.

government of the art, there is every reason | feeling; it is the settled expression of celestial beauty, and even the smile on her lip is not the fleeting smile of temporary joy, but the lasting expression of that heavenly feeling which sees in all around it the grace and love liness which belongs to itself alone. It approaches nearer to that character which sometimes marks the countenance of female beauty when death has stilled the passions of the world; but it is not the cold expression of past character which survives the period of mortal dissolution; it is the living expression of present existence, radiant with the beams of immortal life, and breathing the air of eternal happiness.

to believe that it ultimately wil rival the celebrity of foreign genius: And it is in this view that the continuance of the gallery of the Louvre, in its present situation, is principally to be wished by the English nation-that the English artists may possess so near their own country so great a school for composition and design; that the imperfections of foreign schools may enlighten the views of English genius; and that the conquests of the French arms, by transferring the remains of ancient taste to these northern shores, may throw over its rising art that splendour which has hitherto been confined to the regions of the sun.

most elevated in the character of the female mind. But there is a "human meaning in their eye," and they bear the marks of that anxiety and tenderness which belong to the relations of present existence. The Venus displays the same beauty, freed from the cares which existence has produced; and her lifeless eye-balls gaze upon the multitude which surround her, as on a scene fraught only with the expression of universal joy.

The great object, therefore, of all the modern The paintings of Raphael convey the most schools of historical painting, seems to have perfect idea of earthly beauty; and they debeen the delineation of an affecting scene or in-note the expression of all that is finest and teresting occurrence; they have endeavoured to tell a story by the variety of incidents in a single picture; and seized, for the most part, the moment when passion was at its greatest height, or suffering appeared in its most excruciating form. The general character, accordingly, of the school, is the expression of passion or violent suffering; and in the prosecution of this object, they have endeavoured to exhibit it under all its aspects, and display all the effects which it could possibly produce In another view, the Apollo and the Venus on the human form, by the different figures appear to have been intended by the genius which they have introduced. While this is of antiquity, as expressive of the character of the general character of the whole, there are mind which distinguishes the different sexes; of course numerous exceptions; and many and in the expression of this character, they of its greatest painters seem, in the representa- have exhausted all which it is possible for tion of single figures, or in the composition human imagination to produce upon the subof smaller groups, to have had in view the ex-ject. The commanding air, and advanced step pression of less turbulent affections; to have aimed at the display of settled emotion or permanent feeling, and to have excluded every thing from their composition which was not in unison with this predominant expression.

of the Apollo, exhibit man in his noblest aspect,
as triumphing over the evils of physical na
ture, and restraining the energy of his dispo-
sition, in the consciousness of resistless power:
the averted eye, and retiring grace of the Ve-
nus, are expressive of the modesty, gentleness
and submission, which form the most beauti-
features of the female character.

Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed,
For valour He, and contemplation, formed,
For beauty She, and sweet attractive grace,
He for God only, She for God in Him.

These words were said of our first parents by our greatest poet, after the influence of a pure religion had developed the real nature of the female character, and determined the place which woman was to hold in the scale of na ture; but the idea had been expressed in a still finer manner two thousand years before, by the sculptors of antiquity; and amidst all the degradation of ancient manners, the pro. phetic genius of Grecian taste contemplated that ideal perfection in the character of the sexes, which was destined to form the boundary of human progress in the remotest ages of human improvement.

The Sculpture Gallery, which contains above two hundred remains of ancient statuary, marks in the most decided manner the different ob-ful jects to which this noble art was applied in ancient times. Unlike the paintings of modern Europe, their figures are almost uniformly at rest; they exclude passion or violent suffering from their design; and the moment which they select is not that in which a particular or transient emotion may be displayed, but in which | the settled character of mind may be expressed. With the two exceptions of the Laocoon and the fighting Gladiator, there are none of the statues in the Louvre which are not the representation of the human figure in a state of repose; and the expression which the finest possess, is invariably that permanent expression which has resulted from the habitual frame and character of mind. Their figures seem to belong to a higher class of beings than that in which we are placed; they indicate a state in which passion, anxiety, and emotion The Apollo strikes a stranger with all its are no more; and where the unruffled repose grandeur on the first aspect; subsequent exa of mind has moulded the features into the per-mination can add nothing to the force of the fect expression of the mental character. Even the countenance of the Venus de Medicis, the most beautiful which it has ever entered into the mind of man to conceive, and of which no copy gives the slightest idea, bears no trace of emotion, and none of the marks of human

impression which is then received. The Ve nus produces at first less effect, but gains upon the mind at every renewal, till it rivets the affections even more than the greatness of its unequalled rival.

The Dying Gladiator is perhaps, after the

two which have been mentioned, the finest
statue which the Louvre contains. The mo-
ment chosen is finely adapted for the expres-
sion of ideal beauty, from a subject connected
with painful ideas. It is not the moment of
energy or struggling, when the frame is con-
vulsed with the exertion it is making, or the
countenance is deformed by the tumult of pas-
sion; it is the moment of expiring nature,
when the figure is relaxed by the weakness of
decay, and the mind is softened by the approach
of death; when the ferocity of combat is for-
gotten in the extinction of the interest which
it had excited, when every unsocial passion is
stilled by the weakness of exhausted nature,
and the mind, in the last moments of life, is
fraught with finer feelings than had belonged
to the character of previous existence. It is
a moment similar to that in which Tasso has
so beautifully described the change in Clorin-
da's mind, after she had been mortally wound-
ed by the hand of Tancred, but in which he
was enabled to give her the inspiration of a
greater faith, and the charity of a more gentle
religion

Amico h'ai vinto: io te perdon. Perdona
Tu ancora, al corpo no che nulla pave

All' alma si: deh per lei prega; e dona

Battesmo a me, ch'ogni mia colpa lave;

In queste voci languide risuona

Un non so che di flebile e soave

Ch' al cor gli scende, ed ogni sdegno ammorza,
Egli occhi a lagrimar gl' invoglia e sforza.

stroy. The poor Russian soldier, whose knowledge of art was limited to the crucifix which he had borne in his bosom from his native land, still felt the power of ancient beauty, and in the spirit of the Athenians, who erected an altar to the Unknown God, did homage in silence to that unknown spirit which had touched a new chord in his untutored heart.

The character of art in every country appears to have been determined by the disposi tion of the people to whom it was addressed, and the object of its composition to have va、 ried with the purpose it was called on to fulfil. The Grecian statues were designed to excite the devotion of a cultivated people; to imbody their conceptions of divine perfection; to realize the expression of that character of mind which they imputed to the deities whose temples they were to adorn: it was grace, or strength, or majesty, or youthful power, which they were to represent by the figures of Venus, of Hercules, of Jupiter, or of Apollo. Their artists accordingly were led to aim at the expression of general character: to exclude passion, or emotion, or suffering, from their design, and represent their figures in that state of repose where the permanent expression of mind ought to be displayed. It is perhaps in this circumstance that is to be found the cause both of the peculiarity and the excellence of the Grecian statuary.

The Italian painters were early required to The statues of antiquity were addressed to effect a different object. Their pictures were the multitude of the people; they were intended destined to represent the sufferings of nature; to to awaken the devotion of all classes of citi- display the persecution or death of our Saviour, zens-to be felt and judged by all mankind. the anguish of the Holy Family, the heroism They are free, therefore, from all the peculiar- of martyrs, the resignation of devotion. In ities of national taste; they are purified from the infancy of the arts, accordingly, they were all the peculiarities of local circumstances; led to study the expression of passion, of they have been rescued from that miserable suffering, and emotion; to aim at rousing the degradation to which art is uniformly exposed, pity, or exciting the sympathy of the spectators; by taste being confined to a limited society. and to endeavour to characterize their paintThey have assumed, in consequence, that ge-ings by the representation of temporary pasneral character, which might suit the universal feelings of our nature, and that permanent expression which might speak to the heart of men through every succeeding age. The admiration, accordingly, for those works of art has been undiminished by the lapse of time; they excite the same feelings at the present time, as when they came fresh from the hand of the Grecian artist, and are regarded by all nations with the same veneration on the banks of the Seine, as when they sanctified the temples of Athens, or adorned the gardens of Rome.

:

Even the rudest nations seem to have felt the force of this impression. The Hungarians and the Cossacks, during the stay of the allied armies in Paris, ignorant of the name or the celebrity of those works of art, seemed yet to take a delight in the survey of the statues of antiquity, and in passing through the long line of marbled greatness which the Louvre presents, stopt involuntarily at the sight of the Venus, or clustered round the foot of the pedestal of the Apollo;-indicating thus, in the expression of unaffected feeling, the force of that genuine taste for the beauty of nature, which all the rudeness of savage manners, and all the ferocity of war had not been able to de

sion, not the expression of permanent character. Those beautiful pictures in which a different object seems to have been followed-in which the expression is that of permanent emotion, not transient passion, while they captivate our admiration, seem to be exceptions from the general design, and to have been suggested by the peculiar nature of the subject represented, or a particular firmness of mind in the artist. In these causes we may perhaps discern the origin of the peculiar character of the Italian school.

In the French school, the character and manners of the people seem to have carried this peculiarity to a still greater length. Their character led them to seek in every thing for stage effect; to admire the most extravagant and violent representations, and to value the efforts of art, not in proportion to their imitation of the qualities of nature, but in proportion to their resemblance to those artificial qualities on which their admiration was founded. The vehemence of their manner, on the most ordinary occasions, rendered the most extravagant gestures requisite for the display of real passion; and their drama accordingly exhibits a mixture of dignity of sentiment, with violence of gesture, beyond mea

sure surprising to a foreign spectator. The same disposition of the people has influenced the character of their historical painting; and it is to be remembered, that the French school of painting succeeded the establishment of the French drama. It is hence that they have generally selected the moment of theatrical effect the moment of phrenzied passion, or unparalleled exertion, and that their composition is distinguished by so many striking contrasts, and so laboured a display of momentary effect. The Flemish or Dutch school of painting was neither addressed to the devotional nor the theatrical feelings of mankind; it was ‚neither intended to awaken the sympathy of religious pity, nor excite the admiration of artificial dispositions-it was addressed to wealthy men of vulgar capacities, capable of appreciating only the merit of minute detail, or the faithfulness of exact imitation. It is hence that their painting possesses excellencies and defects of so peculiar a description; that they have carried the minuteness of finishing to so unparalleled a degree of perfection; that the brilliancy of their lights has thrown a splendour over the vulgarity of their subjects, and that they are in general so utterly destitute of all the refinement and sentiment which sprung from the devotional feelings of the Italian people.

The subjects which the Dutch painters chose were subjects of low humour, calculated to amuse a rich and uncultivated people: the subjects of the French school were heroic adventure, suited to the theatrical taste of a more elevated society: the subjects of the Italian school were the incidents of sacred history, suited to the devotional feelings of a religious people. In all, the subjects to which painting was applied, and the character of the art itself, was determined by the peculiar circumstances or disposition of the people to whom it was addressed: so that, in these instances, there has really happened what Mr. Addison stated should ever be the case, that "the taste should not conform to the art, but the art to the taste."

play of the living mind. It is an abstraction of character which has no relation to present existence; a shadow in which all the perma nent features of the mind are expressed, but none of the passions of the mind are shown: like the figures of snow, which the magic of Okba formed to charm the solitude of Leila's dwelling, it bears the character of the human form, but melts at the warmth of human feeling. While such is the object to which statuary would appear to be destined, painting embraces a wider range, and is capable of more varied expression: it is expressive of the living form; it paints the eye and opens the view of the present mind; it imitates all the fleeting changes which constitute the signs of present emotion. It is not, therefore, an abstraction of character which the painter is to represent; not an ideal form, expressive only of the qualities of permanent character; but an actual being, alive to the impressions of present existence, and bound by the ties of present affection. It is in the delineation of these affections, therefore, that the power of the painter principally con sists; in the representation, not of simple character, but of character influenced or subdued by emotion. It is the representation of the joy of youth, or the repose of age; of the sorrow of innocence, or the penitence of guilt; of the tenderness of parental affection, or the gratitude of filial love. In these, and a thousand other instances, the expression of the emotion constitutes the beauty of the picture; it is that which gives the tone to the character which it is to bear; it is that which strikes the chord which vibrates in every human heart. The object of the painter, therefore, is the expression of EMOTION, of that emotion which is blended with the character of the mind which feels, and gives to that character the interest which belongs to the events of present existence.

The object of the painter being the representation of emotion in all the varied situations which life produces, it follows, that every thing in his picture should be in unison with the predominant expression which he wishes it to The object of statuary should ever be the bear; that the composition should be as simsame to which it was always confined by the ple as is consistent with the development of ancients, viz. the representation of CHARACTER. this expression; and the colouring, such as The very materials on which the sculptor has accords with the character by which this emo to operate, render his art unfit for the expres- tion is distinguished. It is here that the genius sion either of emotion or passion; and the of the artist is principally to be displayed, in figure, when finished, can bear none of the the selection of such figures as suit the general marks by which they are to be distinguished. impression which the whole is to produce; It is a figure of cold, and pale, and lifeless and the choice of such a tone of colouring, as marble, without the varied colour which emo- harmonizes with the feeling of mind which it tion produces, or the living eye which passion is his object to produce. The distraction of va animates. The eye is the feature which is ried colours-the confusion of different figuresexpressive of present emotion; it is it which the contrast of opposite expressions, completevaries with all the changes which the mindly destroy the effect of the composition; they undergoes; it is it which marks the difference fix the mind to the observation of what is parbetween joy and sorrow, between love and hatred, between pleasure and pain, between life and death. But the eye, with all the endless expressions which it bears, is lost to the sculptor; its gaze must ever be cold and lifeless to him; its fire is quenched in the stillness of the tomb. A statue, therefore, can never be expressive of living emotion; it can never express those transient feelings which mark the

ticular in the separate parts, and prevent that uniform and general emotion which arises from the perception of one uniform expression in all the parts of which it is composed. It is in this very perception, however, that the source of the beauty is to be found; it is in the unde fined feeling to which it gives rise, that the delight of the emotion of taste consists. Like the harmony of sounds in musical composi

the countenance is moulded into the expres sion of permanent feeling, and the existence of this feeling is marked by the permanent expression which the features have assumed.

tion, it produces an effect, of which we are unable to give any account; but which we feel to be instantly destroyed by the jarring sound of a different note, or the discordant effect of a foreign expression. It is in the ne- The greatest artists of ancient and modern glect of this great principle that the defect of times, accordingly, have selected, even in the many of the first pictures of modern times is representation of violent exertion, that moto be found in the confused multitude of un- ment of temporary repose, when a permanent necessary figures-in the contradictory ex- expression is given to the figure. Even the pression of separate parts-in the distracting Laocöon is not in a state of actual exertion: brilliancy of gorgeous colours: in the laboured it is represented in that moment when the last display, in short, of the power of the artist, and effort has been made; when straining against the utter dereliction of the object of the art. an invincible power has given to the figure The great secret, on the other hand, of the the aspect at last of momentary repose; and beauty of the most exquisite specimens of mo- when despair has placed its settled mark on dern art, lies in the simplicity of expression the expression of the countenance. The fightwhich they bear, in their production of one ing Gladiator is not in a state of present actiuniform emotion, from all the parts of one vity, but in that moment when he is preparing harmonious composition. For the production his mind for the future and final contest, and of this unity of emotion the surest means will when, in this deep concentration of his be found to consist in the selection of as few powers, the pause which the genius of the figures as is consistent with the development artist has given, expresses more distinctly to of the characteristic expression of the com- the eye of the spectator the determined chaposition; and it is, perhaps, to this circum-racter of the combatant, than all that the stance, that we are to impute the unequalled struggle or agony of the combat itself could charm which belongs to the pictures of single afterwards display. figures, or small groups, in which a single expression is alone attempted.

The Grecian statues in the Louvre may be considered as the most perfect works of Both painting and sculpture are wholly human genius, and every one must feel those unfit for the representation of PASSION, AS higher conceptions of human form, and of EXPRESSED BY MOTION; and that to attempt to human nature, which the taste of ancient stadelineate it, necessarily injures the effect of tuary had formed. It is not in the moment of the composition. Neither, it is clear, can ex-action that it has represented man, but in the press actual motion: they should not attempt, moment after action, when the tumult of therefore, to represent those passions of the passion has ceased, and all that is great or mind which motion alone is adequate to ex-dignified in moral nature remains. It is not press. The attempt to delineate violent Hercules in the moment of earthly combat, passion, accordingly, uniformly produces a when every muscle was swollen with the painful or a ridiculous effect: it does not strength he was exerting; but Hercules, in even convey any conception of the passion the moment of transformation into a nobler itself, because its character is not known by being, when the exertion of mortality has the expression of any single moment, but by passed, and his powers seem to repose in the the rapid changes which result from the per- tranquillity of heaven; not Apollo, when turbed state into which the mind is thrown. straining his youthful strength in drawing the It is hence that passion seems so ridiculous bow; but Apollo, when the weapon was diswhen seen at a distance, or without the cause charged, watching, with unexulting eye, its of its existence being known: and it is hence, resistless course, and serene in the enjoythat if a human figure were petrified in any ment of immortal power. And inspired by of the stages of passion it would have so these mighty examples, it is not St. Michael painful or insane an appearance. As painting, when struggling with the demon, and marring therefore, cannot exhibit the rapid changes the beauty of angelic form by the violence of in which the real expression of passion con- earthly passion, that Raphael represents; but sists, it should not attempt its delineation at St. Michael, in the moment of unruffled triall. Its real object is, the expression of emotion, umph, restraining the might of almighty of that more settled state of the human mind power, and radiant with the beams of eternal when the changes of passion are gone-when I mercy,

TYROL.*

Ir is a common observation, that the character of a people is in a great measure influenced by their local situation, and the nature of the scenery in which they are placed; and it is impossible to visit the Tyrol without being convinced of the truth of the remark. The entrance of the mountain region is marked by as great a diversity in the aspect and manners of the population, as in the external objects with which they are surrounded; nor is the transition, from the level plain of Lombardy to the rugged precipices of the Alps, greater than from the squalid crouching appearance of the Italian peasant to the martial air of the free-born mountaineer.

pusillanimous race by which they are now inhabited, he looks in vain for the descendants of those great men who leapt from their gallies on the towers of Constantinople, and stood forth as the bulwark of Christendom against the Ottoman power; and still less, when he surveys the miserable population with which he is surrounded, can he go back in imagination to those days of liberty and valour, when

"Venice once was dear,

The pleasant place of all festivity,

The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy." From such scenes of national distress, and from the melancholy spectacle of despotic This transition is so remarkable, that it power ruling in the abode of ancient freedom, attracts the attention of the most superficial it is with delight that the traveller enters the observer. In travelling over the states of the fastnesses of the Alps, where liberty has imnorth of Italy, he meets everywhere with the printed itself in indelible characters on the symptoms of poverty, meanness, and abject character and manners of the people. In depression. The beautiful slopes which de- every part of the Tyrol the bold and martial scend from the Alps, clothed with all that is air of the peasantry, their athletic form and beautiful and luxuriant in nature, are inha- fearless eye, bespeak the freedom and indebited for the most part by an indigent and pendence which they have enjoyed. In most squalid population, among whom you seek instances the people go armed; and during in vain for any share of that bounty with the summer and autumn they wear a musket which Providence has blessed their country. hung over their shoulders, or some other of The rich plains of Lombardy are cultivated fensive weapon. Universally they possess by a peasantry whose condition is hardly offensive weapons and are trained early to the superior to that of the Irish cottager; and use of them, both by the expeditions in search while the effeminate proprietors of the soil of game, of which they are passionately fond waste their days in inglorious indolence at and by the annual duty of serving in the Milan and Verona, their unfortunate tenantry trained bands, to which every man capable of are exposed to the merciless rapacity of bai-bearing arms is, without exception, subjected. liffs and stewards, intent only upon augment- It was in consequence of this circumstance, ing the fortunes of their absent superiors. In in a great measure, that they were able to towns, the symptoms of general distress are, make so vigorous a resistance, with so little if possible, still more apparent. While the preparation, to the French invasion; and it is opera and the Corso are crowded with splen- to the same cause that is chiefly to be ascribed did equipages, the lower classes of the people that intrepid and martial air by which they are are involved in hopeless indigence:-The distinguished from almost every other peasantchurches and public streets are crowded with ry in Europe. beggars, whose wretched appearance marks but too truly the reality of the distress of which they complain-while their abject and crouching manner indicates the entire political degradation to which they have so long been subjected. At Venice, in particular, the total stagnation of employment, and the misery of the people, strikes a stranger the more forcibly from the contrast which they afford to the unrivalled splendour of her edifices, and the glorious recollections with which her history is filled. As he admires the gorgeous magnificence of the piazza St. Marco, or winds through the noble palaces that still rise with undecaying beauty from the waters of the Adriatic, he no longer wonders at the astonish-zerland; but they are always of brilliant ment with which the stern crusaders of the north gazed at her marble piles, and feels the rapture of the Roman emperor, when he approached, "where Venice sat in state throned on her hundred isles;" but in the mean and *Blackwood's Magazine, Sept. 1819. Written from notes made during a tour in Tyrol in the preceding year.

Their dress is singularly calculated to add to this impression. That of the men consists, for the most part, of a broad-brimmed hat, ornamented by a feather; a jacket tight to the shape, with a broad girdle, richly ornamented, fastened in front by a large buckle of costly workmanship; black leather breeches and gaiters, supported over the shoulders by two broad bands, generally of scarlet or blue, which are joined in front by a cross belt of the same colour. They frequently wear pistols in their girdle, and have either a rifle or cloak slung over their shoulders. The colours of the dresses vary in the different parts of the country, as they do in the cantons of Swit

colours, and ornamented, particularly round the breast, with a degree of richness which appears extraordinary in the labouring classes of the community. Their girdles and clasps, with the other more costly parts of their clothing, are handed down from generation to generation, and worn on Sundays and festi