_Inscribed to the dealers in dark pictures._
[Illustration: THE BATHOS.]
In five compartments beneath the title are the following
inscriptions:--
In the dexter corner is a pyramidical shell inscribed: "The conic
form in which the Goddess of Beauty was worshipped by the ancients
at Paphos in the Island of Cyprus. See the medal struck when a Roman
emperor visited the temple."
"Simulacrum Deæ non effigie humana, continuus orbis latiori initio
tenuem in ambitum meta modo, exsurgens et ratio in obscuro."--TACIT.
_Hist._ lib. 2.
In the sinister corner is a white pyramid, round which is twisted the
favourite serpentine line inscribed:--
"A copy of the precise line of Beauty, as it is represented on the
first explanatory plate of the 'Analysis of Beauty.'"
"Venus a Paphiis colitur, cujus simulacrum nulli rei magis assimile,
quam albæ Pyramidi."--MAXIMUS TYRIUS, _Ann._ 157.
"_Note._--The similarity of these two conic figures did not occur
to the author till two or three years after the publication of the
_Analysis_ in 1754."
Thus conclude the inscriptions. We will next inquire into the motives
by which the artist was actuated, and the subjects he has intended to
satirize in this his concluding enigmatical and pun-ical print.
* * * * *
The labours of this great painter to the passions are now at an end;
and this is the last page of his eventful and instructive histories.
Those which he had formed into a series, added to the single prints,
portraits, etc., had become so numerous as to form a large volume.
A concluding plate seemed necessary; and we are told that, a few
months before he was seized with that malady which deprived society
of one of its greatest ornaments, he had in contemplation a last
engraving. After a dinner with a few social friends at his own table,
enjoying
"The feast of reason, and the flow of soul,"
the board crowned with wine, and each glass circulating convivial
cheerfulness, he was asked, "What will be the subject of your next
print?" "The end of all things!" was his reply. "If that should be
the case," added one of his friends, "your business will be finished,
for there will be an end of the painter." With a look that conveyed
a consciousness of approaching dissolution, and a deep sigh, he
answered, "There will so; and therefore, the sooner my work is done
the better." With this impulse he next day began this plate, and
seeming to consider it as a terminus to his fame, never turned to the
right or left until he arrived at the end of his journey.
The aim of this _Omega_ to his own alphabet was twofold; to bring
together every object which denoted the end of time, and throw a
ridicule upon the bathos and profundity of the ancient masters.
That the bathos is not confined to the poet, but hath at sundry times
and in divers manners been of sovereign use to the painter, I am well
convinced. My opinion was originally formed upon the inspection of
many ancient and modern pictures, innumerable volumes of ancient and
modern prints, and an annual attendance at the Royal Exhibition: it
was confirmed by the perusal of some papers on the arts, which came
into my possession by one of those fortunate accidents that happen
to few men above once in their lives. Walking some years ago through
Harp Alley, I observed a porter carrying an old trunk without a
cover, in which was a little picture in a broad and deep ebony frame,
a few mutilated pamphlets, a parcel of prints, and an old manuscript
volume bound in vellum. He laid down his load at a broker's shop; I
inspected it, and seeing the book inscribed "Mart. Scrib.," purchased
the whole lot, took a hackney coach, and joyfully conveyed my prize
home. Eagerly inspecting the contents, I found the picture was Dutch,
and turned to a tint sombre as the frame: by the help of clear water
I brought out the colours, and--
"Oh! Jephtha, judge of Israel,--what a treasure!"
To have painted it, must have been the labour of a long life. Such a
green stall!--such a cabbage!--a cauliflower!--a string of Spanish
onions!--a bunch of carrots!--a lobster!--a brass kettle!--and
a sunflower!--I never beheld before. So clear! transparent!
vivid!--It was forcible as Rembrandt! brilliant as Rubens!--and for
finishing--the most accurate works of Denner!--the most delicate
pencilling of the Chevalier Vanderweff!--compared with this charming
_tableau_, would appear hasty sketches.
The pamphlets were German, and touched of the transmutation of
metals; to discover which, who can calculate the loads of charcoal
that have been burnt, the retorts that have been burst, or the heads
that have been turned? That this grand arcanum of nature will at
some future day be revealed, I have no doubt; and there is little
reason to fear but the benefit of the discovery will be reaped by
this island;--because, Britain is highly favoured by the gods; and
several great calculators have clearly proved, that without some
such miraculous assistance, Britain must be undone by her enormous
national debt.
The prints were Flemish; but these subjects are foreign to my
manuscript. First craving pardon for the digression, to that I
proceed.
By time[232] it was turned to the colour of old parchment, but that
it was written by the righte cunnynge hand of Martinus Scriblerus
there can be little doubt.
When he sent some literary memoranda to Arbuthnot,[233] he
recommended to the Doctor "the recovery of others which lay
straggling about the world."[234]
Let it be also remembered, that though this prodigy of science
presented to our English Cervantes numerous tracts, he might not
think the Doctor would have a proper value for those on painting.
That Martinus was a competent judge of the fine arts, is proved by
his fifth chapter on Sinking in Poetry. Now as the family of the
Scribleri, with all their alliances and collateral relations, have
time immemorial been distinguished for the _cacoëthes scribendi_ of
whatever he was a judge, certes he would write, and that which he
hath written I have happily preserved. A few extracts[235] which
I have inserted will give a general idea of the whole, which is
entitled, THE ART OF SINKING IN PAINTING; and is thus introduced in
the _Prolegomena_:--
"Great and manifold have been the benefits (my dear countryman)
which poesy hath derived from that innumerable army of critics
and commentators, who fabricated fences to keep her in bounds,
and bore blazing torches to irradiate her path. Lamentable is it
to consider how few lights have been held out to her sister art;
who, notwithstanding an equal or prior claim, hath been suffered
to wander through her dreary night with no other illumination
than the glow-worm on the bank, or the _ignis fatuus_ in the
ditches. For the use and service of the poet there is an ocean
of commentary; while the painter hath no other stream in which to
slake his thirst for instruction than that which creeps among the
weeds in the meadow, or gurgles over the pebbles in the valley.
"From intense application to the mysterious tablets of my great
ancestors, for ages professors of astrology and chemistry in the
universities of Germany, I am empowered to see by anticipation.
"For me it is decreed to strike the rock of nature with the rod
of science, and liberate the fountain of truth, whose waters
shall fertilize this ungenial isle. Ye whose well-poised pinions
enable you to soar above this our terrestrial globe, and dip your
pencils in the rainbow! come and contemplate the magic mirror of
Martinus Scriblerus.
"Conscious am I that this our divine muse, who hath not unaptly
been styled journeywoman to Nature, is now in a profound sleep;
but in the coming century she shall awake from her trance,
shake the dust from her many-coloured mantle, and dazzle the
surrounding nations. Blest with the power of penetrating the
cloud of time, which is impervious to vulgar sight, I see, as
in a vision, the wonders of another age; and should these my
lucubrations be neglected by my contemporaries, happy am I in
the confidence that by their posterity they will be properly
estimated, and sought for as were the Sibyl's leaves, regarded as
the oracles of Apollo, and considered as the touchstone of true
taste. To the age of whom they are worthy, and who are worthy of
them, I dedicate these my labours.
"The few who have written upon the fine arts have endeavoured to
inculcate simplicity of action, anatomical correctness, symmetry
of parts, harmony of colouring, easy folding of drapery, and due
attention to the grouping of figures. These rules can only be
classed among the idle dreams of visionary speculation; resign
yourselves unto my guidance, and listen unto the lessons of truth.
"In every animal there is an original instinct, tending towards
that for which it was by nature designed. In man, there is a
natural bias to the bathos; but he must be instructed, or rather
compelled into any relish or taste for what is denominated the
sublime.
"To prove this my position, show a collection of drawings or
paintings to a child: it will be irresistibly attracted by
glittering colours, forced expressions, and grotesque, or what
are commonly called caricatured countenances. Let the savage, who
is not vitiated by idle rules, and has never seen painted canvas,
be taken into a picture-gallery,--his natural taste will lead him
to similar objects. What the artists call a quiet picture, he
will quietly pass; but let the figures be crowded, the attitudes
extravagant, and the colours gaudy,--his attention and admiration
are ensured.
"These facts being admitted, and they cannot be denied, why
should we not take the genuine undebauched disposition of man
in his original state of simplicity, as a better criterion of
truth than that ideal nature which hath misled many painters
and writers; of whose fantastic dogmas I cannot too strongly
caution you to beware. Should you, in the course of your early
studies, have contracted any of this ancient _ærugo_,--it is
corrosive,--consider it as the dross of science, and scatter
it in the air, for with my precepts it cannot coalesce. Ideal
beauty is a childish absurdity. Painting is, or ought to be, an
imitation of nature; and that can never be a good picture which
representeth things that never did or can exist."
After many more pages to the same purport, this great philosopher
divideth his subject. The table of contents to a few of his chapters,
which will give a general idea of his plan, is hereunto annexed:--
"CHAP. 1.--_Of the Story._
"The principal character in your piece should be an illustrious
person; but as great men may sometimes, for their recreation and
diversion, or worse purposes, be taken up in mean and trivial
matters, in such situations, it is proved from many right worthy
examples, they may and ought to be delineated. The Emperor
Domitian should be represented killing flies; Nero, playing upon
the fiddle; Julius Cæsar, kicking a football; and Commodus, at a
bull-baiting.
"CHAP. 2.--_Relateth unto the Allegory._
"To raise an historical picture above vulgar expression, it
should be seasoned with allegory, and elevated with metaphorical
allusions and figures.
"CHAP. 3.--_Of the Time._
"In this there should be variety; and if your story have not
a sufficient number of great and famous persons to render it
important and interesting, you may embellish it with such
portraitures as suit your purpose. Their not having lived in the
same age or nation is of little import.
"CHAP. 4.--_Of the Machinery._
"The machinery, _id est_, the celestial and infernal powers,
must be brought into your picture on every great or difficult
occasion. This will not only give your delineation a classical
and learned air, but account for any wonderful action which
the world might think your hero could not perform without
supernatural assistance.
"CHAP. 5.--_Treateth of the Episode._
"To vary the pleasure of the spectator, an historical picture
should be diversified with an episode; especial care being taken
that it have no congruity with the main subject; for the name
deriveth from that which is superadded to the original plan, and
ought no more to appear a part of it than an insect appeareth as
a part of the animal unto which it adhereth.
"CHAP. 6.--_Describeth the nature and end of the Hyperbola, or
Impossible._
"This image is of eminent use in giving a cast of grandeur and
greatness to what would, without it, appear trivial and mean.
It excites astonishment; and the majority of mankind being most
delighted with that which is most marvellous, is a good and
sufficient cause for your works being well strewed with wonders."
For the contents of eighteen succeeding chapters, treating of the
cumbrous, the inflated, the glittering, the infantine, the pun-ical,
the vulgar, and sundry other styles, I have not room, but quitting
the bathos of Martinus Scriblerus, must proceed unto that of William
Hogarth.
It is well worthy of the title, for a more heterogeneous compound of
ludicrous and serious objects was never displayed in one print.
Some of his images the artist has gleaned from the common field of
the poor company of punsters, and for others hath soared into the
lofty regions of mythological allegory. He ascends from an inch of
candle setting fire to a print, to the chariot of the sun, which,
with Apollo Pæan and his three fiery coursers, sinks into endless
night. Mounts from the cobbler's end, twisted round a wooden last,
to the world's end, elegantly exemplified by a bursting globe on an
alehouse sign. He has contrasted the worn-out brush with the broken
crown; and opposed to the empty purse a commission of bankrupt,
which, sanctioned with the great seal of a hero upon a white horse,
is issued and awarded against Nature,--by Heaven knows who! He has
joined the huge cracked bell of the cathedral to the broken bottle of
the tavern; and set in opposition to the mutilated column and capital
of Ionia, the rope's end of a man-of-war. The bow which, drawn by
the old English archer, gave force fraught with death to the barbed
arrow, is unstrung and broken. The mutilated firelock, divested of
its tube, shall no more thin the ranks of contending armies. The
tottering tower, funeral yew, death's head, cross-bones, and "_Hic
jacet_" of a country churchyard, are opposed by the hard-worn besom,
blighted oaks, falling sign-post, and unthatched cottage. In what
painters call the sky, we have not only the son of Latona, but Luna
in a veil: in the distance a ship is sinking into the bed of the
ocean, and a gibbet is erected on the shore; to this, in conformity
with the wise institutions of our polished ancestors, and for the
luxury of those strong-beaked birds that feast their young with
blood,--a lord of the creation is suspended.[236] ONCE,--
"On our quick'st decrees
The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time
Stole, ere we could effect them."
NOW,--his scythe, tube, and hour-glass being broken, his progress is
ended! his sinews are unstrung! his hour of dissolution arrived!--and
with those five _capital letters_ that have concluded the labours of
so many learned authors, and which conjoined form the word FINIS,--
"He ends his mortal coil, and breathes his last!"
By his will,--The great globe itself, and all which it inherits, is
bequeathed to Chaos,--appointed sole executor;--and this, his last
act, is witnessed by the _Parcæ_.
The print of "The Times," that gave rise to so much unmerited
abuse of this wonderful painter and excellent man, is in a blaze.
The palette on which he spread the varying tints of many-coloured
life--broken;--the whip of satire, armed with which he
"Dar'd the rage
Of the bad men of this degenerate age,"
and scourged those that were safe from the law, and laughed at the
gospel;--the whip of satire--divested of its lash, lies unheeded on
the earth.
The book of Nature, in which he was so deeply read, and from whence
he drew all his images, is open at the last page. The characters that
compose his pictured tragi-comedies have passed in review before us,
and with the words engraven on the last leaf of that volume which he
so well studied, I will conclude this--