Carthusians. The absurdity of the legend of the reviving canon is lost in the amazing art of the painter; and the last scene of St. Bruno expiring, in which are expressed all the stages of devotion from the youngest mind impressed with fear to the composed resignation of the prior, is perhaps inferior to no single picture of the greatest master. If Raphael died young, so did Le Sueur; the former had seen the antique, the latter only prints from Raphael: yet in the Chartreuse, what airs of heads! what harmony of colouring! what aerial perspective! How Grecian the simplicity of architecture and drapery! How diversified a single quadrangle, though the life of a hermit be the only subject, and devotion the only pathetic! In short, till we have other pictures than portraits, and painting has ampler fields to range in than private apartments, it is in vain to expect the art should recover its genuine lustre. Statuary has still less encouragement; sepulchral decorations are almost disused; and though the rage for portraits is at its highest tide both in pictures and prints, busts and statues are never demanded. * [EUSTACHE LE SUEUR, 1617-1655. The history of St. Bruno was painted upon board, consisting of twenty-two pictures, originally hung up in the Cloister of the Chartreux, at Paris. They have been transferred to canvas, and are now a chief ornament of the Royal Gallery of the Louvre.] † [At the date of this Advertisement, Nollekins and Bacon had finished many Busts, and several of their most admired emblematical statues, for sepulchral monuments.] We seem to wish no longer duration to the monuments of our expence, than the inhabitants of Peru and Russia, where edifices are calculated to last but to the next earthquake or conflagration. CORRIGENDA IN VOLUME III. Page 32. Althorpiana, read Althorpianæ. 44, n. l. 14, was, read way. 1. 21, ib. read ob. 45, Qui, read Cui. 129, n. by Hollar, read with portraits engraved by Hollar. - 137, n. Angassola, read Angussola. 184, n. Antonina, read Antonine. 225, n. J. Smith, read J. Faber. 231, n. as above. 306, n. yet, read they yet. VOLUME IV. 32, n. Battista, read Giacomo. 35, n. Badmintin, read Badminton. |