FINE ARTS.
DIORAMA.
Trus unique exhibition of scenic illusion reopened yesterday, with a new view of the Shrine of the Ailtivity, at Bethlehem, which surpasses in splendour of effect all thriller marvels of the magical art of trans- parent painting. The changeable picture is executed by M. REsoux from a sketch by DAVID Ronsavrs-to the fine colouring of which the
scene owes its distinguishing characteristic of gorgeous solemnity. We now feel for the first time wheat was wanting in the former Diorama- namely, effects of colour. Compared with the glowing richness of the
Shrine of the Nativity, the interiors of St. Gudule at Brussels, of Santa Croce at Florence, and of the Basilica. of St. Paul, at Rome-wond- rous and beautiful as were their effects of chiaroscuro-are cold and
rigid in style. It was reserved for our countryman Mr. Remmers to warm with the Promethean spark of his genius the heretofore frigid
creations of the French artists: no Englishman could compete with them in the precision and exactness with which the forms are relieved, the shadows projected, and the nice gradations of twilight effects rep. hated; but the union of the best features of the French and English schools of art has consummated the perfection of the Diorama. The first phasis of the scene represents a crypt-like vault, whose chill vacuity is made snore evident by the blaze of light emitted from a low semicircular recess, like a fire-place with an architectural chimney-piece over it framing a large picture : this light proceeds front fourteen lamps suspended round the recess, illuminating a spot marked by a golden star, to denote the place over which the " Star of Bethlehem " rested when it guided the Wise Men of the East to worship the new-born Messiah. Opposite, another blaze of light, of less intensity, proceeding from another low recess illuminated by only three or four lamps, indi- cates the site of the manger where the infant Jesus was laid, and flue spots where the Virgin Mother sate and the Magi knelt to offer their gifts. An arched opening between the two recesses shows a staircase, at the top of which is seen the altar which was erected in the church above by the Empress HELENA, the mother of CONSTANTINE. A few tall and massive candelabra in the foreground contrast with the bare stone floor, which has been broken up to be partly relieved ; the planks and tools of the workmen being left on the rubbiah. The violent oppo- sition of two streams of artificial light on either side to the chill gloom of the upper part of the vault, whose dimness is only relieved by a !sow of unlighted lamps suspended from the roof, produces a very striking effect : the strong shadow thrown by the pillar supporting the canopy over the site of the manger, and the various reflections cast upward and around, are imitated with surprising vividness and truth ; and the columns and architecture, the stone slabs, aed other projections, are perfectly illusory. While dwelling upon the numerous beauties of the mitnic scene, and giving way to the influence of those associations that it awakens, till all idea at' a picture is merged in a sense of the reality of the objects before the eye, the gloom gradually deepens, and the shadows grow stronger and broader, till they become one mass of indistinctness; presently a faint glimmer proaeeds from the suspended lamps and the distant altar; the clock strikes the hour of inidniAlt, and the whole vault is bril- liantly illuminated, revealing a crowd ofmonks kneeling on the stair- case before the altar, a pilgrim prostrate on the marble slab on one side and a " Frank" seated in meditation over against the manger on the other. The lustre of the gold and silver latnps and candelabra, and the hues of the pictures on the walls, heighten the magnificence of the scene, so that the very shadows seem imbued with the light and colour diffused around. We cannot convey a better idea of the lustrous splendour and richness of the coup d'ail and its impressive effect on the mind, than by comparing it to one of REsilittax DT'S most gorgeous adumbrations of chiaroscuro, with its shadowy gloom and veiled brilliancy suddenly rendered luminously trmisparent : in effect, it is it glowing real i of the imaginative sm:eestions transmitted by REMBRANDT through the opaque medium of (:il-painting. It is impossible to look at that meagre and formal picture of a wax- work show, painted with brickdast upon tin, Calle,I 'oronation, zdler seeing this new wonder of Mir-ire art : we hope the .t:tle court pageant will soon be replaced by something more worthy of the I iioramit.
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