FINE ARTS.
HAYDOWS Lectures on Painting, at the Mechanic's Institution, fill the theatre at Southampton Buildings with attentive and delighted audiences. We rejoice to see the subject excite so great an interest ; for although much is owing to the earnestness and animation of the lecturer, and the nervous vigour of his style, not even these, combined with the enlarged and just view he takes of art, the profound know- ledge of his subject, and the sound principles and lively illustrations for which his lectures are admirable, would have commanded the atten- tion of a mixed audience twenty years ago. We wish the artists who have been accustomed to listen to the dry and useless homilies doled out at the Academy could profit by the vital instruction that the mechanics are receiving. We attended Mr. BAYDON'S fourth lecture on Wednesday. Com- position, or the arrangement of forms in a picture, was his immediate point ; which he elucidated forcibly by diagrams and references to the Cartoons of RAFFAELLE, of which he exhibited a set of engravnera. He defended RAFFAELLE against the disparaging opinions of V..1111. and REYNOLDS ; proving them to he erroneous, and showing that in proportion as they undervalued RAFFAELLE they overrated Mienaer. ANGELO. In this we entirely agree with him. MienAt:r. Axoi:r.o's grand manlier imposed upon the minds of many, who fancied sub- limity where there was often only exaggeration. Thus the simpli- city and reality, the beauty and elegance of RAFFAELLE'S style, made his dramatic force appear as inferior to the assumption of superhuman grandeur as humanity is to divinity. Well does BAYDON characterize the bigoted reverence of MICHAEL ANGELO as a " dagon worship." He also vindicated the fame of the Greek painters; and contended that they not only drew and designed finely, but understood colour, light and shade, and perspective. He made out, by quotations from PLUTARCH and PLINY, and by reference to their statues and bas. reliefs, a strong case in proof that the APELLES and PARRHASIUS were asgreat painters as PHIDIAS and PRAXITELES were sculptors. Ile ridiculed most happily the pseudo grand style, which assumed that the ideal was attained in proportion as reality was departed from ; and showed, by the example of the Elgin Marbles, the Cartoons, and the greatest painters generally, that the imitation of nature was the basis of grandeur as well as truth. He concluded a most powerful and interesting lecture by a tirade against the Royal Academy,—just and deserved in the main ; though it was hardly in good taste to instance himself in proof of the flagrant injustice and tyranny of that body. We believe what IlamoN states is true,—namely, that the Academy having been till lately made up of mediocre men, mere face-painters, who have degraded por- trait-painting, and discouraged history-painting, &c., they have kept out by every means in their power men of greater ability, and especially such as evinced a desire to disturb the peaceful dulness and snug monopoly of influence and power possessed by the members ; and that, acting in this spirit, they expelled BARRY and shut their doors on IlarnoN. The eccentricity and wayward temper of' Mita; and the egotism and impetuosity of HAYDON, may have provoked, but could not justify such conduct. But if HAYDON had only replied by painting fine pictures, he would have been a wiser man and a still greater painter. Harping upon his own wrongs only causes many to feel distaste, who would coincide with him in his strictures on the Academy, and gives room for the insinuation that his antipathy is per- sonal rather than patriotic. The continual intrusion of himself upon the public in this way, weakens his cause and lessens his influence. Happily it cannot invalidate the soundness of his doctrines. We hope he will promulgate them all over the country.
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