THE KUNST-BLATT.
1.0 THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR, SIR-The Germans are the Egyptians of Europe ; with the game mysterious credulity, the same incomprehensible mystery, the same gigantic capacity; and what is their art at Munich but a hot, fiat, imaginative lime-illumination?
As words can only express what is intelligible, in another hundred years they will end in hieroglyphics.
The condition of an English student at Munich is frightful. On my writing to one and urging him on to Rome, be wrote me, "His whole time had been occupied in cartoons, and a lithe oil-colouring !-which surely ought not to be neglected among other things," says he. • Ah, my amiable youth, you will find by and by, among other things, to do a square inch of oil-colouring as it ought to be coloured is the occupation of a life. "Cornelius," he adds, "has often lamented he had not in early life paid attention to it, and advises all his pupils to study it in relation to fresco." My young friend then talks of using chrome-green as a half-tint in flesh. " A pound and a halfot civet, good. apothecary." But Sir, to return to Dr. MERZ and the Kunst-Blatt, he says there is no reality and objectiveness in English art," " and in reproducing objects mate- rially, we display remarkable want of power." 'What! no reality in LANDSEER'S dogs, ISPCtiss's armour, BRIGGS'S, PHIL- LIPS'S, and PICHERSGILL.S heads, and CRESWICK'S river-bits? Certainly one could not break one's knuckles against their imitations, as against German flesh ; but what would Dr. Mertz have? Things as hard as Dartmoor granite, and as flat as the "Last Judgment" of CORNELIUS are these his notions of ma- terial reproduction ?
" In the historical pictures there is no style in the lines," says he, "and bad colouring everywhere." And yet CANOVA and CICOGNARA both said to me, "the only school of colour in the world was the English." CICOGNARA was President of the Venetian Academy, was fresh from the finest Titians, and had rediscovered "The Assumption ; " and Sir GEORGE BEAUMONT had an oil- sketch by CANOVA, who was a Venetian, and which had all the drag and touch of the school.
In order to make a reply to this unjust accusation intelligible to the general reader-an accusation neither CORNELIUS, SCHNORR, ZIMMERSIAN, I&AUR` Baca, or OVERBECK could have made-permit me concisely to explain the meaning of lines in composition, so that he may follow and understand the ptoof.
After choice of subject, the first thing is a principal figure ; and in order to render the parts of which a composition is made agreeable to the perceptions, the next thing is to ascertain the inclination his figure makes as a line from head to foot, whether it be perpendicular or inclined. Whatever be the direction, as a line, of the principal figure, that direction ought to be repeated by the inclination of other figures in parallel but not equal lines, except for a particular purpose, as in" Ananias." Then, on the principle of contrast, other figures as lines must reverse the direction of the principal line; and by a judicious balance and repetition of one llne against another, always giving the leading line the superiority, you will complete 3 our composition in lines and quantities. No man is more aware of this basis than CORNELIUS; and neither he nor any oldie great noble-minded German artists could have made such a blun- &sr ais this Dr. MEnz, if they had only had one glance at the Exhibition. Per- mit me, with every apology, to answer for myself; the leading line in "Mary Queen of Scots," was the inclined line of the infant, which was repeated by the inclination of the nurse, and again by the line of the certain behind the Queen-mother. The next leading line was the line of the Queen' mother's position, who stood upright, which was repeated by the page and the lines of the windows ; and the last leading line was in the inclination of the Queen's arms, which was repeated by the bending of Sadler the Ambassador. Thus there were three leading lines, one predominating, which were re- peated, combined, and contrasted, more or less, making up the composition. Again, in " Poictiers," the leading line was the inclination of Lord Audley's figure, which went diagonally across the picture, which was repeated above by the stump of an oak-tree, and below by the wife of the dying soldier. The next leading line was the warrior leaning forward, (Hawkestone of Windhill, one of Audley's four squires,) which was repeated by the kneeling squire, (Foulcrust of Crew,) and lastly, by the dying soldier; and the last leading line was the figure of Lord Salisbury. upright on a white horse, which was repeated by Lords Westmoreland and Willoughby; and thus, again, was the composition made up in quantities and lines in each picture, there being a leading line and inferior repetitions in both. If RAPHAEL were living, I could appeal to him for the correctness of the explanation, for from his Cartoons was the great principle obtained ; and I can appeal to CORNELIUS with equal confidence, for no living painter is more aware of it. I defy refutation-I defy Dr. MERZ. " There is wanting," says this "learned Theban," "a living identity of sod in English art" : he means, " there is wanting a living reality of reward." The learned Theban knows nothing of our moral condition in art ; he does- not know (how can he ?) that every boy in England begins by imaginative woks, till he is compelled to relinquish the longing appetite to enable him to pay his baker. The Germans are fond of ghosts : why did not Dr. MERZ invoke the spirits of HUSSEY, BARRY, WEST, FUSELL and HILTON? and, if not satisfied with explanations from the dead, he might have consulted ETTY and myself. "The people," proceeds this well-informed man, "who produced Shakspere can show no work of art in which imagination has given expression to an im- portant thought." Did he see HILTON'S "Christ Rejected," in Chelsea Church; WEST'S "St. Paul," in Greenwich Chapel; ETTYS "Judith and Holofernes," at Edinburgh; "the Lazarus," at the Pantheon ; and "the Judgment of Solomon," in a dust- hole in Dean Street ? No, he did not : then how dare he calumniate a body of men by such assumptions without a patient investigation of what had been done, not fostered by patronage, but without any at all! The English historical painters are entitled to the cheers and sympathy of Europe, and not their abuse : they have rescued the country from Wit- MAN'S stigma of incapacity, and how ?-by state patronage, such as royalty has showeredon CORNELIUS, SC HNOREL, OVERBECK, KALMBACH, IkOd ZIMMERMAN? No; but fettered and overwhelmed by doubts, and sneers, and calumnies, at their suspected inability for great works: yet great works they have produced. Another Doctor, too, Dr. Waxoes of Berlin, must also have his kick at the gasping lion. In his Art and Artists, he too must add, with an air of insuffer- able condescension, " History is their weakest point." It is not their weakest point, but their least-rewarded. If Dr. WAAGEN had shown less enthusiasm for the brown part of a roasted shoulder of mutton when he dined with Mr. METnesN's house-keeper,* and more discrimination in art, it would not have been complained of. To conclude. The defects of the English are as palpable as the absurdities of the Germans: but I contend, and have contended successfully, the works Dr. MERZ brought forward as evidences were palpable proofs of the reverse: it follows, he is a man wanting in judgment: he is, perhaps, one of those hangers- on about a painter's room who has picked up the terms of art from their con- versation, and, like all ignorant men, has misapplied them on the first oppor- tunity. To conclude. As you say, Sir, deeds, and no more words. Epya, Epya, will be the test : and if English artists express their own feelings in the cartoon contest, and omit no principle of their school in management-if they remember they must be painters in charcoal as well as drawers-honour must accrue to them ; double honour, for they have been taken by surprise : it is like offering premiums to CORNELIUS, SCIINORR, and OVERBECK, for the best oil-pictures, where splendid handling, colour, impasto, and light and shadow were required; of which qualities they know nothing. It is, however, a great and glorious move in the state ; the beginning of a beneficial reform. Only let RAPHAEL'S Cartoon at Milan be the guide, and not the iron, overwrought, unmanly niggle of the Germans. Cartoons are a means, and not an end; and I shrewdly suspect the cause why no great handler of the brush has appeared on the Continent since RURENS, REMBRANDT, VELASQUEZ, and Munitt.o, (nearly two hundred years,) has been a baby, imbecile, helpless appetite to dwell for years on cartoon-pictures in charcoal. BP.S. I am compelled to request half a column still, fori R. H
he principles sof Decoration.
[We insert the second letter of Mr. Havoon though its subject is not what he indicated it should be in his first ; and, moreover, being of a controvermal nature, it is ill-suited to our columns. It is not for the Spectator to defend or attack the criticism of the Kunst-Blatt; therefore we refrain from making a remark or two suggested by Mr. Itsynosi's reply to its strictures. Our object in quoting the German critique was to call attention to the judgment pro- nounced on the English school generally, and the last Academy Exhibition in particular, by one of our Continental neighbours: that object has been accom- plished, and so far as we are concerned there the matter must rest. Where Eh% MEitz is unjust and prejudiced, there his remarks are of no weight; where he is right they will have full force. Instead of endeavouring to prove that his pictures are painted on sound principles, Mr. HAYDON would be better em- ployed in endeavouring to find out whatever their defects are that caused his friends to regret and his enemies to exult at his failure. Both authors and artists are apt to judge of their own productions according to their own feelings and intentions : it is only the conceited who refuse to listen to the opinions of others, or attribute an unfavourable judgment to personal ani- mosity, private motives, or professional bias. We shall hear MI. HAYDON with pleasure on the principles of Decoration.-En.] • See his rapture! Art and Artist/. Murray.
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