FINE ARTS.
BRITISH INSTITUTION: EXHIBITION OF OLD MASTERS. We resume our notice of the works at which we only glanced in a general way when the present exhibition opened. The small Sandra Botticelli, " Tobit (Biblice, Tobias) and the Angel," has a large share of that special kind of poetic feeling which results from the literal but not common treatment of an ideal subject in a style of finished execution and warm bright colour, of which the angel's variegated wings, and the predominance of red and green, are noticeable points. Ra- phael, saving these wings, is but a man, Tobias evidently a close portrait ; yet the whole produces anything but an inadequate impression of the prieterhuman narrative. The manner nearly resembles that of the work by Botticelli's master, Fra Filippo, exhibited last year. Lionardo's " Portrait," a duplicate of the head known as " La Belle Ferroniese," is as perfect as a work of art can be, and as beautiful as a most beautiful woman. The pale cheeks, the soft speaking eyes, the gracious expression of a face capable of the depth of passion or scorn, are represented with a roundness of form, a melting gradation of shadow, and a solidity of splen- did colour, which challenge the art of the world and of all times. The " Virgin and the Magdalene" is known also, if we are not mistaken, un- der the title of "Divine and Human Love." Both names are to the purpose ; for, while the personages appear to be those of the first, their meaning is expressed in the second. The Magdalene is the Magdalene unconverted ; and a more subtilly complete type cannot be imagined,—of the character that is, not of the individual, for the traces are deficient of that better nature which is to lead to her redemption. The colour is exceedingly dark ; partly, doubtless, through time, partly as a matter of principle distinctive of Lionardo. The. symmetrical arrangement of the hands is also remarkable. We suppose we should assign to Da Vinci's school the anonymous "Lady with a Missal " ; since, although the general aspect and points of the costume strike as being rather of the old German style, the system of execution, with its deep vanishing shadows, seems to exemplify the same principle of which we have just spoken. Whichever school it may belong to, claims in it a work of minute truth in object-painting, of especial roundness and firmness of form, and great beauty of feature, whose extreme correctness and delicacy just escape the insipid.
In " The Visitation of the Virgin," from the frescoed wall of the Church of St. Maria della Pace in Rome, the forms and features, as be- ing positively ugly when ascribed to women, cannot so well be called grand as imposing. How much is really Michel Angelo's, how much Sebastian's, it may be difficult to decide ; but we think the right-hand compartment contains the most of the former. This appears to represent Joseph's vision of the angel—or possibly the angel and Zacharias— for the subject is not by any means perspicuously brought out. Its supernatural feeling is not of the celestial order, but of actual ghostli- ness and horror ; and this it has in a degree that approaches the awe- exciting. We cannot accept the same double paternity, nor even the same single paternity of either, for " The Flagellation" ; which is a very ordi- nary imitation of some obvious points of Michel Angelo's quality of form. Of the two works by Fra Bartolommeo, that called " Due Frati," which evidently depicts some legend of St. Francis of Assisi, is the finer ; being painted with a very impressive simplicity in a Raphaelesque character. The " Concert of Children" has a touch of the poetic, of a kind which does not tax the intellect ; but there is in the drawing a weakness which seeks to disguise itself as strength.
The two Annibale Caraccis, "Our Saviour Raising the Widow's Son" and " Our Saviour Healing the Blind," are powerful examples of the eclec- tic school. The unlifelike aspect and motion of the reanimated boy in the first, and in the second the whole figure of the blind man, place these pictures high among those of the artist and the epoch ; but in each the figure of Jesus lacks meaning sadly and therefore lacks real dignity. The "Landscape and Figures" by (aracci and Paul Mil has a fine dark massive foreground and a soothing green distance. We suspect both the so-called Titians ; though neither is deficient in excellence of a high class.
The "Study of Dogs" is very truthful and straightforward in canine ex- pression, and the relief admirable against a sky of tremendous Prussian- blue. There is not an iota of littleness in the whole treatment. A noble sorrow characterizes the " Head of Our Saviour." The Palma Vecchio again gives us pause on account of the figures of the Virgin and Child, which remind us considerably more of Tintoret ; yet, balancing the other part of the picture against this, we suppose it might be unreasonable to quarrel with the name in the catalogue. The portrait-treatment which the Venetian painters bestowed upon their subjects is strongly shown in the heads of the adoring kings and their attendants, which, although want- ing in definite purpose, are of a serious and impressive character. The colour is magnificent for depth and richness. There are two portraits of the Venetian school ; that by Moroni, evidently of a person with Moorish blood, has masterly ease of colour, and is excellently fleshy ; that of "A War- rior," by Pietro Vecchia, splendidly illustrates the great quality of the school—colour, but is rather feeble in drawing. The "Man's Head," by Francia, is one of the fine melancholy countenances in which he excelled; a good one, but with an unelastic look. For all its commanding air, Del
Sarto's "Virgin and Child" is but a solemn inanity. The rugged but artificial and untrue sublime of Salvator speaks bellowingly in the "Ro-
man Augurs." If the "Fortune," with its light colours and semi-classic
style, is really by the same band, we can only say that there is one man- ner of Salvator Rosa with which we had been hitherto totally unacquainted.
The Banxcie is no "Holy Family," but merely a study of wavy compo- sition. As such and putting natural feeling and action out of the_ques- tion, it halt much quaint allurement. A vulgar Carlo Dolce of "Hagar
and Ishmael" displays great power of colour; and the physical strain of Lancetto's " hien" Is represented with the effort of a gladiator in paint. Several Canaletti appear, of varying merit—two of them done in London. Alonzo Cano's "St. Theresa Relieving the Sick" may be conjectured to be one of the side-pieces of a triptich. A work more eccentrics and uninviting in its solemnity will not easily be encountered; yet it is the work of a strong man and painter, and repays, as it demands, study. Besides the great Murillo, " Don Andres de Andrade,"—a manly, strik- ing, and most individual work,—various others have been contributed. " The Charity of St. Thomas de Villanueva" is a fine sketch of dusky colour and character. A pretty face, very softly worked up, appears in the " Virgin and Child," but it has not a vestige of meaning. Poor also is the sketch of "The Assumption of the Virgin" ; and the resources of a very minor theatre furnish forth that of " The Coronation of the Vir- gin." No words short of a shocking irreverence will describe the cha- racter in the countenance of God the Father. Zurbaran's "Portrail of Himself" suggests a Jesuit turned painter—rich full lips, a formal luxu- riance of hair, and eyes that pry into Nature's secrets as well as the heart's. The "Benjamin "—why so named we fail to imagine—is a por- tentous-looking youth grimly painted.
Queer forms, character pushed to the verge of caricature, uninformed drawing, and the huddling of archaic arrangement, do not deprive Cra- nach's group of "Prince George of Saxony, and the Reformers Luther, Larisstat, Zuinglius, Melanethon, lEcolampadius, and others," of a cer- tain unconscious poetry. One behind the other, in the open air, the awakeners of Europe stand with earnest fixed faces, expectant-looking as though they awaited a coming miracle—the miracle to be wrought by that faith which can remove mountains. Most arresting is this expres- sion in the young face next Luther's ; while that of Melanethon has all the abstracted and mazy subtilty of the schoolman—the theologian who can confute, as well as the man who can denounce. The rocky back- ward-winding path assists the sentiment of poetry which the picture ex- cites in the spectator ; as for the painter, his purpose aimed doubtless at only the most literal prose. Executed on wood, this work has the sharp finish, with the deficiency of surface, which distinguishes enamel-painting.
Rubena's "Thomyris, Queen of the Massagetie, ordering the head of Cyrus to be dipped in blood," possesses less than usual of the master's bravura and coarseness of style, together with a grand arrangement of draperies. The expression of the chief head is ambiguous. The "Land- scape" has strong symptoms of being done without nature, and a crude unindividual look in consequence. "La Fete des Chaudrons " is a first- rate Tethers, having in full that silvery tone which dilletanti lay so much stress upon in the artist's works. Where all is good, the old women's heads generally are admirable ; and the whole is thoroughly imbued with the spirit not of uproarious jollity, but of that disposition to be pleased which precedes the full flow of the feast. To this work are added "The Disputed Reckoning," and one of Teniers's famed pasticci. "A Woman Peeling Turnips" becomes almost grand under the wonderfully finished and luminous touch of Maas. In the far greater effect produced by Flink's " Jacob Catz instructing the Prince of Orange " than by his " Samuel and Eli," we see the difference between fact and the make-believe at fact; and in Vander Werf a " Adam and Eve," the union of high elaboration and striking chiaroscuro with conception, inadequate, indeed, but not un- meaning. A splendid work, admirably finished, and as admirably superior to the mere items of finish, is "The Dutch Lady and Gentleman" of Rembrandt. The excessive glaze, however, destroys a good deal of detail that must unquestionably exist, and reduces the male figure's costume to one black mass. Both personages are very much like sitters, with a well- bred want of significance in the position of both, and in the countenance of at least the gentleman. "Leonard Bramer " is a finer head, equally well-painted in the manner identified with Rembrandt's name. "Prince Maurice" and " Prince Rupert" are Vandycks of average merit, but of more than average interest for the sitters' sake. " Mary, Princess of Orange," is the best picture of the three ; a little lady, with hands aristo- cratically taper before their time, and clad in a vermillion satin of charm- ingly silvery reflections. Power without effort is the essence of Frank Hers manly portrait of manly " Cornelius van Tromp,"—a sturdy pre- sence. A real man, too, and no vain simulacrum, lives yet in Holbein's "Stoma." The colour is very slight—having probably faded; but the face still breathes and speaks. We demur to attribute to the same hand " Catharine Parr,"—a nice figure enough, but stiff and rather flat. In the "Queen Mary" of Sir Antonio More we read the "Bloody Mary" of history: a painful face, rigid, methodical, and conscientious, with stupid obstinate forehead, and uneasy eyes - and the arms thin and wasted. The art of this portrait is not to be surpassed anywhere. The drawing is severe without being meagre, the colour most simple, deep, and harmoni- ous. It is a magnificent relic of an artist comparatively little known, but who belongs to the first rank in his department for intelligence, force, and sufficiency. Landscapes and minor subjects we must pass lightly over. One Claude, " The Cupid and Psyche," is a fine one ; the others are but so-so. There are an excellent Ruysdael, and a very sweet Breughel ; two remarkable "Moonlights" by Vander Neer, one with a rather grimy coal-light sort of effect ; some capital Cuyps ; and specimens of the gauzy yellow hazes which Both called sunlights. It is well that Haydon's " Judgment of Solomon " is to be seen now when his autobiographical writings are on the point of appearing ; for those who had forgotten, or who refused to believe in, any valid grounds for the painter's original fame, will here ascertain the fact of their existence. Were there nothing about it but general grandeur of tone and glowing mass of colour, it would still be the work of a born painter of the higher rank. But there is more than this,—strong character, especially in the accessory heads ; fine points of incident, as in the wo- man, who, at Solomon's savage-seeming decree, catches up her own in- fant, and is hurrying away ; and an explicit development of the story. In short, it is the production of a man qualified by nature for historical art in the grand style. The incipient defects which gradually rendered so much promise abortive are to be noticed in the grossly exaggerated action of the soldier who prepares to hew the living child in twain, and in the design of some of the extremities. The best English portrait, as well as the one most interesting for both its painter and its subject, is that by Hogarth of " Garrick and his Wife "a work admirable in the expression of the sitters, in the look of life, and in the design and treatment of the dra- peries. Garrick, imagining himself in a fine pbrensy as he writes, is about to be disturbed by his wife, who catches playfully at the pen he holds in his hand. The only portrait by Reynolds of superior quality is "Maria, Countess of Waldegrave, and her Daughter, Lady Elizabeth Laura,"— pretty, delicate, and true. The "Caricature "—of a travelling-incident that occurred to Lord Wicklow—has another kind of attraction. The Lawrences, with the exception of a sketch of " Boys' Heads," known by engravings, are wretched affectations—clumsy, flimsy, and pretentious. Wilkie's " Card-Players," Angelica Kauffman's " Portrait of Herself," Constable's " Hay-Wain," and Opie's "Elizabeth, Queen of Edward the Fourth, placing the Duke of York in Sanctuary," are already familiar, or sufficiently characterized by their titles. There are several Wilsons, in a style which numbers have at length learned to condemn as slovenly and untruthful, instead of lauding as grand and poetical. Turner's " Tenth Plague of Egypt" betrays, and parades as trophies, the shackles of the same style. It shows the hand of a greater man, and has pointsof imagi. native terror; but it remains radically bad and false—the evidence of genius emasculated by the conventional reverence for the traditions of weakness. Neither is the preferable " Temple of Jupiter in the Island of ./Egina " a work of Turner's truly best period ; although such as admire a splendid variety of brilliant colour, studious composition the elsomie style of landscape, and the love of beauty at all points, rather than the beauty and the individualities of nature tempered by each other, will think it is, and roll forth their cheap raptures accordingly.
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