Paris as It Was and as It Is Part 14

In this picture, LUINI has fallen little short of his master, LEONARDO DA VINCI.

ANDREA SOLARIO.

N 896. (Gallery.) _The Daughter of Herodias receiving the head of St. John_.

SOLARIO is another worthy pupil of LEONARDO. This very capital picture belonged to the collection of the crown, and was purchased by Lewis XIV.

PIERUNO DEL VAGA.

N 928. (Gallery.) _The Muses challenged by the Pierides_.

An excellent picture from Versailles.

BALTa.s.sARE PERUZZI.

N 929. (Gallery.) _The Virgin discovering the infant Jesus asleep_.

A remarkably fine production.

SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO.

N ( ) _Portrait of the young sculptor, Baccio Bomdinelli_.

This picture is worthy of the pencil of RAPHAEL. It is not yet exhibited.

PIETRO DA CORTONA.

N 52. (Saloon.) _The Birth of the Virgin_.

53. _Remus and Romulus_.

These are the finest pictures in the collection by this master.

We have now noticed the best productions of the Italian School: in our next visit to the CENTRAL MUSEUM, I shall point out the most distinguished pictures of the French and Flemish Schools.

P. S. Lord Cornwallis is sumptuously entertained here, all the ministers giving him a grand dinner, each in rotation. After having viewed the curiosities of Paris, he will, in about a fortnight, proceed to the congress at Amiens. On his Lordship's arrival, I thought it my duty to leave my name at his hotel, and was most agreeably surprised to meet with a very old acquaintance in his military Secretary, Lieut. Col. L--------s. For any of the amba.s.sador's further proceedings, I refer you to the English newspapers, which seem to antic.i.p.ate all his movements.

LETTER XVII.

_Paris, November 15, 1801._

The more frequently I visit the CENTRAL MUSEUM OF THE ARTS, the more am I inclined to think that such a vast number of pictures, suspended together, lessen each other's effect. This is the first idea which now presents itself to me, whenever I enter the

GALLERY OF THE LOUVRE.

Were this collection rendered apparently less numerous by being subdivided into different apartments, the eye would certainly be less dazzled than it is, at present, by an a.s.semblage of so many various objects, which, though arranged as judiciously as possible, somehow convey to the mind an image of confusion. The consequence is that attention flags, and no single picture is seen to advantage, because so many are seen together.

In proportion as the lover of the arts becomes more familiarized with the choicest productions of the pencil, he perceives that there are few pictures, if any, really faultless. In some, he finds beauties, which are general, or forming, as it were, a whole, and producing a general effect; in others, he meets with particular or detached beauties, whose effect is partial: a.s.sembled, they const.i.tute the beautiful: insulated, they have a merit which the amateur appreciates, and the artist ought to study. General or congregated beauties always arise from genius and talent: particular or detached beauties belong to study, to labour, that is, to the _nulla die sine linea_ and sometimes solely to chance, as is exemplified in the old story of Protogenes, the celebrated Rhodian painter.

To discover some of these beauties, requires no extraordinary discernment; a person of common observation might decide whether the froth at the mouth of an animal, panting for breath, was naturally represented: but a spectator, possessing a cultivated and refined taste, minutely surveys every part of a picture, examines the grandeur of the composition, the elevation of the ideas, the n.o.bleness of the expression, the truth and correctness of the design, the grace scattered over the different objects, the imitation of nature in the colouring, and the masterly strokes of the pencil.

Our last visit to the CENTRAL MUSEUM terminated with the Italian School; let us now continue our examination, beginning with the

FRENCH SCHOOL.

LE BRUN.

N 17. _(Gallery) The Defeat of Porus._

18. _The Family of Darius at the feet of Alexander._

19. _The Entrance of Alexander into Babylon.

The Pa.s.sage of the Granicus._

14. _Jesus asleep, or Silence._

16. _The Crucifix surrounded by angels._

The compositions of LE BRUN are grand and rich; his costume well-chosen, and tolerably scientific; the tone of his pictures well-suited to the subject. But, in this master, we must not look for purity and correctness of drawing, in an eminent degree. He much resembles PIETRO DA CORTONA. LE BRUN, however, has a taste more in the style of RAPHAEL and the antique, though it is a distant imitation. The colouring of PIETRO DA CORTONA is far more agreeable and more captivating.

Among the small pictures by LE BRUN, Ns. 14 and 16 deserve to be distinguished; but his _chefs d'oeuvre_ are the achievements of Alexander. When the plates from these historical paintings, engraved by AUDRAN, reached Rome, it is related that the Italians, astonished, exclaimed: "_Povero Raffaello! non sei piu il primo_." But, when they afterwards saw the originals, they restored, to RAPHAEL his former pre-eminence.

CLAUDE LORRAIN.

N 43. (Gallery.) _View of a sea-port at sun-set_.

45. _A Sea-piece on a fine morning_.

46. _A Landscape enlivened by the setting sun_.

The superior merit of CLAUDE in landscape-painting is too well known to need any eulogium, The three preceding are the finest of his pictures in this collection. However, at Rome, and in England, there are some more perfect than those in the CENTRAL MUSEUM. One of his _chefs d'oeuvre_, formerly at Rome, is now at Naples, in the Gallery of Prince Colonna.

JOUVENET.

N 54. (Gallery.) _Christ taken down from the cross._

The above is the most remarkable picture here by this master.