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Ja WARY 15, 1853,] THE LEADER. 69
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LITTLE BOY BLUE. I lay in the rushes, Wh...
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€\)t Ms.
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PRESS-ORDERS TO THEATRES, &c. We have re...
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VIVIAN AMONG THE FLOODS. HowdiiForent fr...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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^§# ^ Wfo Of Ify ®^ ^«Htffl»J By Henby M...
when found on half-obliterated coins and hattered armour . But whoever shall employ any artifice to decay pictures , in order to realize these beauties , will soon be reminded that we keep costly Picture Galleries and National Museums , in which to preserve valuable remains of the Fine Arts ; and despite our theory that " Statues moulder into earth /* and thatf pictures put off the " corruptible" to put on *« ineorruption , " we keep the day of supreme perfection as far distant as we are able .
Hogarth , being much in the company of cognoscenti , and hearing them continually aver that the works of the old painters were much indebted for the charms which they possessed to the mellowing influence of time , took an opportunity to venture a contrary opinion , asserting that " pictures only grew black and worse by age . " Walpole , commenting upon this , sides with the collectors , saying , that Hogarth could not " distinguish in what degree the proposition might be true or false . " Doubtless , Hogarth intended his words for those who , in his time , were affecting such unqualified admiration of rust and dirt . The painter would have admitted that colours do gradually soften in the drying ; but this natural softening is a very different effect to that which is produced by a horn-like incrustation spread equally over the whole surface of the picture .
It may be said with confidence , that the charms of pictures , having any pretensions to fine colouring , cannot be enhanced by this over-rated " varnish of time ; " especially those subjects which partake of a " gay and festive" character , of which the productions of Rubens and Watteau furnish examples . The annoyance which the delicate fantastic ladies of th . e Frenchman would have felt at its presence on their sparkling robes of silk and satin , is precisely what the gazer should feel when it interferes with his enjoyment of the pictures of this charming court painter j and the
same may be said of the incrustation , when it hides from us the ruddy , glowing objects depicted by the luscious pencil of the great Fleming . It has been said of another painter ' s colours , whose pictures , from the intense religious sentiment they possess , are so well suited to the cloister , " That it would seem as if he could have dipped his pencil in the hues of some serenest and star-shining twilight : " and let it be urged , that colours so pure and refined as to merit this distinctive eulogy , little need the addition of a " golden" glaze .
The great preponderance of brown colour which we observe on the pictures of Rembrandt , and the yellow or gold cast on the works of Titian , have resulted from causes in no way originating with those painters . Few master ' s productions are seen to worse advantage than Titian ' s , and that by reason of the very effects which are said to mellow and improve them . In illustration of this we may cite an example offered by the present writer in a recent letter to the Athenceum . A picture by one of Titian ' s scholars ( which came under our notice ) furnished a striking illustration of
time-mellowing . We take the lawn robe of a pope from the precise and delicate pencil of Bordone , with a century ' s dirt upon it . It is not like lawn , but like sackcloth . Its innumerable small folds and indentations ; its chaste , lily-like whiteness , and violet-hued shadowings , are all buried and lost . Pope Paul has no longer the fiery eye of the serpent . The emerald stone on the shrivelled finger is no longer lustrous . The clean , elaborate grey beard is a fiction ; the truth of the carnations a matter of faith ; and the ample cape of crimson velvet has sunk into a coarse cloth
of sober brown . Granting to admirers of richly-toned pictures that old oils ^ nd varnishes sometimes produce pleasing effects in parts of the foregrounds in sunny pictures , yet the impropriety of preserving them , even on such portions , cannot be doubted , when we reflect that neither Claucle nor Cuyp , nor any painter , is to be justly credited with the creation of beauties which are the result of chance ; for chance never formed' part in any great artist ' s calculation of effects . Reflection brings us to believe that the slightest film on _ n _• j . : ~ i ^ .. u + < wi rurii T ? . «< iru crnrwl -m ature , no matter what fine icture is undoubted evil good pictureno matter wftat
a p an . Every , the subject—whether figures or landscape , or both combined—suffers more or less in proportion to the extent of its obscuration . An idea of distances , and the appearances of remote objects , can only be realized bv a skilful management of air tints . The most extreme distances are rendered with all the freshness and variety of nature by some modem painters , who rival , and even excel , the old landscape painters , in the management of aerial effects . Truth and science are as much obscured in a picture by the corruption of these tints aa they would be in linear perspective by the
perversion of the lines . The horn-like glazing of old varnish and oils must needs defile all the refinements which constitute a fine landscape . Nor is the hateful incrustation leas hurtful in other portions of the picture . Its pernicious influence is alike traceable on the boldest parts of near objects . Ther " purple tinge which the mountain assumes as it recedes or approaches ; the grey moss upon the ruin ; the variegated greens and mellow bnhvns ol foliage ; Mi the much
short , the colours in every part of nature , " suffer alike from - admircd " vnrnish of time . " In historical pictures tbo nicer points , which are the evidence of mastery , are alike involved . The various distinctions of colour in age and in sex , the " bloom of youtli and the wan cheek of sickness , " are not spared . The " golden" compound i » permitted to re . duce each mid all into one level tone j and in deference to a testo ao unsatisfactorily constituted as that to which we have directed our remarks , halt the fine p ictures in Europe are allowed to go on deteriorating and decaying . It is seldom the case that serious attention is paid to & wt wprk » ot art ,
with the view to preservation , until their ruin stares the prepossessed , < JOn " noisseur in the face . Any one whq has devoted years of investigation to this subject * will readily admit that more old pictures are disfigured by ill-executed and unnecessary repairs and re-painting , than by any other means . The ablest painters are incapable of accomplishing any good by re-p . aintiug . The best they can do will be worthless , when compared with the merest wreck o ? faintest shadow of the original master . It ought ever to be borne in mind ,
that old pictures which are past cleaning , may yet be invaluable examples of design and composition , by virtue of which the reputation of the author may be perpetuated centuries after the tints are faded and forgotten . Hence it is criminal to cover up the mini' The distinct characteristics of a master painter , if unmolested , never wholly disappear until decay separates the canvas thread by thread ; but the brush of the presumptuous regenerator confounds all at one sweep , and substitutes a fiction for a reality—a modern
falsehood for an ancient truth . We have thus endeavoured to dismiss the idea that the works of the Old Painters do not need the appliances of art to preserve them , and that we are free to expound such rules for the guidance of the Restorer as experience has taught , and reflection confirmed .
Ja Wary 15, 1853,] The Leader. 69
Ja WARY 15 , 1853 , ] THE LEADER . 69
Little Boy Blue. I Lay In The Rushes, Wh...
LITTLE BOY BLUE . I lay in the rushes , Where summer light fell On the trees and the bushes That bordered the well . All the flowers were gleaming In crimson and gold , And the sunlight lay dreaming On meadow and wold . But the bud and the chalice Are fading away , From the roses' red palace Step Genie and Fay . Step from golden pavilion In blossoming bowers , From hall of vermilion , The souls of the flowers . - They wreathe their wild dances . They glide and they spring ; Each recedes , each advances , They laugh and they sing . But with blushes and flushes , One sounds on a horn , And more green grow the rushes , More yellow the corn . But she sees , she bofriends him , She smiles on the hoy ; She calls him , she lends him That delicate toy . And the Child loves and praises Its mystical strain , And Age feel * the daisies Bloom round him again . ¦»»
€\)T Ms.
€ \) t Ms .
Press-Orders To Theatres, &C. We Have Re...
PRESS-ORDERS TO THEATRES , & c . We have resolved , in common with the most respected of our contemporaries , to discontinue tU use of the press-privilege of writing Orders of Admission to the Theatres and other places of public amtuiement . Henceforth no such Orders will be issued from this Office to any person , whether connected with the Lkadbk or not . Lmadbh Orjioa , } , 5 tli January , 1863 .
Vivian Among The Floods. Howdiiforent Fr...
VIVIAN AMONG THE FLOODS . HowdiiForent from " Vivian among the buda , " once pictured to yow mind ' a oyo in Hiobo columns ! Different , yet tho same ; externally JNature them was amUing .. loviii ff ,-hoping , budding , ami 1 looked : mth hiW ^?» upon her fair and happy faco , and wroto , as the birds swiff , because 1 a nothing oko to < lo . " tfaturo was in another mood theae past day ., louring , weeping , wailing , Bobbing . Tho heavy ram whipped the *™ low « . amf ran like tears adown th © chock of outraged childhood , the wi » 4 moaned with weird pain ; the tiolds ware swamp ; i ; the road * wOTe wrow . Did I « ' eympatbW with Nature If Hot I . Tho moiai dub ^ s * of tW Undsoftpo only cavo a sharper edgo to the luwpitablo enjoymont within four walla . W « wero an uproarious party ! Wit , and wisdom , and unwisdom , and loading , and Beauty , and ayinpathy , and cigars , made *• mojauoh , oly lau ^ capo but tho background to , our bngHtnos * . Wo talked
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1853, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15011853/page/21/
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