So far as I know, there has never yet been compiled, for the
illustration of any collection of paintings whatever, a series of notes
at once so copious, carefully chosen, and usefully arranged, as this
which has been prepared, by the industry and good sense of Mr. Edward
T. Cook, to be our companion through the magnificent rooms of our own
National Gallery; without question now the most important collection of
paintings in Europe for the purposes of the general student. Of course
the Florentine School must always be studied in Florence, the Dutch
in Holland, and the Roman in Rome; but to obtain a clear knowledge of
their relations to each other, and compare with the best advantage the
characters in which they severally excel, the thoughtful scholars of
any foreign country ought now to become pilgrims to the Dome--(such as
it is)--of Trafalgar Square.
We have indeed--be it to our humiliation remembered--small reason
to congratulate ourselves on the enlargement of the collection now
belonging to the public, by the sale of the former possessions of our
nobles. But since the parks and castles which were once the pride,
beauty, and political strength of England are doomed by the progress
of democracy to be cut up into lots on building leases, and have
their libraries and pictures sold at Sotheby's and Christie's, we
may at least be thankful that the funds placed by the Government at
the disposal of the Trustees for the National Gallery have permitted
them to save so much from the wreck of English mansions and Italian
monasteries, and enrich the recreations of our metropolis with graceful
interludes by Perugino and Raphael.
It will be at once felt by the readers of the following catalogue that
it tells them, about every picture and its painter, just the things
they wished to know. They may rest satisfied also that it tells them
these things on the best historical authorities, and that they have in
its concise pages an account of the rise and decline of the arts of the
Old Masters, and record of their personal characters and worldly state
and fortunes, leaving nothing of authentic tradition, and essential
interest, untold.
As a collection of critical remarks by esteemed judges, and of clearly
formed opinions by earnest lovers of art, the little book possesses a
metaphysical interest quite as great as its historical one. Of course
the first persons to be consulted on the merit of a picture are those
for whom the artist painted it: with those in after generations who
have sympathy with them; one does not ask a Roundhead or a Republican
his opinion of the Vandyke at Wilton, nor a Presbyterian minister his
impressions of the Sistine Chapel:--but from any one honestly taking
pleasure in any sort of painting, it is always worth while to hear the
grounds of his admiration, if he can himself analyse them. For those
who take no pleasure in painting, or who are offended by its inevitable
faults, any form of criticism is insolent. Opinion is only valuable
when it
gilds with various rays
These painted clouds that beautify our days.
When I last lingered in the Gallery before my old favourites, I
thought them more wonderful than ever before; but as I draw towards
the close of life, I feel that the real world is more wonderful yet:
that Painting has not yet fulfilled half her mission,--she has told us
only of the heroism of men and the happiness of angels: she may perhaps
record in future the beauty of a world whose mortal inhabitants are
happy, and which angels may be glad to visit.