FINE ARTS.
CARTOON BY RAPHAEL, IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
THE National Gallery has been lately enriched with the large fragment of a Cartoon by RAPHAEL, representing The Murder of the Innocents, which has hitherto been buried in the Foundling Hospital; whence it has been transferred for the gratification of the public—would we could add as a gift to the nation !—by the liberality of the Directors of the charity. The very existence in this country of another, making eight, of the original series of twelve cartoons by RAPHAEL, was unknown to many ; and very few of the thousands who have visited Hampton Court to see the seven that are there, ever saw the eighth cartoon : nor has it been engraved, like the rest. It may be regarded, therefore, as the acquisition of a new treasure; and a noble relic it is, notwithstand- ing the mutilation and defacement it has suffered. Though reduced to much smaller dimensions than either of the other cartoons, and evi- dently but a portion of a larger work, the design has not been so marred by curtailment as to prevent the appreciation of a most remarkable cha- racteristic—the skilful composition of the several groups of which it is composed. It is completely filled with figures, there being but very small spaces unoccupied, and as many as fifteen heads, the foremost of colossal size, in a cartoon of a few feet square : yet there is no confusion or overcrowding ; nor do the heads and limbs appear inlaid, as is often the case with designs where the bodies and lower extremities of a crowd are hidden front view : the existence, and even the postures of the rest of the figures may be correctly inferred from the indications in those portions of them that are visible. The action of the limbs is energetic without violence ; the forms have a rotundity of relief and a breadth of light and shade equal to the most finished painting ; and the style is grand without effort or ostentation. But these qualities, fine as they are become subordinate to higher attributes—to the elevated sentiment of the conception and the beauty and power of the expression. No gross denotements of slaughter, no physical horrors, disfigure the design : its pure and profound pathos alone impresses the mind and awakens feel- ings of sympathy. It is a distinguishing trait of the exalted and refined power of RAPHAEL that he has depicted a cruel and inhuman butchery without shocking the sense. The agonized looks of the bereaved mothers, and the desperate energy with which they clasp their devoted offspring, bespeak their terror and anguish, while imagination sup- plies the physical horrors of the scene : the infants are either unconscious or but vaguely alarmed, and the murderers execute their bloody work with the passive ferocity and cool determination of brute force acting mechanically. The group nearest the eye, and which forms the base of the composi- tion, is the finest as well as the most prominent of all. It consists of three entire figures : a soldier crouching down has seized hold of a terrified child, whom its mother, who has fallen to the ground, strives to keep out of the reach of the murderous blade. The vividness and in- tensity of the mother's expression cannot be surpassed in painting ; her eye is kindled with despair and horror, and her open mouth makes audible to the fancy the cry of maternal anguish. One would shudder at the imminent danger impending over the child, but that sympathy with the mother awakens a deeper emotion : and so throughout the picture, the contemplation of deeds of bloodshed is rendered less painful by the imagination being brought into play. This cartoon exemplifies what is meant by the grand style of art, both in the conception and execution of the design : the subject is conceived in such a manner that the mental faculties are appealed to ; the artist's imitation of nature being subser- vient to this higher aim. The simplicity of the idea, the force and dis- tinctness with which it is presented, and the consummate power of the painter over the means employed, have the effect of placing the mind of the beholder in a condidon to receive the impression directly and powerfully. The purpose and meaning of the picture are at once com-
prehended, the various qualities and details of the work taking their proper value in relation to the whole : the subject first arrests the atten- tion; the expression of the heads and the action of the figures are next dwelt upon, with that view ; and then we descend to the beauty and character of the design and the masterly drawing of the several parts. In respect of composition and drawing, this cartoon is a most
valuable study for the artist. The perfect knowledge of the human figure, shown in the graceful freedom and ease with which the action of every limb and every movement of the body are portrayed, an the commanding vigour of hand manifest in the beauty and grande
of the contours, prove that the genius of RAPHAEL owed much of its refined power to that complete course of study which he went through from his boyhood upward. The style of the painter is the mould in which his ideas are cast to give them shape ; and when it is grandiose and the ideas are little, or the conception is cramped by the imper- fections of style, the work is marred : in this work of ItAruAEL the mighty mould is full of the inspiration of his genius.
This cartoon is framed, and glazed with two sheets of plate-glass ; and it is hung in the lobby, without fear of injury from dust, smoke, damp, or fire. Why are not the other seven cartoons similarly pro- tected, and also placcd here ? There is nothing but the want of room in this paltry building, to prevent their removal hither. At Hampton Court, the Cartoons are exposed to constant injury, from the dust of the rooms, the smoke of the stove in winter, and the damp from the spray of the fountain in summer ; and above all, to the risk of fire : they narrowly escaped destruction only a year or two ago. The public were then told that precautions were taken to secure them from danger ; but how is that possible, when they are hung in a pannelled room warmed by a store, and in front of a wall perforated by a flue? We repeat it again and again, the Cartoons of RAPHAEL are endangered and injured by remaining at Hampton Court.
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