FINE ARTS.
THE CARTOONS OF RAPHAEL IN DANGER.
• h' Nor is the imminent peril which h the Cartoons have just escaped the only one to which these precious 'relics are subjected: they have already sustained serious damage, and are suffering injury, daily and hourly, that will ultimately end in their total defacement. To make the case clear, it is necessary to bear in mind that the Cartoons are not, like paintings in oil on panel or canvass, covered by a film of varnish that may be removed and renewed, and from which the dirt may be washed : they are drawings with crayon on paper, painted over with distemper, or water-colours, and consequently susceptible of no cleansing process. Yet while oil pictures of great value and high finish are often glazed—though glass veils some of their beauties, and by the reflection makes the sight of them difficult—these inestimable designs, which do not require close inspection, and would not be obscured by glass, are left wholly unprotected from casualties, and continually exposed to the detrimental action of smoke, dust, and damp combined, as well as to the risk of fire.
The Cartoon Gallery is heated by a stove in winter, and daily tra- versed by hundreds of feet ; the amount of dust and smoke, therefore, must be considerable : by opening the windows to let out the dust and change the air, an atmosphere moistened by the spray of the fountain in the court which the gallery overlooks is blown into the room; this supplies a sufficient amount of moisture to make the particles of dirt ad- here to the pictures, if the dampness be not so great as to rot the paper and injure the colours. Nor is the annual alternation from the dry hot air of a close stove-warmed room in the winter, to the sun-tempered atmosphere of summer, moistened by the spray of a fountain, likely to benefit distemper paintings.
In addition to these causes of injury in continual operation, and the
liability to accidental damage or destruction, the Cartoons are not seen distinctly where they are : indeed, to he visible at all, they could hardly be worse placed ; for, as we have before stated when advocating the necessity of their removal, the lower part of the frames is about on a level with the upper part of the windows ; so that what little light falls on the pictures is thrown upwards from below, instead of downwards from above. Moreover, the distance of the old Palace from London renders them difficult of access, and lessens the benefit that would ac- crue to art from their more frequent study by painters and the public. In fact, the extraordinary merits of the Cartoons are not generally ap- preciated, because they are not sufficiently well understood: they are re- garded as valuable curiosities to wonder at, instead of being prized for their excellences. As examples of simplicity and grandeur of design, of beautiful composition, vigorous drawing, and of dramatic power in depicting incident and character—in the expression of momentary ac- tion and intense emotion, and the idealizing of human nature by means of elevated sentiment—these productions of RAPHAEL are preeminent even among his own works. They have no beauty as paintings, and their execution is coarse and unequal, because of " restorations " and the employment of inferior hands : be it remembered also, they were only intended as patterns for tapestry-workers : but those who are not impressed by the power of these conceptions may reasonably doubt their susceptibility of enjoying the most elevated sensations art is capable of exciting.
These considerations—which we have before urged, and are now called THE Cartoons of RAPHAEL, at Hampton Court, very narrowly escaped destruction the other day. On Wednesday in last week, the policeman in attendance observed a smoke in the gallery ; and upon examination, he discovered that the skirting-board of the wainscot at the back of the Cartoons was on fire : happily he succeeded in extinguishing the flames before any material damage was done. This occurred in the afternoon : an hour or two later, the suite of apartments would have been locked up, all the attendants left, and these treasures of art would have been inevitably consumed. The Cartoons are framed in the wainscot with which the gallery is lined ; and being of paper, they are more inflam- mable than oil-paintings : had the fire smouldered longer and taken hold of the pannelling when no one was at hand, they must have been all destroyed before the existence of danger could have been known to the inmates of the palace ; even if any bad been rescued from the flames, they Would have been irretrievably damaged by water, or hasty
attempts at removaL upon to reiterate—would be deserving of attention even if the country bad no such repository for pictures as a National Gallery ; but having one, it is culpable in the extreme to allow the finest works of art that this or any other country possesses to remain in a place where they can- not be properly viewed, and where they are in real danger of destruc- tion, and undergoing an actual process of deterioration. Had the Car- toons been burnt the other day, the nation would have been 'made sensible of their worth by the irreparable nature of the loss. Shall it be said that in this day, when we are beginning to teach our operatives the art of design, the people of England are indifferent to the noblest triumphs of the pencil that ever were achieved by the hand of genius ? The removal of the Cartoons to a place of safety is imperative, after the recent proof of their insecure condition. And what hinders it ? The ludicrous but scandalous fact that the National Gallery has not a room fit to exhibit them properly ! They might, however, be got in to the building somehow, and placed so as to be visible : but then, either :he Royal Academy must give place, or a new wing be built,—a necessity contemplated and provided for by the architect.
The objections made to the transference of the Cartoons to the Na- tional Gallery are futile; being wholly founded on the assumption that they must remain in their present unprotected state. No difficulty exists to, prevent their being either glazed with large .sheets of plate-glass joined at the edges, or enclosed in glass cases hermetically sealed, the four squares—there need be no more—being let into a light metal frame, such as would not materially interfere with the effect of the de- signs. The first and obvious duty is to preserve the pictures, and put them beyond the reach of danger. Can any valid reason be assigned for neglecting such a precaution ? None. Unfortunately it concerns nobody to see it done.
Will not Mr. EWART press it upon the attention of some of the Mi- nisters, in the House of Commons ?
Previous page
