To an audience of about one hundred, students apparently, as
the ma- jority were very young men, Mr. F. P. Cockerell delivered his lecture on the "Painting of the Ancients," at the lecture-room in the Brompton Museum, on Wednesday last. The lecture was full of point and intelli- gence and instruction ; its corollary may be summed up in an ear- nest caution against servilely copying the polychromy adopted by the ancients, instead of reading with the light afforded by their glorious works and applying the result to the particular circumstances of our own climate with the architectural conditions it imposes. The Greek period of art was thoroughly examined ; the lecturer insisting that Nature was the Greeks' text-book ; and Nature is always harmonious in her colour- ing, whether at the Poles or the Tropics,—in glaring brilliancy or sober coldness ; while her distribution of light, pure and reflected, cannot be improved.
The aim of Studies from the Great Masters," by W. Dickes appears to be to provide studies of well-known pictures, of all schools in imitative colouring at a popular price, much below anything hitherto issued. At present the work may fairly be pronounced to be based on the honest de- sire of the artist to disseminate a love of art and art treasures.
The prizes on art-subjects offered by the Ecclesiological Society do not meet with a satisfactory amount of competition. Strange to say, the Chairman, Mr. Bereaford Hope, in announcing the awards on Wednes- day evening last, declared that the ten pound prize for best description of metal work had not been even tendered for ; that the five guineas for wood-carving were not earned ; and that the five guinea prize for draw- ings from casts had not drawn out a sufficient maximum of merit, and the amount was modified accordingly. The premium of five guineas for successful colouring of a statue had alone secured an able competitor. In future it is discreetly proposed to accompany the money rewards with a diploma of merit.
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