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THE EXHIBITION AT FLORENCE.
Mx. FLATOW, who announces his intention of retiring from picture- dealing in order that he may "devote his entire attention to the forthcoming important work, the " Railway Station," by Mr. Frith— has opened the gallery of Messrs. Hayward and Leggett, in CornhilI, with the remaining portion of his collection of the works of British artists. It contaius some very good examples by many of our lead- ing painters. The admirers of Mr. Phillip have an excellent oppor- tunity of comparing the earlier with the latest style of that paint.= " The Catechism," dated 1847, a Scotch scene, with numerous figures very varied both in character and expression, affords a proof of the assertion that years ago Mr. Phillip thought more of his subject and less of mere handling than he does now. In point of painting, this work, with its monotonous surface, slight execution, and fogy shadows, will not for a moment compare with the richness and so. Edit), of his later works, but it surpasses them in the care and thought observable in the telling of the story. "The Grape Seller" is one of the very latest works that has emanated from Mr. Phillip, and excels all that he has before exhibited for reckless sweeping power of hand. The effect is rich and full, and the colour luscious and glowing. " The Reaper," a fair English girl with a sickle over her shoulder, is the companion picture to the foregoing, and makes a good contrast with the dark-eyed Seville fruit girl, though the erects. Lion is not so boldly defiant. There are two specimens of Wilkie, "The Gentle Shepherd," a finished picture, and the original sketch for " The Penny Wedding ;" one of Nasmytles finest landscapes, with little figures introduced by Mulready ; a. clever Morlaiul, of " Fighting Dogs,". very spirited in action ; a landscape by Muller, and some life studies by Etty, among the works by deceased painters. Several small. replicas of modem pictures are scatteredover the walls, the best of which. are Mr. Elmore's " Marie Antoinette" and Mr. Hicks's " Post, Office." 'One of the gems of the collection is "The Bramble in the Way," by Mr. Hook. A young girl proceeding to market has arrived at a gate, which she feels disinclined to climb, and so picks, her way through a thorny gap of the hedge. Very sweet is this little pastoral. The landscape is charmingly natural, as is usual with, this painter, and the girl's face and attitude, though somewhat idealised, are full of rustic grace and beauty. Those who only know. Mr. Poole by his imaginative pictures will be pleased with " Rustic Courtship," in which the painter shows a capacity for treating inci- dents in humble life with arch and playful humour. Mr. Cooke's.. " Scheveling Puicks Drying Sails and Nets," is an admirable picture; every part of it is drawn with unswerving and masterly accuracy,. from the vanes on the tops of the masts of the quaintly-built craft to the star-fish lying on the moist sandy foreground. When to the above are added works, more or less good, by Landseer, Ward„ Linnell, Creswick, Oakes, Goodall, Fald, Frost, and Frank Stone, it will be seen that the collection of Mr. Platow well deserves a visit.
A friend writing from Florence gives the following notes on scalp- tare and painting as represented in the Exposition: "There is little. in the many sculpture-rooms that is new, or interesting when old. Cain and Abel keep up the old unequal combat, from the wicked
scowl at little baby Abel in Eve's lap to the murder at the altar. There is no further variety in our first mother's temptation than can be gained by giving her now a pair of apples, and then a polished pippin, or a more insinuating and sinuous snake. David plies his sling very well by Magni, and not very well by somebody else. Hagar still wanders about searching for water, and her son and Cupid are still the pet ferules premiers of plastic art. There is plenty of skilful modelling, especially among the Milanese and Roman men, but no individuality, no mind, and no heart ; nothing that reminds one of Donatello. Hiram Powers, the American, has a marble bust of a lady equal to anything that has ever been done in that way ; the subject is neither very young nor very pretty ; but for simplicity, dignity, and the highest finish, it is perfection. His other works give no evidence that he is other than a second-rate sculptor of . isubjects. A group in marble by Magni of a little naked child swinging a girl, has an interest apart from the art displayed in it (which is of that picturesque kind more suited to a small bronze than a large marble group), owing to its having been commissioned by Ristori, who is as good a patriot as she is an actress. All the works from the Roman and Venetian States have been sent against the will of the Papal and Austrian Governments, and as it is likely that they will not be allowed to re-enter their re- spective towns, a lottery—or, as we should more delicately term it, an Art Union—is being organized for the disposal of those that may remain unsold at the close of the Exposition. The Neapolitan school of painting is far in advance of the others, which is a little triumph for the Codini, who think a strong and capricious despotism is the form of government under which men are happiest and arts most flourish. But I should be sorry to see the Florentine school ex- change its present feebleness for its Medieean brilliancy of old, if the Grand-Duke were included in the return. It is not to her present freedom that Florence owes her decline of painting, but to her crowds of rich and silly tourists, her large galleries of paintings, more or less celebrated in Murray or Du Pays, and the permission given to idle and incapable painters to copy them, which they do without the least exercise of intelligence, and sell at prices far too low for any thinking person to suppose that the copies are faithful. Naturally, with such prices, these unfortunate painters can never become anything but copyists. One of the best things that New Italy can do for her artists, is to close all the galleries against the copyists, and thus make them go direct to nature, and become men instead of babes in art. Of the few Florentines who paint landscape with any truth to nature, two will, I think, make a name—Odoardo Borrani and Catabriancie. The Neapolitan Morelli paints with great force light and shade, and charming colour. Pagliano, a Milanese, has a picture of the Murder of Buondelmonti,' painted with enormous vigour, and an eye for colour very like Poole's." - Among the many revivals which have taken place in connexion with Gothic Architecture, the last is that of " incised pavements." It was in the thirteenth century that the practice first came into vogue of engraving figures on stone or alabaster slabs, and filling up the lines with black cement. These were used commonly as sepulchral me- morials, and frequently placed so as to form a portion of the pave- ment of the church in which they were situated. Less costly than the memorial " brass," the incised slab was also less durable, so that the specimens of the art which have reached us are not equal in number, nor in so good preservation as the brasses. There are, nevertheless, many ancient examples still existing in this country, one of the oldest, re- presenting Bishop William de Bytone, being yet to be seen in Wells Cathedral; another, of large dimensions and elaborate decorations, occurs at Hereford ; and in the chantrey at Malveysyn Ridware is preserved a series of incised slabs, from the time of Henry IV. till the disuse of such memorials in the seventeenth century. Though in France there have been instances of the modern use of incised pavements, as at St. Omer and the church of St. Remy, at Rheims, no attempt has hitherto been made to secure their adoption in England. Messrs. Clayton and Bell are the first to enter this new field of decorative art. They are now completing portions of the floor of the choir of Lichfield Cathedral. The general design is rect- angular, being divided into four equal parts, in the centre of each of which is a circular medallion of Hopton wood stone, some three feet in diameter, surrounded by four lesser circles of the same material, the whole being set in a framework of encaustic tiles. The subjects of the larger medallions embody the leading events of the his- tory of the Diocese of Lichfield. The smaller medallions are devoted to the busts of kings and bishops, the chief bene- factors of the history of the diocese and its church, and its builders or restorers. The subjects are drawn upon the stone, the outlines and background sunk rather more than an eighth of an inch in depth, and a composition of Portland cement and vegetable black pressed into the interstices in a moist state. This hardens by exposure to the air, becoming in a short time as firm as the stone itself. The bold black outlines show with great effect, and it is easy to foresee that this method of decorating floors will obtain con- siderable popularity. Suitable either for ecclesiastical or domestic purposes, for any place where boarded floors are not required, it pos- sesses also the advantage of durability and comparative cheapness.
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