to a moderately practised eye, that there is much both of absolute beauty and of technical excellence in those early productions. Every lover of art must desire, that some of the ancient frescoes which are untouched, or which have been restored and repaired from time to time, with so much judgment and forbearance that the authority of the originals is unimpaired, as are those on the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa, were faithfully copied. They are full of interest of every kind, as to costumes, and manners, and architecture; for the buildings are often magnificent, and the landscapes, in the back ground, are rich in merit, and are deservedly admired. They ought to be literally and truly copied on the spot, with the most scrupulous fidelity, and a minute attention to size and colour; and let shame and punishment await the wretch who would introduce alterations, as our architects now bring in their own unutterable abominations, under the name of ، judicious improvements. Let the artist, on the contrary, be especially instructed to copy, with more than usual care, whatever may appear to him to be faulty; for unless he is intimately persuaded that the faults of Giotto and his compeers are infinitely more valuable than the most brilliant of his own conceptions, he is utterly unfit for the important task. The Cartoon, which the artist had made on the spot, might, with the like scrupulousness and religion, be transferred to a wall in England, to which we might for ever after repair, to indulge our speculations, and to form our taste. In the mean time, a slight acquaintance with these works may be obtained, by the help of the Pisa ، Illustrata of Morrona.

. If the great qualities of the first patriarchs of the art be somewhat recondite, and not easily to be revealed to novices, there is another class of early painters, whose excellence is very obvious when their works are seen; but they are unfortunately very little known at present in Great Britain. They are the immediate predecessors of Raphael, and especially his master, Pietro Perugino. If his figures be somewhat stiff, and the draperies scanty, Pietro largely compensates by the grace of his heads, particularly those of youths and of women,-by the gentle actions and the brilliant colours, and by the admirable architecture in his buildings. If there be somewhat of a sameness in his mode of treating certain subjects, it may be, that there was a more powerful religion on those points in his time, and a greater dread of contradicting the old traditions. Speaking as a critic, it must be allowed that Raphael has, in some important matters, greater merits; but speaking as a sentient being, it is impossible, we think, to deny, that Pietro has more beauty. His works are singularly well adapted for engraving and a complete collection of all that remains

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would be a fine study for him who is in pursuit of the beautiful. Vasari attributes the wonderful success of this surprising man to a very powerful cause-his poverty. The introduction to his life of Pietro would form a fit accompaniment to the famous speech of Пevia, in the Plutus of Aristophanes. How 'great a benefit to men of genius poverty sometimes is,' says Vasari, and how powerful a cause of compelling them to be'come perfect and excellent in any art whatever, may be clearly seen in the actions of Pietro. Having quitted his extreme des'titution in Perugio, and betaken himself to Florence, he sought by means of excellence (virtù) to arrive at a certain station. 'He continued for many months, for want of a better bed, to 'sleep wretchedly in a chest; turned night into day, and applied himself incessantly to study his profession. Having made a 'habit of this, he knew no other pleasure than working always ' at his art, and always painting. The terrors of poverty being ' ever before his eyes, he did things to obtain money, which he 'would not even have looked at, if he had had the means of 'maintaining himself; and it is possible that riches would have 'closed against him the path of becoming excellent through vir'tue (virtu), as completely as poverty opened it to him, and ' want spurred him on. In seeking to raise himself from such 'a wretched and low condition, if not to the first and highest, to one, at least, where he might be able to support himself, he ' regarded not, on this account, cold or hunger, discomfort or in'conveniences, labour or shame, in order to be able to live some day in ease and quiet; saying always, as it were for a proverb, that after the bad, the good weather must at last come, and ⚫ that when the weather is good, people make themselves houses, that they may be able to remain under shelter in time of need.' If any thing could possibly reconcile us to poverty, it would be the contemplation of the works of Perugino, and the reflection that we owe them to that cause. The same Vasari, however, blames him, somewhat unjustly, because he was much annoyed at being robbed of a considerable sum, and accusing him of irreligion on that account, says- Fùe Pietro persona di assai 'poca religione, e non se gli potè mai pur credere l'immortalità ' dell' anima. Anzi con parole accommodate al suo cervello di 'perfido, ostinatissimamente ricusò ogni buona via.'

The industry of the great Italian masters is truly wonderful. When we reflect on the fame of Raphael, and consider that he died at the early age of 37; when we recollect that Michael Angelo was equally remarkable as an architect, a sculptor, and a painter, and in each of the three arts was unrivalled in those qualities which he sought to possess, we are at a loss to find lan

guage to express our astonishment, that so much could be acquired and executed in the short compass of human life. Perugino loved work better than any amusement whatever, and used to call it his most beloved wife- Parlava assai bene, amava la 'conversazione degli amici, ma più assai la fatica, che preferiva a qualunque divertimento, e chiamar soleva sua dilettissima sposa. Nor did Peter use this affectionate appellation, as some unhappy men might have done, without understanding its full force; for he had a young, amiable, and most beautiful wife, and it was his supreme delight to see her elegantly dressed; it was reported that he sometimes even dressed her with his own hands. In one respect, the meritorious industry of the Italians is said, by persons who are acquainted with the details of painting, to have produced the most beneficial effects. They used to make drawings on paper of the full size, and to finish them in all particulars with the most minute accuracy, not only before they commenced a work in fresco, where such a pattern is indispensable, but also for their easel pictures, and transferred it to the canvass in the latter case from the drawing, in the same manner as to the wall in the former. Many of these cartoons still remain in the cabinets of the curious, and their beauty and finish fully attest the elaborate care which was bestowed upon these precious guides. A modern artist of promise has had the diligence and courage to revive this ancient practice; and he finds in it advantages that fully repay him for the additional trouble it demands.

'These great masters, whose names and memories are sweet 'to all true lovers of the art,' as Richardson well describes them, were not only famous for their skill in painting, in which the Italians surpassed other nations, more than in any other respect. The union of the three arts in Michael Angelo is a common topic of surprise and admiration; but it was by no means unusual. The great Giotto is described thus: Giotto di Bondone, Pit'tore, Scultore, ed Architetto, Fiorentino;' and such is the common and well-merited addition of many others; it was, indeed, most usual for a painter to be a M. A., not in the seven liberal sciences, but in three fine arts. If we make a just estimate of human life, we ought to place these artists amongst the happiest, as well as the greatest of men. The chief deduction from their felicity must be made on account of their mutual envy, rivalry, and jealousy: these passions occasionally rose to an extravagant pitch of violence, and must frequently have caused acute pain. One thing strikes us forcibly in reading the lives of these illustrious men, and that is, that they were almost universally well educated, instructed in the sciences and in litera

ture; they were frequently authors, and sometimes produced literary works of merit. The Greek sculptors were likewise, in the best ages, gentlemen by birth, highly cultivated by education, and philosophers in genius; they were able, therefore, to imitate nature, not in all her parts, but in whatever was the best. Modern artists, on the contrary, have too often been uninstructed men: and we notice the fact, not certainly from any disrespect to deserving individuals, but as a most humiliating confession, far more disgraceful to other classes of society, than to those who appear at first to be the most affected by it. It has been hitherto so extremely difficult for any man, and for a man of a narrow fortune so nearly impossible, to obtain competent instruction in England, that an artist who has succeeded in acquiring even a very limited and imperfect stock of knowledge, is on that account entitled to great praise, and cannot, with justice, be blamed for his deficiencies. There are innumerable instances of the facility of obtaining a good education in Italy: one example may suffice. Pascoli tells us of Salvator Rosa, that he was so miserably poor as to be forced, in order to gain a subsistence, to expose his early works for sale in the most frequented parts of the open streets in Naples; yet he had been carefully instructed, when a youth, in humanity and rhetoric, at the college of Somasco; and his poems prove that the instruction was not superficial, and that he had profited by it. But though we cannot blame our artists for the want of a good education, the effects of it are not the less severely felt in their works. Their ideas are few and limited, and are continually repeated; for it is only by extensive knowledge and various learning that they can be augmented with advantage. The remark of Lanzi concerning Bassano, that his mind was cramped by living entirely in the country, and that it can only be expanded by a residence in large cities, is just-but it will apply with far greater force to the condition of a man who is confined in the solitudes of ignorance, instead of being conversant in the grand emporium and populous metropolis of a well-stored memory. Era limitato 'd'idee, e perciò facile a ripeterle; colpa anche della sua situa'zione; essendo verissimo che le idee agli artefici e agli scrit“tori crescono nelle grandi metropoli e scemano ne' piccoli luoghi.. Phidias, we are told, completely attained to μɛyarɛtov naì ảnçißès aua; but our artists are generally unable to unite them in any degree; if in their sketches there chance to be something of the former, the latter is uniformly wanting; and whenever they attempt to attain accuracy by careful finishing, the greatness, which had been caught by accident, is entirely lost. It is by a regular educa

tion and a systematic discipline alone, that men can be taught to produce effects according to fixed principles, and not by hazard, in committing every thing to fortune, and working in the dark. Our modern artists have, moreover, been accused by persons who profess to be acquainted with the habits of many of them, of indolence, irregularity, and want of method: And certainly a defective and ill-arranged education is not apt to generate the virtues which are opposed to those most pernicious and destructive vices; order springs from order, as certainly as each kind propagates its kind.

It is a pleasure, no doubt, to contemplate a correct likeness of a remarkable character, and we are willing to look at the face of one who has any claims, although they may be but slight, upon the attention of the public; but the portraits of the mass of mankind are totally without interest to their species; and it is impossible not to regret, that the skill of the best of our painters is almost entirely wasted upon an unimproving, and, to speak generally, an insignificant branch of their noble art. It would be a patriotic and a profitable exercise of critical severity, to castigate, with the utmost rigour, whether in the earnest tone of serious indignation, or by the assiduous application of unsparing ridicule, that paltry and selfish vanity, which confines the talent of our artists within such narrow bounds, and consigns their most successful efforts to hopeless oblivion: For the brief applause of a narrow circle of acquaintance, who can alone judge of the fidelity of the resemblance, and are alone likely to cast even a single glance at the unattractive picture, can hardly be considered as an exception, if we justly estimate the extent and duration of the admiration which the man of genius may claim for a successful effort. If we take away one circumstance, which, in fact, does not at all affect the exaltation of the art, that the exhibition of his portrait serves to draw customers, and to enable the painter to live, perhaps in comfort, it may be even to amass a moderate fortune, it will be no exaggeration to say, that to require an artist of merit to consume his time and his talents in the production of the portrait of some insignificant individual, is precisely the same, in effect, as to order a painting, and when, by much labour and ability, it has been completed, to pay the stipulated price, roll up the canvass, and commit it to the flames. For what real difference is there between destroying what has been painted, and painting that which no one can endure to look upon, and might as well be destroyed?

This disgraceful selfishness is fostered and encouraged by the prevailing practice of locking up pictures, and of considering