THE NATIONAL GALLERY AGAIN.
TICE East wing of the new building at Charing Cross, which forms• that portion of the edifice appropriated for the National Picture-Gal- lery, is now externally completed; and, the scaffolding being removed, its low elevation stands forth in all the newness of stone-work and the nakedness of the design.
We have had such frequent occasion to notice this structure—to which, unfortunately for the architect, public attention has been parti- cularly directed, by the jobbing that attended its very outset—that fresh criticism may appear invidious. We need only remark, that the erec- tion itself, so far as it has proceeded, justifies our strictures in every point. The most casual observer must be struck with the unpleasant effect of the blank space above the glazed windows of the ground floor. The range of contracted window-shaped niches but poorly relieves and certainly does not fill up the vacancy. The pepper-box cupola is not ornamental, simply because it is evidently useless and inappropriate. In short, the tout ensemble is feeble and frittered. It looks like an ar- chitectural toy ; and its sculptural decorations have been stuck up, pulled down, and shifted about, toy-fashion.
Since our last notice of these puny and incongruous excrescences, the twelfth-cake trophies have been removed from the angles of the sculptured pediment, and two winged genii with wreaths (for the dying Nelson, or for the architect?) have been substituted for them. So far this is an improvement, for the figures are really graceful ; but what. business they have there, is a mystery. The sea-horses have been de- posed, by what appears to be either a marine Nymph standing between the prows of two antique vessels, or Diana in front of a crescent moon. Whether these embellishments are destined to remain, we know not— perhaps no one else knows. Of the construction of the building we cannot speak, but Mr. WILKINS'S mode of building is accounted sub- stantial; and this certainly appears so. The workmanship looks good ; and the carving of the capitals and mouldings is well executed. Apropos of architectural designs, some wag of an architect has put forth an ingenious caricature of the styles of four of the most known architects of the day, purporting to be their respective designs for new Houses of Parliament. The peculiar pedantries that deform the buildings erected by Sir Jottx SOANE, Sir ROBERT SMIRKE, and 'Messrs. NASII and Wtracnes, are amusirgly exaggerated. In Mr. WILKINS'S design, ladders ace placed against the windows for entrance; the porticos being for ornament only, not for use—vide the much- vaunted portico of the London University, which is placed upon an enormous flight of steps, that, by their never being used, we presume lead to nothing.
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