Flaxman's Classical Outlines : Notes on their Leading Characteristics, with
a Thief Memoir of the Artist. By John C. L. Sparkes. (Secloys.) TT.his volume contains the outlines, numbering one hundred and forty- six in all, with which Plaxman illustrated the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," lEschylus, and the "Works and Days" of Hesiod. The merits and defects of these designs are now so well recognised, that it is needless to speak of them. Suffice it to say that Mr. Sparkes furnishes stu- dents in this volume with a candid and intelligent criticism of their general character, while he briefly notices each in detail. Ho says very well of the artist, in his introduction :—" Flaxmau WOMB from his earliest days to have been fitted to receive and develop° the poetic visions of a calm, spiritual nature. His was no feverish genius, nor is there the least trace of any abnormal tendencies in the directien of excess of active expression, or exaggeration, or any striving after origi- nality." These words suggest a contrast with another artist, in many respects greater than Flaxman, William Blake. The tranquil repose
of Flaxman's art stands, indeed, at the very antipodes to the per- turbed genius of his contemporary. We may add that the reader accustomed to see the outlines in popular editions of Pope's transla- tions, will find that in this volume their beauty has real justice done to it. The illustrations to ./Eschylus and Heeled, though not so gener- ally interesting as those with which readers of Pope are familiar, will have the attraction of novelty to many.
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