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Untitled Article
properly unless the . room lie tolerably cleat of . visiters * ffim great majority of the public consider his paintings as daubs , and no wonder they appear so to those who go as close to them as possible . It is ? a herfesy In judgment It 0 rdi >^ thfs with such pictures . B « fc the fcrime , if riot / partly occasioned , fc j ^ ftrt ^ justified by the artist himself , who gives his productipns Jbifctorical titlekfbyvirtueof cetftairi shapeless dolls of figutessnaeared
and smutche&ii * , aa though to try his brush , and in reality for no other purpose than because He * wants a pa * toetilfcr ^ b i& 1 f f colour in tliat place * For instance , he ^ paints a StrgHt iu Venice , and g ives ^ quotation involving a dialogue between Antonio and Shyldcks the former bfcing a sort of glowing xloi& toek * # , and the lattet * a battered wooden puppet above ; 3 y > these means he courts the ridicule and abuse of those who are too
ignorant to discover his real merits . Thi £ picture , seen at a proper distance , is an exq&mte , perhaps a perfect : y ? @sk ; $ f art . Its clear brilliance and aerial perspective are beyond all rivalry . Amoiig the cniniatures , we ivould call particular attention to the enamel by Valseechi , after a painting by Signer Hayez of Venice , No . 634 . It is a Magdalen , and the combination of human misery with religious efforts striving in vairt to derive
consolation from faith , are pourtrayed with such truth and beauty as to make our feelings vary between commiseration and recoiling pain . Her form is most exquisite arid ; delicate , and the flesh wonderfully painted * yet with a faint hue of utiearthliness derived from the harrowing distress of sotih * Her eyes have lost their lustre , and the lids ate worn and s < && < with tears . Her face expresses perfect wretchedness ; without
strength , without resignation , and , in defiance of # 11 her efibrts , without hope . It is quite plain that her faith is not deep enough to support , or even comfort her . The divine beauty Of her person suggests associations of other days a » d human passions , and now seems a . reproach to the utter desolation within . What a moral does this picture convey of perverted mind and sensibilities ! She sits a sacrifice of wasted loveliness
before the shrine of superstition , and the remorseless ignorance of lief titttes . We have had occasion during these last two years % p np ^ e the miniatures of Miss M . Gillies , as manifesting an originality of character . Wfc are glad for the sake $ f our own critical judgment—we confess it—^ in having been the first to " speak out / ' as well as for the fame of the artist , that she has realised
in the present exhibition a great portion of the high pronme we believed her previous productions to display . Our , theory of criticism does not consist in any paramount obligation to se 4 ? k and point out faults / but attoh otily a& i « it ^ r % e witt ^ ^'^ 0 ^ fflie against , fine impressions . Miss Gillies cannot so ptdperly fee said to draw in water-colours as to paint , ( ox her miftiatttres
Untitled Article
Royal Academy * 379
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 1, 1837, page 379, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1832/page/61/
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