Chapter I: Part 1

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.

Apelles, being highly delighted with a picture of Jalysus, painted by Protogenes of Rhodes, sailed thither to pay him a visit. Protogenes was gone from home, but an old woman was left watching a large piece of canvass which was fitted in a frame for painting. She told Apelles that Protogenes was gone out, and asked him his name, that she might inform her master who had inquired for him. “Tell him,” said Apelles, “he was inquired for by this person,” at the same time taking up a pencil, and drawing on the canvass a line of great delicacy. When Protogenes returned, the old woman acquainted him with what had happened. The artist, upon contemplating the fine stroke of the pencil, immediately proclaimed that Apelles must have been there, for so finished a work could be produced by no other person. Protogenes, however, drew a finer line of another color; and as he was going away ordered the old woman to show that line to Apelles if he came again, and to say, “This is the person for whom you were inquiring.” When Apelles returned and saw the line, he resolved not to be overcome, and in a color different from either of the former, he drew some lines so exquisitely delicate, that it was impossible for finer strokes to be made. Having done so, he departed. Protogenes now confessed the superiority of Apelles; flew to the harbor in search of him; and resolved to leave the canvass as it was, with the lines on it, for the astonishment of future artists. It was in after years taken to Rome, and was there seen by Pliny, who speaks of it as having the appearance of a large black surface, the extreme delicacy of the lines rendering them invisible, except on close inspection. They were drawn with different colors, the one upon or rather within, the other. This picture (continues Pliny), was handed down, a wonder for posterity, but especially for artists; and, notwithstanding it contained only those three scarcely visible lines (_tres lineas_), still it was the most noble work in the Gallery, though surrounded by many finished paintings by renowned masters.

This celebrated contest of lines between Apelles and Protogenes, is a subject which has greatly perplexed painters and critics; and in fact, Carducci asserts that Michael Angelo and other great artists treated the idea with contempt. The picture was preserved in the gallery of the Imperial palace on the Palatine, and was destroyed by the first fire that consumed that palace, in the time of Augustus; therefore it could not have been seen by Pliny, and the account must have been related by him from some other work. In regard to its vagueness, one of the principal causes, undoubtedly, is a mutilation of the text; but the whole thing is told with obscurity. Suffice it to say, that in the opinion of Professor Tölken of Berlin, and the best modern critics, this wonderful piece could not have contained only _three simple lines_, as stated by Pliny, else how could it have been termed “the most noble work in the gallery, and the wonder of posterity.”

At the time this occurrence took place, Protogenes lived in a state of poverty and neglect; but the generous notice of Apelles soon caused him to be valued as he deserved by the Rhodians. Apelles acknowledged that Protogenes was even in some respects his superior; the chief fault he found with him was, that “he did not know when to take his hand from his work;” a phrase which has become proverbial among artists. He volunteered to purchase all the works he had by him, at any price he should name, and when Protogenes estimated them far below their real value, he offered him fifty talents, and spread the report that he intended to sell them as his own. He thus opened the eyes of the Rhodians to the merit of their painter, and they accordingly secured his works at a still higher price.

In Protogenes, the able rival of Apelles, the arts received one of the highest tokens of regard they were ever favored with; for when Demetrius Poliorcetes was besieging the city of Rhodes, and might have taken it by assaulting it on the side where Protogenes resided, he forbore, lest he should do an injury to his works; and when the Rhodians delivered the place to him, requesting him to spare the pictures of this admired artist, he replied, “that he would sooner destroy the images of his forefathers, than the productions of Protogenes.”

ANECDOTES OF BENJAMIN WEST.

HIS ANCESTRY.

Cunningham says, “John West, the father of Benjamin, was of that family settled at Long-Crendon, in Buckinghamshire, which produced Colonel James West, the friend and companion in arms of John Hampden. Upon one occasion, in the course of a conversation in Buckingham palace, respecting his picture of the Institution of the Garter, West happened to make some allusion to his English descent, when the Marquis of Buckingham, to the manifest pleasure of the king, declared that the Wests of Long-Crendon were undoubted descendants of the Lord Delaware, renowned in the wars of Edward the Third and the Black Prince, and that the artist’s likeness had therefore a right to a place amongst those of the nobles and warriors, in his historical picture.”

WEST’S BIRTH.

Galt says Benjamin’s birth was brought on prematurely by a vehement sermon, preached in the fields, by Edward Peckover, on the corrupt state of the Old World, which he prophesied was about to be visited with the tempest of God’s judgments, the wicked to be swallowed up, and the terrified remnant compelled to seek refuge in happy America. Mrs. West was so affected that she swooned away, was carried home severely ill, and the pains of labor came upon her; she was, however, safely delivered, and the preacher consoled the parents by predicting that “a child sent into the world under such remarkable circumstances, would assuredly prove a wonderful man,” and admonished them to watch over their son with more than ordinary care.

HIS FIRST REMARKABLE FEAT.