HomeED; E526| [BLAKE'S EXHIBITIONHome
ED; E526| AND CATALOGUE OF 1809]
ED; E526| [Advertisement of the Exhibition] t1444
ED; E526|
DC[ad-exhib]title1; E526| Exhibition of Paintings in Fresco,
DC[ad-exhib]title2; E526| Poetical and Historical Inventions,
DC[ad-exhib]; E526| BY. Wm. Blake.
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| PAGE 1
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| THE ANCIENT BRITONS--Three Ancient Britons overthrowing the
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| Army of armed Romans; the Figures full as large as Life--From the
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| Welch Triades. t1445
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| In the last Battle that Arthur fought, the most Beautiful was one
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| That return'd, and the most Strong another: with them also return'd
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| The most Ugly, and no other beside return'd from the bloody Field.
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| The most Beautiful, the Roman Warriors trembled before and worshipped:
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| The most Strong, they melted before him and dissolved in his presence:
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| The most Ugly they fled with outcries and contortion of their Limbs.
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS from Chaucer--a cabinet Picture
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E526| in Fresco--Thirty Figures on Horse-back, in a brilliant Morning Scene.
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| Two Pictures, representing grand Apotheoses of NELSON and
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| PITT, with variety of cabinet Pictures, unchangeable and
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| permanent in Fresco, and Drawings for Public Inspection and for
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| Sale by Private Contract, at
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| No. 28, Corner of BROAD STREET, Golden-Square.
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| ___________________________________________________
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| "Fit Audience find tho' few" MILTON.
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| ___________________________________________________
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| Admittance 2s. 6d. each Person, a discriptive Catalogue
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| included. <Containing Ample Illustrations on Art>
DC[ad-exhib]p1; E527| Watts & Co. Printers, Southmolton St.
DC[ad-exhib]; E527| PAGE 2
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| The Invention of a portable Fresco.
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| A Wall on Canvas or Wood, or any other portable thing, of
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| dimensions ever so large, or ever so small, which may be removed
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| with the same convenience as so many easel Pictures; is worthy
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| the consideration of the Rich and those who have the direction of
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| public Works. If the Frescos of APELLES, of PROTOGENES, of
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| RAPHAEL, or MICHAEL ANGELO could have been removed, we might,
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| perhaps, have them now in England. I could divide Westminster
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| Hall, or the walls of any other great Building, into compartments
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| and ornament them with Frescos, which would be removable at pleasure.
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| Oil will not drink or absorb Colour enough to stand the test
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| of very little Time and of the Air; it grows yellow, and at
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| length brown. It was never generally used till after VANDYKE'S
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| time. All the little old Pictures, called cabinet Pictures, are
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| in Fresco, and not in Oil.
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| Fresco Painting is properly Miniature, or Enamel Painting;
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| every thing in Fresco is as high finished as Miniature or Enamel,
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| although in Works larger than Life. The Art has been lost: I
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| have recovered it. How this was done, will be told, together
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| with the whole Process, in a Work on Art, now in the Press. The
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| ignorant Insults of Individuals will not hinder me from doing my
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| duty to my Art. Fresco Painting, as it is now practised, is like
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| most other things, the contrary of what it pretends to be.
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| The execution of my Designs, being all in Water-colours,
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| (that is in Fresco) are regularly refused to be exhibited by the
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| Royal Academy, and the British Institution has,
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| this year, followed its example, and has effectually excluded me
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| by this Resolution; I therefore invite those Noblemen and
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| Gentlem[e]n, who are its Subscribers, to inspect what they have
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E527| excluded: and those who have been told that my Works are
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| but an unscientific and irregular Eccentricity, a Madman's
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| Scrawls, I demand of them to do me the justice to examine before
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| they decide.
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| There cannot be more than two or three great Painters or
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| Poets in any Age or Country; and these, in a corrupt state of
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| Society, are easily excluded, but not so easily obstructed. They
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| have ex[c]luded Watercolours; it is therefore become necessary
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| that I should exhibit to the Public, in an Exhibition of my own,
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| my Designs, Painted in Watercolours. If Italy is enriched and
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| made great by RAPHAEL, if MICHAEL ANGELO is its supreme glory, if
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| Art is the glory of a Nation, if Genius and Inspiration are the
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| great Origin and Bond of Society, the distinction my Works have
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| obtained from those who best understand such things, calls for my
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| Exhibition as the greatest of Duties to my Country.
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| <May 15. 1809>
DC[ad-exhib]p2; E528| WILLIAM BLAKE
ED; E528| [Advertisement of the Catalogue]
DC[ad-cat]; E528| A Descriptive Catalogue of
DC[ad-cat]; E528| Blake's Exhibition,
DC[ad-cat]; E528| At No. 28, Corner of
DC[ad-cat]; E528| BROAD-STREET
DC[ad-cat]; E528| GOLDEN-SQUARE.
DC[ad-cat]; E528| THE grand style of Art restored; in FRESCO, or Water-colour
DC[ad-cat]; E528| Painting, and England protected from the too just imputation
DC[ad-cat]; E528| of being the Seat and Protectress of bad (that is blotting and
DC[ad-cat]; E528| blurring) Art.
DC[ad-cat]; E528| In this Exhibition will be seen real Art, as it was left us
DC[ad-cat]; E528| by Raphael and Albert Durer, Michael Angelo,
DC[ad-cat]; E528| and Julio Romano; stripped from the Ignorances of
DC[ad-cat]; E528| Rubens and Rembrandt, Titian and Correggio;
DC[ad-cat]; E528| BY WILLIAM BLAKE.
DC[ad-cat]; E528| The Descriptive Catalogue, Price 2s. 6d. containing Mr. B.'s
DC[ad-cat]; E528| Opinions and Determinations on Art, very necessary to be known by
DC[ad-cat]; E528| Artists and Connoisseurs of all Ranks. Every Purchaser of a
DC[ad-cat]; E528| Catalogue will be entitled, at the time of purchase, to view the
DC[ad-cat]; E528| Exhibition.
DC[ad-cat]; E528| These Original Conceptions on Art, by an Original Artist,
DC[ad-cat]; E528| are sold only at the Corner of BROAD STREET.
DC[ad-cat]; E528| Admittance to the Exhibition 1 Shilling; an Index to the
DC[ad-cat]; E528| Catalogue gratis
DC[ad-cat]; E528| Printed by Watts & Bridgewater, Southmolton-street.
DCtitle; E529| A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF PICTURES,
DCsubtitle; E529| Poetical and Historical Inventions,
DCp.i; E529| Painted by William Blake, in Water Colours, Being the Ancient
DCp.i; E529| Method of Fresco Painting Restored: and Drawings, For Public
DCp.i; E529| Inspection, and for Sale by Private Contract, <At N 28 Corner of
DCp.i; E529| Broad Street-Golden Square> t1446
DCp.i; E529| London; Printed by D. N. Shury, 7, Berwick-Street, Soho, for J.
DCp.i; E529| Blake, 28, Broad-Street, Golden-Square. 1809.
DC; E529| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE [ii]
DCp.ii; E529| CONDITIONS OF SALE.
DCp.ii; E529| __________________________________________
DCp.ii; E529| I. One third of the price to be paid at the time of Purchase
DCp.ii; E529| and remainder on Delivery.
DCp.ii; E529| II. The Pictures and Drawings to remain in the Exhibition till
DCp.ii; E529| its close, which will be the 29th of September 1809; and the
DCp.ii; E529| Picture of the Canterbury Pilgrims, which is to be engraved,
DCp.ii; E529| will be Sold only on condition of its remaining in the Artist's
DCp.ii; E529| hands twelve months, when it will be delivered to the Buyer.
DC; E529| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE [iii]
DCp.iii; E529| PREFACE.
DCp.iii; E529| __________________________________________
DCp.iii; E529|
DCp.iii; E529| THE eye that can prefer the Colouring of Titian and Rubens to
DCp.iii; E529| that of Michael Angelo and Rafael, ought to be modest and to
DCp.iii; E529| doubt its own powers. Connoisseurs talk as if Rafael and Michael
DCp.iii; E529| Angelo had never seen the colouring of Titian or Correggio: They
DCp.iii; E529| ought to know that Correggio was born two years before Michael
DCp.iii; E529| Angelo, and Titian but four years after. Both Rafael and Michael
DCp.iii; E529| Angelo knew the Venetian, and contemned and rejected all he did
DCp.iii; E529| with the utmost disdain, as that which is fabricated for the
DCp.iii; E529| purpose to destroy art.
DCp.iii; E529| Mr. B. appeals to the Public, from the judgment of those
DCp.iii; E529| narrow blinking eyes, that have too long governed art in a dark
DCp.iii; E529| corner. The eyes of stupid cunning never will be [P iv] pleased
DCp.iii; E529| with the work any more than with the look of self-devoting
DCp.iii; E529| genius. The quarrel of the Florentine with the Venetian is not
DCp.iii; E529| because he does not understand Drawing, but because he does not
DCp.iii; E529| understand Colouring. How should he? he who does not know how to
DCp.iii; E529| draw a hand or a foot, know how to colour it.
DCp.iii; E529| Colouring does not depend on where the Colours are put, but
DCp.iii; E529| on where the lights and darks are put, and all depends on Form or
DCp.iii; E529| Out-
DCp.iii; E530| line. On where that is put; where that is wrong, the Colouring
DCp.iii; E530| never can be right; and it is always wrong in Titian and
DCp.iii; E530| Correggio, Rubens and Rembrandt. Till we get rid of Titian and
DCp.iii; E530| Correggio, Rubens and Rembrandt, We never shall equal Rafael and
DCp.iii; E530| Albert Durer, Michael Angelo, and Julio Romano.
DC; E530| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 1
DCp1; E530| DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE,
DCp1; E530| &C. &C.
DCp1; E530|
DCp1; E530| NUMBER I.
DCp1; E530| The spiritual form of Nelson guiding Leviathan, in whose
DCp1; E530| wreathings are infolded the Nations of the Earth. t1447
DCp1; E530| CLEARNESS and precision have been the chief objects in painting
DCp1; E530| these Pictures. Clear colours unmudded by oil, and firm and
DCp1; E530| determinate lineaments unbroken by shadows, which ought to
DCp1; E530| display and not to hide form, as is the practice of the latter
DCp1; E530| Schools of Italy and Flanders.
DC; E530| Descriptive CataloguePAGE 2
DCp2; E530| NUMBER II, ITS COMPANION
DCp2; E530| The spiritual form of Pitt, guiding Behemoth; he is that
DCp2; E530| Angel who, pleased to perform the Almighty's orders, rides on the
DCp2; E530| whirlwind, directing the storms of war: He is ordering the Reaper t1448
DCp2; E530| to reap the Vine of the Earth, and the Plowman to plow up the
DCp2; E530| Cities and Towers
DCp2; E530| This Picture also is a proof of the power of colours unsullied
DCp2; E530| with oil or with any cloggy vehicle. Oil has falsely been
DCp2; E530| supposed to give strength to colours: but a little consideration
DCp2; E530| must shew the fallacy of this opinion. Oil will not drink or
DCp2; E530| absorb colour enough to stand the test of very little time and of
DCp2; E530| the air. It deadens every colour it is mixed with, at its first
DCp2; E530| mixture, and in a little time becomes a yellow mask over all that
DCp2; E530| it touches. Let the works of modern Artists since Rubens' time
DC; E530| [Descriptive Catalogue P 3] witness the villany of some one at that time, who first
DCp3; E530| brought oil Painting into general opinion and practice: since
DCp3; E530| which we have never had a Picture painted, that could shew itself
DCp3; E530| by the side of an earlier production. Whether Rubens or Vandyke,
DCp3; E530| or both, were guilty of this villany, is to be enquired in
DCp3; E530| another work on Painting, and who first forged the silly story
DCp3; E530| and known falshood, about John of Bruges inventing oil colours:
DCp3; E530| in the mean time let it be observed, that before Vandyke's time,
DCp3; E530| and in his time all the genuine Pictures are on Plaster or
DCp3; E530| Whiting grounds and none since.
DCp3; E530| The two Pictures of Nelson and Pitt are compositions of a
DCp3; E530| mythological cast, similar to those Apotheoses of Persian,
DCp3; E530| Hindoo, and Egyptian Antiquity, which are still preserved on rude
DCp3; E530| monuments, being copies from some stupendous originals now lost
DCp3; E530| or perhaps buried till
DCp3; E531| some happier age. The Artist having been [Descriptive Catalogue P 4] taken in vision
DCp4; E531| into the ancient republics, monarchies, and patriarchates of
DCp4; E531| Asia, has seen those wonderful originals called in the Sacred
DCp4; E531| Scriptures the Cherubim, which were sculptured and painted on
DCp4; E531| walls of Temples, Towers, Cities, Palaces, and erected in the
DCp4; E531| highly cultivated states of Egypt, Moab, Edom, Aram, among the
DCp4; E531| Rivers of Paradise, being originals from which the Greeks and
DCp4; E531| Hetrurians copied Hercules, Farnese, Venus of Medicis, Apollo
DCp4; E531| Belvidere, and all the grand works of ancient art. They were
DCp4; E531| executed in a very superior style to those justly admired copies,
DCp4; E531| being with their accompaniments terrific and grand in the highest
DCp4; E531| degree. The Artist has endeavoured to emulate the grandeur of
DCp4; E531| those seen in his vision, and to apply it to modern Heroes, on a
DCp4; E531| smaller scale.
DCp4; E531| No man can believe that either Homer's Mythology, or Ovid's,
DCp4; E531| were the production of Greece, or of Latium; neither will any one
DC; E531| [Descriptive Catalogue P 5] believe, that the Greek statues, as they are called, were
DCp5; E531| the invention of Greek Artists; perhaps the Torso is the only
DCp5; E531| original work remaining; all the rest are evidently copies,
DCp5; E531| though fine ones, from greater works of the Asiatic Patriarchs.
DCp5; E531| The Greek Muses are daughters of Mnemosyne, or Memory, and not of
DCp5; E531| Inspiration or Imagination, therefore not authors of such sublime
DCp5; E531| conceptions. Those wonderful originals seen in my visions, were
DCp5; E531| some of them one hundred feet in height; some were painted as
DCp5; E531| pictures, and some carved as basso relievos, and some as groupes
DCp5; E531| of statues, all containing mythological and recondite meaning,
DCp5; E531| where more is meant than meets the eye. The Artist wishes it was
DCp5; E531| now the fashion to make such monuments, and then he should not
DCp5; E531| doubt of having a national commission to execute these two
DCp5; E531| Pictures on a scale that is suitable to the grandeur of the
DCp5; E531| nation, who is the parent of his heroes, in high [Descriptive Catalogue P 6] finished
DCp6; E531| fresco, where the colours would be as pure and as permanent as
DCp6; E531| precious stones though the figures were one hundred feet in height.
DCp6; E531| All Frescos are as high finished as miniatures or enamels,
DCp6; E531| and they are known to be unchangeable; but oil being a body
DCp6; E531| itself, will drink or absorb very little colour, and changing
DCp6; E531| yellow, and at length brown, destroys every colour it is mixed
DCp6; E531| with, especially every delicate colour. It turns every permanent
DCp6; E531| white to a yellow and brown putty, and has compelled the use of
DCp6; E531| that destroyer of colour, white lead; which, when its protecting
DCp6; E531| oil is evaporated, will become lead again. This is an awful
DCp6; E531| things to say to oil Painters; they may call it madness, but it
DCp6; E531| is true. All the genuine old little Pictures, called Cabinet
DCp6; E531| Pictures, are in fresco and not in oil, Oil was not used except
DCp6; E531| by blundering ignorance, till after Vandyke's time, but the art
DCp6; E531| of fresco painting [Descriptive Catalogue P 7] being lost, oil became a fetter to
DCp7; E531| genius, and a dungeon to art. But one convincing proof among
DCp7; E531| many others, that these assertions are true is, that real gold
DCp7; E531| and silver cannot be used with oil, as they are in all the old
DCp7; E531| pictures and in Mr. B.'s frescos.
DCp7; E532| NUMBER III.
CDp7; E532| Sir Jeffery Chaucer and the nine and twenty Pilgrims on
DCp7; E532| their journey to Canterbury.
DCp7; E532| THE time chosen is early morning, before sunrise, when the jolly
DCp7; E532| company are just quitting the Tabarde Inn. The Knight and Squire
DCp7; E532| with the Squire's Yeoman lead the Procession, next follow the
DCp7; E532| youthful Abbess, her nun and three priests; her greyhounds attend
DCp7; E532| her.
DCp7quote; E532| "Of small hounds had she that she fed
DCp7quote; E532| "With roast flesh, milk and wastel bread."
DCp7; E532| Next follow the Friar and Monk; then the Tapiser, the Pardoner,
DCp7; E532| and the Somner and Manciple. After these "Our Host," who oc[P
DC; E532| 8]cupies the center of the cavalcade; directs them to the Knight
DCp8; E532| as the person who would be likely to commence their task of each
DCp8; E532| telling a tale in their order. After the Host follow the
DCp8; E532| Shipman, the Haberdasher, the Dyer, the Franklin, the Physician,
DCp8; E532| the Plowman, the Lawyer, the poor Parson, the Merchant, the Wife
DCp8; E532| of Bath, the Miller, the Cook, the Oxford Scholar, Chaucer
DCp8; E532| himself, and the Reeve comes as Chaucer has described:
DCp8quot; E532| "And ever he rode hinderest of the rout."
DCp8; E532| These last are issuing from the gateway of the Inn; the Cook and
DCp8; E532| the Wife of Bath are both taking their morning's draught of
DCp8; E532| comfort. Spectators stand at the gateway of the Inn, and are
DCp8; E532| composed of an old Man, a Woman and Children.
DCp8; E532| The Landscape is an eastward view of the country, from the
DCp8; E532| Tabarde Inn, in Southwark, as it may be supposed to have
DCp8; E532| appeared in [Descriptive Catalogue P 9] Chaucer's time; interspersed with cottages and
DCp9; E532| villages; the first beams of the Sun are seen above the horizon;
DCp9; E532| some buildings and spires indicate the situation of the great
DCp9; E532| City; the Inn is a gothic building, which Thynne in his Glossary
DCp9; E532| says was the lodging of the Abbot of Hyde, by Winchester. On
DCp9; E532| the Inn is inscribed its title, and a proper advantage is taken
DCp9; E532| of this circumstance to describe the subject of the Picture.
DCp9; E532| The words written over the gateway of the Inn, are as follow:
DCp9; E532| "The Tabarde Inn, by Henry Baillie, the lodgynge-house for
DCp9; E532| Pilgrims, who journey to Saint Thomas's Shrine at Canterbury."
DCp9; E532| The characters of Chaucer's Pilgrims are the characters
DCp9; E532| which compose all ages and nations: as one age falls, another
DCp9; E532| rises, different to mortal sight, but to immortals only the same;
DCp9; E532| for we see the same characters repeated again and again, in
DCp9; E532| animals, vegetables, minerals, and in men; nothing new occurs in
DCp9; E532| iden[Descriptive Catalogue P 10]tical existence; Accident ever varies, Substance can
DCp10; E532| never suffer change nor decay.
DCp10; E532| Of Chaucer's characters, as described in his Canterbury
DCp10; E532| Tales, some of the names or titles are altered by time, but the
DCp10; E532| characters themselves for ever remain unaltered, and
DCp10; E532| consequently they are the
DCp10; E533| physiognomies or lineaments of universal human life, beyond which
DCp10; E533| Nature never steps. Names alter, things never alter. I have
DCp10; E533| known multitudes of those who would have been monks in the age of
DCp10; E533| monkery, who in this deistical age are deists. As Newton
DCp10; E533| numbered the stars, and as Linneus numbered the plants, so
DCp10; E533| Chaucer numbered the classes of men.
DCp10; E533| The Painter has consequently varied the heads and forms of
DCp10; E533| his personages into all Nature's varieties; the Horses he has
DCp10; E533| also varied to accord to their Riders, the Costume is correct
DCp10; E533| according to authentic monuments.
DCp10; E533| The Knight and Squire with the Squire's [Descriptive Catalogue P 11] Yeoman lead
DCp11; E533| the procession, as Chaucer has also placed them first in his
DCp11; E533| prologue. The Knight is a true Hero, a good, great, and wise
DCp11; E533| man; his whole length portrait on horseback, as written by
DCp11; E533| Chaucer, cannot be surpassed. He has spent his life in the
DCp11; E533| field; has ever been a conqueror, and is that species of
DCp11; E533| character which in every age stands as the guardian of man
DCp11; E533| against the oppressor. His son is like him with the germ of
DCp11; E533| perhaps greater perfection still, as he blends literature and
DCp11; E533| the arts with his warlike studies. Their dress and their horses
DCp11; E533| are of the first rate, without ostentation, and with all the
DCp11; E533| true grandeur that unaffected simplicity when in high rank
DCp11; E533| always displays. The Squire's Yeoman is also a great character,
DCp11; E533| a man perfectly knowing in his profession:
DCp11quote; E533| "And in his hand he bare a mighty bow."
DCp11; E533| Chaucer describes here a mighty man; one who in war is the
DCp11; E533| worthy attendant on noble heroes.
DC; E533| [Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 12]The Prioress follows these with her female chaplain.
DCp12quote; E533| "Another Nonne also with her had she,
DCp12quote; E533| "That was her Chaplaine and Priests three."
DCp12; E533| This Lady is described also as of the first rank; rich and
DCp12; E533| honoured. She has certain peculiarities and little delicate
DCp12; E533| affectations, not unbecoming in her, being accompanied with what
DCp12; E533| is truly grand and really polite; her person and face, Chaucer
DCp12; E533| has described with minuteness; it is very elegant, and was the
DCp12; E533| beauty of our ancestors, till after Elizabeth's time, when
DCp12; E533| voluptuousness and folly began to be accounted beautiful.
DCp12; E533| Her companion and her three priests were no doubt all
DCp12; E533| perfectly delineated in those parts of Chaucer's work which are
DCp12; E533| now lost; we ought to suppose them suitable attendants on rank
DCp12; E533| and fashion.
DC; E533| [Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 13] The Monk follows these with the Friar. The
DCp13; E533| Painter has also grouped with these, the Pardoner and the
DCp13; E533| Sompnour and the Manciple, and has here also introduced one of
DCp13; E533| the rich citizens of London. Characters likely to ride in
DCp13; E533| company, all being above the common rank in life or attendants on
DCp13; E533| those who were so.
DCp13; E533| For the Monk is described by Chaucer, as a man of the first
DCp13; E533| rank
DCp13; E534| in society, noble, rich, and expensively attended: he is a leader
DCp13; E534| of the age, with certain humourous accompaniments in his
DCp13; E534| character, that do not degrade, but render him an object of
DCp13; E534| dignified mirth, but also with other accompaniments not so
DCp13; E534| respectable.
DCp13; E534| The Friar is a character also of a mixed kind.
DCp13quote; E534| "A friar there was, a wanton and a merry."
DCp13; E534| [B]ut in his office he is said to be a "full solemn man:"
DCp13; E534| eloquent, amorous, witty, and satyri[Descriptive Catalogue P 14]cal; young, handsome,
DCp14; E534| and rich; he is a complete rogue; with constitutional gaiety
DCp14; E534| enough to make him a master of all the pleasures of the world.
DCp14quote; E534| "His neck was white as the flour de lis,
DCp14quote; E534| Thereto strong he was as a champioun."
DCp14; E534| It is necessary here to speak of Chaucer's own character,
DCp14; E534| that I may set certain mistaken critics right in their conception
DCp14; E534| of the humour and fun that occurs on the journey. Chaucer is
DCp14; E534| himself the great poetical observer of men, who in every age is
DCp14; E534| born to record and eternize its acts. This he does as a master,
DCp14; E534| as a father, and superior, who looks down on their little follies
DCp14; E534| from the Emperor to the Miller; sometimes with severity, oftener
DCp14; E534| with joke and sport.
DCp14; E534| Accordingly Chaucer has made his Monk a great tragedian, one
DCp14; E534| who studied poetical art. [Descriptive Catalogue P 15] So much so, that the generous
DCp15; E534| Knight is, in the compassionate dictates of his soul, compelled
DCp15; E534| to cry out
DCp15quote; E534| "Ho quoth the Knyght, good Sir, no more of this,
DCp15quote; E534| That ye have said, is right ynough I wis;
DCp15quote; E534| And mokell more, for little heaviness,
DCp15quote; E534| Is right enough for much folk as I guesse.
DCp15quote; E534| I say for me, it is a great disease,
DCp15quote; E534| Whereas men have been in wealth and ease;
DCp15quote; E534| To heare of their sudden fall alas,
DCp15quote; E534| And the contrary is joy and solas."
DCp15; E534| The Monk's definition of tragedy in the proem to his tale is
DCp15; E534| worth repeating:
DCp15quote; E534| "Tragedie is to tell a certain story,
DCp15quote; E534| As old books us maken memory;
DCp15quote; E534| Of hem that stood in great prosperity.
DCp15quote; E534| And be fallen out of high degree,
DCp15quote; E534| Into miserie and ended wretchedly."
DC; E534| [Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 16] Though a man of luxury, pride and pleasure, he is
DCp16; E534| a master of art and learning, though affecting to despise it.
DCp16; E534| Those who can think that the proud Huntsman, and noble
DCp16; E534| Housekeeper, Chaucer's Monk, is intended for a buffoon or
DCp16; E534| burlesque character, know little of Chaucer.
DCp16; E535| For the Host who follows this group, and holds the center
DCp16; E535| of the cavalcade, is a first rate character, and his jokes are
DCp16; E535| no trifles; they are always, though uttered with audacity, and
DCp16; E535| equally free with the Lord and the Peasant, they are always
DCp16; E535| substantially and weightily expressive of knowledge and
DCp16; E535| experience; Henry Baillie, the keeper of the greatest Inn, of
DCp16; E535| the greatest City; for such was the Tabarde Inn in Southwark,
DCp16; E535| near London: our Host was also a leader of the age.
DCp16; E535| By way of illustration, I instance Shakspeare's Witches in
DCp16; E535| Macbeth. Those who dress [Descriptive Catalogue P 17] them for the stage, consider
DCp17; E535| them as wretched old women, and not as Shakspeare intended, the
DCp17; E535| Goddesses of Destiny; this shews how Chaucer has been
DCp17; E535| misunderstood in his sublime work. Shakspeare's Fairies also
DCp17; E535| are the rulers of the vegetable world, and so are Chaucer's;
DCp17; E535| let them be so considered, and then the poet will be understood,
DCp17; E535| and not else.
DCp17; E535| But I have omitted to speak of a very prominent character,
DCp17; E535| the Pardoner, the Age's Knave, who always commands and domineers
DCp17; E535| over the high and low vulgar. This man is sent in every age for
DCp17; E535| a rod and scourge, and for a blight, for a trial of men, to
DCp17; E535| divide the classes of men, he is in the most holy sanctuary, and
DCp17; E535| he is suffered by Providence for wise ends, and has also his
DCp17; E535| great use, and his grand leading destiny.
DCp17; E535| His companion the Sompnour, is also a Devil of the first
DCp17; E535| magnitude, grand, terrific, rich and honoured in the rank of
DCp17; E535| which he holds [Descriptive Catalogue P 18] the destiny. The uses to society are
DCp18; E535| perhaps equal of the Devil and of the Angel, their sublimity who
DCp18; E535| can dispute.
DCp18quote; E535| "In daunger had he at his own gise,
DCp18quote; E535| The young girls of his diocese,
DCp18quote; E535| And he knew well their counsel, &c."
DCp18; E535| The principal figure in the next groupe, is the Good
DCp18; E535| Parson; an Apostle, a real Messenger of Heaven, sent in every
DCp18; E535| age for its light and its warmth. This man is beloved and
DCp18; E535| venerated by all, and neglected by all: He serves all, and is
DCp18; E535| served by none; he is, according to Christ's definition, the
DCp18; E535| greatest of his age. Yet he is a Poor Parson of a town. Read
DCp18; E535| Chaucer's description of the Good Parson, and bow the head and
DCp18; E535| the knee to him, who, in every age sends us such a burning and a
DCp18; E535| shining light. Search O ye rich and powerful, for these men and
DCp18; E535| obey their counsel, then [Descriptive Catalogue P 19] shall the golden age return: But
DCp19; E535| alas! you will not easily distinguish him from the Friar or the
DCp19; E535| Pardoner, they also are "full solemn men," and their counsel, you
DCp19; E535| will continue to follow.
DCp19; E535| I have placed by his side, the Sergeant at Lawe, who appears
DCp19; E535| delighted to ride in his company, and between him and his
DCp19; E535| brother, the Plowman; as I wish men of Law would always ride with
DCp19; E535| them, and take their counsel, especially in all difficult points.
DCp19; E535| Chaucer's Lawyer is a character of great venerableness, a judge,
DCp19; E535| and a real master of the jurisprudence of his age.
DCp19; E536| The Doctor of Physic is in this groupe, and the Franklin,
DCp19; E536| the voluptuous country gentleman, contrasted with the Physician,
DCp19; E536| and on his other hand, with two Citizens of London. Chaucer's
DCp19; E536| characters live age after age. Every age is a Canterbury
DCp19; E536| Pilgrimage; we all pass on, each sustaining one or other
DC; E536| [Descriptive Catalogue P 20]
DCp20; E536| of these characters; nor can a child be born, who is not one of
DCp20; E536| these characters of Chaucer, The Doctor of Physic is described as
DCp20; E536| the first of his profession; perfect, learned, completely Master
DCp20; E536| and Doctor in his art. Thus the reader will observe, that
DCp20; E536| Chaucer makes every one of his characters perfect in his kind,
DCp20; E536| every one is an Antique Statue; the image of a class, and not of
DCp20; E536| an imperfect individual.
DCp20; E536| This groupe also would furnish substantial matter, on which
DCp20; E536| volumes might be written. The Franklin is one who keeps open
DCp20; E536| table, who is the genius of eating and drinking, the Bacchus; as
DCp20; E536| the Doctor of Physic is the Esculapius, the Host is the Silenus,
DCp20; E536| the Squire is the Apollo, the Miller is the Hercules, &c.
DCp20; E536| Chaucer's characters are a description of the eternal Principles
DCp20; E536| that exist in all ages. The Franklin is voluptuousness itself
DCp20; E536| most nobly pourtrayed:
DC; E536| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 21
DCp21quote; E536| "It snewed in his house of meat and drink."
DCp21; E536| The Plowman is simplicity itself, with wisdom and strength
DCp21; E536| for its stamina. Chaucer has divided the ancient character of
DCp21; E536| Hercules between his Miller and his Plowman. Benevolence is the
DCp21; E536| plowman's great characteristic, he is thin with excessive labour,
DCp21; E536| and not with old age, as some have supposed.
DCp21quote; E536| "He would thresh and thereto dike and delve
DCp21quote; E536| For Christe's sake, for every poore wight,
DCp21quote; E536| Withouten hire, if it lay in his might."
DCp21; E536| Visions of these eternal principles or characters of human
DCp21; E536| life appear to poets, in all ages; the Grecian gods were the
DCp21; E536| ancient Cherubim of Phoenicia; but the Greeks, and since them the
DCp21; E536| Moderns, have neglected to subdue the gods of Priam. These Gods
DCp21; E536| are visions of the eternal attributes, or divine names, which,
DCp21; E536| when [Descriptive Catalogue P 22] erected into gods, become destructive to humanity.
DCp22; E536| They ought to be the servants, and not the masters of man, or of
DCp22; E536| society. They ought to be made to sacrifice to Man, and not man
DCp22; E536| compelled to sacrifice to them; for when separated from man or
DCp22; E536| humanity, who is Jesus the Saviour, the vine of eternity, they
DCp22; E536| are thieves and rebels, they are destroyers.
DCp22; E536| The Plowman of Chaucer is Hercules in his supreme eternal
DCp22; E536| state, divested of his spectrous shadow; which is the Miller, a
DCp22; E536| terrible fellow, such as exists in all times and places, for the
DCp22; E536| trial of men, to astonish every neighbourhood, with brutal
DCp22; E536| strength and courage, to get rich and powerful to curb the pride of Man.
DCp22; E536| The Reeve and the Manciple are two characters of the most consummate
DCp22; E537| worldly wisdom. The Shipman, or Sailor, is a similar
DCp22; E537| genius of Ulyssean art; but with the highest courage superadded.
DCp22; E537| The Citizens and their Cook are each leaders [Descriptive Catalogue P 23] of a
DCp23; E537| class. Chaucer has been somehow made to number four citizens,
DCp23; E537| which would make his whole company, himself included, thirty-
DCp23; E537| one. But he says there was but nine and twenty in his company.
DCp23quote; E537| "Full nine and twenty in a company."
DCp23; E537| The Webbe, or Weaver, and the Tapiser, or Tapestry Weaver,
DCp23; E537| appear to me to be the same person; but this is only an opinion,
DCp23; E537| for full nine and twenty may signify one more or less. But I
DCp23; E537| dare say that Chaucer wrote "A Webbe Dyer," that is a Cloth Dyer.
DCp23quote; E537| "A Webbe Dyer and a Tapiser."
DCp23; E537| The Merchant cannot be one of the Three Citizens, as his
DCp23; E537| dress is different, and his character is more marked, whereas
DCp23; E537| Chaucer says of his rich citizens:
DC; E537| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 24
DCp24quote; E537| "All were yclothed in o liverie."
DCp24; E537| The characters of Women Chaucer has divided into two
DCp24; E537| classes, the Lady Prioress and the Wife of Bath. Are not these
DCp24; E537| leaders of the ages of men? The lady prioress, in some ages,
DCp24; E537| predominates; and in some the wife of Bath, in whose character
DCp24; E537| Chaucer has been equally minute and exact; because she is also a
DCp24; E537| scourge and a blight. I shall say no more of her, nor expose
DCp24; E537| what Chaucer has left hidden; let the young reader study what he
DCp24; E537| has said of her: it is useful as a scare-crow. There are of
DCp24; E537| such characters born too many for the peace of the world.
DCp24; E537| I come at length to the Clerk of Oxenford. This character
DCp24; E537| varies from that of Chaucer, as the contemplative philosopher
DCp24; E537| varies from the poetical genius. There are always these two
DCp24; E537| classes of learned sages, the poetical and the philosophical.
DCp24; E537| The painter has put them side by side, as if the youthful clerk
DCp24; E537| had put him[Descriptive Catalogue P 25]self under the tuition of the mature poet. Let
DCp25; E537| the Philosopher always be the servant and scholar of inspiration
DCp25; E537| and all will be happy.
DCp25; E537| Such are the characters that compose this Picture, which was
DCp25; E537| painted in self-defence against the insolent and envious
DCp25; E537| imputation of unfitness for finished and scientific art; and this
DCp25; E537| imputation, most artfully and industriously endeavoured to be
DCp25; E537| propagated among the public by ignorant hirelings. The painter
DCp25; E537| courts comparison with his competitors, who, having received
DCp25; E537| fourteen hundred guineas and more from the profits of his
DCp25; E537| designs, in that well-known work, Designs for Blair's Grave, have
DCp25; E537| left him to shift for himself, while others, more obedient to an
DCp25; E537| employer's opinions and directions, are employed, at a great
DCp25; E537| expence, to produce works, in succession to his, by which they
DCp25; E537| acquired public patronage. This has hitherto been his lot--to
DCp25; E537| get patronage for
DCp25; E538| others and then to be left and neglected, and his work, which
DCp25; E538| gained [Descriptive Catalogue P 26] that patronage, cried down as eccentricity and
DCp26; E538| madness; as unfinished and neglected by the artist's violent
DCp26; E538| temper, he is sure the works now exhibited, will give the lie to
DCp26; E538| such aspersions.
DCp26; E538| Those who say that men are led by interest are knaves. A
DCp26; E538| knavish character will often say, of what interest is it to me to
DCp26; E538| do so and so? I answer, of none at all, but the contrary, as you
DCp26; E538| well know. It is of malice and envy that you have done this;
DCp26; E538| hence I am aware of you, because I know that you act not from
DCp26; E538| interest but from malice, even to your own destruction. It is
DCp26; E538| therefore become a duty which Mr. B. owes to the Public, who have
DCp26; E538| always recognized him, and patronized him, however hidden by
DCp26; E538| artifices, that he should not suffer such things to be done or be
DCp26; E538| hindered from the public Exhibition of his finished productions
DCp26; E538| by any calumnies in future.
DCp26; E538| The character and expression in this picture could never
DCp26; E538| have been produced with Ruben's [Descriptive Catalogue P 27] light and shadow, or with
DCp27; E538| Rembrandt's, or any thing Venetian or Flemish. The Venetian and
DCp27; E538| Flemish practice is broken lines, broken masses, and broken
DCp27; E538| colours. Mr. B.'s practice is unbroken lines, unbroken masses,
DCp27; E538| and unbroken colours. Their art is to lose form, his art is to
DCp27; E538| find form, and to keep it. His arts are opposite to theirs in
DCp27; E538| all things.
DCp27; E538| As there is a class of men, whose whole delight is in the
DCp27; E538| destruction of men, so there is a class of artists, whose whole
DCp27; E538| art and science is fabricated for the purpose of destroying art.
DCp27; E538| Who these are is soon known: "by their works ye shall know them."
DCp27; E538| All who endeavour to raise up a style against Rafael, Mich.
DCp27; E538| Angelo, and the Antique; those who separate Painting from
DCp27; E538| Drawing; who look if a picture is well Drawn; and, if it is,
DCp27; E538| immediately cry out, that it cannot be well Coloured-- those are
DCp27; E538| the men.
DCp27; E538| But to shew the stupidity of this class of [Descriptive Catalogue P 28] men,
DCp28; E538| nothing need be done but to examine my rival's prospectus.
DCp28; E538| The two first characters in Chaucer, the Knight and the
DCp28; E538| Squire, he has put among his rabble; and indeed his prospectus
DCp28; E538| calls the Squire the fop of Chaucer's age. Now hear Chaucer.
DCp28quote; E538| "Of his Stature, he was of even length,
DCp28quote; E538| And wonderly deliver, and of great strength;
DCp28quote; E538| And he had be sometime in Chivauchy,
DCp28quote; E538| In Flanders, in Artois, and in Picardy,
DCp28quote; E538| And borne him well as of so litele space."
DCp28; E538| Was this a fop?
DCp28quote; E538| "Well could he sit a horse, and faire ride,
DCp28quote; E538| He could songs make, and eke well indite
DCp28quote; E538| Just, and eke dance, pourtray, and well write.
DC; E539| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 29
DCp29quote; E539| "Curteis he was, and meek, and serviceable;
DCp29quote; E539| And kerft before his fader at the table."
DCp29; E539| It is the same with all his characters; he has done all by
DCp29; E539| chance, or perhaps his fortune, money, money. According to his
DCp29; E539| prospectus he has Three Monks; these he cannot find in Chaucer,
DCp29; E539| who has only One Monk, and that no vulgar character, as he has
DCp29; E539| endeavoured to make him. When men cannot read they should not
DCp29; E539| pretend to paint. To be sure Chaucer is a little difficult to
DCp29; E539| him who has only blundered over novels and catchpenny trifles of
DCp29; E539| booksellers. Yet a little pains ought to be taken even by the
DCp29; E539| ignorant and weak. He has put The Reeve, a vulgar fellow,
DCp29; E539| between his Knight and Squire, as if he was resolved to go
DCp29; E539| contrary in every thing to Chaucer, who says of the Reeve:
DC; E539| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 30
DCp30quote; E539| "And ever he rode hinderest of the rout."
DCp30; E539| In this manner he has jumbled his dumb dollies together, and
DCp30; E539| is praised by his equals for it; for both himself and his friend
DCp30; E539| are equally masters of Chaucer's language. They both think that
DCp30; E539| the Wife of Bath is a young beautiful blooming damsel; and
DCp30; E539| H[oppner] says, that she is the Fair Wife of Bath, and that the
DCp30; E539| Spring appears in her Cheeks. Now hear what Chaucer has made her
DCp30; E539| say of herself, who is no modest one,
DCp30quote; E539| "But Lord when it remembereth me
DCp30quote; E539| Upon my youth and on my jollity,
DCp30quote; E539| It tickleth me about the heart root.
DCp30quote; E539| Unto this day it doth my heart boot,
DCp30quote; E539| That I have had my world as in my time;
DCp30quote; E539| But age, alas, that all will envenime,
DCp30quote; E539| Hath me bireft, my beauty and my pith
DCp30quote; E539| Let go; farewell: the devil go therewith,
DC; E539| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 31
DCp31quote; E539| The flower is gone, there is no more to tell.
DCp31quote; E539| The bran, as best, I can, I now mote sell;
DCp31quote; E539| And yet, to be right merry, will I fond,
DCp31quote; E539| Now forth to tell of my fourth husband."
DCp31; E539| She has had four husbands, a fit subject for this painter; yet
DCp31; E539| the painter ought to be very much offended with his friend H----,
DCp31; E539| who has called his "a common scene," "and very ordinary forms;"
DCp31; E539| which is the truest part of all, for it is so, and very
DCp31; E539| wretchedly so indeed. What merit can there be in a picture of
DCp31; E539| which such words are spoken with truth.
DCp31; E540| But the prospectus says that the Painter has represented
DCp31; E540| Chaucer himself as a knave, who thrusts himself among honest
DCp31; E540| people, to make game of and laugh at them; though I must do
DCp31; E540| justice to the painter, and say that he has made him look more
DCp31; E540| like a fool than a knave. But it appears, in all the writings of
DCp31; E540| Chaucer, and particularly in his Canterbury Tales, that [Descriptive Catalogue P 32] he
DCp32; E540| was very devout, and paid respect to true enthusiastic
DCp32; E540| superstition. He has laughed at his knaves and fools as I do
DCp32; E540| now. But he has respected his True Pilgrims, who are a majority
DCp32; E540| of his company, and are not thrown together in the random manner
DCp32; E540| that Mr. S[tothard] has done. Chaucer has no where called the
DCp32; E540| Plowman old, worn out with age and labour, as the prospectus has
DCp32; E540| represented him, and says, that the picture has done so too. He
DCp32; E540| is worn down with labour, but not with age. How spots of brown
DCp32; E540| and yellow, smeared about at random, can be either young or old,
DCp32; E540| I cannot see. It may be an old man; it may be a young one; it
DCp32; E540| may be any thing that a prospectus pleases. But I know that
DCp32; E540| where there are no lineaments there can be no character. And
DCp32; E540| what connoisseurs call touch, I know by experience, must be the
DCp32; E540| destruction of all character and expression, as it is of every
DCp32; E540| lineament.
DCp32; E540| The scene of Mr. S------'s Picture is by [Descriptive Catalogue P 33] Dulwich
DCp33; E540| Hills, which was not the way to Canterbury; but, perhaps the
DCp33; E540| painter thought he would give them a ride round about, because
DCp33; E540| they were a burlesque set of scare-crows, not worth any man's
DCp33; E540| respect or care.
DCp33; E540| But the painter's thoughts being always upon gold, he has
DCp33; E540| introduced a character that Chaucer has not; namely, a Goldsmith;
DCp33; E540| for so the prospectus tells us. Why he has introduced a
DCp33; E540| Goldsmith, and what is the wit of it, the prospectus does not
DCp33; E540| explain. But it takes care to mention the reserve and modesty of
DCp33; E540| the Painter; this makes a good epigram enough.
DCp33quote; E540| "The fox, the owl, the spider, and the mole,
DCp33quote; E540| By sweet reserve and modesty get fat."
DCp33; E540| But the prospectus tells us, that the painter has introduced
DCp33; E540| a Sea Captain; Chaucer has a Ship-man, a Sailor, a Trading
DCp33; E540| Master of a Ves[Descriptive Catalogue P 34]sel, called by courtesy Captain, as every
DCp34; E540| master of a boat is; but this does not make him a Sea Captain.
DCp34; E540| Chaucer has purposely omitted such a personage, as it only exists
DCp34; E540| in certain periods: it is the soldier by sea. He who would be a
DCp34; E540| Soldier in inland nations is a sea captain in commercial nations.
DCp34; E540| All is misconceived, and its mis-execution is equal to its
DCp34; E540| misconception. I have no objection to Rubens and Rembrandt
DCp34; E540| being employed, or even to their living in a palace; but it shall
DCp34; E540| not be at the expence of Rafael and Michael Angelo living in a
DCp34; E540| cottage, and in contempt and derision. I have been scorned long
DCp34; E540| enough by these fellows, who owe to me all that they have; it
DCp34; E540| shall be so no longer.
DCp34; E540| I found them blind, I taught them how to see;
DCp34; E540| And, now, they know me not, nor yet themselves.
DC; E541| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 35
DCp35; E541| NUMBER IV.
DCp35; E541| The Bard, from Gray
DCp35quote; E541| On a rock, whose haughty brow
DCp35quote; E541| Frown'd o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
DCp35quote; E541| Robed in the sable garb of woe,
DCp35quote; E541| With haggard eyes the Poet stood,
DCp35quote; E541| Loose his beard, and hoary hair
DCp35quote; E541| Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air.
DCp35quote; E541| Weave the warp, and weave the woof
DCp35quote; E541| The winding sheet of Edward's race.
DCp35; E541| Weaving the winding sheet of Edward's race by means of
DCp35; E541| sounds of spiritual music and its accompanying expressions of
DCp35; E541| articulate speech is a bold, and daring, and most masterly
DCp35; E541| conception, that the public have embraced and approved with
DCp35; E541| avidity. Poetry consists in these conceptions; and shall
DCp35; E541| Painting be confined to the sordid drudgery of facsimile
DCp36; E541| re[P 36]presentations of merely mortal and perishing substances, and
DCp36; E541| not be as poetry and music are, elevated into its own proper
DCp36; E541| sphere of invention and visionary conception? No, it shall not
DCp36; E541| be so! Painting, as well as poetry and music, exists and exults
DCp36; E541| in immortal thoughts. If Mr. B.'s Canterbury Pilgrims had been
DCp36; E541| done by any other power than that of the poetic visionary, it
DCp36; E541| would have been as dull as his adversary's.
DCp36; E541| The Spirits of the murdered bards assist in weaving the
DCp36; E541| deadly woof.
DCp36quote; E541| With me in dreadful harmony they join,
DCp36quote; E541| And weave, with bloody hands, the tissue of thy line.
DCp36; E541| The connoisseurs and artists who have made objections to
DCp36; E541| Mr. B.'s mode of representing spirits with real bodies, would do
DCp36; E541| well to consider that the Venus, the Minerva, the Jupiter, the
DCp36; E541| Apollo, which they admire in Greek sta[Descriptive Catalogue P 37]tues, are all of them
DCp37; E541| representations of spiritual existences of God's immortal, to
DCp37; E541| the mortal perishing organ of sight; and yet they are embodied
DCp37; E541| and organized in solid marble. Mr. B. requires the same latitude
DCp37; E541| and all is well. The Prophets describe what they saw in Vision
DCp37; E541| as real and existing men whom they saw with their imaginative and
DCp37; E541| immortal organs; the Apostles the same; the clearer the organ the
DCp37; E541| more distinct the object. A Spirit and a Vision are not, as the
DCp37; E541| modern philosophy supposes, a cloudy vapour or a
DCp37; E541| nothing: they are organized and minutely articulated beyond all
DCp37; E541| that the mortal and perishing nature can produce. He who does
DCp37; E541| not imagine in stronger and better lineaments, and in stronger
DCp37; E541| and better light than his perishing mortal eye can see does not
DCp37; E541| imagine at all. The painter of this work asserts that all his
DCp37; E541| imaginations appear to him infinitely more perfect and more
DCp37; E541| minutely organized than any thing seen by his
DCp37; E542| mortal eye. Spi[Descriptive Catalogue P 38]rits are organized men: Moderns wish to
DCp38; E542| draw figures without lines, and with great and heavy shadows;
DCp38; E542| are not shadows more unmeaning than lines, and more heavy? O
DCp38; E542| who can doubt this!
DCp38; E542| King Edward and his Queen Elenor are prostrated, with their
DCp38; E542| horses, at the foot of a rock on which the Bard stands;
DCp38; E542| prostrated by the terrors of his harp on the margin of the river
DCp38; E542| Conway, whose waves bear up a corse of a slaughtered bard at the
DCp38; E542| foot of the rock. The armies of Edward are seen winding among
DCp38; E542| the mountains.
DCp38quote; E542| "He wound with toilsome march his long array."
DCp38; E542| Mortimer and Gloucester lie spell bound behind their king.
DCp38; E542| The execution of this picture is also in Water Colours, or Fresco.
DC; E542| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 39
DCp39; E542| NUMBER V.
DCp39; E542| The Ancient Britons
DCp39; E542| In the last Battle of King Arthur only Three Britons escaped,
DCp39; E542| these were the Strongest Man, the Beautifullest Man, and the
DCp39; E542| Ugliest Man; these three marched through the field unsubdued, as
DCp39; E542| Gods, and the Sun of Britain s[e]t, but shall arise again with
DCp39; E542| tenfold splendor when Arthur shall awake from sleep, and resume
DCp39; E542| his dominion over earth and ocean.
DCp39; E542| The three general classes of men who are represented by the
DCp39; E542| most Beautiful, the most Strong, and the most Ugly, could not be
DCp39; E542| represented by any historical facts but those of our own country,
DCp39; E542| the Ancient Britons; without violating costume. The Britons (say
DCp39; E542| historians) were naked civilized men, learned, studious, abstruse
DCp39; E542| in thought and contemplation; naked, simple, plain, in their acts
DCp39; E542| and manners; [Descriptive Catalogue P 40] wiser than after-ages. They were overwhelmed
DCp40; E542| by brutal arms all but a small remnant; Strength, Beauty, and
DCp40; E542| Ugliness escaped the wreck, and remain for ever unsubdued, age
DCp40; E542| after age.
DCp40; E542| The British Antiquities are now in the Artist's hands; all
DCp40; E542| his visionary contemplations, relating to his own country and its
DCp40; E542| ancient glory, when it was as it again shall be, the source of
DCp40; E542| learning and inspiration. Arthur was a name for the
DCp40; E542| constellation Arcturus, or Bootes, the Keeper of the North Pole.
DCp40; E542| And all the fables of Arthur and his round table; of the warlike
DCp40; E542| naked Britons; of Merlin; of Arthur's conquest of the whole
DCp40; E542| world; of his death, or sleep, and promise to return again; of
DCp40; E542| the Druid monuments, or temples; of the pavement of
DCp40; E542| Watlingstreet; of London stone; of the caverns in Cornwall,
DCp40; E542| Wales, Derbyshire, and Scotland; of the Giants of Ireland and
DCp40; E542| Britain; of the elemental beings, called [Descriptive Catalogue P 41] by us by the
DCp41; E542| general name of Fairies; and of these three who escaped, namely,
DCp41; E542| Beauty, Strength, and Ugliness, Mr. B. has in his hands poems of
DCp41; E542| the highest antiquity. Adam was a Druid, and Noah; also Abraham
DCp41; E542| was called to succeed the Druidical
DCp41; E543| age, which began to turn allegoric and mental signification into
DCp41; E543| corporeal command, whereby human sacrifice would have
DCp41; E543| depopulated the earth. All these things are written in Eden.
DCp41; E543| The artist is an inhabitant of that happy country, and if
DCp41; E543| every thing goes on as it has begun, the world of vegetation
DCp41; E543| and generation may expect to be opened again to Heaven,
DCp41; E543| through Eden, as it was in the beginning.
DCp41; E543| The Strong man represents the human sublime. The Beautiful
DCp41; E543| man represents the human pathetic, which was in the wars of Eden
DCp41; E543| divided into male and female. The Ugly man represents the human
DCp41; E543| reason. They were originally one man, who was fourfold; he was
DCp41; E543| self-divided, and [Descriptive Catalogue P 42] his real humanity slain on the
DCp42; E543| stems of generation, and the form of the fourth was like the Son
DCp42; E543| of God. How he became divided is a subject of great sublimity
DCp42; E543| and pathos. The Artist has written it under inspiration, and
DCp42; E543| will, if God please, publish it; it is voluminous, and contains
DCp42; E543| the ancient history of Britain, and the world of Satan and of Adam.
DCp42; E543| In the mean time he has painted this Picture, which supposes
DCp42; E543| that in the reign of that British Prince, who lived in the fifth
DCp42; E543| century, there were remains of those naked Heroes, in the Welch
DCp42; E543| Mountains; they are there now, Gray saw them in the person of his
DCp42; E543| bard on Snowdon; there they dwell in naked simplicity; happy is
DCp42; E543| he who can see and converse with them above the shadows of
DCp42; E543| generation and death. The giant Albion, was Patriarch of the
DCp42; E543| Atlantic, he is the Atlas of the Greeks, one of those the Greeks
DCp42; E543| called Titans. The stories of Arthur are the acts of Albion,
DCp42; E543| ap[Descriptive Catalogue P 43]plied to a Prince of the fifth century, who conquered
DCp43; E543| Europe, and held the Empire of the world in the dark age, which
DCp43; E543| the Romans never again recovered. In this Picture, believing
DCp43; E543| with Milton, the ancient British History, Mr. B. has done, as all
DCp43; E543| the ancients did, and as all the moderns, who are worthy of fame,
DCp43; E543| given the historical fact in its poetical vigour; so as it always
DCp43; E543| happens, and not in that dull way that some Historians pretend,
DCp43; E543| who being weakly organized themselves, cannot see either miracle
DCp43; E543| or prodigy; all is to them a dull round of probabilities and
DCp43; E543| possibilities; but the history of all times and places, is
DCp43; E543| nothing else but improbabilities and impossibilities; what we
DCp43; E543| should say, was impossible if we did not see it always before our
DCp43; E543| eyes.
DCp43; E543| The antiquities of every Nation Under Heaven, is no less
DCp43; E543| sacred than that of the Jews. They are the same thing as Jacob
DCp43; E543| Bryant, [Descriptive Catalogue P 44] and all antiquaries have proved. How other
DCp44; E543| antiquities came to be neglected and disbelieved, while those of
DCp44; E543| the Jews are collected and arranged, is an enquiry, worthy of
DCp44; E543| both the Antiquarian and the Divine. All had originally one
DCp44; E543| language, and one religion, this was the religion of Jesus, the
DCp44; E543| everlasting Gospel. Antiquity preaches the Gospel of Jesus. The
DCp44; E543| reasoning historian, turner and twister of causes and
DCp44; E543| consequences, such as Hume, Gibbon and Voltaire; cannot with all
DCp44; E543| their artifice, turn or twist one fact or disarrange self evident
DCp44; E543| action
DCp44; E544| and reality. Reasons and opinions concerning acts, are not
DCp44; E544| history. Acts themselves alone are history, and these are
DCp44; E544| neither the exclusive property of Hume, Gibbon nor Voltaire,
DCp44; E544| Echard, Rapin, Plutarch, nor Herodotus. Tell me the Acts, O
DCp44; E544| historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away
DCp44; E544| with your reasoning and your rubbish. All that is not action is
DCp44; E544| not [Descriptive Catalogue P 45] worth reading. Tell me the What; I do not want you to
DCp45; E544| tell me the Why, and the How; I can find that out myself, as well
DCp45; E544| as you can, and I will not be fooled by you into opinions, that
DCp45; E544| you please to impose, to disbelieve what you think improbable or
DCp45; E544| impossible. His opinions, who does not see spiritual agency, is
DCp45; E544| not worth any man's reading; he who rejects a fact because it is
DCp45; E544| improbable, must reject all History and retain doubts only.
DCp45; E544| It has been said to the Artist, take the Apollo for the
DCp45; E544| model of your beautiful Man and the Hercules for your strong Man,
DCp45; E544| and the Dancing Fawn for your Ugly Man. Now he comes to his
DCp45; E544| trial. He knows that what he does is not inferior to the
DCp45; E544| grandest Antiques. Superior they cannot be, for human power
DCp45; E544| cannot go beyond either what he does, or what they have done, it
DCp45; E544| is the gift of God, it is inspiration and vision. He had
DCp45; E544| resolved to emulate those [Descriptive Catalogue P 46] precious remains of antiquity,
DCp46; E544| he has done so and the result you behold; his ideas of strength
DCp46; E544| and beauty have not been greatly different. Poetry as it exists
DCp46; E544| now on earth, in the various remains of ancient authors, Music as
DCp46; E544| it exists in old tunes or melodies, Painting and Sculpture as it
DCp46; E544| exists in the remains of Antiquity and in the works of more
DCp46; E544| modern genius, is Inspiration, and cannot be surpassed; it is
DCp46; E544| perfect and eternal. Milton, Shakspeare, Michael Angelo, Rafael,
DCp46; E544| the finest specimens of Ancient Sculpture and Painting, and
DCp46; E544| Architecture, Gothic, Grecian, Hindoo and Egyptian, are the
DCp46; E544| extent of the human mind. The human mind cannot go beyond the
DCp46; E544| gift of God, the Holy Ghost. To suppose that Art can go beyond
DCp46; E544| the finest specimens of Art that are now in the world, is not
DCp46; E544| knowing what Art is; it is being blind to the gifts of the spirit.
DC; E544| [Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 47] It will be necessary for the Painter to say
DCp47; E544| something concerning his ideas of Beauty, Strength and Ugliness,
DCp47; E544| The Beauty that is annexed and appended to folly, is a
DCp47; E544| lamentable accident and error of the mortal and perishing life;
DCp47; E544| it does but seldom happen; but with this unnatural mixture the
DCp47; E544| sublime Artist can have nothing to do; it is fit for the
DCp47; E544| burlesque. The Beauty proper for sublime art, is lineaments, or
DCp47; E544| forms and features that are capable of being the receptacles of
DCp47; E544| intellect; accordingly the Painter has given in his beautiful
DCp47; E544| man, his own idea of intellectual Beauty. The face and limbs
DCp47; E544| that deviates or alters least, from infancy to old age, is the
DCp47; E544| face and limbs of greatest Beauty and perfection.
DCp47; E544| The Ugly likewise, when accompanied and annexed to
DCp47; E544| imbecility and disease, is a subject for burlesque and not for
DCp47; E544| historical grandeur; the Artist has imagined his Ugly man; one
DC; E544| [Descriptive Catalogue P 48] approaching to the
DCp48; E545| beast in features and form, his forehead small, without frontals;
DCp48; E545| his jaws large; his nose high on the ridge, and narrow; his chest
DCp48; E545| and the stamina of his make, comparatively little, and his joints
DCp48; E545| and his extremities large; his eyes with scarce any whites,
DCp48; E545| narrow and cunning, and every thing tending toward what is truly
DCp48; E545| Ugly; the incapability of intellect.
DCp48; E545| The Artist has considered his strong Man as a receptacle of
DCp48; E545| Wisdom, a sublime energizer; his features and limbs do not
DCp48; E545| spindle out into length, without strength, nor are they too large
DCp48; E545| and unwieldy for his brain and bosom. Strength consists in
DCp48; E545| accumulation of power to the principal seat, and from thence a
DCp48; E545| regular gradation and subordination; strength is compactness, not
DCp48; E545| extent nor bulk.
DCp48; E545| The strong Man acts from conscious superiority, and marches
DCp48; E545| on in fearless dependance on the divine decrees, raging with the
DCp48; E545| inspira[Descriptive Catalogue P 49]tions of a prophetic mind. The Beautiful Man acts
DCp49; E545| from duty, and anxious solicitude for the fates of those for whom
DCp49; E545| he combats. The Ugly Man acts from love of carnage, and delight
DCp49; E545| in the savage barbarities of war, rushing with sportive
DCp49; E545| precipitation into the very teeth of the affrighted enemy.
DCp49; E545| The Roman Soldiers rolled together in a heap before them:
DCp49; E545| "Like the rolling thing before the whirlwind;" each shew a
DCp49; E545| different character, and a different expression of fear, or
DCp49; E545| revenge, or envy, or blank horror, or amazement, or devout wonder
DCp49; E545| and unresisting awe.
DCp49; E545| The dead and the dying, Britons naked, mingled with armed
DCp49; E545| Romans, strew the field beneath. Among these, the last of the
DCp49; E545| Bards who were capable of attending warlike deeds, is seen
DCp49; E545| falling, outstretched among the dead and the dying; singing to
DCp49; E545| his harp in the pains of death.
DC; E545| [Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 50]Distant among the mountains, are Druid Temples,
DCp50; E545| similar to Stone Hedge. The Sun sets behind the mountains,
DCp50; E545| bloody with the day of battle.
DCp50; E545| The flush of health in flesh, exposed to the open air,
DCp50; E545| nourished by the spirits of forests and floods, in that ancient
DCp50; E545| happy period, which history has recorded, cannot be like the
DCp50; E545| sickly daubs of Titian or Rubens. Where will the copier of
DCp50; E545| nature, as it now is, find a civilized man, who has been
DCp50; E545| accustomed to go naked. Imagination only, can furnish us with
DCp50; E545| colouring appropriate, such as is found in the Frescos of Rafael
DCp50; E545| and Michael Angelo: the disposition of forms always directs
DCp50; E545| colouring in works of true art. As to a modern Man stripped from
DCp50; E545| his load of cloathing, he is like a dead corpse. Hence Rubens,
DCp50; E545| Titian, Correggio, and all of that class, are like leather and
DCp50; E545| chalk; their men are like leather, and their women like chalk,
DCp50; E545| for the disposition of their [Descriptive Catalogue P 51] forms will not admit of grand
DCp51; E545| colouring; in Mr. B.'s Britons, the blood is seen to circulate in
DCp51; E545| their limbs; he defies competition in colouring.
DCp51; E546| A Spirit vaulting from a cloud to turn and wind a fiery
DCp51; E546| Pegasus--Shakspeare. The horse of Intellect is leaping from the
DCp51; E546| cliffs of Memory and Reasoning; it is a barren Rock: it is also
DCp51; E546| called the Barren Waste of Locke and Newton
DCp51; E546| THIS Picture was done many years ago, and was one of the first
DCp51; E546| Mr. B. ever did in Fresco; fortunately or rather providentially
DCp51; E546| he left it unblotted and unblurred, although molested continually
DCp51; E546| by blotting and blurring demons; but he was also compelled to
DCp51; E546| leave it unfinished for reasons that will be shewn in the
DCp51; E546| following.
DC; E546| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 52
DCp52; E546| NUMBER VII.
DCp52; E546| The Goats, an experiment Picture.
DCp52; E546| THE subject is taken from the Missionary Voyage and varied from
DCp52; E546| the literal fact, for the sake of picturesque scenery. The
DCp52; E546| savage girls had dressed themselves with vine leaves, and some
DCp52; E546| goats on board the missionary ship stripped them off presently.
DCp52; E546| This Picture was painted at intervals, for experiment, with the
DCp52; E546| colours, and is laboured to a superabundant blackness; it has
DCp52; E546| however that about it, which may be worthy the attention of the
DCp52; E546| Artist and Connoisseur for reasons that follow.
DCp52; E546| NUMBER VIII.
DCp52; E546| The spiritual Preceptor, an experiment Picture.
DCp52; E546| THIS subject is taken from the visions of Emanuel Swedenborg.
DCp52; E546| Universal Theology, [Descriptive Catalogue P 53] No. 623. The Learned, who strive to
DCp53; E546| ascend into Heaven by means of learning, appear to Children like
DCp53; E546| dead horses, when repelled by the celestial spheres. The works
DCp53; E546| of this visionary are well worthy the attention of Painters and
DCp53; E546| Poets; they are foundations for grand things; the reason they
DCp53; E546| have not been more attended to, is, because corporeal demons
DCp53; E546| have gained a predominance; who the leaders of these are, will
DCp53; E546| be shewn below. Unworthy Men who gain fame among Men,
DCp53; E546| continue to govern mankind after death, and in their spiritual
DCp53; E546| bodies, oppose the spirits of those, who worthily are famous;
DCp53; E546| and as Swedenborg observes, by entering into disease and
DCp53; E546| excrement, drunkenness and concupiscence, they possess
DCp53; E546| themselves of the bodies of mortal men, and shut the doors of
DCp53; E546| mind and of thought, by placing Learning above Inspiration, O
DCp53; E546| Artist! you may disbelieve all this, but it shall be at your own
DCp53; E546| peril.
DC; E547| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 54
DCp54; E547| NUMBER IX.
DCp54; E547| Satan calling up his Legions, from Milton's Paradise Lost; a
DCp54; E547| composition for a more perfect Picture, afterward executed for a
DCp54; E547| Lady of high rank. An experiment Picture
DCp54; E547| THIS Picture was likewise painted at intervals, for experiment on
DCp54; E547| colours, without any oily vehicle; it may be worthy of attention,
DCp54; E547| not only on account of its composition, but of the great labour
DCp54; E547| which has been bestowed on it, that is, three or four times as
DCp54; E547| much as would have finished a more perfect Picture; the labor
DCp54; E547| has destroyed the lineaments, it was with difficulty brought back
DCp54; E547| again to a certain effect, which it had at first, when all the
DCp54; E547| lineaments were perfect.
DCp54; E547| These Pictures, among numerous others painted for
DCp54; E547| experiment, were the result of [Descriptive Catalogue P 55] temptations and
DCp55; E547| perturbations, labouring to destroy Imaginative power, by means
DCp55; E547| of that infernal machine, called Chiaro Oscuro, in the hands of
DCp55; E547| Venetian and Flemish Demons; whose enmity to the Painter himself,
DCp55; E547| and to all Artists who study in the Florentine and Roman
DCp55; E547| Schools, may be removed by an exhibition and exposure of their
DCp55; E547| vile tricks. They cause that every thing in art shall become a
DCp55; E547| Machine. They cause that the execution shall be all blocked up
DCp55; E547| with brown shadows. They put the original Artist in fear and
DCp55; E547| doubt of his own original conception. The spirit of Titian was
DCp55; E547| particularly active, in raising doubts concerning the possibility
DCp55; E547| of executing without a model, and when once he had raised the
DCp55; E547| doubt, it became easy for him to snatch away the vision time
DCp55; E547| after time, for when the Artist took his pencil, to execute his
DCp55; E547| ideas, his power of imagination weakened so much, and darkened,
DCp55; E547| that memory of nature and of Pictures [Descriptive Catalogue P 56] of the various
DCp56; E547| Schools possessed his mind, instead of appropriate execution,
DCp56; E547| resulting from the inventions; like walking in another man's
DCp56; E547| style, or speaking or looking in another man's style and manner,
DCp56; E547| unappropriate and repugnant to your own individual character;
DCp56; E547| tormenting the true Artist, till he leaves the Florentine, and
DCp56; E547| adopts the Venetian practice, or does as Mr. B. has done, has the
DCp56; E547| courage to suffer poverty and disgrace, till he ultimately conquers.
DCp56; E547| Rubens is a most outrageous demon, and by infusing the
DCp56; E547| remembrances of his Pictures, and style of execution, hinders all
DCp56; E547| power of individual thought: so that the man who is possessed by
DCp56; E547| this demon, loses all admiration of any other Artist, but Rubens,
DCp56; E547| and those who were his imitators and journeymen, he causes to the
DCp56; E547| Florentine and Roman Artist fear to execute; and though the
DCp56; E547| original conception was all fire and animation, he loads it with
DC; E547| [Descriptive Catalogue P 57] hellish brownness, and blocks up all its gates of light,
DCp57; E547| except one, and that one he closes with iron bars, till the
DCp57; E547| victim is obliged to give up the Florentine and Roman practice,
DCp57; E547| and adopt the Venetian and Flemish.
DCp57; E548| Correggio is a soft and effeminate and consequently a most
DCp57; E548| cruel demon, whose whole delight is to cause endless labor to
DCp57; E548| whoever suffers him to enter his mind. The story that is told in
DCp57; E548| all Lives of the Painters about Correggio being poor and but
DCp57; E548| badly paid for his Pictures, is altogether false; he was a petty
DCp57; E548| Prince, in Italy, and employed numerous journeymen in
DCp57; E548| manufacturing (as Rubens and Titian did) the Pictures that go
DCp57; E548| under his name. The manual labor in these Pictures of Correggio
DCp57; E548| is immense, and was paid for originally at the immense prices
DCp57; E548| that those who keep manufactories of art always charge to their
DCp57; E548| employers, while they themselves pay their journeymen little
DCp57; E548| enough. But though [Descriptive Catalogue P 58] Correggio was not poor, he will make
DCp58; E548| any true artist so, who permits him to enter his mind, and take
DCp58; E548| possession of his affections; he infuses a love of soft and even
DCp58; E548| tints without boundaries, and of endless reflected lights, that
DCp58; E548| confuse one another, and hinder all correct drawing from
DCp58; E548| appearing to be correct; for if one of Rafael or Michael Angelo's
DCp58; E548| figures was to be traced, and Correggio's reflections and
DCp58; E548| refractions to be added to it, there would soon be an end of
DCp58; E548| proportion and strength, and it would be weak, and pappy, and
DCp58; E548| lumbering, and thick headed, like his own works; but then it
DCp58; E548| would have softness and evenness, by a twelvemonth's labor,
DCp58; E548| where a month would with judgment have finished it better and
DCp58; E548| higher; and the poor wretch who executed it, would be the
DCp58; E548| Correggio that the life writers have written of: a drudge and a
DCp58; E548| miserable man, compelled to softness by poverty. I say again, O
DCp58; E548| Artist, you may disbe[Descriptive Catalogue P 59]lieve all this, but it shall be at
DCp59; E548| your own peril.
DCp59; E548| Note. These experiment Pictures have been bruized and
DCp59; E548| knocked about, without mercy, to try all experiments.
DCp59; E548| NUMBER X.
DCp59; E548| The Bramins.--A Drawing.
DCp59; E548| The subject is, Mr. Wilkin, translating the Geeta; an ideal
DCp59; E548| design, suggested by the first publication of that part of the
DCp59; E548| Hindoo Scriptures, translated by Mr. Wilkin. I understand that
DCp59; E548| my Costume is incorrect, but in this I plead the authority of the
DCp59; E548| ancients, who often deviated from the Habits, to preserve the
DCp59; E548| Manners, as in the instance of Laocoon, who, though a priest, is
DCp59; E548| represented naked.
DC; E548| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE 60
DCp60; E548| NUMBER XI.
DCp60; E548| The body of Abel found by Adam and Eve; Cain, who
DCp60; E548| was about to bury it, fleeing from the face of his Parents. --A Drawing
DCp60; E548| NUMBER XII.
DCp60; E548| The Soldiers casting lots for Christ's Garment.-A Drawing
DCp60; E549| NUMBER XIII.
DCp60; E549| Jacob's Ladder, --A Drawing.
DCp60; E549| NUMBER XIV.
DCp60; E549| The Angels hovering over the Body of Jesus in the
DCp60; E549| Sepulchre.--A Drawing
DCp60; E549| The above four drawings the Artist wishes were in Fresco,
DCp60; E549| on an enlarged scale to ornament [Descriptive Catalogue P 61] the altars of churches,
DCp61; E549| and to make England like Italy, respected by respectable men of
DCp61; E549| other countries on account of Art. It is not the want of genius,
DCp61; E549| that can hereafter be laid to our charge, the Artist who has done
DCp61; E549| these Pictures and Drawings will take care of that; let those who
DCp61; E549| govern the Nation, take care of the other. The times require
DCp61; E549| that every one should speak out boldly; England expects that
DCp61; E549| every man should do his duty, in Arts, as well as in Arms, or in
DCp61; E549| the Senate.
DCp61; E549| NUMBER XV.
DCp61;E549"><a name ="550a">DCp61; E549| Ruth.--A Drawing.</a>
DCp61; E549| THIS Design is taken from that most pathetic passage in the
DCp61; E549| Book of Ruth, where Naomi having taken leave of her daughters
DCp61; E549| in law, with intent to return to her own country; Ruth cannot
DCp61; E549| leave her, but says, "Whither [Descriptive Catalogue P 62] thou goest I will go; and
DCp62quote; E549| where thou lodgest I will lodge, thy people shall be my people,
DCp62quote; E549| and thy God my God: where thou diest I will die, and there will
DCp62quote; E549| I be buried; God do so to me and more also, if ought but death
DCp62quote; E549| part thee and me."
DCp62; E549| The distinction that is made in modern times between a
DCp62; E549| Painting and a Drawing proceeds from ignorance of art. The
DCp62; E549| merit of a Picture is the same as the merit of a Drawing. The
DCp62; E549| dawber dawbs his Drawings; he who draws his Drawings draws
DCp62; E549| his Pictures. There is no difference between Rafael's Cartoons
DCp62; E549| and his Frescos, or Pictures, except that the Frescos, or Pictures,
DCp62; E549| are more finished. When Mr. B. formerly painted in oil colours
DCp62; E549| his Pictures were shewn to certain painters and connoisseurs, who
DCp62; E549| said that they were very admirable Drawings on canvass; but not
DCp62; E549| Pictures: but they said the same of Rafael's Pictures. [Descriptive Catalogue P 63] Mr.
DCp63; E549| B. thought this the greatest of compliments, though it was meant
DCp63; E549| otherwise. If losing and obliterating the outline constitutes a
DCp63; E549| Picture, Mr. B. will never be so foolish as to do one. Such
DCp63; E549| art of losing the outlines is the art of Venice and Flanders; it
DCp63; E549| loses all character, and leaves what some people call,
DCp63; E549| expression: but this is a false notion of expression; expression
DCp63; E549| cannot exist without character as its stamina; and neither
DCp63; E549| character nor expression can exist without firm and determinate
DCp63; E549| outline. Fresco Painting is susceptible of higher finishing than
DCp63; E549| Drawing on Paper, or than any other method of Painting. But he
DCp63; E549| must have a strange organization of sight who does not prefer a
DCp63; E549| Drawing on Paper to a Dawbing in Oil by the same master,
DCp63; E549| supposing both to be done with equal care.
DCp63; E550| The great and golden rule of art, as well as of life, is
DCp63; E550| this: That the more distinct, sharp, [Descriptive Catalogue P 64] and wirey the
DCp64; E550| bounding line, the more perfect the work of art; and the less
DCp64; E550| keen and sharp, the greater is the evidence of weak imitation,
DCp64; E550| plagiarism, and bungling. Great inventors, in all ages, knew
DCp64; E550| this: Protogenes and Apelles knew each other by this line.
DCp64; E550| Rafael and Michael Angelo, and Albert Durer, are known by this
DCp64; E550| and this alone. The want of this determinate and bounding form
DCp64; E550| evidences the want of idea in the artist's mind, and the t1449
DCp64; E550| pretence of the plagiary in all its branches. How do we
DCp64; E550| distinguish the oak from the beech, the horse from the ox, but
DCp64; E550| by the bounding outline? How do we distinguish one face or
DCp64; E550| countenance from another, but by the bounding line and its
DCp64; E550| infinite inflexions and movements? What is it that builds a house
DCp64; E550| and plants a garden, but the definite and determinate? What is it
DCp64; E550| that distinguishes honesty from knavery, but the hard and wirey
DCp64; E550| line of rectitude and certainty [Descriptive Catalogue P 65] in the actions and
DCp65; E550| intentions. Leave out this l[i]ne and you leave out life itself;
DCp65; E550| all is chaos again, and the line of the almighty must be drawn
DCp65; E550| out upon it before man or beast can exist. Talk no more then of
DCp65; E550| Correggio, or Rembrandt, or any other of those plagiaries of
DCp65; E550| Venice or Flanders. They were but the lame imitators of lines
DCp65; E550| drawn by their predecessors, and their works prove themselves
DCp65; E550| contemptible dis-arranged imitations and blundering misapplied
DCp65; E550| copies.
DCp65; E550| NUMBER XVI.
DC; E550| The Penance of Jane Shore in St. Paul's Church.--A Drawing
DCp65; E550| THIS Drawing was done above Thirty Years ago, and proves
DCp65; E550| to the Author, and he thinks will prove to any discerning eye,
DCp65; E550| that the productions of our youth and of our maturer age
DC; E550| [Descriptive Catalogue P 66]
DCp66; E550| are equal in all essential points. If a man is master of his
DCp66; E550| profession, he cannot be ignorant that he is so; and if he is not
DCp66; E550| employed by those who pretend to encourage art, he will employ
DCp66; E550| himself, and laugh in secret at the pretences of the ignorant,
DCp66; E550| while he has every night dropped into his shoe, as soon as he
DCp66; E550| puts it off, and puts out the candle, and gets into bed, a reward
DCp66; E550| for the labours of the day, such as the world cannot give, and
DCp66; E550| patience and time await to give him all that the world can give.
DCp66; E550| D. N. SHURY, PRINTER, BERWICK-STREET, SOHO, LONDON.
DC; E551| Descriptive Catalogue PAGE [67]
DC; E551| INDEX TO THE CATALOGUE.
DCp67; E551| NUMBER.
DCp67; E551| I. The Spiritual Form of Nelson guiding Leviathan PAGE 1
DCp67; E551| II. The Spiritual Form of Pitt guiding Behemoth 2
DCp67; E551| III. The Canterbury Pilgrims, from Chaucer 7
DCp67; E551| IV. The Bard, from Gray 35
DCp67; E551| V. The Ancient Britons 39
DCp67; E551| VI. A Subject from Shakspeare 51
DCp67; E551| VII. The Goats 52
DCp67; E551| VIII. The Spiritual Preceptor ib.
DC; E551| PAGE [68]
DCp68; E551| IX. Satan calling up his Legions, from Milton PAGE 54
DCp68; E551| X. The Bramins--A Drawing 59
DCp68; E551| XI. The Body of Abel found by Adam and Eve, Cain fleeing
DCp68; E551| away--A Drawing 60
DCp68; E551| XII. Soldiers casting Lots for Christ's Garment--A Drawing ib.
DCp68; E551| XIII. Jacob's Ladder--A Drawing ib.
DCp68; E551| XIV. Angels hovering over the Body of Jesus in the
DCp68; E551| Sepulchre--A Drawing
DCp68; E551| ib.
DCp68; E551| XV. Ruth--A Drawing 61
DCp68; E551| XVI. The Penance of Jane Shore--A Drawing 65