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npoftohing the term of its duration ^ Few minds , it is true , had perceived tho profoundl y-hidden causes .-of the- rnin that was to come ; but vague apprehensions had eeiaedi upon'the-masses ; their sense of security was gone , although their submission appeared -complete : Tlie decline of industry , the privations of the poor , the intrigues of the ( SHatchf the disturbed relations of the several powers , forcing upon Napoleon'the" idea" of ' a Council of Conciliation , filled up the interval between the linijerial birth and the baptism at Notre-Dame . The afternoon of the day fixed' for the ceremony was also appointed for the first meeting of this council- While he was preparing new alliances and smoothing away his domestic embarrassments , Napoleon schemed how to convert the
christening of his-son into a significant state occasion . He would summon round the ^ cradlc all the great officers and public bodies of the Empire ; he would briiigs'the- Catholic Church itself to the altarj and force it to consecrate the title of the Kin g of Rome . But the bishops in Paris shrank from this deception . They declined to assist on the same day at the christening and at the council , and thus deprived the Emperor of the strength he might have rfiin ' ed . '¦ ft'om the idea that the Papal See itself , by' its representatives , had sanctioned the Roman authority of Napoleon ' s son . Joseph and Jerome Bonaparte , with the Duke of Wurtemberg , visited Paris , to be present at the ceremony . The Emperor of Austria , by proxy , stood as sponsor for the child :-
—T ! h& entire population of Paris stood massed together as the splendid cortege entered-the ' city from St . Cloud , It had already enjoyed some compensation for the commercial sufferings of the past year-in the partial return of industrial activity , in the prodigal expenditure of the revenue at home , in the civil as well as in the war departments . It received with pleasure this new pledge granted by Heaven of the continuance of an unprecedented power , which was not that of one man only , but of all France ; and if it had experienced days of disquietude and discontent , that was when Napoleon seemed to be imperilling the duration of that power . The public applause was marked , not indeed by the enthusiasm of former times , but by an excitement always produced in Paris by the spectacle of success and glory , by pompous ceremonies ^ and brilliant fetes . Paris glittered with a thousand fires ; the theatres were opened gratuitously to the eager population ; the public squares were covered with gifts , presented to the people of Parisby the happy father of the King of Rome . Rumours of a pacific settlement of Europe—though the disastrous Russian war was at hand—contributed to the pleasantry of these official
rejoicings : — Napoleon , accompanied by his wife and family , conducted his child to Notre Dame , and there presented him to the ministers of his religion . A hundred bishops and twenty cardinals , the senate , the legislative corps , the mayors of the great towns , the representatives of Europe , filled the holy precincts within which the imperial child was to receive the waters of baptism . " When the priest had performed the rite , and restored the King of Rome to the governess of the Children of France , Madame < le Montesquiou , that lady handed it to the Emperor , who , taking it in his arms , and raising it above his head , offered it to the salutations of the whole magnificent concourse , with an emotion that was shared by all . . . . How deep is the mystery that envelops human life ! What would have been the dismal astonishment of that Assemblage , brilliant with prosperity and grandeur , had a veil been lifted , to discover the ruins , the blood , the fires of the future , the flames of Moscow , the ice of the Beresina , Leipsic , Fontainebleau , Elba , St . Helena , and—lastly , the death of that august infant , in exile , eighteen years of age , without one of the crowns now clustered on his head ! .. _
Quitting the metropolitan church in the midst of a prodigious multitude , Napoleon repaired to the Hotel de Ville , where an imperial banquet had been prepared . Absolute governments are sometimes distinguished by their voluntary flattery of the people ; the city of Paris , especially , has received from its masters the most prodigal caresses which have cost them nothing . It was there that Napoleon had desired to celebrate the birth of his son , it was there he passed the day . The citizens admitted to the festival saw him seated at table , with a crown on his head , surrounded by the kings Of his family and by a host of foreign princes , taking his repast in public , like the ancient German monarchy successors to the Empire of the West . Fascinated by this resplendent scene , the Parisians appluuded , flattering themselves , as if duration belonged to grandeur and wisdom to glory .
It will be easy for the reader to separate the coincidences of the first and second ceremony from the circumstances that form their contrast . In the original Napoleon the wor ld saw a man who had usurped an empire by the force of commanding mental powers , of military success , of administrative g enius . When he anointed his young child King of Rome , it was alter Italy had been subjugated by his prowess ; he hud been false to the commonwealth ; ho had been cruel and treacherous ; but , beyond and above his public crimes , his public achievements , hia victories , the comparison of his intellect with the little intellects of his generation , constituted the basis and origin of his power . How fur ib the parallel completed hero ? History will decide . . . " M . Thiers ' thirteenth volume brings the grand processional * narrative to thefamous passage of the Niemcn . There , where two hundred thousand cavalry and four hundred thousand infantry , with an Inferno of artillery , were spread under the eye of this Xerxes , who dreamed of building Inn frontier fortress on tho Pole , the historian pauses once more . But between the birth of the King of Rome and the commencement of this unpropitious march , many events occurred deserving narration and criticism .
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EXHIBITION OF THIS ROYAL ACADEMY . TIIK KIND OV STORY TOJU > . RftttlrB'nothing would benefit so much by a political revolution as tho world of art , nothing Butters bo much from tho quiet state of society as painting . Look-» nga * 6 mui tho collection of the Royal Academy , this year , one ih Btruck by t Me painful-absence of action . In some cases tho artist attempts to compensate me Want of action in tho figures , by the working of some abstracted problem ; endeavouring to * paint in the outward features , or in tho situation tho working ol »<» iftWMfd emotion—always a difficult tusk , and seldom suited to tlio graphic « le . Sometimes tho painter , striving to find sufficient interest to engage lua
own -penci 1 and the spectator , ' labours at the accessories ; and theJitrTtittire of th * scene is brought out with painfol distinctness ,- and sameness . It may happen that strong emotions co-exist with extreme quiescence in the attitude , and we have an example in one of the prettiest "pictures : of the * whole collection' Mrs Noel Paton ' s picture of " Home . " " A soldier has returned , maimed and sick * to his own humble house . His aged mother is bent almost as much with griel as tenderness ; her head resting upon his shoulder ; His'wife has knelt by him and has herarms round him , her cheek resting against his breast ; her eyes-closed her features stiffened in that state of excessive emotion' which is neap akin tc fainting . A child lies in a cradle in a corner of the room . The picture is lighted from the fire . It is painted with great care in every part , the furniture being executed with a finish that approaches almost to still life . There is one defect' in the picture which is rather serious—the countenance of the man , the form of the features , the expression , are all such as mark rather an elevated condition , and render the common soldier , garbed as he is in the coarse uniform of
the line , a contradiction to the verisimilitude of the whole design . It might be taken for the return of some great man in disguise . This is purely the- result of the jarring between the ideal in the treatment of the man ' s head ; and the matter-of-fact in the treatment of the accessories that occupy the larger part of the field of the picture . The'chief interest , however , centres in the face of the woman . It is beautiful , it is perfectly natural , it is a very exact representation of the particular state of emotion ; being natural , and-the emotion itself being of a kind that sways human nature without distinction of class , the head and countenance of the woman are at once ideal and natural . The design therefore , and the execution of the picture are generally successful . The treatment of the accessories is such that the view of the spectator naturally turns to the centre of the canvas , which is the central point in the subject ; and , however minutely the accessories are painted , they do not distract the attention . It is one of the happiest specimens of painting in the modern manner , where art endeavours to keep parallel with the minute matter-of-factness of the newspaper .
Mr . Ward ' s picture , " The . Last Parting of Marie Antoinette with her Son , " is iu the same style , but is not a happy specimen , and is not the best example of the particular painter . It is not only that the attitudes are more set , the features also more fixed and more laboured ; but , while the whole picture presents a certain fixity in the action , the excessive labour of the accessories- and the general diffusion of light destroy the unity , and place the furniture almost on a par with the human figures . Each bit of the picture looks like a separate study , and the whole design a cento of such studies casually brought together , and accidentally forming rather an effective theatrical group . There is more freedom , and therefore more force , in Mr . Elmohe ' s picture of " Charles the Fifth at Yuste . " The superannuated monarch is bidding- farewell to his pictures , the sunshine , and the pleasures of the world , while his feeble from that last taste for
eye and his fatigued taste almost prevent him snatching- which his lingering love of life hungers . Here is a very abstract idea , treated somewhat after the intense manner ; and one little trifle will show the want of truth that lies at the bottom of the artist ' s failure . A man so declining as Charles would inevitably exhibit the feebleness of his muscular system aa much in the eyelids as in any other part of his frame , and he could not gaze upon Titian ' s painting with eyes so open as the painter has given him . It is , therefore , not the dying Charles the Fifth , but some actor in the guise of Charles , who has put on the outward manner of death with all the inward force of life . But are we to blame a painter who is endeavouring to get an intense idea out of the grouping of inanimate objects and a feeble old gentleman ? Who can paint a regret ? _ . . _ still life for active Ufa
The nightmare of inaction , the habit of substituting , has so completely gained upon the modern school , save where they have rushed into the prae-Raphaelite style , that some of the most established painters of tlia day actually cannot put figures into action . Here is Mr . Charles Landbbbr , who paints ' " The Assassination of Alboin , King of the Lombards , " and whosai king stands to be assassinated as steadily as if he were afraid to spoil a , stage effect . Mr . Hannah endeavours to paint Newton ' s reflections on seeing aa apple fall in his garden at Woolsthorpe—an interesting experiment in praa-Kaphaelito treatment of an orchard with a sitting figure by twilight . Mr . Cross , who is capable of better things , endeavours to paint Lucy Preston s repartee , when she said to Queen Mary , who was looking on her father ' s picture « i was thinking how strange it was that you should wish to kill my father only because he loved yours faithfully . " Now the point of this anecdote lies entirely in the repartee ; there is nothing very historically striking in tho position , and the aim of the painter at fetching out the kind offeree that lies in the antithesis spoils the simplicity of tho designwithout rendering it forcible .
, We will take two pictures out of tho general level , which are both remarkable , and both of which imply powers iu tho painters to deal with the more obvious passion and action that are suitable to picture . One is the small painting numbered 413 which is loft anonymous from the accident that the card dropped out of tho picture when the catalogue was made . It is painted by Mr . Burton , it is in tho pnn-ltap haelite manner ,. and is not particularly intelligible in story . A cavalier , who appears to have been gambling , has beon killed m a duel witli swords ; a young lady is attending him in his dying moments , and appears to be mourninir ¦ a man in Jloundhead costume stands immediately behind : ho maybe a scholar perhaps the girl ' s brother , but his relation to the group _ is not very ol which is that of grief under countenance
vious The ex press . on on the girl ' s face , a habitually commanded , requires an explanation that the catalogue . does not give . The uhasllv paleness of tho cavalier , the condition of Ins features , at onco stiffened and relaxed by the coldness of death , and the vague oxprebbioiv Jio w ft power of dealing with tho aspect of mortality which might be developed , if it were en ane pattd from a certain schoolboy stillness , to tell a story with much for £ "X accessories , of course , are handled after tho pnu-linphaolite manner , and we find that the painter will bestow as much labour in working out a brombfe , a bit of tree trunk , or a torn card , as he will m elaborating a countenance Not only so ,-ho is so intent upon presenting tho products of his work , U it they are arranged like specimens in a hortus siccus , each m a position Parallel ^ the plane * of tho picture , and thus totally violating tho freedom and
" Cut is tho branch that might havo grown full straight ; And burned w Apollo ' s laurel bough . " Tho young adventurer , who wanted to snatch fame by help of for gory , iis _ Ing upon his pallet dead . His garret , arid tho furniture , exhibit the barest poverty , Tox Kt torn papers ih near ' him ; his costume betrays tho Junctuuirf aj tre . no misery with the attempt to keep up appearance , v his tace » ' »;««»™ "Jg m ^ mmmm
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J ^ nb 14 y 1856 ] THE LEAPBE . #££
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Leader (1850-1860), June 14, 1856, page 571, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2145/page/19/
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