MORD NAPIER ON MODERN PAINTING AT NAPLES. * TIIE style of
Gibbon is a favourite with diplomatists who pretend ; to any literary training : and for state papers the style has its 1 advantages. The balanced periods and measured march give an I appearance of dignity to ideas that may not have much of that quality in themselves. The allusive manner of the great historian, which rather indicates facts than plainly states them, if a defect .in literature may be a merit in negotiation, from the loopholes it leaves to creep out at. The polished irony, a little in eyed upon, may elevate a compliment or mask a sarcasm': the uniformity 'which becomes monotonous in a long work has hardly time to pall in a despatch.
Lord Napier is no mean proficient in this style, and it is not ill -adapted to veil the inherent deficiency of his subject. This subject is less "notes on modem painting," than on modern painters, in Naples ; but, alas ! there are no Neapolitan painters of any mark er eminence. One great painter Naples did produce in Salvator Rosa, but he neither followed nor founded a school. The best of her other sons rose little above mediocrity ; the mass of them did not attain it. In Italy there are Roman, Florentine, Lombard, Bolognese, and Venetian schools of art, as well as schools of par- ticular men ; but there is neither a Neapolitan school nor the school of a Neapolitan. Even if there were, it would be little to the purpose; for Lord Napier is dealing with modern painting, which is not more lifelike or promising at Naples than anywhere else in Italy. The theme of the book is painters who were living, or so far as age is in question might have been living, when a few years ago Lord Napier filled up the intervals of diplomatic leisure by collect- ing materials for an account of the artistic institutions at Naples, the lives of her painters, and a critical estimate of their merits.
*Notes on Modern Painting at Naples. Byl.ordNapier. Published by Parker and Son.
The book is divided into three parts. After a summary histori- -cal review of Neapolitan art till towards the close of the last cen- tury, the first division notices the career, mentions the leading works and criticizes the merits of the historical, portrait, and what may be called the social painters of Naples. The second division deals with landscape, and "exteriors," or "interiors," treated in the -same way. The third part embraces the art institutions of Naples, and the encouragement they receive from Government. On this ground it is impossible to avoid contrasting the liberality of so small and poor a kingdom as Naples with the stinginess of our own country—for the country is just as blameable as Ministers. The Royal Academy, which though patronized by Government is not supported by it, sends one student to Italy on an allowance and leaves him to shift for himself. Look at the contrast in Naples.
"The Pensionato ' of Rome receives nine pupils, six of whom are Nea- politans, and three Sicilians. They are selected, as has already been inti- mated, by public competition. After passing one year in the study of the monuments and works of art at Naples, they are transferred to Rome under the inspection of a director, for 'five years, lodged in the Palazzo Rome, a venerable and appropriate habitation, and freely provided with all the ne- cessaries of life, and with the instruments, materials, and facilities re- quisite for their respective arts. An allowance of three pounds per month as pocket-money, and of seven pounds a year for travelling expenses, is also made to each student ; a sum which may appear slender in our apprehension, but which is perhaps not insufficient if we regard the origin, condition, and wants of the recipients. The spiritual functionary is, however, still present, and authoritative. In the first year of their residence, the painters (and with these the author alone has to deal) are each bound to deliver and for- ward to Naples a copy, in the natural size, of one of the works of Raffaelle, or some other famous master ; in the second, they must produce an original figure ; and subsequently an annual composition of which the subject is left to their selection. They are at liberty, with the consent of their superior, to execute pictures to private order. After the expiration of the term of six years, the pensioners are abandoned to the independent exercise of their pro- fession, and have no further claims on the Neapolitan Government, except such as their proficiency may create for them in the distribution of com- missions and the appropriation of public works. In addition to the nine pen- sioners supported by Government, the King usually entertains one at his private charge. Since the revolution of 1848, the Neapolitan students have not returned to [tome; they receive their allowances and instruction at Na- ples: but this suspension is believed to be merely precautionary, and it is hoped that the institution will shortly be replaced on its normal footing."
For the "slenderness of his subject" the author apologizes in his preface. The substance of the biographical and critical notices no doubt wants attraction'; for there must be some peculiarity in:a man or excellence in a work before a reader cares to hear about the one or the other. This drawback is in a measure got over by the style of the author, which in manner is courtly even in censure, as well as by his ski in seizing any remarkable feature in the mini or his productions. Lord Napier also introduces -various inciden- tal topics connected with the history of Neapolitan art, the features of the country, the character of the people, and the state of society. Here, for instance, is an account of the regular patronage which the habits of life among the old nobility extended to painting, though without producing a.great painter. "The aristocracy of Naples was not behind that of any other country in the encouragement of the arts, as long as the laws of primogeniture and en- tail maintained the dignity, the revenues, and the stability of the order. -Before the French Revolution, the more opulent families usually possessed, in the ancient quarter of the city, their hereditary abode of the fifteenth or sixteenth century ; their-residence on the Chiaja, betwixt town and country, enjoying the amenity of the landscape and the sea ; their summer mansion at Portici, which had sprung up under Charles III. by the emulous extrava- gance of his courtiers : and to these principal establishments they often added a villa, on the crest of the Verner°, or on the strand. of Pausilippo ; and al- ways on their landed estate a château, which united the dimensions of a pa- lace- with the deprivations of a hut. Each house contained its private ora- tory; and every noble race had at the capital, or in the provinces, endowed some-religious foundation or sepulchral chapel, on which the grief and taste of successive generations were piously expended. It is obvious that a vast scope for, pictorialand sculptural labour must thus have been afforded, where statuary and painting were the inseparable concomitants of domestic and re- ligious architecture. In the palace, the caryatides, the trophies, the es- cutcheons on the gates, gave employment to the chisel; the medallions and compartments on the staircases and in the veatibules fell to the moulders in stucco ; the antechambers were hung with hunting-scenes and pieces of still-life.; the ceilings of the great apartments glowed with the amours and the- battles of Olympus; while on their walls the canvass of Rome, Bologna, Venice, or Flanders, held the place of honour among the ruder but still -vigorous productions of the native pencil ; the bedchamber had its devotional guardian-picture, its crucifix of ivory or box-tree, its mural ornaments from the mythology of love or slumber : the place of prayer demanded its altar-piece, its images of the Saviour, the Virgin, and the saints; its 'pre- sepio ` for the feast of the birth of our Lord. The church or chapel where, in virtue of some benefaction, the family. held -its funeral solemnities, was the palace of the departed, rich with votive paintings and variegated mar- bles, and tombs with effigies of the fair or martial dead, accompanied with all the sculptured graces and alarms which Parnassus and Purgatory could blend. Such were the aliments which a proud and polite aristocracy pro- vided for . the arts. The suppression .of baronial superiorities, the impove- -rishment of estates by war and confiscation, the fatal introduction of the de- mocratic law of inheritance, have rapidly destroyed the fortunes, the man- ners, and the tastes, which nourished so much elegance and grandeur. The titled Neapolitan now lives in a lodging and lies in a necropolis." This defence of the merely natural style is an example of the manner in which Lord Napier combines a descriptive and critical account of a painter with an indication of Neapolitan life and the 'discussion of a principle of art. " In figures, Signor Carelli brings a greater ?lay of invention and. fancy to the aid of that fidelity which never forsakes him. With romantic or reli- gious subjects in their higher forms, indeed, he does not attempt to deal; 'but hi depicting the sentiments and actions, the mirth- and labours, the de- motions and the dances of his humbler countrymen, he stands without a iival; and what existed before him, as a kind of conventional Manimate ,costume-painting, became in his hands a living, spirited, and interesting reality. The figures merest to the eye are not finished with a delicacy equal to that used by the great 'Dutch masters ; yet the expressions, as well as the attitudes, are properly discriminated, and they will reward a close inspection I in every variety of gesture and movement : -the drawing is correct, the own- position is most felicitous and unrestrained, and the remoter groups are dis- posed with an unstudied grace. To those whose hyper-delicate taste revo:ts from the contemplation of popular scenes, except they have the pathetic Of 'Wilkie or the ideal elevation of Robert, the familiar verity of Signor CareBile representation will frequently appear repulsive ; but it is the business of a generous criticism to combat such an imbecile refinement : this artist's can- vass may perchance be broad or droll, but it is never disfigured by grossness.; mid a manly judgment will not only admit the merit of his captured brigands, or his women washing in _the pelmad stream of Sore, but will grant a hearty sympathy to his fishermen and lasses, who, encircled by the amphibious throng, and animated by the music of the fife and tambourine, foot their jo- vial-tarantella before the taverns of that classic Wapping, the populous and vocal strand of Idergelline."
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