FINE ARTS..
EXHIBITION OF THE OLD MASTERS AT THE BRUME INSTITUTION.
THE collection exhibited by the British Institution possesses unusual in- terest, as bringing together specimens of the most distant ages and the most distant styles--from Van Eyck, representative of the earliest painters, to Howard, one of our most recent; from Giotto, in whom the idea is all, to Matsys, in whom the execution is all and the idea nought. " Young England " has set the fashion of running after specimens of Fra Angelico and the painters of the crude ages, and many samples are brought before us very opportunely in Pall Mall; so that within the compass of the three rooms, the student of painting and its msthetioal history can trace the development of the art from its imperfect germ, when the intellectual idea MIS the great aim of the painter, to its full maturity, when the idea was embodied in perfect execution, and again down to its degenerate condition, when the idea has shrunk to be a mere pretext for the display of mechanical adroitness, and even the mechanical part of the work has become coarse and gross for want of the elevating and vivifying spirit. The perfect writ, indeed, is not very fully represented; and in that re- spect a future collection, formed on the principle of the present one, might be more fully endowed: but enough is here to suggest the survey that we have indicated, and to correct some of the prevalent crotchets on the sub- ject of art in the crude ages. Far finer specimens of Fra Angelico may of coarse be found than those which chance brings to this collection; but the picture of " Salome dancing before Herod" presents his leading character- uties,—a distinct and vivid conception of the purpose and expression pro- per to each figure, and a thorough devotion of the painter to set that forth, undistracted by collateralities and ornaments; but on the other hand, a narrow and boyish literality of design, a starveling fancy that cannot go beyond the record, a feeble execution that cannot escape from the crudest defects. Angelico displays the soul which animated the early painters, but not the power which is to be recognized in some struggling through the technical ignorance of the dark ages. He lived at the opening of the fifteenth century, half a century after the mind of bis country had been developed by the diverse genius of Petraroh, Dante, and Boccaccio. Now compare these extracts of his works with the much more fragmentary specimens of Giotto, who lived more than a cen- tury earlier—just after Cimabue had broken from the purely mechanical style of the degenerate Greek art. There are two scraps of fresco—Peter and John approaching the body of Jesus, and the female figure from the same set. Remember that art had then degenerated to mere pattern- drawing: it was Cimabue's merit to break away from that style; Giotto, his greater pupil, was only the second historical painter after the darkness of the middle ages. The idea in these fragments is as grand and the ex- pression as intense as if he had lived in the days of perfect art: the devotion of the two saints is seen through the meagre and uninformed drawing, and impresses the mind with that sense of solemn admiration which we feel at the sight of what is sublime. The thought which Giotto tried to embody
in the female figure is as grand and graceful as Raphael himself could have imagined—the thought is free and bold, though the stiff untutored. lines
will not follow it. Had another Giotto lived a century after this one, Raphael would have been antedated. In Giotto we recognize not only the earnest and devotional character of early art, but the power of Itslise genius, only nnendowed with tools and appliances.
Such are the distinctions which the observer should bear in mind. In the " Head of a Youth," by Glen Bellini, we see that art had made an im-
mense advance towards maturity: we see the same grace, the same sense of life and truth, of emotion and its outward manifestation, as we note in Lorenzo da Credi and Raphael. But to survey the progress of art. with profit, the observer must discriminate generally, between the spirit of the time, the natural power of the painter, the crudities of ignorance, and the skill of cultivated practice. Giotto and Raphael were men of the same Wass
in nature, of similar inherent power,—the awkwardness of the early Flo-
rentine was the accident of his time: Angelico shared the awkwardness of Giotto and his spirit, but not his power: in " the Crucifixion," by Lucas Cranach, who flourished a century latter than Angelico, there is the awk- wardness, without either spirit or power, and only made more deplorably flagrant by some slight development in the mechanical part of the work.. Again, compare the colouring of Paolo. Veronese with that of some of our boasted " English colourists," and learn what is meant by " colouring," by " brilliancy," and " force." A notion has grown amongst us, and has obtained complete possession of our practice, that brilliancy and force of colouring lie in selecting the brightest pigments and in so disposing them
as to force their tints most vividly on the spectator. In the works of the
Venetian, especially the two Allegories early in the catalogue, you see real brilliancy,—that is, objects are presented of their natural colour, whether it be gold embroidery, white satin, a pale skin, or a sad-coloured cloth, but seen under the selfsame light as is cast upon them in nature by the orb of day. That is brilliancy—not the agglomeration of harsh tints, or the imi-
tation of some metallic reflection that puts your eyes out. That is the
consummate skill, which uses the dull and restive pigments of the palette and forces them to reproduce the endless tints of nature and the open light of day. Gainsborough, of whom there are some fine specimens, oaught the true principle of colouring; but he had not the force of will for carrying out to full perfection the artist's lifelong task of study, and the figure-paintings which he has left too much resemble forcible sketches: they mark by con. trast the still lower position of his countrymen. We might pursue these comparisons further and more minutely: suffice it to indicate one way in which the opportunity afforded by the very in. teresting collection can be improved. Let us not, however, omit to point out the beautiful samples of Ruysdael, especially the one numbered " and the fine specimen of landscape and figures by Giorgione,"" masterpiece of colouring, with one of the most picturesque and gracefttl figures ever born of Giorgione's penciL
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