RECENT LITHOGRAPHIC SKETCHES.
THE perfection that lithography has attained renders it at once the most available and popular medium for artists to employ in multiplying their drawings ; and every season adds to the long list of beauting works that attest the varied resources of this yet young art, and the in- creasing body of talent it has enlisted in its service. Several new publications in lithography have appeared during the present season, to whose merits we had not an opportunity of doing justice during the pressure of Parliament. These have been laid aside for more attentive examination ; and we take the earliest opportunity of bestowing upon a few of them the attention they especially demand.
Foremost in point of interest is Mr. CATHERWOOD'S Monuments of Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan ; consisting of a selection of his striking and masterly sketches of the ruined cities of Copan, Pa- lenque, Uxmal, Kabah, Tuloom, &c., their temples, palaces, and idols. Combining the exactness of an architectural draughtsman with the picturesque and imaginative feeling of a painter, Mr. CATHERWOOD has succeeded in conveying impressive ideas of the magnitude of these vast piles, and their appearance when he saw them, overgrown witlithe rank luxuriance of Tropical vegetation that is f.st reducing them to shapeless mounds of stone. The architecture and sculpture of these monuments, reared by a people of whose existence they constitute the only traces, partake of the same strange and anomalous character. Huge grim idols, hideous in feature and disproportion—presenting a mass of sculptured ornament barbaric in richness as well as in style—, rear their monstrous heads in the midst of groves of trees ; and at their feet lie the sacrificial stones on which human victims were offered up. Raised terraces of vast extent, tier above tier, covered with ranges of building of solid masonry and lavish decoration, are overgrown with foliage like hanging gardens; and pyramidal bases surmounted with dwellings appear like high mounds thickly planted with trees. The ar- chitecture of these massive piles is unique in structure and ornament : long low ranges of open arcades and narrow apartments with wedge- shaped roofs, exhibiting parallelism of plan and horizontal lines in the elevation, being raised upon the platforms of terraced pyramids formed of steep and lofty flights of steps. The gateways and other principal por- tions of the façades are covered with a lavish display of sculptured orna- ments: geometrical forms prevail, but intermixed with uncouth shapes presenting grotesque resemblances to the human face hideously dis- torted. This is the most characteristic feature of the decoration : con- siderable ingenuity has been exerted to give to ornaments the appearance of eyes, nose, and month ; the nose being frequently represented by the stone hooks, curved like the proboscis of an elephant. Figures of set- pents are also introduced, though less frequently ; and one building has a frieze of tortoises. The execution of the plates is very creditable to the lithographers, especially to Mr. A. PICKER, who has put on stone the greater number: for sharpness, clearness, and force of effect, he is unequalled by his coadjutors, and his figures are admirably drawn. The introduction of green or blue neutral tints to heighten the effect of the prints has a happy effect when nothing more is attempted than to throw a general tone over the whole drawing: the effort to imitate local eolour is not successful. The progress of chromolithography when applied to the production of picturesque effects, as exemplified in this volume, has not been commensurate with its advance in the depart- ment of ornament, where the different hues are positive, opaque, and sharply defined. The difficulties attending the printing of graduated tints in transparent colours to blend with each other are very great : nothing has been done in this:way equal to BOYS'S Paris. So much has not been attempted in CATHERWOOHS sketches ; but Mr. OWEN dorms, by whom they were printed, has produced such fine specimens of colour-printing in his superb work of The Alhambra, and more recently in the splendid volume of Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume by Mr. PUGIN, that we were led to expect a corresponding im- provement in pictorial effects from his press.
Frederick Tayler's Portfolio exemplifies the progress of lithotint ; an important extension of the powers of lithography, for which the art is indebted to the ingenuity of Mr. HULLMANDEL. This is the first set of designs of figures produced in this new manner, and it is the first attempt of the artist to transfer his own drawings to stone. Hitherto Mr. TAYLER'S works have only appeared in print through the medium of the engravers ; but his loose, free, extempore style, is not to be ren- dered by mechanical means : in short, it is untranslateable. The pro- cess of chalk-lithography, besides being tedious and laborious, is other. wise unsuited to this artist's hand ; but the invention of lithotint afforded him—in common with all painters who prefer the hair-pencil to the crayon—the means of reproducing his sketches on stone with washes of ink applied with the brush, as in making a sepia drawing on paper. Every touch of the artist is rendered in the print with the feeling and freedom that constitute the charm of an original drawing : indeed the impressions are multiplied originals, not copies ; and if mounted they would be so regarded. This volume is only one half of the complete work ; the second portion has yet to come. The first consists of a dozen sketches of sporting, rustic, and military subjects ; the groups of figures and animals being enlivened by familiar incidents that give to them a kind of dramatic interest. A merry barefooted girl lugging a kid across a brook, the old goat eagerly following and another kidling skipping by her side—a gamesome party of children dancing to the music of a blind piper—a laughing stalwart lassie drag- ging back to his stall a restive steer-an old falconer surprising his daughter receiving a salute from a gallant huntsman-a moss-trooper preparing to revenge the death of his leader-such are the principal designs ; and the studies of dogs, horses, &c., are scarcely less attractive by the charm of the artist's free, picturesque style. The two groups of dogs-one group eagerly watching for the opening of the kennel-door, through the crevices of which streams the morning sunlight ; the other couched on the straw after a day's sport, the spoils hanging up above them-are admirable for the lively expression of animal character, and artistic skill in the treatment of the subjects. FREDERICK TAYLER, indeed, is second only to EDWIN LANDSEER in this department of art ; for though his drawing is less correct, his feeling for rustic simplicity and wild playfulness gives animation and movement to the creatures, and an unsophisticated air to his pictures.
The sketches are variously executed; some being comparatively Blight and others more highly finished, while a few are toned with a neutral tint. The depth and brilliancy of the tints in the black horse in the title-probably the last-executed drawing-exhibit the qualities of lithotint in perfection ; the glancing rapidity of a frank and certain touch being most favourable to purity and clearness. The superadded tint gives solidity, not unalloyed by heaviness : we prefer the transparency and sparkling freshness of the first drawing by itself. Lithotint is, however, but in its infancy, and its capabilities are as yet imperfectly developed : still, in its present state, it offers facilities to artists such as no other medium can afford; and already have drawings been produced by its means that approach nearer to the character of originals than any that have passed through the press. Lithotint is peculiarly the painter's medium.
The chalk style of lithography has been brought to such a high de- gree of perfection by the improvement of graduating the white lights of the neutral tints, and by the extreme neatness and clearness of the crayon-draughtsmen, that it seems almost impossible to surpass what is now done by Mr. L. HAGHE in that magnificent work ROBERTS'S Sketches in the Holy Land, Egypt, Arabia, and Syria, of which Part XV. is before us. The large views of Nazareth and the Church of the Annunciation that it contains exemplify anew the consummate skill of Mr. HAGHE in drawing buildings and figures, and the management of the neutral tints with pictorial effects of light, especially in the skies.
Another work in a similar style to the foregoing, and on an equally grand scale, though less extensive than it, is devoted to the illustration of the Monastic Ruins of Yorkshire. The drawings have been made expressly for this work by Mr. WILLIAM RICHARDSON, architect ; whose purpose is to give accurate delineations of the ruins as they now appear, combining architectural exactness with picturesque effect. The sub- jects of the First and Second Parts are the Abbeys of Whitby, Kirkstall, St. Mary's, and Rievanlx : and the scheme of the work appears to be to give two large views of the entire structure from different points, with a vignette or two of some particular portion ; a ground- plan and section, and a plate of details of pillars, arches, and ornamental carvings ; in short, making the work valuable to the architectural stu- dent as well as an attractive picture-book. The lithographer, Mr. GEORGE HewsrNs, has been very successful in expressing this two- fold purpose in his drawings on stone : the local aspect of the scene Is represented in the surrounding landscape, while the architectural character of the ruin impresses by its grandeur of effect and beauty of construction. Correct ideas of the magnitude and extent of the masses of building are conveyed ; and the appearance of solidity in the stone-work is admirably represented : the walls stand out from the background, and the landscape has atmosphere. The historical and descriptive notices by the Reverend EDWARD CHURTON are not the less worthy of perusal for the strong sympathy manifested by him in the "Introduction" towards the old monastic institutions, since the reve- rend writer's knowledge seems equal to his zeal. This noble work, as the enterprise of a provincial publisher, Mr. SUNTER of York, (though it is printed by Messrs. DAY and HAGHE,) is entitled to especial en- couragement in the county illustrated; and denotes the spread of taste for works of art.
Mr. GALLY KNIGHT'S costly work illustrative of the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy during the Middle Ages, just completed by the publication of the second volume, demands a separate notice.
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