FINE ARTS.
RE-EXHIBITION OF THE PRIZE CARTOONS.
THE eleven Prize Cartoons are now exhibiting at the Suffolk Street Gallery ; where their merits may be more conveniently scrutinized than in Westminster Hall, the light here being much better, and the small number of designs not distracting the attention. The elaborate execu- tion of some and the meagre details of others are very apparent ; but generally speaking, the impression they now make is little if anything different from that first produced—certainly it is not of a higher kind. As historical pictures, they are all deficient in fulness of import and greatness of purpose ; seeming to be rather episodes, or casual incidents, than turning events in the career of a hero or the destiny of a nation. They are not devoid of significance, sentiment, and human interest ; but these are of a local and personal nature—not the expression of the thoughts and feelings of a people, depicted in a few individual examples. Historical design should be the epic of painting : these are mere narra- tives ; with here and there a trait of dramatic force, though more akin to emotion than character. For instance, the Caractacus of G. F. WATTS, which is the nearest approach to epic grandeur of conception, has a calm air of dignity, a noble presence, and a lofty spirit ; but his countenance has not that rugged wildness and weighty force characteristic of the barbarian chief, in whom mental power and energy would be expressed by strong physical lineaments : it is a symbolical not an actual physiognomy : indeed, the whole design partakes of this abstract character. In so far as it is removed from the grossness of literal reality, it approximates to the ideal ; and contrasts advantageously with E. ARMITAGE'S Casar s Invasion. The faces in this design have a modern, conscious air, and a brutal ignoble character ; the cast of features and expression resem- bling Frenchmen of the present day, from whom they were probably studied : they have neither the rude and primitive simplicity of ancient Britons, nor the martial ardour and potency of Roman soldiers ; but on the contrary, a splenetic ferocity, partaking of the littleness of personal animosity as opposed to the nobler impulse of patriotic devotion. The grouping and drawing of the figures exhibit masterly skill, remarkable in so young an artist ; and bad the expression of the heads been as indicative of violent action as the bodies and limbs are, the repre- sentation of a conflict would have been most admirable : it is so in point of arrangement and muscular development. The attempt to portray Julius Caesar not as the ideal hero, but as a real soldier in the act of leading on his men, is bold though unsuccessful; and this cartoon gives evidence of power and daring, that if chasten- ed by refined feeling and vivified by imagination may produce great things ; but a tendency to coarse animal vigour is more strongly denoted than intellectual sensibility. The First Trial by Jury, by C. W. COPE, is a natural and impressive representation of this institution in a primitive state of society •, though, as has been aptly remarked, it does not convey an idea of the originating of this form of administering justice : the impannelling of the first jury would have surely drawn together an assemblage of wondering and excited spectators, and the jurors themselves might be expected to have shown some signs of strangeness, and a more eager earnestness to acquit themselves rightly ; while King Alfred, who presides, would have watched their proceedings with more thoughtful intentness. It has been urged also, that the first jurors were in fact witnesses; which would give an entirely different character to the scene. Apart from this last objection, however, there is a want of those attendant circumstances that should denote a new and extraordinary form of judicial inquiry, especially one that is regarded as a bulwark of our liberties.
Without accumulating instances, these defects in the three first and acknowledged best cartoons will suffice to illustrate the want of that imaginative power and intellectual impressiveness which should exalt the mind, kindle the fancy, and arouse the sensibilities of the beholders. We dwell upon them with no wish to disparage works of great ability and promise, but to point out those particulars wherein the most suc- cessful competitors hitherto have fallen short, that future candidates may direct their powers to form a vivid, mature, and enlarged concep- tion of the subject in their minds, before they proceed to treat it on paper : hasty and crude ideas, when put into shape, often stand in the way of a comprehensive, animated, and orderly design, by taxing the artist's ingenuity to patch up and eke out a vague and imperfect notion, instead of leaving the invention free to work upon a well-digested scheme.
The Messrs. LINNELL are steadily engaged on the task of reducing the cartoons to the scale of an inch and a half to the foot, preparatory to drawing them on stone ; and front the glimpse we got of their work we augur favourably of the accuracy and spirit of their copies. We had forgotten that these young artists had given testimony of their ability to undertake this work, in their vivid recollections of the pie. tares in the National Gallery, engraved in Felix Summerleis Plus- 4rated Catalogue.
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