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ED; E768| 62
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To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.
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[In the Monthly Magazine, XXI (July 1, 1806) 520-521,
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undated]
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SIR,
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My indignation was exceedingly moved at reading a criticism
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in Bell's Weekly Messenger (25th May) on the picture of Count
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Ugolino, by Mr. Fuseli, in the Royal Academy exhibition; and your
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Magazine being as extensive in its circulation as that Paper, as
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it also must from its nature be more permanent, I take the
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advantageous opportunity to counteract the widely-diffused malice
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which has for many years, under the pretence of admiration of the
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arts, been assiduously sown and planted among the English public
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against true art, such as it existed in the days of Michael
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Angelo and Raphael. Under pretence of fair criticism and
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candour, the most wretched taste ever produced has been upheld
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for many, very many years: but now, I say, now its end is come.
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Such an artist as Fuseli is invulnerable, he needs not my
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defence; but I should be ashamed not to set my hand and shoulder,
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and whole strength, against those wretches who, under pretence of
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criticism, use the dagger and the poison.
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My criticism on this picture is as follows:
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Mr. Fuseli's Count Ugolino is the father of sons of feeling
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and dignity, who would not sit looking in their parent's face in
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the moment of his agony, but would rather retire and die in
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secret, while they suffer him to indulge his passionate and
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innocent grief, his innocent and venerable madness, and insanity,
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and fury, and whatever paltry cold hearted critics cannot,
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because they dare not, look upon. Fuseli's Count Ugolino is a
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man of wonder and admiration, of resentment against man and
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devil, and of humilitation before God; prayer and parental
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affection fills the figure from head to foot. The child in his
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arms, whether boy or girl signifies not, (but the critic must be
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a fool who has not read Dante, and who does not know a boy from a
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girl); I say, the child is as beautifully drawn as it is
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coloured--in both, inimitable! and the effect of the whole is
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truly sublime, on account of that very colouring which our critic
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calls black and heavy. The German flute colour, which was used
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by the Flemings, (they call it burnt bone), has possessed the eye
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of certain connoisseurs, that they cannot see appropriate
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colouring, and are blind to the gloom of a real terror.
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The taste of English amateurs has been too much formed upon
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pictures imported from Flanders and Holland; consequently our
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countrymen are easily brow-beat on the subject of painting; and
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hence it is so common to hear a man say, "I am no judge of
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pictures:" but, O Englishmen! know that every man ought to be a
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judge of pictures, and every man is so who has not been
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connoisseured out of his senses.
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A gentleman who visited me the other day, said, "I am very
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much surprised
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at the dislike that some connoisseurs shew n viewing the
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pictures of Mr. Fuseli; but the truth is, he is a hundred years
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beyond the present generation." Though I am startled at such
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an assertion, I hope the contemporary taste will shorten the
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hundred years into as many hours; for I am sure that any
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person consulting his own eyes must prefer what is so
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supereminent; and I am as sure that any person consulting
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his own reputation, or the reputation of his country, will
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refrain from disgracing either by such ill-judged criticisms in
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future.
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Yours,
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WM. BLAKE.
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