1830.

REVIEW.-Cunningham's Lives of British Sculptors.

and that not a little, with those amenities enumerated by his friend Thomson."

"On looking at this noble statue," the author continues," the worthy image of one of the loftiest of human beings, we may ask with the poet of the Seasons, when dwelling on the greatness of Newton's discoveries, and pointing out the wondrous harmony of their combinations,

'Did ever poet image aught so fair?'" Mr. Cunningham's evidence on the comparative merits of the Theseus and the Neptune in the Elgin collection, and the Apollo Belvidere, is conceived in the spirit of an artist, and executed with the fervour of a poet.

Mr. Cunningham has a great contempt for allegory in Sculpture, and, if we mistake not, has done his best to purify the tastes of his contemporaries from such abortions. Of course the celebrated monument to Mrs. Nightin gale by Roubiliac is exposed in this respect to an unsparing criticism; yet still, despite its allegorical drawback, it is honoured by very glowing praise.

"The dying woman," he says, "would do honour to any artist. Her right arm and hand are considered by sculptors as the perfection of fine workmanship. Life seems slowly receding from her tapering fingers and her quivering wrist. Even Death himself, dry and sapless though he be, the very fleshless cheeks and eyeless sockets, seem flashing with malignant joy.”

Roubiliac died in 1762, and from his time the art of which he was so bright an ornament and so intelligent a restorer, has been progressing towards a rivalry (with reverence be it spoken) of the classic antique.

Of Wilton and Banks, the immediate followers of Roubiliac, our limits will not permit us to speak; of the former, it is said that his genius was humble, that his merit was not original, and that he often attempted what Sculpture is unable to perform. Of Banks, his epitaph records his character in a few but expressive words.

"In memory of Thomas Banks, esq. R.A. Sculptor, whose superior abilities in the profession added a lustre to the arts of his country, and whose character as a man reflected honour on human nature."

We have so recently reviewed the "Life of Nollekens," presented to us by his "ungentle executor," Mr. Smith, that a slight notice may now suffice. A truer picture of the man and the sculp

GENT. MAG. July, 1830.

49

tor, and one more honourable to his character, is given by Mr. Cuuningham. It is true, indeed, that the author is considerably indebted to Mr. Smith's pages; but the exaggeration and caricature are suppressed. We have the sobriety of truth, and not the vituperation of disappointment.

The progress of carving a bust, of which Mr. C. is so excellent a judge, is explained with correctness and animation:

"In transferring the likeness of the plaster to the stone, much depends on the accuracy of those who rough-hew the bustmuch more on the skill of him who carves, and not a little on the quality of the marble. If the marble is something dull and opaque, close copyism will do, because the materials resemble each other; but if the marble is more transparent, a bolder mode of treatthe stone gives something of the effect of ment is demanded-for the lucid beauty of carving in crystal-the markings of thought and touches of sentiment are lost in lightdeeper and grosser lines and touchings are necessary. Such must frequently be the difference of the marble from the model-but the difference between the model itself and the living original must be much greater still. In all busts-I speak of works of the most eminent-the eyes are deeper sunk, the hollows on each side of the nostrils deeper, and the corners of the mouth more strongly given than in life. Nay, it is seldom indeed that the measurements of what would seem most important parts correspond with the flesh and blood. An artist who knows his profession never aggravates any of the deformities of nature-a wide mouth he never widens, a Jong nose he never lengthens, nor does he make a narrow forehead narrower. There are other differences yet. A swarthy face and dark eyes will, when copied in marble, differ in most material points from the same face, if it had a fair complexion and light eyes. To get the full effect of the black eye-lash and the dark eye, the sculptor must cut much more deeply into the stone than if he were seeking for the expression of the other. The contrast between the swarthy glance and the white material calls for deep shadows. No one knew the resources of his art better than Nollekens--but he did not always work successfully. He had less mastery in his treatment of the eye than in any other part of the human frame."

Amongst the artists of the latter part of the last century, Bacon held a very prominent place: from the humble modeller of images for a pottery he Jose to eminence and fortune as a sculptor. Perhaps the most elevated of his works are the statues of Johnson,

public against the charlatanry of such pretensions, by exhibiting how impossible it is for men to claim such lofty knowledge, and how proper it is for all persons "to do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with their God."

The laws of vitality are utterly unknown, and yet vitality extends every where, and no two particles of matter throughout the whole creation are in

51

dons, nerves, circulating fluids, and all the concomitant apparatus of a living organised body? And if so, how inconceivably minute must those parts be! If a globule of their blood bears the same proportion to their whole bulk as a globule of our blood bears to our magnitude, what powers of calculation can give an adequate notion of its minuteness?"

contact or motionless. See pp. 9, 65, The Picture of India; Geographical, Histo

68. It is too demonstrative, that in the interstitial spaces around each atom resides two powers, repulsion, and beyond that attraction. What the primary atom may be we cannot conceive, unless it be a portion of the vis divina, and the following extract will show, that if matter be infinitely divisible, even animated organization may be so too; and inanimate matter may after all have only an apparent existence, because our powers of vision are very

limited.

“ Animalcules.—Animalcules have been discovered, whose magnitude is such, that a million of them does not exceed the bulk of grain of sand; and yet each of these creatures is composed of members as curiously organised as those of the largest species; they have life and spontaneous motion, and are endued with sense and instinct. In the fiquids in which they live, they are observed to move with astonishing speed and activity; nor are their motions blind and fortuitous, but evidently governed by choice, and directed to an end. They use food and drink, from which they derive nutrition, and are therefore furnished with a digestive apparatus. They have great muscular power, and are furnished with limbs and muscles of strength and flexibility. They are susceptible of the same appetites, and obnoxious to the same passions, the gratification of which is attended with the same results as in our own species. Spallanzani observes, that certain animalcules devour others so voraciously, that they fatten and become indolent and sluggish by over-feeding. After a meal of this kind, if they be confined in distilled water, so as to be deprived of all food, their condition becomes reduced; they regain their spirit and activity, and amuse themselves in the pursuit of the more minute animals, which are supplied to them; they swallow these without depriving them of life, for, by the aid of the microscope, the one has been observed moving within the body of the other. These singular appearances are not matters of idle and curious observation; they lead us to inquire what parts are necessary to produce such results. Must we not conclude that these creatures have heart, arteries, veins, muscles, sinews, ten

rical, and Descriptive. 2 vols.

TIMES were when happiness and well-being were deemed results only of prudence and virtue; but golden ages and summum-bonums are now manufactured as plentifully as stockjobbing bubbles, and advertised as such. One says that the felicity of a home and private dwelling is misery compared with being impounded in barracks or colleges; a second, that religious enthusiasm and unphilosophical absurdity cause happiness to pour down upon us like a water-spout; a third, that if we will but let foreigners rival us in our own markets, and reuder this country tributary to others for its corn, there will be nothing but laughing and growing fat over the whole realm; a fourth, that if we will but have parliamentary reform and universal suffrage, so that they who have got nothing may gain the ascendancy over those who have property, folly and error will be immediately extinguished; a fifth, that because India has been always a losing concern to the Company, and generative of heavy debt, it would be very advisable to ruin that Company, add the whole burthen of its debt to that of the nation, and pay the interest by general taxation; because as none but Europeans in India use European goods, it follows that the natives, under the

change desired, will then wear, in a burning climate, as many great coats as a stage-coachman.

We shall enter no further into the

subject, for our author very justly says,

"As the time for agitating the renewal of the charter approaches, there will, judging from past experience, be a great deal of writing and publishing about the subject; and again, judging from past experience, the quality of that writing will bear no reasonable proportion to the quantity. Upon both sides it will be party writing, and India has all along been so different from England, both physically and morally, that no argument which applies in the one country

1830.]

REVIEW.-Archæologia, Vol. xxiii. Part i,

uses these chambers appear to have been applied, and we conceive that they had no connection with the Danish invasion, but belonged to the Celtick Raths, common to the country.

VII. Account of some Architectural and Sculptural Remains at Pæstum ; with Observations on the reference the latter may bear to the Mythological History of that City. By William Hosking, Esq.

Mr. Hosking's remarks apply to some architectural peculiarities, which are not intelligible without the plates. Mr. H. is most certainly mistaken, in supposing the mutilated female figure, with the semblance of a fish's tail in front, to have been a siren; for, though some modern authors have pretended that the line of Horace,

"Desinat in piscem mulier formosa supernè," applies to a siren, no ancient author ever describes sirens as ichthyomorphous in any such manner.

The figure is that of a Nereid. These marine deities had sacred woods and altars in many parts of Greece, especially upon the shores of the sea. Pausanius (Corinthiaca) says that the Nereid Doto had a celebrated temple at Gabala. Conjoined hands are symbolic of concord. The Phrygian helmet covering the head entirely down to the chin, and the round shield in the upper, the xnudes, or greaves, in the lower figure, prove very remote antiquity, and very possibly the whole has some reference to events described in the Iliad.

VIII. Description of two ancient British Shields. By Samuel Rush Meyrick, LL.D. and F.S.A.

This, as being Dr. Meyrick's, is of course a valuable paper, and the subject is well illustrated. We beg to add a passage from Ossian concerning the studs and gilding of the shield, because Dr. M. adduces no authority for that fashion.

"The chief was among them like the stag in the midst of the herd. His shield is studded with gold. Stately strode the King of Spears." Carthon.

The thongs are also mentioned :

Through the thongs of Swaran's shield rushed the blade of Luno." & Cathloda.

Thus, Dr. Meyrick's shield authenticates the antiquity of the Gaelic bard, and the text of the latter that also of the shield.

53

IX. Account of an Ancient Bath in the Island of Lipari. By Capt. W. H. Smyth, R.N., F.R. and A.S. A very good paper; already fully noticed in Part I. p. 65.

X. On the Viola of the Ancients. By Lord Viscount Mahon.

The viola is presumed by his Lordship to have been not the modern violet, but the iris of our gardens. His Lordship exhibits passages which are analogous to the iris, and not to the violet; but the best part of the evidence is, that the Sicilians still denominate the iris viola. Add the remarks of Saumaise. The Greeks, he says, gave the general name of toy to the flower that the Latins called viola; but the Greeks had two kinds of 0%, the first called μελανιον, * the other λευχαίον. The melanion came up of itself, without being sown, and was what the French call violet. The second, called leukaion, was cultivated in gardens, and is the [French] gilliflower, or wallflower, called violiere. The Greeks distinguished three sorts of these, the yellow (the most common), the white, and the purple. It is of the yellow violieres, and not of violets, that Horace speaks in this passage:" tinctus viola pallor amantium;" the Latins have named indifferently viola both the melania and leukaia of the

nec

Greeks. According to the use of the word among the French and English, violet was a vague term given to various kinds of flowers.

XI. Disquisition on the member in Architecture called an Oriel. By William Hamper, Esq. F.S.A.

66

Ducange having said, under the word Oriolum, Vocis etymon non agnosco," a dispute has arisen concerning the origin of the term, it being common not to see the wood for trees. It seems to be nothing more than an Anglicism of Aureola, an abbreviation of [Camera] Aureola, a term, Mr. Hunt says (Parsonage Houses, p. 26), applied to the abbot's place in the refectory, and the oriel windows in halls, probably from the splendour of the stained glass when illuminated by the sun. In an old Dictionary we have "ORIOL, [Latin], the little wasteroom next the hall, where particular

* See Theophrastus. Rev.

+ But the French so denominate different sorts of flowers. See Cotgrave. Rev.