Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

is at present invaluable; what would it have become if he had merely taken such parts of it as suited his plan for a basis, and raised a superstructure entire ly his own?

FINE ARTS.

the immense bronze figure of Fame, which was to have surmounted the Pantheon and made his fortune, has not yet been executed. In the revolution the most violent of the violent, and the brazenlunged eulogist of those exploits which despoiled all Europe of the chef d'œuvres of art to enrich Paris, this friend of the arts found out last year that statues and pictures had no value, excepting in the places for which they were originally designed; and he saw, and applauded the deed, the wanton spoliation of the Museum, unwarranted either by treaty or the right of conquest. It must be confessed that he selected his example well; and, to shew how well he could confute, change sides, and still confute, -how well the man, who denied the existence of a Deity and the immortality of the soul, can write on those subjects when it suits his purpose, we shall select his grand proof of the locality of importance in works of art, in the picture of the Duchess of Valliere taking the Veil.

Le Jupiter Olympien; ou, l'Art de la Sculpture Antique, consideré sous un nouveau point de vue; ouvrage qui comprend un Essai sur le Gout de la Sculpture Polychrôme, l'Analyse explicative de la Toreutique, et l'Histoire de la Statuaire en Or et Ivoire chez les Grecs et les Romains; avec la Restitution des principaux Monuments de cet Art, et la Demonstration pratique, ou le renouvellement de ses Procedés Mecaniques. Par M. Quatremere de Quincy, membre de l'Institut. Olympian Jove; or, the Art of Ancient Sculpture considered under a new point of view, &c.; with the Restitution of the principal Monuments, and a practical Demonstration of the Art of Sculpture in Gold and Ivory, &c. &c. Folio, with 10 plates-20 guineas. "She wished the pictures to retrace her In whatever point of view we consi- struggles, and her victory. In the der the present work of M. Quatreinere place even where the holocaust was conde Quincy, it is one of the most singular summated-on the spot where her ashes and extraordinary productions that has were to repose-the new Magdalen was appeared for many years; important in seen offering to the Eternal Being the bulk, typographic execution, and lite- sacrifice of her heart. On the altar of rary research. The author, who has penitence her hand deposited the spoils long been one of the most celebrated of vanity, and cast far from her the gaumembers of the Institute, is a living dy trappings of the world; her eyes, proof that great abilities and profound become an exhaustless source of tears, learning may be united, in the same per- were no longer opened but to raise them son, with heroic pride and the most to heaven. Oh! how the minds of senabject meanness. M. Quatremere de sibility loved to go and visit there this Quincy is the plastic Proteus of circum- affecting picture! In that temple of restances, and in the commencement of pentance, what did not that suppliant the revolution was one of the first to dis- attitude, that expression of sorrow, paint honour the glorious struggle for liberty, to them? and those eyes, eternally red by creating a democratic tyranny; and with tears, what things did they not resuch was his unholy zeal, that no insti- late in this funereal-spot?-how many tution was sacred in his eyes. Proud of ties, and what affecting ties! how maprofessing atheism, he struck at the root ny lessons, and what lessons!--but of of every mode of worship save that of emotions and recollections attached solethe Heathen mythology, which he che- ly to the walls which contamed this picrished because its intimate connection ture. These walls have disappeared, with the Fine Arts was not a matter of and with them the enchanting train of indifference to his cupidity. The pro- ideas and illusions which embellished jector of the Pantheon saw, in the idle the work of the pencil. This faded dreams of the clerical impostors of old, painting, exposed in pompous galleries "the universal religion of nature," be- to the vain curiosity of cold criticism, no cause they brought grist to his mill. lònger appeared any thing but a pale Many of his plans were adopted; but copy of itself, and scarcely attracted a

[graphic]

single look. What do I say? I have down to us. It is almost exclusively seen this image become unfaithful to from sculpture in marble, that we derive the vows which gave it birth-I have our knowledge of the art amongst the seen this perjured image ornament the ancients, their productions, and their gilded fragments of that very palace,* traditions; but each division of the art the only place in the world which ought of sculpture (a division founded on the never to have received it-I saw it, and diversity of the materials and procedures) I turned away my eyes." had its particular genius: that of sculp-Who would suppose that this very M. ture in marble has almost solely influencQuatremere de Quincy, who so patheti- ed the taste, the habits, and manner of cally deplores the removal of this pic- judging of the moderns. And it is ture from the "sacred walls" that con- scarcely even suspected that the principal tained it, was the man who suggested the chefs d'œuvres of ancient times belongdestruction of those very walls, and the ed to other procedures, to other primiannihilation of every edifice consecrated tive elements, and were consequently to the Deity? subjected to different maxims of taste. One might pardon these aberrations, The first part of the work is devoted to under the idea that the author only re- the consideration of the Polychrome tracted his errors, and was returned to sculpture, or in relief, amongst the Greeks the right way; but what shall we think and Romans, in various colours, producwhen, at the very moment of his return- ed either by a light application of coling to the right way, we find him in- ouring substances, or by the employtriguing against his brethren, and, by his ment of different materials, or by the impoisoned calumnies, procuring the ex- assemblage of metals of different colours; pulsion from the Institute of its foun. by which means a composition in basders, Gregoire and Mongez,-names relief presented some appearance of a that will be glorious in history, when M. picture. Quatremere and the Institute are forgotten.

But let us dismiss the depraved character of the author, and consider only his work.-Fas est, et ab hoste doceri.

The second is consecrated to the development of that division of the art of sculpture called the Toreutic. Various have been the idle conjectures of even ancient and modern authors on this subThe work of M. Quatremere is divid- ject; but our author shews very clearly ed into six parts, preceded by a copious that it was the art of sculpture in metals, introduction, in which he shews the rea- and that it was on this account that son why artists and connoisseurs have Phidias and Polycletes were called Tobeen prevented from fixing their atten- reuticians; and he concludes by the restion on a branch of art, and a species of titution and description of a coloured monuments, which were the most im- design of the coffer of Cypelas, accordportant from their destination, and the ing to Pausanias, which was, in the time most remarkable and curious from the of that traveller, the most ancient specimerit of the art and the artifice of their men of sculpture in gold and ivory that mechanism, viz. the statues, frequently existed in Greece. colossal, of gold and ivory. These The third part contains researches on monuments, the production of the most the principal historical documents on famous artists, were placed in the most statuary in gold and ivory, preceding the celebrated temples. The magnitude of age of Pericles. The details he enters their dimensions, the value of their ma- into are highly curious and important; terials, the variety of their accompani- and concludes with the restitution of the ments, made them regarded as miracles throne of Apollo, with all the accomin the art of statuary. The nature alone paniments and the details described by of the materials, added to their price; Pausanias.

and this material forms the principal The fourth part contains the history of subject of the problem of execution. No the statues and colossi, from Pericles to work of this kind was likely to come the period of Alexander; and he gives *It was exposed in the apartments of the analytical descriptions and coloured designs of the most celebrated monuments

palace of Versailles.

of Chryselephantine statuary,-viz. the vourable to him, we will only consider
Minerva of the Parthenon, and the Ju- the work in itself as a literary composi-
piter Olympus of Phidias.
tion proposing to clear up many dark

The fifth part, besides the continua- and obscure passages, and unveil the
tion of the history of Chryselephantine mysteries and the beauties, and the al-
statuary (in gold and ivory) down to the most inconceivable prodigies, of ancient
age of Constantine, according to a chro- art to our view. His task was truly
nological order, contains new researches Herculean, like his subject: the ques-
on the use of thrones in the great tem- tion is how he has acquitted himself of it.
ples of antiquity. The author comprises A peculiar merit of French authors is,
under the name of thrones, those grand that in the analysis of any subject they
and rich compositions of statues and attend greatly to method: they often
colossi, whether seated on seats embel- want depth of learning, but rarely a
lished by all the resources of the art, or clear regular systematical mode of con-
whether grouped with other figures sidering a question; it is, therefore, to
which serve as an accompaniment; and be wondered at, that M. Qatremere, who
he shews that similar monuments existed is no stripling in the art of book-making,
in nearly all temples of the first order. should have totally neglected so material
The restitution of statues in gold and a point in his grand work. He is a man
ivory does not come lower than Con- of immense reading and some learning;
stantine; at which period we have ma- but on the present occasion, wishing to
ny proofs they were held in great estima-
tion, and continued to be made.

strike out something new, from the con-
viction that the present state of our
knowledge on these subjects is very im-
perfect, he is in a perpetual perplexity to
define what he imagines to be right, he
is extremely verbose and heavy, contin-
ually wanting perspicuity and succinct-
ness; and, after wading through hun-
dreds of heavy pages, we are almost.
tempted to exclaim,

The sixth part contains the solution of the grand problem of softening ivory, and adapting it to the composition of colossal statues. This seems to have been the grand object of the author in this stupendous work. The mind of the public has long been purposely prepared for the development of this great secret; and we were present at the Institute, last autumn, when a memoir was read on the subject, and specimens of softened ivoryBut the work of M. Quatremere is a fish were handed round, as specimens of very singular one, and he wished that the successful efforts of M. Quatremere; every thing in it should be singular. which afforded the learned secretary the The dull beaten track of dividing a work occasion of a witty rhyme and necessary into chapters or sections is exploded for injunction,on giving it out of his hands:

Il faut la passer,

"Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.'

HOR.

12.

the new division of paragraphs; thus, the first paragraph of the polychrome, Mais pas la casser. or party-coloured sculpture, occupies Certainly the specimen appeared con- seven folio pages! The second parasiderably softened, and bent more easily, graph is of the same length, and all though deprived of a great portion of its this merely to tell us that, in the inelasticity. At length the long-expected fancy of the art of sculpture, colours secret is to be made known, in a ten- held the second place after form; and, guinea volume. What is it ?-M. Qua- consequently, what is now exploded as tremere has made us wade through a bad taste by the moderns, was then refolio volume of 500 pages to come at it, garded a great perfection; and next that and our readers must not expect to learn (in the infancy of the art too) real drait all at once. We have but merely peries ornamented the statues, as is at given an index or table of the contents of present the taste in India. The examM. Quatremère's work; we will now ples given in proof are highly creditable proceed to analyse the various parts, and to the industry of the author-but why what pretensions he has to the gratitude fourteen folio pages for what might have of the learned world. Divesting our been comprized in two common paraselves of every thing that may be unfa- graphs? The third and fourth paragraphs

[ocr errors]
[graphic]

contain many curious arguments to prove, ivory, by which the ancients were enawhat no one ever doubted, that, in the bled to form colossal statues of that subearly ages of Greece, they sculptured stance, are the grand subjects of the much in wood. We could easily prove, work; and we are sorry to say, we think to the satisfaction even of M. Quatre- the author has as completely failed in mere, that this custom held in every age the latter as the former; he devotes upof Greece, that the "household gods" wards of fifty pages to tell us, that they in particular, and statues in general, for might have made them of a great numevery family possessed some, were in ber of pieces fastened together, (we the ratio of 1000 in wood to one in needed no ghost to tell us this,) or the marble at least. elephants might have been largerAfter being at the pains of convincing granted, and that the ivory was merely us, in ten pages, that statues were ac- rendered soft the better to work it pertually made of wood, he gives a list of haps. But the secret, M. Quatremere, twenty-one species of wood of which which you have discovered-the art of statues were made, from ebony down to cork.

softening it, which you have amused the
world with so long? We have paid ten
guineas for your work, the price of your
rare discovery, and must have it. Hard
pressed, the author gives the grand secret

ders us miserable, as a thread cuts bones
steeped in ashes and vinegar, or as ivory
is softened and extended by the zuthos
(beer made of barley) allows itself to be
bent and fashioned, which cannot be done
in any other manner, &c.!! (Plutarch
an vitios ad infelic. suffic.)
«Quid faciam? nam sum petulanti splene

eachinno?"

The fact is, that the ancients made statues of almost every thing, from iron down to wax, gum, and pitch. We wonder M. Quatremere should have here in these words of Plutarch: If vice renomitted a just compliment to his countrymen, the Parisian pastry-cooks, and shew how superior they are to the artists of ancient Greece. The most remarkable part of this" paragraph," which M. Quatremere has passed over slightly, is a statue of Venus, of loadstone, which attracted a statue of Mars, of iron. M. Quatremere is extremely fond of displaying his talent at what he calls restitutions; of these, the happiest appears to us the Shield of Achilles. His Olympian Jove seated on his throne, represents nothing aptly in fact but an old man upon a chuise percée. Luckily for the author, Jupiter is no longer a deity, or he would avenge the insult to his divinity, to Phidias, and to Homer, in a striking manner. Phidias took his idea from Homer's description of Jove, according to the prayer of Thetis; and Quinctilian avers that he (Phidias) was the only person who knew how to equal the divinity in the majesty of his images, majestas operis aquavit Deum, (Orat lib. xii. cap. 10); and Arrian tells us, It has been asserted a thousand times, (Epist. lib. i. cap. 6), that every one ac- as an axiom in nature, that the human counted it a misfortune to die without mind never retrogrades; that knowledge having beheld that statue: with these and liberty once implanted in the bosom, facts in our recollection, our curiosity to once suffered to flourish, the reign of see the restitution by so famous a man ignorance and despotism is eternally at as M. Quatremere was great; we saw it, an end. Would the fact were so; but, and turned away as M. Q. himself did alas, every page of history contradicts from the picture of Madame De la the sweeping assertion. What has beValliere. come of the learning in Chaldea and in This restitution, and the softening of Egypt?-Sacred oracles of ancient

And is this all?-It is indeed. The ancients steeped ivory in beer to soften it, says Plutarch; or rather, says M. Quatremere, for we do not conceive the zuthos to be (bierre d'orge) barley beer, nor do we conceive that the ancients would adopt a mode of softening ivory, that destroyed its most precious property, its colour; but M. Quatremere tells us so, and the charge of ten guineas for the secret, if it be one, is too serious for a hoax; the proof is, however, that he has read Plutarch to some purpose, though we really think ten guineas for a passage, and that a very equivocal one, rather too much.

Description des Tombeaux de Canosa, ainsi que des Bas-reliefs, des Armures, et les Vases Peints, qui y ont étè dècouverts en 1813, par A. L. Millin, Chevalier de l'Ordre Royal de la Legion de l'Honneur, Conservateur du Cabinet des Medailles, des Pierres Gravèes, et des Antiques, de la Bibliothèque du Roi, Membre de l'Institut, &c. &c. &c. &c.

Greece, ye have vanished even to the
remembrance !-What is left of your
wisdom, ye sages, save disjointed frag-
ments snatched by accident from the
general wreck? ye fell, and ignorance,
Cimmerian ignorance, usurped your
throne. Athens, the seat of learning,
of wisdom, of all that was great and
good, is now a heap of ruins, and her
sons a herd of slaves. Genius of ancient
Rome, where art thou? Shall we seek A
the majesty of liberty in the modern tem-
ples of thy capital; or the victorious
spirit of freedom in the servile cowardly
bigot of modern Italy. In vain shall
we seek through all her long extent, that
sentiment, that kindling majesty :—

-------as when Brutus rose,
Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's fate,
Amid the crowd of patriots; and his arm
Aloft extending like eternal Jove,
When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd
On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel,

aloud

And bade the father of his country hail!
For lo! the tyrant prostrate on the dust,
And Rome again is free !---AKENSIDE.

Description of the Tombs of Canosa, as well as of the Bas Reliefs, Arms, and painted Vases, which were discovered there in 1813, by the Chevalier Millin, &c. &c.-Folio, 14 plates, price 100 francs. Paris.

THE reputation of M. Millin is too highly established in every country where the sciences are cultivated, and the fine arts cherished, to view with common interest whatever proceeds from his pen. He, more than perhaps any other, has succeeded in stripping Antiquity of her mystic veil; his profound knowledge and laborious researches on the favourite Or, coming to our own times, where, object of his pursuits, the Fine Arts, have we will ask, are to be found those glo- enabled him to throw, in some cases, rious principles of liberty, that enthu- the light of certainty on subjects which 7 siasm, that determination to be free, presented the greatest difficulties, and which distinguished the annals of the inspired despair rather than hope. revolution before the passions exerted The present work of M. Millin is not their baneful influence, and destroyed calculated, perhaps, to raise his characthe glorious monument of innate free- ter higher-that would be a difficult task dom; twenty-five millions, who had even for himself to execute; but, as a sworn to be free, bow the neck, and description of antiquities, of equal beauty consent to be imprisoned, taxed, despis- and importance, of solid conjectures ed, and trod upon by 150,000 foreign where evidence is wanting, it stands in mercenaries; who, hemming in their the very first rank. frontiers, wave the sword of Damocles The plain near Canosa, in Apulea, over their degraded heads.

With these records in our recollection, and this striking example before us, how ridiculous to exclaim, that reason and knowledge never retrograde.

contains a great number of tombs of high antiquity; that discovered in 1813 is one of the most singular monuments of the kind, from its architecture and its sculpture, and on account of the beauIf further examples were wanting; the tiful coat of arms it contained, and the literature of France, for the last twelve admirable painted vases deposited around months, affords most deplorable ones; the warrior buried in it. These paintthe most venal meanness that can be ings are at the same time remarkable for imagined, and the most cowardly apos- their size, the beauty of the design, and tacy marks every class of writers. We the singularity of the composition. The have disdained to notice the immense subjects they represent possess great inshoal of ephemeral trash which has ap- terest, and are full of details which give peared, and have merely selected a few new ideas on important facts relative to of those works which claim the homage heroic history, and the manners and cusof praise, on account of literary merit. toms of ancient times; and which shed a

4P

MON. MAG. No. 286.

« PreviousContinue »