FINE ARTS.
THE PICTURES AT HAMPTON COURT.
As the spring approaches—and our second winter has already set in—the sight-seeing folks will be flocking to Hampton Court ; and the picture- loving portion of the public will enjoy the first-fruits of the agitation of the Society fonned last year for obtaining free admission for the public to the national monuments and galleries of art. A more ac- ceptable service in its way could not have been effected. The admission- fee was the least part of the nuisance.: hitherto there was no such thing as seeing the pictures at all, though amongst them are the graudet achievements of pictorial art—the Cartoons of RAFFAELLE. Thoe ho have mingled with a drove of gaping Cocknies following at the heels of a vulgar cicerone, who bawled out the names of the pic- tures in each room, and scarcely allowed you time to recognize the existeatte of the several items in the oral catalogue, vil1 duly appreciate the gratification of walking through the apartments quietly, and looking round at their contents at leisure—stopping to contemplate any one
picture that particularly takes the fancy, and even going latch to have another look at it—comparing the works of the seventh masters, tracing the features of the smite individual in different portraits—without let or hindrance. We enjoyed this advantage the other day, and it seemed as it' we had never seen half the pictures before : there is really a very fine collection of' portraits by some of the greatest masters, though TrrtANS, l'ANDYK ES, REMBRANDTS, and Mt71ti.m.os do not abound.
For a.gallery of' such extent, the number of subject-pictures is ex- tremely small. In the Guard Chamber, where hangs the colossal por- trait of Queen Elizabeth's Porter, by Zreemato, is a battle-piece by .1 umo RomAso; and a few rooms on are the Cartoons of ANDREA. Mayruosa. These and the Cartoons of HAFFAELLE are the only grand works : the rest are nearly all portraits, the heads fail of strongly marktel chergetar. and los.•1.-bf tioen; likenesses of famous persons. The Beauties of Lrif.v. and KNELLE11, with tit, Icejing eyes and rouged lips—looking as if their faces were dressed ii a court-re.tiform of pro- fligate insincerity--are only fit to match with the painted-41ings of VEattfo, as part of the furniture of the Palace. The Ho:Amnia tit,: very numerous; and there are curious specimens of the earliest English paiuters,--Sir ANTONID 3lonii, contemporary with HoLBRIN, and Dun- sox, whom VANDYKE, having :aJen (me of his portraits, sought out and found working in a garret. The English Sovereigns may be seen pic- tured in ;llama uninterrupted succession from Harry the Eighth whose square flat visage looks like a wall of brawn, and Queen Elizabeth, limited with no shadow but that of time in her sharp, thin, cruel face, to George the Third, with Isis obstinate puzzled look : there, too, is Francis the First of France—not the courtly gallant with a physiognomy of vinous sensuality, as TITIAN painted him, but gross and prone, with little eyes embedded in fat, and a positive snout like a prize-hog. The Cartoons, like all really great works, impress you, however accustomed the eye may be to them, with a new sense of their beauty and grandeur : the absence of effort, nay more, the visible evidence of inspiration—as though the scene rose spontaneously to the painter's imagination in all its vivid reality, and was depicted extem- pore—strikes you most forcibly. This is the test of dramatic power in paieting ; which so absorbs the faculties in the contemplation of the event, that you never think of its liablg represented in any other•way : nor is the painter thought of, till the mind being thoroughly imbued with the sentiment of the subject, we are at liberty to reflect on the art that has been the medium of connuunication. The Cartoons are so judiciously placed, that the lower part of the frame is on a level with the upper part of the window tints, what portion of light finds its way into the apartment, is reflected upwards. It' the windows were closed, and a series of glazed apertures opened above them, just below the cornice of the ceiling, the evil might be remedied. But this is not the place for such works at all they are in danger both frimi damp and fire. The pictures have the name of the master and of the person repre- sented, it' a portrait, painted on the frames and they are open to every one freely front ten till four on the first four days of the week, and from two till four on Sundays.
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