ANECDOTES
OF
PAINTERS, ENGRAVERS,
Sculptors and Architects,
AND
CURIOSITIES OF ART.
BY
SHEARJASHUB SPOONER, A. B., M. D.,
AUTHOR OF “A BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL DICTIONARY OF PAINTERS,
ENGRAVERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS, FROM ANCIENT
TO MODERN TIMES.”
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
New York:
PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR,
BY G. P. PUTNAM & COMPANY, 10 PARK PLACE.
1853.
PREFACE.
This work is not a mere compilation, or republication of anecdote. It
will be found to contain much original matter, and much of the most
interesting and instructive portions of the history of art. For a list
of authorities, the reader is referred to the author’s Dictionary of
Painters, etc., and for a convenient reference, to the Index at the end
of vol. iii. The author has studied his subject _con amore_, for many
years, and has gathered abundant materials for three more volumes,
should these be favorably received. But he fears lest in these
romance-loving days, the recital of the trials, misfortunes,
achievements and exaltations of those men of genius and fine
sensibilities, to whom the world is indebted for the creation and
development of the most beautiful arts, will fail to arrest the
attention or move the heart.
Although it does not become a man to prate of himself, yet the author
trusts he will be pardoned when he speaks of his _labors_ and their
_object_. For a long period, his labors have been directed to the great
object of the restoration and publication of Napoleon’s magnificent
works, the Musée Français and the Musée Royal, a notice of which may be
found in vol. iii., page 302, of this work. He trusts he may soon be
able to present the first numbers to the public. These, and his other
achieved undertakings, have made his life one of the most untiring
industry. In order to find time for these enterprises, and still attend
to the calls of his profession, he has been obliged to deprive himself
of repose and relaxation; and during the five years he was engaged in
publishing Boydell’s Illustrations of Shakspeare, and in preparing his
Dictionary for the press, he spent but one evening out of his study,
except those of the Sabbath, relinquishing his toil only at midnight, to
be resumed at dawn.
These self-imposed labors have not been assumed through any mercenary or
selfish motives. His experience has taught him the precarious results of
literary and publishing enterprises of the nature undertaken by him, in
the present state of the Fine Arts in our country. The amount of capital
and labor he has invested has been enormous, and the risks
proportionate; his books admonish him that he has already embarked many
thousands of dollars which he can never hope to regain. Still, what he
has accomplished is to him a theme of pride and exultation; it has also
been a labor of love. His reward is the consciousness of having done
something toward awakening a love for, and an interest in art and
artists, and that he will leave to his countrymen, for their delight and
instruction, so many world-renowned and world-approved specimens of the
highest art. Posterity must be his judge; but he cannot forbear to add,
that can he now succeed in restoring the great works before mentioned,
and leave them as a rich legacy to his country, for the promotion of the
Fine Arts in coming time, he will have accomplished his every earthly
aspiration.
CONTENTS.
Infelicities of Artists--an Extract from the American
Edition of Boydell’s Illustrations of Shakspeare,
containing anecdotes of Torregiano, Banks,
Barry, Blake, Proctor, &c., 1
Advantages of the Cultivation of the Fine Arts to
a Country, 6
Antiquity of the Fine Arts, 12
The Pœcile at Athens, 13
Mosaics, 15
The Olympian Jupiter, 17
Painting from Nature, 18
Apelles, 18
Apelles and the Cobbler, 23
Apelles’ Foaming Charger, 24
Apelles and Alexander, 25
Apelles and Protogenes, 25
Benjamin West’s Ancestry, 28
West’s Birth, 29
West’s first remarkable Feat, 30
Little Benjamin and the Indians, 30
West’s Cat’s Tail Pencils, 30
West’s First Picture, 31
West’s first Visit to Philadelphia, 32
West’s Ambition, 33
West’s first Patron, 34
West’s Education, 35
West’s Dedication to Art, 36
West’s Early Prices, 38
West’s Arrival at Rome, 39
West’s Early Friends, 41
West’s Course of Study, 43
A Remarkable Prophecy, 43
West’s Fondness for Skating, 44
West’s “Death of Wolfe,” 45
Michael Angelo, 47
Michael Angelo and Julius II., 50
St Peter’s Church, 50
Michael Angelo and Lorenzo the Magnificent, 52
The Cartoon of Pisa, 53
Michael Angelo’s Last Judgment, 54
Michael Angelo’s Coloring, 56
Michael Angelo’s Grace, 57
Michael Angelo’s Oil Paintings, 58
Michael Angelo, his “Prophets,” and Julius II., 58
Bon-Mots of Michael Angelo, 59
Washington Allston, 60
Allston and Vanderlyn, 62
American Patronage at Home and Abroad, 66
Raffaelle Sanzio di Urbino, 70
Raffaelle’s Ambition, 70
Raffaelle and Michael Angelo, 71
Raffaelle’s Transfiguration, 72
Death of Raffaelle, 74
Character of Raffaelle, 74
La Bella Fornarina, 75
The Genius of Raffaelle, 76
Raffaelle’s Model for his Female Saints, 76
Raffaelle’s Oil Paintings, 77
Portraits of Pope Julius II., 78
Manners of Raffaelle, 78
Peter Paul Rubens, 79
Rubens’ Visit to Italy, 80
Rubens’ Enthusiasm, 80
Rubens’ Return to Antwerp, 81
Rubens’ Habits, 82
Rubens’ Detractors, 82
The Gallery of the Luxembourg, 83
Rubens sent as Ambassador to the Courts of Spain
and England, 83
Death of Rubens, 85
Rubens’ Numerous Works, 86
The first Picture brought to Rome, 88
Etruscan Sculpture, 90
Campus Martius, 91
Electioneering Pictures at Rome, 91
Dramatic Scenery at Rome, 93
Apelles of Ephesus and Ptolemy Philopator, 93
Apelles’ famous Picture of Calumny, 94
Sir Godfrey Kneller, 96
Kneller and James II., 97
Kneller’s Compliment to Louis XIV., 97
Kneller’s Wit, 98
Kneller’s Knowledge of Physiognomy, 99
Kneller as Justice of the Peace, 99
Kneller and Clostermans, 100
The Cavaliere Bernini, 101
Bernini’s Precocity, 101
Bernini’s Striking Prediction, 101
Bernini and Louis XIV., 102
Bernini’s Works, 103
Bernini and the Verospi Hercules, 104
Fanaticism destructive to Art, 104
Paintings Evanescent, 106
The English National Gallery, 107
The Nude Figure, 109
Different Schools of Painting Compared, 110
The Old Masters, 111
Prices of Galleries, 112
Love makes a Painter, 112
John Wesley Jarvis, 113
The Biggest Lie, 118
Jarvis and Bishop Moore, 119
Jarvis and Commodore Perry, 119
Jarvis and the Philosopher, 120
Jarvis and Dr. Mitchell, 120
Jarvis’ Habits, 121
Robert Fulton, 122
An Exalted Mind and True Patriot, 123
Gilbert Charles Stuart, 124
Stuart goes to London, 125
Stuart as Organist, 126
Stuart’s Introduction to West, 126
Stuart and West, 128
Stuart’s Scholarship, 131
Stuart’s Rule of the Payment of Half-Price at the
First Sitting, 131
Stuart’s Powers of Perception, 132
Stuart’s Conversational Powers, 133
Stuart in Ireland, 136
Stuart’s Return to America, 137
Stuart and Washington, 137
Stuart’s Last Picture, 138
Stuart’s Reputation, 139
Stuart’s Drawing, 139
Stuart a Punster, 140
Stuart born in a Snuff-Mill, 140
Stuart’s Nose, 140
Stuart’s Sitters, 141
Stuart’s Mark, 142
Stuart and his Dog, 142
The Temple of Diana at Ephesus, 144
The Dying Gladiator, 144
Fabius Maximus, 145
Love of the Arts among the Romans, 146
Comparative Merits of the Venus de Medici and the
Venus Victrix, 147
The Effect of Painting on the Mind, 147
Pausias, 148
The Garland Twiner, 148
Protogenes, the great Rhodian Painter, 149
Parrhasius, 150
The Demos, and other Works of Parrhasius, 150
Parrhasius and the Olynthian Captive, 151
The Vanity of Parrhasius, 152
The Invention of the Corinthian Capital, 152
The Invention of Sculpture, 153
Praxiteles, 154
Praxiteles and Phidias compared, 154
The Works of Praxiteles, 155
The Venus of Cnidus, 155
Praxiteles and Phryne, 156
The King of Bithynia and the Venus of Cnidus, 157
Phidias, 157
Phidias and Alcamenes, 159
Ingratitude of the Athenians, 159
The Jupiter of Phidias, 160
Phidias’ Model for the Olympian Jupiter, 161
Apollodorus, the Athenian, 162
Apollodorus, the Architect, 163
Trajan’s Column, 164
The Death of Apollodorus, 165
Hogarth, 166
Hogarth’s Apprenticeship, 167
Hogarth’s Revenge, 168
Hogarth’s Method of Sketching, 168
Hogarth’s Marriage, 168
Successful Expedient of Hogarth, 169
Hogarth’s Picture of the Red Sea, 170
Hogarth’s Courtesy, 171
Hogarth’s Absence of Mind, 171
Hogarth’s March to Finchley, 172
Hogarth’s unfortunate Dedication of a Picture, 172
Hogarth’s manner of selling his Pictures, 172
Hogarth’s Last Work, 175
Jacques Louis David, 176
David’s Picture of the Coronation of Napoleon, 178
David and the Duke of Wellington, 184
David and the Cardinal Caprara, 185
David at Brussels, 185
Pierre Mignard, 186
Sir Joshua Reynolds, 188
Reynolds’ New Style, 189
Reynolds’ Prices, 191
Reynolds’ in Leicester Square, 192
The Founding of the Royal Academy, 194
Reynolds and Dr. Johnson, 195
Dr. Johnson’s Friendship for Reynolds, 196
Johnson’s Apology for Portrait Painting, 197
The Literary Club, 198
Johnson’s Portrait, 198
Johnson’s Death, 199
Reynolds and Goldsmith, 199
The Deserted Village, 200
Goldsmith’s “Retaliation,” 200
Pope a Painter, 201
Reynolds’ First Attempts in Art, 202
The Force of Habit, 202
Paying the Piper, 203
Reynolds’ Modesty, 203
Reynolds’ Generosity, 203
Reynolds’ Love of his Art, 204
Reynolds’ Criticism on Rubens, 205
Reynolds and Haydn’s Portrait, 206
Rubens’ Last Supper, 206
Reynolds’ Skill in Compliments, 207
Excellent Advice, 208
Sir Joshua Reynolds and his Portraits, 208
Reynolds’ Flag, 209
Burke’s Eulogy, 209
Reynolds’ Estimate and Use of Old Paintings, 210
Influence of the Inquisition upon Spanish Painting, 211
A Melancholy Picture of the State of the Fine Arts
in Spain, 217
Don Diego Velasquez, 226
Velasquez honored by the King of Spain, 227
Velasquez’s Slave, 228
Luis Tristan, 229
Tristan and El Greco, 230
Alonso Cano, 230
Cano’s Liberality, 231
Cano’s Eccentricities, 231
Cano’s Hatred of the Jews, 232
Cano’s Ruling Passion strong in Death, 234
Ribalta’s Marriage, 235
Aparicio, Canova, and Thorwaldsen, 236
Bartolomé Estéban Murillo, 236
Murillo and Velasquez, 236
Murillo’s Return to Seville, 237
Murillo and Iriarte, 238
Murillo’s Death, 238
Murillo’s Style, 239
Murillo’s Works, 240
Murillo’s Assumption of the Virgin, 241
Castillo’s Tribute to Murillo, 242
Correggio, 243
Correggio’s Grand Cupola of the Church of St.
John at Parma, 244
Correggio’s Grand Cupola of the Cathedral at
Parma, 246
Correggio’s Fate, 249
Annibale Caracci’s Opinion of Correggio’s Grand
Cupola at Parma, 253
Correggio’s Enthusiasm, 255
Correggio’s Grace, 255
Correggio and the Monks, 256
Correggio’s Muleteer, 256
Duke of Wellington’s Correggio captured at Vittoria, 257
Correggio’s Ancona, 257
Portraits of Correggio, 258
Did Correggio ever visit Rome? 259
Singular Fate of Correggio’s Adoration of the Shepherds, 261
Curious History of Correggio’s “Education of Cupid,” 262
Magdalen by Correggio, 264
Discovery of a Correggio, 265
Lionardo da Vinci, 266
Precocity of Da Vinci’s Genius, 266
Extraordinary Talents of Da Vinci, 268
Da Vinci’s Works at Milan, 268
Da Vinci’s “Battle of the Standard,” 270
Lionardo da Vinci and Leo X., 271
Lionardo da Vinci and Francis I., 271
Death of Da Vinci, 272
Da Vinci’s Learning, 272
Da Vinci’s Writings, 273
Da Vinci’s Sketch Books, 275
The Last Supper of Lionardo da Vinci, 276
Copies of the Last Supper of Da Vinci, 278
Da Vinci’s Discrimination, 279
Da Vinci’s Idea of Perfection in Art, 280
Da Vinci and the Prior, 282
Da Vinci’s Drawings of the Heads in his celebrated
Last Supper, 284
Francis I. and the Last Supper of Da Vinci, 284
Authenticated Works of Da Vinci, 285
Works in Niello, 286
Sir Christopher Wren, 290
Wren’s Self-Command, 290
Wren’s Restraints in designing his Edifices, 292
The Great Fire in London, 293
St. Paul’s Cathedral, 294
Wren’s Death, 295
Wren and Charles II., 295
Thomas Banks, the English Sculptor, 295
The Genius of Banks, 297
Banks’ Kindness to Young Sculptors, 298
The Personal Appearance and Character of Banks, 299
Flaxman’s Tribute to Banks, 300
Joseph Nollekens, the English Sculptor, 301
Nollekens’ Visit to Rome, 301
Nollekens and Garrick, 302
Nollekens’ Talent in Bust Sculpture, 303
Nollekens’ Bust of Dr. Johnson, 304
Nollekens’ Liberality to Chantrey, 304
Nollekens and the Widow, 305
Nollekens’ Compliments, 306
An Overplus of Modesty, 307
The Artist Footman, 308
An Architect’s Stratagem, 309
The Freedom of the Times in the Reign of Charles II., 309
Hanneman’s Picture of “Peace,” 310
Weesop, 310
ANECDOTES
OF
PAINTERS, ENGRAVERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS.
EXTRACT FROM TEXT TO PLATE LIII OF THE AMERICAN EDITION OF BOYDELL’S
ILLUSTRATIONS OF SHAKSPEARE.
It is deemed appropriate to devote this page to the infelicities which
often fall to the lot of men of genius, in hopes to strike a sympathetic
chord; since to them the world owes all that is beautiful as well as
useful in art. It is well known that men of fine imaginations and
delicate taste, are generally distinguished for acute sensibilities, and
for being deficient in more practical qualities; they are frequently
eccentric, and illy adapted to contend with the coldness and
indifference of the world, much less its sarcasm and enmity. The history
of Art is full of melancholy examples.
When Torregiano, the cotemporary of Michael Angelo, had finished his
exquisite group of the Madonna and Child for the Duke d’Arcos, with the
assurance of a rich reward, the nobleman sent two servants, bearing two
well-filled bags of money, with orders to bring the work to his palace.
The sculptor, upon opening the bags, found nothing but brass maravedi!
Filled with just indignation, he seized his mallet, in a moment of
uncontrollable rage, and smashed the beautiful group into a thousand
pieces, saying to the servants, “Go, take your base metal to your
ignoble lord, and tell him he shall never possess a sculpture by my
hand!” The infamous nobleman, burning with shame, resolved on a terrible
revenge; he arraigned the unhappy artist before the Inquisition, on a
charge of sacrilege for destroying the sacred images. Torregiano was
imprisoned and condemned to death by torture; but to escape that awful
fate, he destroyed himself in the dungeon.
It is not necessary to go back further than the history of this work, to
find melancholy examples of the trials of genius. Thomas Banks vainly
endeavored to introduce a lofty and heroic style of sculpture into his
native country. He could obtain no commissions to execute in marble his
most beautiful and sublime compositions, and was compelled to confine
himself to monumental sculpture. James Barry, after struggling with
poverty and neglect all his days, died in a garret, a raving maniac. A
subscription had been started for his relief; but it was all expended in
defraying his funeral expenses, and in erecting a monument to his memory
in St. Paul’s Cathedral, with this inscription,--“The Great Historical
Painter, JAMES BARRY. Died, Feb. 1806, aged 65”! His remains were laid
out in state, in the Great Room of the Adelphi--the true and appropriate
monument of his genius. The Society had requested the members of the
Royal Academy to decorate their Room, and when all others declined,
Barry nobly came forward, and offered his services gratuitously, which
were gladly accepted. He spent seven long years in decorating this
apartment with fresco paintings, which the Society publicly declared was
“a national ornament, as well as a monument of the talents and ingenuity
of the artist”; and Dr. Johnson said, “They shew a grasp of mind that
you will find nowhere else.” Observe the contrast: Cunningham says, that
when he began this great work, he had but a shilling in his pocket, and
during its execution he lived on the coarsest fare, in a miserable
garret, subsisting by the sale of an occasional drawing, when he could
find a purchaser!
The life of William Blake presents a picture no less melancholy. An
eccentric and extraordinary genius, he seemed, in the flights of his
wild imagination, to hold converse with the spirits of the departed; and
in some of his works there is a truly wonderful sublimity of conception
and grandeur of execution. Although not appreciated during his lifetime,
he toiled on in abject poverty with indefatigable industry, reveling in
visions of future fame. His Ancient of Days was his greatest favorite;
three days before his death, he sat bolstered up in bed, and touched it
over and over with the choicest colors, in his happiest style; then held
it off at arms’ length, exclaiming, “There! that will do! I cannot mend
it.” Observing his wife in tears, he said, “Stay, Kate! keep just as you
are; I will draw your portrait, for you have been an angel to me.” She
obeyed, and the dying artist made a fine likeness. He was cheerful and
contented to the last. “I glory,” said he, “in dying, and have no grief
but in leaving you, Katharine; we have lived happy and we have lived
long; we have ever been together, but we shall be divided soon. Why
should I fear death! Nor do I fear it. I have endeavored to live as
Christ commands, and have sought to worship God truly.” On the day of
his death, Aug. 12, 1827, he composed and sung hymns to his Maker, so
sweetly to the ear of his beloved Katharine, that she stood wrapt to
hear him. Observing this, he said to her, with looks of intense
affection, “My beloved, they are not mine--no, they are the songs of the
angels.”
Young Proctor, the sculptor, was a student of the rarest promise, in the
Royal Academy. After obtaining two silver medals, the president,
Benjamin West, had the suggestion conveyed to him, that he had better
execute a historical composition. Accordingly, in the next year, Proctor
produced his model of “Ixion on the Wheel,” and in the following year,
“Pirithous slain by Cerberus,” both of which excited great admiration.
In the third year, he conceived a much bolder flight of imagination,
“Diomed torn in pieces by Wild Horses,” which was far more successful
than his previous efforts, approaching, in the opinion of the best
judges, the grandeur of Michael Angelo, and even the Phidian period of
Greek design. But this noble emanation of high native talent could not
find a purchaser, and at the close of the exhibition it was returned to
the studio of the sculptor, who, stung to the heart by this severe
disappointment, instantly destroyed his sublime creation. Derided by his
more favored but less deserving cotemporaries, Proctor shunned society,
and having exhausted all his means of support to produce this last work,
he was reduced to the greatest straits. When Mr. West, after some time,
succeeded in ascertaining the place of his obscure retreat, he stated
the circumstance to the Academy, who unanimously agreed to send Proctor
to Italy, with the usual pension, and fifty pounds besides, for
necessary preparations. This joyful intelligence was immediately
communicated to the despairing artist, but it came too late! his
constitution, undermined by want and vexation, was unable to bear the
revulsion of his feelings, and he shortly after breathed his last, “a
victim,” says his biographer, “to anti-national prejudices.”
The life of Thomas Kirk, termed the “English Raffaelle,” is another
melancholy example of unappreciated genius. Chagrin and disappointment
of his ambitious hopes, consigned him to an untimely grave. Taylor, in
his History of the Fine Arts in Great Britain, says, that a few years
ago, one of Hogarth’s pictures brought at public sale in London, more
money than the artist ever received for all his paintings together.
Nollekens, the sculptor, bought two landscapes of Richard Wilson, for
fifteen guineas, to relieve his pressing necessities. At the sale of the
effects of the former after his decease, they brought two hundred and
fifty guineas each!
Shall instances like these stain the annals of American Art, or will
this free people accord to its gifted sons the encouragement they so
richly deserve? May the sympathies of those who can perceive in painting
and sculpture, most efficient means of mental culture, refinement, and
gratification, be enlisted by these sad memories, to render timely
encouragement to exalted genius! It adds to national and individual
profit, pride, and glory. How much does America owe Robert Fulton and
Eli Whitney? Millions, untold millions!
ADVANTAGES OF THE CULTIVATION OF THE FINE ARTS TO A COUNTRY.
The advantages which a country derives from the cultivation of the fine
arts, are thus admirably summed up by Sir M. A. Shee, late President of
the Royal Academy, London:--
“It should be the policy of a great nation to be liberal and
magnificent; to be free of her rewards, splendid in her establishments,
and gorgeous in her public works. These are not the expenses that sap
and mine the foundations of public prosperity, that break in upon the
capital, or lay waste the income of a state; they may be said to arise
in her most enlightened views of general advantage; to be amongst her
best and most profitable speculations; they produce large sums of
respect and consideration from our neighbors and competitors, and of
patriotic exultation among ourselves; they make men proud of their
country, and from priding it, prompt in its defense; they play upon all
the chords of generous feeling, elevate us above the animal and the
machine, and make us triumph in the powers and attributes of men.”
Sir George Beaumont, in a letter to Lord Dover, on the subject of the
purchase of the Angerstein collection by the government, speaking of the
benefit which a country derives from the possession of the best works of
art, says, “My belief is that the Apollo, the Venus, the Laocoön, &c.,
are worth many thousands a year to the country that possesses them.”
When Parliament was debating the propriety of buying the Angerstein
Collection for £60,000, he advocated the measure with enthusiasm, and
exclaimed, “Buy this collection of pictures for the nation, and I will
give you mine.” And this he nobly did, not in the form of a bequest, but
he transferred them at once as soon as the galleries were prepared for
their reception, with the exception of one little gem, with him a
household god, which he retained till his death. This picture was a
landscape by Claude, with figures representing Hagar and her child, and
he was so much attached to it that he took it with him as a constant
traveling companion. When he died, it was sent to its place in the
Gallery. The value of this collection was 70,000 guineas. Such instances
of noble generosity for public benefaction, deserve to be held in
grateful remembrance, and should be “written in letters of gold on
enduring marble,” for the imitation of mankind.
After the peace of Amiens, Benjamin West visited Paris, for the purpose
of viewing the world’s gems of art, which Bonaparte had collected
together in the Louvre. He had already conceived a project for
establishing in England a national institution for the encouragement of
art, similar to that of the Louvre, and he took occasion one day, while
strolling about the galleries in company with Mr. Fox, the British
minister, and Sir Francis Baring, to point out to them the advantages of
such an institution, not only in promoting the Fine Arts, by furnishing
models of study for artists, but he showed the propriety, in a
commercial point of view, of encouraging to a seven fold extent, the
higher department of art in England. Cunningham relates that Fox was so
forcibly struck with his remarks that he said, “I have been rocked in
the cradle of politics, but never before was so much struck with the
advantages, even in a political bearing, of the Fine Arts, to the
prosperity, as well as the renown of a kingdom; and I do assure you, Mr.
West, if I ever have it in my power to influence our government to
promote the Arts, the conversation which we have had to-day shall not be
forgotten.” Sir Francis Baring also promised his hearty coöperation.
West was mainly instrumental in establishing the Royal British
Institution. Taylor, in his History of the Fine Arts in Great Britain,
says, he battled for years against coldly calculating politicians for
its accomplishment; at length, his plan was adopted with scarcely an
alteration.
“The commercial states of the classic ages of antiquity held the arts in
very high estimation. The Rhodians were deeply engaged in commerce, yet
their cultivation of the arts, more especially that of sculpture, was
most surprising. The people of Ægina were equally engaged in commercial
pursuits, but they were also admired for the correctness and elegance of
their taste and manners, as well as their sculpture. A more ancient
people still, the Phœnicians, Tyrians, Tyrrhenians, Etruscans, or
Carthagenians, who were all colonies from one race of men, long before
the foundation of Rome, understood and taught others the working in
metals, one instance of which is remarkable: Hiram, king of Tyre, cast
the brazen sea, and other immense objects in metal, for Solomon’s
temple. Let us cast our eyes on Argos, Athens, Corinth, and Sicyon,
those ancient abodes of good taste and transcendent genius; each of them
were commercial states and cities. The remains of their
beautifully-sculptured marbles, which once were in profusion, and of
which we now strive to possess even the fragments, at almost any cost,
show evidently that their commercial pursuits and relations with other
countries had not narrowed, if it had not rather developed, the powers,
and given that elastic vigor to the human mind that can, under due
encouragement, overcome the greatest difficulties, and produce the
grandest or the most enchanting works of utility or imagination. The
marble quarries of Paros and Pentelicus were by such encouragements
transformed into the noblest temples and most exquisitely beautiful
statues of deities, heroes, and men, that it is possible to conceive.
Such was the case throughout all the cities on the coast of the Ægean
sea and of the Cyclades. Their arts increased their commerce; this was
the source of their wealth; and fully aware of these advantages, their
wealth reacted again on their arts, and thus there was kept alive that
healthful movement of the whole popular mind, directed to the useful and
elegant purposes of life.
“Let us come down to much later times, and to states far less remote,
and ask what it was that gave such wealth and consequence to Venice,
Genoa, Holland, and Flanders, to Pisa, Florence, and Lucca, not one of
which states possessed much extent of territory, nor any large amount
of population? The answer is, ‘their commercial enterprise and industry
did it for them.’ True; but it is equally remarkable, that in all these
states and cities the fine arts gave their powerful aid to those
pursuits, as the splendid manufactures of these people testify. And
where have the arts been fostered with more parental solicitude, or in
what region have they shed more glory upon mankind, than they have done
in these comparatively small territories? But it was the same principle
that produced such splendid works in Greece: the cause and effect were
precisely the same, the mode only was changed. But the principles are
universal and eternal, and they may be brought to operate in other
countries, to the fullest extent, and with as much grandeur, grace, and
beauty, as they ever did attain, even in their most prosperous periods,
under the guidance of Pericles, when they reached the highest splendor
of Chryselephantine art, under the master minds of Phidias and
Praxiteles, Callicrates and Ictinus, and at a later period displayed the
equally resplendent genius of Apelles, Zeuxis, and Parrhasius, in the
time of Alexander--those splendid epochs of painting, sculpture, and
architecture, which shed an imperishable lustre upon the most
enlightened states of the Hellenodic confederacy, and on the throne of
the greatest conqueror of ancient times. We must not omit mentioning
their palmy state in the Augustan age of Rome, and their still more
glorious elevation there during the memorable _cinque cento_.
“But to reach these proud eminences of intellectual grandeur and
extensive usefulness, the arts must be solicited, ample protection must
be afforded to them; similar inducements to those which produced these
great results must not only be offered, but substantially and
permanently provided for their use. This garden of the human intellect
must be regularly and assiduously cultivated with great care, and kept
clear of the noxious weeds that would deform its beauties. Under genial
treatment, all its charms develop themselves, and an endless variety of
interesting and charming creations are called into existence,
illustrating the high principles of religion, the noblest traits of
moral and heroic conduct, and the sweetest dreams of the poetic muse:
but the turmoils of war and high political contention are to them most
injurious, blasting their fairest bloom, as the poisonous simoon of the
desert withers the gardens of Palestine; and to these two causes, and
these only, aided by anti-English prejudice, can we attribute the very
slow advances which the arts had made among the natives of Britain until
the auspicious period of which we are now treating”--time of George
III.--_Taylor’s History of the Fine Arts in Great Britain_, vol. ii, p.
150.
ANTIQUITY OF THE FINE ARTS.
Homer, who flourished about B. C. 900, gives a striking proof of the
antiquity of the fine arts, in his description of that admirable piece
of chased and inlaid work--the shield of Achilles. Its rich design
could not have been imagined, unless the arts necessary to produce it
had arrived to a high degree of perfection in his country at the time he
wrote, though we may doubt whether, at the period of the Trojan war,
three hundred years before Homer, there existed artificers capable of
executing it.
Within a century after the taking of Troy, the Greeks had founded many
new colonies in Asia Minor, and the Heraclidæ finally regained their
ancient seats in the Peloponnesus. It is worthy of remark that about
that period, David built his house of cedars, and Solomon adorned
Jerusalem with her magnificent first temple, and that Hiram, king of
Tyre, sent to Solomon “a cunning man, endued with understanding,” to
assist him in the building of the temple, but more especially to
superintend the execution of the ornaments. (1st Kings, vii, 13, and 2d
Chron., ii, 14.)
THE PŒCILE AT ATHENS.
The stoa or celebrated Portico at Athens, called the Pœcile on account
of its paintings, was the pride of the Athenians. Polygnotus, Mycon, and
Pantænus adorned it with pictures of gods, heroes, benefactors, and the
most memorable acts of the Athenians, as the incidents of the siege and
sacking of Troy, the battle of Theseus against the Amazons, the battle
between the Athenians and Lacedæmonians at Œnoe in Argolis, the battle
of Marathon, and other memorable actions. The most celebrated of these
were a series of the Siege of Troy, and the Battle of Marathon by
Polygnotus, more especially the latter, which eclipsed all the others,
and gained the painter so much reputation that the Athenians offered him
any sum he should ask, and when he refused all compensation, the
Amphictyonic council decreed that wherever he might travel in Greece, he
should be received with public honors, and provided for at the public
expense.
According to Pausanias, Polygnotus represented the hero Marathon, after
whom the plain was named, in the act of receiving Minerva, the patroness
of Athens, accompanied by Hercules, about to be joined by Theseus, whose
shade is seen rising out of the earth--thus claiming Attica as his
native soil. In the foreground, the Greeks and Persians are combating
with equal valor, but in extending the view to the middle of the
composition, the barbarians were seen routed and flying to the Phœnician
ships, which were visible in the distance, and to the marshes, while the
Greeks were in hot pursuit, slaying their foes in their flight. The
principal commanders of both parties were distinguished, particularly
Mardonius, the Persian general, the insertion of whose portrait
gratified the Athenians little less than that of their own commander,
Miltiades, along with whom were Callimachus, Echetlus, and the poet
Æschylus, who was in the battle that day. It is evident that the painter
did not strictly follow history, but treated his subject in a grand
poetic and heroic style, and that too, we may rest assured, with
consummate skill, to have elicited such applause from a people too
refined to be deceived by any meretricious trickery of art.
MOSAICS.
Mosaics are ornamented works, made in ancient times, of cubes of
variously colored stones, and in modern, more frequently of glass of
different colors. The art originated in the East, and seems first to
have been introduced among the Romans in the time of Sylla. It was an
ornament in great request by the luxurious Romans, especially in the
time of the Emperors, for the decoration of every species of edifice,
and to this day they continue to discover, in the ruins of the Imperial
Baths, and elsewhere, many magnificent specimens in the finest
preservation. In Pompeii, mosaic floors and pavements may be said to
have been universal among the wealthy.
In modern times, great attention has been bestowed to revive and improve
the art, with a view to perpetuate the works of the great masters. In
this way, Guercino’s Martyrdom of St. Petronilla, and Domenichino’s
Communion of the dying St. Jerome, in St. Peter’s Church, which were
falling into decay, have been rendered eternal. Also, the
Transfiguration of Raffaelle, and other great works. Pope Clement VIII.
had the whole interior dome of St. Peter’s ornamented with this work. A
grand Mosaic, covering the whole side of a wall, representing, as some
suppose, the Battle of Platea; as others, with more probability, one of
the Victories of Alexander, was discovered in Pompeii. This work, now in
the Academy of Naples, is the admiration of connoisseurs and the
learned, not only from its antiquity, but from the beauty of its
execution. The most probable supposition is, that it is a copy of the
celebrated Victory of Arbela, by Philoxenes.
Vasari says that the art of Mosaic work had been brought to such
perfection at Venice in the time of the Bianchini, famous mosaic
painters of the 16th century, that “it would not be possible to effect
more with colors.” Lanzi observes that “the church and portico of St.
Mark remain an invaluable museum of this kind of work; where, commencing
with the 11th century, we may trace the gradual progress of design
belonging to each age, up to the present, as exhibited in many works in
mosaic, beginning from the Greeks, and continued by the Italians. They
consist chiefly of histories from the Old and New Testaments, and at the
same time, furnish very interesting notices of civic and ecclesiastical
history.” There are a multitude of mosaic pictures in the churches,
galleries, and public edifices of Italy, especially at Venice, Rome,
Florence, Milan; and some of the greatest artists were employed to
furnish the designs. In delicate ornamental work, the pieces are
multiplied by sawing into thin slabs. Some specimens made of precious
stones, are of incredible value.
In working, the different pieces are cemented together, and when dry the
surface is highly polished, which brings out the colors in great
brilliancy. The ancients usually employed different colored marbles,
stones, and shells; the Italians formerly employed brilliant stones, as
agate, jaspar, onyx, cornelian, &c., but now they employ glass
exclusively.
THE OLYMPIAN JUPITER.
The Greek masters in sculpture have been happily designated as
“Magicians in Marble.” The taste which the Grecian people possessed for
the beautiful, is well known. It stands among the chief of those
characteristics by which they designated persons of great eminence.
Their artists considered beauty as the first object of their studies;
and by this means they surpassed all other nations, and have become
models for all ages.
Of Phidias, the most celebrated sculptor of Greece, the Athenians spoke
with rapture which knew no bounds. Lucian says, “We adore Phidias in his
works, and he partakes of the incense we offer to the gods he has made.”
Pausanias relates, that when this artist had finished his magnificent
statue of the Olympian Jupiter, Jupiter himself applauded his labors;
for when Phidias urged the god to show by some sign if the work was
agreeable to him, the pavement of the Temple was immediately struck
with lightning. Such incidents though fabulous, are valuable, inasmuch
as they serve to prove the exalted notions the people entertained of the
objects to which they relate.
PAINTING FROM NATURE.
Eupompus, the painter, was asked by Lysippus, the sculptor, whom, among
his predecessors, he should make the objects of his imitation? “Behold,”
said the painter, showing his friend a multitude of people passing by,
“behold my models. From nature, not from art, by whomsoever wrought,
must the artist labor, who hopes to attain honor, and extend the
boundaries of his art.”
APELLES.
Apelles, according to the general testimony of ancient writers, was the
most renowned painter of antiquity; hence painting is termed, by some of
the Romans, the Apellean art. He flourished in the last half of the
fourth century before Christ. Pliny affirms that he contributed more
towards perfecting the art than all other painters. He seems to have
claimed the palm in elegance and grace, or beauty, the _charis_ of the
Greeks, and the _venustas_ of the Romans; a quality for which, among the
moderns, perhaps Correggio is the most distinguished; but in the works
of Apelles, it was unquestionably connected with a proportionably
perfect design; a combination not found among the moderns. Pliny
remarks that Apelles allowed that he was equalled by Protogenes in all
respects save one, namely, in knowing when to take his hand from the
picture. From this we may infer that the deficiency in grace which he
remarked in the works of Protogenes, was owing to the excessive finish
for which that painter was celebrated. Lucian speaks of Apelles as one
of the best colorists among the ancient painters.
Apelles was famed for his industry; he is said never to have allowed a
day to pass without exercising his pencil. “_Nulla dies sine linea_,” is
a saying that arose from one of his maxims. His principal works appear
to have been generally single figures, and rarely of more than a single
group. The only large compositions of his execution that are mentioned
by the ancient writers are, Diana surrounded by her Nymphs, in which he
was allowed to have surpassed the lines of Homer from which he took the
subject; and the Procession of the High Priest of Diana at Ephesus.
In portraits, Apelles was unrivalled. He is said to have enjoyed the
exclusive privilege of painting Philip and Alexander the Great, both of
whom he painted many times. In one of his portraits of Alexander, which
was preserved in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, he represented him
wielding the thunderbolts of Jupiter: Pliny says the hand and lightning
appeared to start from the picture; and, judging from an observation in
Plutarch, the figure of the king was lighted solely by the radiance of
the lightning. Apelles received for this picture, termed the Alexander
Ceraunophorus, twenty talents of gold (about $20,000). The criticism of
Lysippus, upon this picture, which has been approved by ancients and
moderns, that a lance, as he had himself given the king, would have been
a more appropriate weapon in the hands of Alexander, than the lightnings
of Jupiter; is the criticism of a sculptor who overlooked the pictorial
value of the color, and of light and shade. The lightning would
certainly have had little effect in a work of sculpture, but had a lance
been substituted in its place in the picture of Apelles, a totally
different production would have been the result. This picture gave rise
to a saying, that there were two Alexanders, the one of Philip, the
invincible, the other of Apelles, the inimitable.
Competent judges, says Pliny, decided the portrait of Antigonus (king of
Asia Minor) on horseback, the master-piece of Apelles. He excelled
greatly in painting horses, which he frequently introduced into his
pictures. The most celebrated of all his works was the Venus Anadyomene,
which was painted for the people of Coös, and was placed in the temple
of Æsculapius on that island, where it remained until it was removed by
Augustus, who took it in lieu of 100 talents tribute, and dedicated it
in the temple of Julius Cæsar. It was unfortunately damaged on the
voyage, and was in such a decayed state in the time of Nero, that the
Emperor replaced it with a copy by a painter named Dorotheus. This
happened about 350 years after it was executed, and what then became of
it is not known. This celebrated painting, upon which every writer who
has noticed it has bestowed unqualified praise, represented Venus naked,
rising out of the ocean, squeezing the water from her hair with her
fingers, while her only veil was the silver shower that fell from her
shining locks. This picture is said to have been painted from Campaspe,
a beautiful slave of Apelles, formerly the favorite of Alexander. The
king had ordered Apelles to paint her naked portrait, and perceiving
that the painter was smitten with the charms of his beautiful model, he
gave her to him, contenting himself with the painting. He commenced a
second Venus for the people of Coös, which, according to Pliny, would
have surpassed the first, had not its completion been interrupted by the
death of the painter: the only parts finished were the head and bust.
Two portraits of Alexander painted by Apelles, were dedicated by
Augustus, in the most conspicuous part of the forum bearing his name; in
one was Alexander, with Castor and Pollux, and a figure of Victory; in
the other was Alexander in a triumphal car, accompanied by a figure of
War, with her hands pinioned behind her. The Emperor Claudius took out
the heads of Alexander, and substituted those of Augustus. The following
portraits are also mentioned among the most famous works of this great
artist: Clitus preparing for Battle; Antigonus in armor, walking by the
side of his Horse; and Archelaus the General, with his wife and
daughter. Pausanias mentions a draped figure of one of the Graces by
him, which he saw in the Odeon at Smyrna. A famous back view of a
Hercules, in the temple of Antonius at Rome, was said to have been by
Apelles. He painted many other famous works: Pliny mentions a naked
figure by him, which he says challenged Nature herself. The same author
says he covered his pictures with a dark transparent liquid or varnish,
which had the effect of harmonising the colors, and also of preserving
the work from injury.
Pliny says Apelles was the first artist who painted tetrachromes, or
paintings executed with four colors, viz.; lamp black, white chalk,
ruddle, and yellow ochre; yet, in describing his Venus Anadyomene, he
says she was rising from the green or azure ocean under a bright blue
sky. Zeuxis painted grapes so naturally as to deceive the birds. Where
got he his green and purple? There has been a great deal of useless
disquisition about the merits of ancient painters, and the materials
they employed. When we take into consideration their thorough system of
education; that the sister arts had been brought to such perfection as
to render them the models of all succeeding times; that these painters
enjoyed the highest honors and admiration of their polished countrymen,
who, it must be admitted, were competent to judge of the merits of
their works; that the Romans prized and praised them as much as the
Greeks themselves; that there were in Rome in the time of Pliny many
ancient paintings 600 years old, still retaining all their original
freshness and beauty, it can scarcely be doubted that the paintings of
the great Greek artists equaled the best of the moderns; that they
possessed all the requisite colors and materials; and, if they did not
possess all those now known, they had others unknown to us. It is
certain that they employed canvass for paintings of a temporary
character, as decorations; and that they treated every subject, both
such as required those colors suitable to represent the solemnity and
dignity of the gods, as well as others of the most delicate tints, with
which to depict flowers; for the Venus of Apelles, and the Flower-Girl
of Pausias must have glowed with Titian tints to have attracted such
admiration. Colonel Leake, in his Topography of Athens, speaking of the
temple of Theseus, says that the stucco still bears the marks or stains
of the ancient paintings, in which he distinctly recognized the blue
sky, vestiges of bronze and gold colored armor, and blue, green, and red
draperies. What then becomes of the tetrachromes of Apelles, and the
monochromes of previous artists? for Mycon painted the Theseum near 200
years before the time of Apelles.
APELLES AND THE COBBLER.
It was customary with Apelles to expose to public view the works which
he had finished, and to hide himself behind the canvass, in order to
hear the remarks made by spectators. He once overheard himself blamed by
a shoemaker for a fault in the slippers of some figure; having too much
good sense to be offended with any objection, however trifling, which
came from a competent judge, he corrected the fault which the man had
noticed. On the following day, however, the shoemaker began to
animadvert upon the leg; on which Apelles, with some anger, looked out
from the canvass, and reproved him in these words, which are also become
a proverb, “_ne sutor ultra crepidam_”--“let the cobbler keep to his
last,” or “every man to his trade.”
APELLES’ FOAMING CHARGER.
In finishing a drawing of a horse, in the portraiture of which he much
excelled, a very remarkable circumstance is related of him. He had
painted a war horse returning from battle, and had succeeded to his
wishes in describing nearly every mark that could indicate a
high-mettled steed impatient of restraint; there was wanting nothing but
a foam of bloody hue issuing from the mouth. He again and again
endeavored to express this, but his attempts were unsuccessful. At last
in vexation, he threw against the mouth of the horse a sponge filled
with different colors, which produced the very effect desired by the
painter. A similar story is related of Protogenes, in painting his
picture of Jalysus and his Dog.
APELLES AND ALEXANDER.
Apelles was held in great esteem by Alexander the Great, and was
admitted into the most intimate familiarity with him. He executed a
portrait of this prince in the character of a thundering Jove; a piece
which was finished with such skill and dexterity, that it used to be
said there were “two Alexanders, the one invincible, the son of Philip,
and the other inimitable, the production of Apelles.” Alexander appears
to have been a patron of the fine arts more from vanity than taste; and
it is related, as an instance of those freedoms which Apelles was
permitted to use with him, that when on one occasion he was talking in
this artist’s painting room very ignorantly of the art of painting,
Apelles requested him to be silent lest the boys who ground his colors
should laugh at him. On another occasion, when he had painted a picture
of his famous war-horse, Alexander did not seem to appreciate its
excellence; but Bucephalus, on seeing his own portrait, began to prance
and neigh, when the painter observed that the horse was a better judge
of painting than his master.
APELLES AND PROTOGENES.