FINE ARTS.

BRITISH INSTITUTION: EXHIBITION OP OLD PICTURES.

As in the case of last year, this is an exhibition considerably above the average. The concourse of foreign visitors, the influx of country sight- seers, and the general tone of holyday-making which prevailed, may rea- sonably be assigned as the cause of the effect last year; this year, the motive, equally creditable at least, is probably the desire of not losing ground once gained, —a desire which, it is to be hoped, will not soon die out, and whose continuance cannot but be very acceptable. The most noteworthy feature of the collection is the presence of an unusually large number of works by the earlier masters, chiefly Italian, and the non- presence (we suppose unprecedented) of more than a single Rembrandt

Of the former class, the first in order is by Filippo Lippi." St. Peter and St. John at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple." There is much more of a Diirer manner in this than in the generality of Italian works of the same period ; more largeness of form, crispness and flowing amplitude of drapery, and more of an outward fervour of expression, which is espe- cially visible in the figure of St. John. The colour displays an almost childlike love of brightness and variety ; in parts of the manipulation the hand of the restorer is unmistakeable. The holy Angelico, to whom is ascribed an "Entombment of the Virgin in the presence of the twelve Apostles," was a contemporary of the wild and reckless Fra Filippo; and the contrast of feeling in the treatment indicates to a certain extent the utter diversity of character. Here the fervour burns inward, and the outward manifestation is of an exceeding placidity, which does not, nevertheless, preclude discrimination of feature and look in the several heads. We point out this contrast as a fact, but without thereby prejudging a ques- tion (upon which we reserve a doubt) relative to the authenticity of the Angelico.

The most conspicuous representative of the early school in this Exhibi- tion is, however, Perugino ; of whom no fewer than five specimens appear, which need not, we think, be mistrusted. Their characteristic is a pecu- liar suavity. The motion of the figures is as of a calmly-sailing swan ; the expression of the faces gracious and benign. In the first, "The Na- tivity," Christ lies on the ground between the Virgin and St. Joseph, who kneel one on each side ; and on each side are two of the adoring shep- erds. This symmetry of arrangement is carried out in every one of the subjects with a singular persistence : each possessing a central object and an equal number of equally important personages at its sides. 'The whole series composes, we believe, the border or framing of a larger altar-piece. The other four subjects are, "The Baptism of our Saviour," " Our Saviour and the Woman of Samaria," "The Resurrection," and Chnst in the Garden "—where He appears to Magdalen after the re- surrection. This last is the most beautiful, having a certain look of glory and beatitude which it is very difficult to define. Christ is divinely mer- ciful, the Magdalen exquisitely womanly. In all is a potent effect, be- tween the ideal and the symbolic : but they must be looked at fully and with earnestness by him who would penetrate beneath the husk of archa- ism to that inner life they possess, which is not old, or young, or local, but eternal and universal. Between two of the Peruginos stands an- other " Baptism of our Saviour," by Francis ; altogether more human, more expressive, less impressive—certainly more advanced in execution : the finest point is the devout attention of the nobleman to the right. The last present among the early Italians is Sandro Botticelli, in whose Nativity the Virgin is very girl-like, pure, and loving. Her hands are excellent : but the general rigidity of form is not redeemed in the figure of Christ by anything of the divine or noble. The Baptist is represented as a boy approaching adolescence. Lucas van Leyden is the only painter of the old German school of whom an example appears—also a Holy Family. Here, on the contrary, the maternal, not the maidenly, relation' of the 'Virgin-mother has been foremost in the painter's purpose : and the best impersonation is that of Joseph. How much more truthful, more distinctive, and in every way superior, is the pious workman here pre- sented, engaged at a reading-desk, than the figure of after ages, in whom, while beard, blanket, and " Raphaelism," made up the saintship, nothing whatever showed the carpenter-husband of Mary. Among works of the later Italian schools we remark the "Holy Family" of Pierino del Vaga as an extreme instance of the "grand style" learned from Raphael applied, in a picture better than many of its class, to a mean view of a sacred subject. The occupation of the Baptist ap- pears to be that of smuggling roses across to the infant Saviour—who concurs in the transaction—contrary to the Virgin's prohibition : a line of conduct only a shade less ungodlike than the tantalizing of a cat with the prospect of a live bird, whereof the National Gallery bears record. "Our Saviour Washing his Disciples' Feet," by Tintoretto, is a work of the ornamental rather dian the religious class : and the same, with smaller commendation, may be said of the "Entry into Jerusalem" of his competitor Schiavone. A little later, and we find mere prettiness the exponent of the devout sentiment which should inform and ennoble sacred subjects—as in Albano's " Riposo." The focus of light in the life- sized flesh-study of the same painter, named "Joseph and Potiphar's Wife," invades the eye, but the picture appeals to nothing else. Ardent love, scarcely tinged by either awe or wonder, is the feeling which dic- tates the ." Adoration of the Shepherds" as represented by Palma Vecchio, breathing in every one of the figures, except the somewhat conventional St. Joseph, even to the lamb, which seems to lick the hem of the Virgin's robe. From Daniele da Volterra, an artist seldom seen in England, is a "Descent from the Cross "—the Manes and St. John mourning over the body of their Lord. The most powerfully expressed figures are those of the woman behind the Virgin holding her whole face in her hands, and of the Magdalen, who weeps with her countenance also concealed at the dead Saviour's feet. In that of the Madonna there is some tinge of a hypo- critical look ; and the tone throughout partakes of the ugly as well as the austere. There are two Reguluses—a "Death" by Salvator Rosa, and a "Return to Carthage" by Camuccini, whom the compiler of the catalogue delights to call "the late distinguished Director of the Academy at Rome." It is a thing that covers one whole wail of the Institution,—so base a sample of French (or, worse still, modern Italian) classicality, so mon- strous an imposition of emasculate fat trying to be manly bone and muscle, as may well make us Englishmen thank what Thackeray calls our "fund of roast-beef" that this most utter, form of artistic humbug is not one of the many that weigh like an incubus upon our efforts at progress. The masters of the Spanish school are—Murillo, Velasquez, Zurba- ran, Morales, and Francisco Ribalta. Two of the Murillos are a "St. Francis at Devotion" and a "St. Francis in Ecstacy" ; the former an approvable specimen, and both, doubtless, food for rapture to a large body of connoisseurs : the third is a "Spanish Girl," one of those subjects of common nature which have popularized the painter's name so exten- sively. The grand character of Velasquez appears admirably in the "Spanish Lady" (17), and ennobles even the portentous hoop and coif- fure and the ugly little mean face of "Donna Mariana of Austria, second wife of Philip IV." The "Conspirators "—a moody-looking group met in a ruinous archway—is still fine, spite of effacement through time and wear. The "Legendary subject" is the most finished and well pre- served of all; but it is, perhaps, the one possessing least intrinsic excel- lence of a high class. In Zurbaran's "Magdalen," the stern blackness of colour, the skull, hour-glass, and flickering candle, emblems of mortality,

and the general asceticism of treatment, seem hardly well supported by the red cheeks of the saint, which possibly may belong to the restorees hand ; but the face is hollow with watching, "Our Sa-

viour," walking to death crowned with thorns, by Morales, has thoughtful expression as well as fine flesh-painting and colour, but not of a divine

kind. A nobler head is that in Ribalta's "Christ bearing the Cross,"—a work saddened in gloomy darkness, and presenting a considerable resem- blance to one section of the French religious style of the present day.

The single Rembrandt, " Belshazzaes Feast," continues fiercely con- trasted in light and shade, though age has dimmed its brilliancy together with its colour. The bloated and panic-struck tyrant is a vigorous im- personation. "The Raising of Lazarus," by Lievens, belongs altogether to the school of Rembrandt, which can boast few works in which extreme and almost unvaried depth of shadow contributes to a more legitimate un- earthliness of effect. This deathly mystery is powerful enough in itself not to need heightening by a vitreous glaze of surface which snakes

it impossible to see the composition otherwise than by snatches. By the same painter is a splendidly executed head of "A Philosopher,' gravely meditative in expression, without overdoing. The accessories arc simple and sufficient. The "Woman Feeding a Parrot" is an unusually good and pleasing Jordaens : the head, in its lively roundness, seems glow- ing and blooming out of the canvass. Of Rubens, the portrait of "Thomas, Earl of Arundel," is a brave example : but the" Discovery of Calisto," after the Titian of the Bridgewater Gallery, exaggerates to a 'nful de- gree the coarseness of the original. "A Conversation by iie Hooghe displays the singular excellence of the master with his wonted quiet effect:

the glimpse of canal scene through the open door is charmingly managed. Teniers, Miens, and the Ostades, make a good figure in their rather un- interesting way, the "Village-school" of Adrian Ostade being a choice masterpiece: and the presence of Snyders and Fyt insures first-rate merit in animals. Among the portraits, that of" Giorgio Giulio Maio," by Titian, stands supreme for perfection of dignified truth : we regret it should be hung high in one of the dimmest corners of the rooms. Two of the three Van- dycks, "Rachel, Countess of Southampton," and "Mrs. Kirk, Bed- chamber-woman to Henrietta Maria," are admirable, spite of the bad taste, as we now justly think it, which presents the former as a sky- dwelling divinity. If grandeur be possible to blue satin, it is attained here. There are two Holbeins also—wonderful, as usual, especially the anonymous portrait No. 85; and a portrait by Sir Antonio More, much earlier and stiffer in manner than that of Queen Mary exhibited in 1850. The landscapes comprise several works of extraordinary beauty. Cuyp's "View of Dort" is exquisite in sunny repose; the buildings glowing into beauty in the golden light, and the craft seeming to glide along the water with a motionless progress. Equally admirable in its more living movement is "The River-view, with Boats." The Paul Potter, No. 55,

is most charmingly worked, though it seems flat and ineffective, save on

close inspection. The William Vander Velde, No. 82, has a dashing black sea, fresher and freer than is common in the works of the same master or period; and the "Landscape, with Cattle and Figures," of Adrian Vander Velde is the perfection of true finish. There are excel- lent works also by Ruysdael, Hobbima, Vander Heyden, and Du Jardiu. Two of the Claudes appear to us decidedly mediocre ; but "The Castle of St. Angelo" has strong form and massive colour. There is no water, however, like the surging billows of Turner's " Sea- piece " in their regular rise and fall, no clouds like his air-bulwarks piled in the sky. The light of his dim-burning sun is something peculiar to himself; and the picture is in all respects unrivalled. Equally beyond everything else are the two Constables in their kind : the first so tho- roughly English, the rain battering the vexed water, and everything sparkling and dripping under the grey sky; the second so full of the rural glimpses and incident of a pleasant day when the clouds scud freely over- head. There are fine qualities in one of the Wilsons, and brilliant air and light in the landscape of Crome, with capital botanical study. The pastoral Gainsborough is more made up, and his " Sea-shore " is but a ahetch, though a clever one.

In addition to minor figure-pieces by Newton, Collins, Allen, Simson, and others of the English school, the South Room contains the admirable Wilkie, "Guess my name," and two very large works by Opie and Fu- sell. "The Death of Riszio," by the first, displays more force than strength, more attitude than action or energy; yet it is a work of which we need not be ashamed, as belonging to a phase of our art now past without much cause for regret. The Fusel' is the "Titania and Bottom," well known through the print; a conception containing much that is aca- demical, and much that belongs to its period and is now out of date, but much also of a true and rare spirit of faery. The witehlike elf with the yellow-eyed dwarf and the little bearded old man in leading-strings held by a furtive-eyed fay, are genuine manifestations of the last.

The English portraits include one of the most thoroughly delightful of Bir Joshua's childish figures—" Master Crewe in the character of Henry the Eighth." The two little frolicsome spaniels, the child's imitation of the sturdy stride of Holbein's portrait, and the roguish fun in his face, are exquisitely felt; and the colour, though beginning to grow dull, is masterly for richness and effect. Most of the other Sir Joshuas are fine examples of his lower tone of colour. Another beautiful childish portrait, following close in the wake of Reynolds, is "The late Eir Henry Russell when a boy, and his Mother," by Romney. The

action of the boy in looking at his own reflection in the mirror could not be better for simplicity and truth. The principal Gainsborough is "George the Fourth when Prince of Wales,"—a portrait in which we find some justification for the title Of "fined gentleman of his age,"

which seemed by the light of later days so mean a piece of adulation ; while at the same time the likeness to George the Third is to be traced far more distinctly than in portraits of subsequent date. In the mean- ingless sham-intensity of expression in Harlow's brace of portraits named "The Congratulation," we perceive the degradation which already in his day affected portraiture, precursor of the very low condition it has now sunk to.