
vede pregnet la moglie , e non sa di cuif Blaise Pascal never found a Jesuit wilfully tripping in a more comic manner than this . But in fact , the whole of M . Rio ' s book , whenever he has a purpose to serve , is written with the same disregard to literary and critical propriety . His object is to prove that there existed a certain succession of painters in Italy , who painted divinely because influenced by the religious spirit . Other speculators have imprudentl y selected very stiff and repulsive pictures as the finest specimens of Christian Art , and endeavoured to lash up themselves and their readers into admiration ; but MI . Rio deliberately selects the princes of Italian painting , and distorts even the best-known facts of history in order to prove his thesis . The use he makes of Savonarola ' s great attempt at reform in Florence is perfectly unjustifiable . The fiery monk had no intention whatever of introducing a new principle in Art or of advocating an old . The whole tendency of his preaching was to set aside the exercise of the Fine Arts altogether . He was a Catholic Puritan , or
rather a direct successor of the Iconoclasts ; and if M . Rio had written with pure and straightforward intentions , we should have said that he possessed the faculty of reading without understanding in a greater degree than any man we ever heard of . Is it possible , however , to be familiar with the narratives remaining of the processions of children that marched through Florence in order to destroy the anathema on works of Painting and Sculpture ' against which the preacher constantly thundered , without perceiving that that strange movement had nothing to do with Art , Christian or otherwise ? The tendency of Savonarola was to revert in practice , as Rousseau afterwards reverted in theory , towards what was supposed to have been the primitive state of humanity . Innocent barbarism was set up against corrupt civilisation ; and not further to discuss this movement at present , its signification was in no way better expressed than by the fact that nearly all the enthusiastic artists who were disciples or followers of Savonarola deserted their profession altogether , and took to an austere life of meditation .
As we have said , the work before us gives a far more sensible trad correct account of the principles and progress of Italian Art . It is entitled , moreover to great praise on account or another special feature , namely , the avoidance of the elaborate divisions and subdivisions into schools , which , commonly perplex the reader in similar works . This unlimited subdivision is one of the plagues of Art-history . Lanzi had already felt the evil , but even he yielded far too much to the claims of local vanity . The true principle of division is not to create a new school unless we can point out distinct characteristics . The Florentine School and the Venetian School , had evidently a separate existence , following different principles , and aiming at different ends . The Schools of Lombardy also may be judiciously set apart . But in most other cases the division has no ground whatever . Artists who were born in ono city worked in another , sometimes according to principles which they brought with them , sometimes according to others
which they adopted . In the works of several , two or three ditterent manners derived ) from-the study _ .. of ., dijfei \ ent _^^ depending on gradual development and increased experience , are discernible . We have not space here to discuss this question in detail ; biit as an illustration of our meaning , we may ask what appreciable difference it is possible to point out between what arc usually called the schools of Parma and Modena ? We observe , therefore , with pleasure , that M . Kugler ia very sparing in hia divisions . An attractive contribution to this third edition of the Handbook of Italian Painting is a more elaborate account of the origin and progress of what may properly be called Christian Art—we mean the art which throughout Europe , from Constantinople to the depths of Gaul and Germany , gradually succeeded the great school of the beau ideal . Evidently that was no slight chauo-e which substituted for the search after serene and superhuman
perfection of form , a sort of sanctification of ordinary humanity deteriorated by physical suffering , but made divine by moral expression . It is curious to trace the gradual progress of the new art from the time when Clirist was represented in a conventional manner as a young man of perfect beauty , of soft , supple , elegant , and feminine form , quite beardless , like the Apollo and the Mercury , to that when hia traditionary portrait—according to which his countenance was long , his cheeks thin , his expression gravo and melancholy , his beard , forked , his hair separated like a woman ' s into two tresses , which fell down in loose ringlets upon the shoulderswas substituted . The introduction of this new typo constituted n wonderful revolution in Art . Modern Art may then be said to have been born . le
It . has since . only grown . and developed . The new principwas gradually applied to all the representations of sacred personages . I he Virgin Mary was first figured us a Roman matron , still youn& always alone , conimonly upright , with her hand on her bosom , and her eyos raised towards heaven ; but about the end of the fifth century she begun to be painted sitting on a throne with the divine Child in her anus , or on her knees . In iiko manner tho angels first appear as Roman youths with the tunic and toga , audit was not until a comparatively latu period that they wore represented with wings . If we examine the series of copies published by Amnghj and others of the early types of Christian Art , some of winch aro reproduced in tho work ' before us , we shall bo able . to trace exactly the gradual discarding of old forms and costumes , and the adoption of those which , during the long period of stagnation called the Middle Ages , became in their turn aa conventional and as immovable as tho types of Egyptian sculpture and
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Apa ^ l 4 * 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 365
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Leader (1850-1860), April 14, 1855, page 355, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2086/page/19/
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