MR. MELLING'S BATTLE OF AGINCOURT.
A REMARKABLE instance of that latent ambition of English artists to distinguish themselves, which the Royal Commission of Fine Art has taken measures to develop, is afforded by a large historical painting of the Battle of Agincourt, twenty-four feet long and fifteen feet high, with figures of heroic size, now exhibiting at the Society of Arts in the Adelphi. It is the production of Mr. HENRY MELLING, whom it has occupied during three years ; and although wanting in all those fine qualities which distinguish a great painter and are necessary to consti- tute a grand work of high art, it is most creditable to his perseverance and talent. While admiring Mr. MELLING'S lofty aspirations and de- termination of purpose, we cannot but regret that they should not have been regulated by a conviction of the consummate skill necessary to the successful prosecution of an undertaking of such magnitude and pretension ; in which any thing short of complete success is utter failure. His choice of subject is justified by his general conception; his selection of the incident of King Henry defending his wounded brother is judicious ; and he has studied well the details. The artist's printed description suggested the idea of an impressive representation of a victory that is famed, in our annals ; a first glance of the picture, too, showed that he had felt the spirit of the scene ; but the execution is so defielentin the essential points of drawing and colouring, expression fitaof character and arrangement of groups, that the result is unsatis-
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