THE ARTS.
ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION : SUB-HISTORICAL PICTURES.
SUB.HISTORICAL we call such pictures as derive their subjects from his- tory, but treat themrather in reference to costume, manners, or secondary incidents,. than to the primary and largest traits of human nature.
The historical painter penetrates through mere manners and costume to the enduring qualities of humanity : he delights to depict the great elements of emotion as they are evoked by events that overrule smaller accessories ; and then, although the accomplished artist will not omit cost:lime and other accessories, they sink to a secondary place, and fail to concentrate the attention. Be the costume right or wrong, what fixes your regard in viewing a work by Raphael, is the absorbing piety, the courage, the dignity, the love, the command, the terror—the one grand or beautiful sentiment which is the soul of the scene. The countenances, the fisFres, the grouPs, are on the same grand or beautiful scale : the ac- cessories are such as are necessary, but do not distract attention to them- eaves.
In the sub-historic class, the event may be momentous, but attention is not withheld from smaller circumstances. The event may be the fall of a throne ; but the dominant sentiment expressed may be, not the awe of humanity at the fall of kings and the mutability of states, but the paltry pusillanimous helplessness of an individual James Stuart, and the heartless
indifference of a disaffected court. And it hardly detracts from a due re- lish of such an expression, if you are called upon to note the modish turn of a ladY'ri.onnet dress, or the accuracy of a wig I in Louis Quatorm. It is better to accomplish this' kind of work than to burlesque the higher kind, or at least to make only gush an approach as marks the distance from the object unattained. Look round the rooms of the Royal Academy, ask yourself in what branch success is the more perfect, and confess that while more than one painter suggests to you rather what he does not do in the higher style, K M. Ward accomplishes his more limited proposition. You have a new and more vivid idea of the miserable James the Second :. you see the weakness of the man, which precipitated a contest that he. lacked the courage to face ; you see court intriguers without a commander, or a sentiment to attach them : in the pale and chopfallen James, you see the state loosened before you. The painting is a real illustration of history. Leslie's Katharine sending her last message to Henry the Eighth is leas striking, because the subject is more meagre ; but it is more touch- ing. Still it falls under what we call the sub-historic class, because the• main sentiment, of resigned and womanly faith, is subordinated to the- manners of the court, as the unities of pictorial grouping are subordinated to the formal usages of court attualance ; so that the design is, as it were, diluted and spread out by the needless interposition of costume or the blank space of flooring =occupied. Cope's Lear and Cordelia might claim to be of a more historic stamp;: but in proportion as it does so it fails. The smooth features of Lear speak not only of placid sleep, but of aged years unvisited by the rages: and agonies which harrowed the countenance of Shakepere's Lear. Cor- delia is a gentle young lady, moved, but not too much. The appropriate mien of the singers exceeds in justice of conception and execution the main objects, and forces the attention to secondary points. Mai:lise's " Spirit of Justice " proves the difficulty of dealing with al- legory. An injured relative demands justice on a murderer—exhibiting the bloodstained dagger; a knightly champion appears as the defender of a fatherless family ; an unfettered Negro acknowledges the blessing of English liberty ; the personification of Justice presiding over all : Se it if explained by the Catalogue; but the figures do not tell the story. The- pallid accuser looks like a murderer ; the champion is without obvious function ; the Negro is an unallocated anachronism. Something of fierce primitive feeling comes out in the accuser ; in the other figures a sort of eadrairged geos,_firsncthlust iniontefosiewn set theatrical aspect suggests the idea of a stage tableau, but fails to sug- gest the main story. Theatrical "properties" clash with abstractions, and the divided mind can implicitly follow neither, but halts between unat- ph.of Peter the composition; and Katharine action therinere hisie none toEmpress is a composition of accessories. An imaginary portrait of the young royal officer, three cavalry officers and a sentinel ; the young pea- sant girl ; a tent, a table, he., thrown together with an air of ease and probability-; costume; verisimilitude of individual character, agreeable portraiture of youthi*Id a coneide,rableimprovement on Mr. Egg's style of set forth. Theincident is derived from history; but the picture, pleasing as an object to look at, does not enforce your knowledge of history, nor enlarge your sense of human emotion, nor deeply touch your feelings.
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