FINE ARTS.
BEAUTIES OF THE COURT OF CHARLES THE SECOND.
TEE Beauties of LELY and KNELLER are not to our taste. The manner- ism, insipidity, and monotony which pervade them, make it almost impos- sible to distinguish one from another. They are specimens of mere phy- sical beauty, without the charms of humanity to interest or of expression to attract us ; and characterized by a bastard air of court impudence and conscious beauty, rendered more artificial by the mamwr of the painter. The display of flesh and blood is redundant, and barely decent ; which circumstance, however, has gained for them the popularity that they have enjoyed, as much as the celebrity of the persons and their conduct. The mode of dress was lax, like the morals of the day : luxu- riant ringlets floated wantonly over bosoms whose charms were revealed rather than concealed by a profusion of loose drapery ; cherry lips, round full cheeks, eyes of an elongated oval, with eyebrows to match, and the forehead encircled with a few scanty curls, comprise the catalogue of facial beauties, which varied but little in feature, and less in look—ex- pression there is none. Both LELY arid KNELLER, indeed, seem to have taken for their creed the line from Pore, "Most women have no character at all."
LEIN'S female portraits are far superior to those of KNELLEIL His Meretricious airs and affected graces, adorned by the charms of colour, and an airy style of composition, whose apparent negligence carries off the artificial arrangement of his fluttering draperies, are not without their attractions and, falling in with the fashion of the day, are more in ac- cordance with the originals than the set and starched formality of K ti ELLE Its The male portraits of KNELLER are, on the other hand, far superior to those of LELY; though, whether it was the effect of the periwigs or not, his portraits are too similar in appearance.
The portraits of the Beauties of the Court of Charles. the Second, by Lem', have been often engraved, and are indispensable as illustrations of the Memoirs of the Count de GRAMMONT. A new series of them is now commenced, by way of illustrating the Memoirs of EVELYN, the Diary of PEPYS, and other records of the time of Charles. It is to be completed in five numbers, each containing four plates, en- graved in the chalk manner, from highly-finished copies, by Mr. Muse- THY, of the original pictures. They are accompanied by Memoirs of each person, written in a very agreeable and animated style by Mrs. JAMESON. Thus the work may be bound up complete by itself, if re- quired. The engravings are for the most part good ; two or three of the portraits, those of Nell Gwynn, the Duchesses of Cleveland and Somer- set, the Countesses de Grammont and Chesterfield, by Messrs. WRIGHT and TROMPsOM, being particularly excellent ; but one or two by Mr. ]fors. are indifferent. As illii,trations of historical memoirs, we think the design is only half completed by confining it to the fair sex ; as em- bellishments to GRAMMUNT, this limit was very well, but even in that case we prefer to have included the cavaliers as well as the dames. The deficiency may yet be supplied.
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