lint Arty.
The print room of the British Museum contains the collection of en- gravings, wood-cuts, and original drawings by the great masters, which belong to the nation ; yet very few people are aware that there is such a collection, and still fewer have ever taken the trouble necessary to get a sight of these works of art. The library and reading room of the Mu- seum ought to be open to the public upon easier terms, but the restric- tions which guard the books are extended with greater rigour to the prints and drawings. Supposing, however, that the student has proved his respectability and in due course received his admission, he soon finds that to gain any real acquaintance with the large collection consumes no small amount of time and labour. Now, the very large number of the prints and drawings of course prevents the exhibition of them in the same complete manner as that adopted in the Oxford Museum, or that for the Raphael and Michel Angelo drawings, when they were shown at the South Kensington Museum ; though we must say that, in any future rearrangement of the national works of art, it would be incumbent upon the directors to exhibit all the important drawings and engravings. The knowledge of art to be derived from viewing the original drawings of the great masters is of very great value ; and the study of the history of art receives very important aid also from engravings, many of which enable us to obtain a very good idea of pictures which we might never be able to see in any other form, while some are the only records of great works destroyed or lost. The recent exhibition of studies and sketches at South Kensington was felt universally to be a moat serviceable arrange- ment, and pointed out decidedly the necessity for keeping always before the public these examples of how great men worked in their study. The plan of binding up drawings and engravings in large ponderous volumes,
must not only be an expensive one, but the constanthandling of these vo- lumes must lead to a great amount of wehr and tear which might be easily avoided, at the same time that the objects would be more advantageously seen in every way. The special grant of 25001. to this department of fine arts in the British Museum, has reminded us both of the treasures of rare excellence that lie comparatively hidden in the print room and how desirable it is that at least the most choice and beautiful of them should be as easily seen as the pictures in the National Gallery. This grant has been expended under the advice of the Keeper, Mr. Carpenter, in the purchase of some of the best of the drawings which were collected by Sir Thomas Lawrence, at a very great ex- pense, purchased at his death by Mr. Woodburn, the dealer, and now again dispersed by the sale of Mr. Woodburn's collection. It is to be regretted that all the Lawrence collection was not bought at the time of his death by Government ; it would then have been kept to- gether, and might have been obtained for a sum little exceeding that now paid for the selection of 134 drawings. The collection, however, was sharfd between Mr. Woodburn, The King of Holland, and the Ox- ford Museum. The Oxford purchase will be remembered by the exhi- bition at South Kensington, and the part which went to the gallery of the King of Holland was, at his death, sold again, and bought by Mr. Woodburn. Among the most interesting of these drawings are several of the early Italian masters-Giotto, Simone Memmi, Masaccio, Lorenzo di Credi, Francis, Luca Signorelli. By Raphael, there are :-Jacob's Dream, a drawing in bistro and white upon light brown ground, for- merly from the Crozat, Legoy, and Dimsdale collections. The Death and Coronation of the Virgin, a very fine composition in his early manner, in grey and white; from the Borghese Palace. A superb drawing in coloured chalks-a portrait of Timoteo della Vite, the friend of Raphael and a collector of his sketches, who conveyed them to the Ansaldi family at Pesaro, from whence they were obtained at different times by Crozat and Woodburn ; Lawrence having purchased them with others afterwards for the sum of 40,0001. A portrait of a youth, considered to be Raphael himself, and a study for the head of St. Peter in the transfiguration, engraved in W oodburn's facsimiles, are the other Raphael drawings. By Michel Angelo there are a very perfect and highly-finished drawing in black chalk on white paper, of the Holy Family-which was once in the collection of M. Buo- narotti and the Chevalier Wicar. The Crucifixion-a sketch in red chalk with numerous figures. The Virgin and holy women lamenting and departing after the Crucifixion ; The Resurrection; two figures studies for a group in the "Last Judgment." By orreggio there is a most interesting study in white and grey for the effect in the celebrated "Notte " at Dresden, and a beautiful little drawing, a lunette, of the Virgin and Child, done in red chalk. The selection includes also some admirable drawings by Sebastian del Piombo, Andrea Mantegna, Par- migiano, Giorgione, Benvenuto Cellini, Domeniehino, Holbein, Rubens, Jordaens ; and by Rembrandt, besides several excellent drawings, a mag- nificent pen and ink copy from Andrea Mantegna's " Calumny of Apelles." A large and very interesting example of illuminating by Don Silvestro, is also a valuable acquisition.
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