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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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t ^ tive the early time ) would not . understand better and received a more natural impression from the older method . In the same room are some
pictures by Hans Holbein . One of these is an altar-piece in three compartments : the upper is the ' ^ gony in the Garden / the € Entombment is in
the centre , and the c Last Supper * in the lowest division . The last is a long slip of halffigures , some of whom very much resemble Leonardo da Vinci , who lived considerably earlier . The heads of the
disciples are not in Holbein ' s hardest manner : and the understanding of nature shown in them is as great as that in any of his pictures . Their study is , like the study of nature itself , a means of
attaining truth . They cause us to wonder how they came on the canvass . Some of them are base fellows enough , though all inja sense are patriarchs of their order , as Hazlitt said of
the Beggars in the Beautiful Gate of the Temple : ' but there they are , without the least sign of their having been painted . Compare the plan of this picture also with what an artist of the present day would pursue . In this picture is a
unity of intention as of study . Alj [ , js performed that is intended . I There is * everywhere a deiWte , sinapl ; city , thrpughr out the dresses audi over t ^ e hair q £ tbe figures ,,, wt ^ cji is wrought , jj ^ , lines ., Th ? t t atye is scattered pv < # ( ^ fitfi tpiifyl sprigs ; of fir , violets * ajid d ai-
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sies , which , along with , the vessels , are painted witti t % same care and innocent eXacfc ness . We recognise then * at once to be genuine flowers . All this , however , is confined by an obstruction—a difficulty
of executing certain parts , ja& ; the back-ground , which makes us wonder at the force of resemblance in those parts we have mentioned , with tb ^ w ^ afe-j ness in the mechaniqu $ , which allowed him to stagger over ; such an inferior part q { jh $
labour . Were this , on the other hand , painted at tfr $ present day , the back-groun ^ would give value to 4 the figures ; the Jewish custom of reclining , or whatever cither way they used , would be faithr fully given ; the faces in theiij
moral character would all p os-r sess systematic expresssion ^ of passions ; and in form they would show a certain sculp- ? turesque symmetry . Th ^ flowers would be giv ^ u as nieces of colour . — as influence
ing the effect , and the {< & $$ . $ such colourless plants beij ^ adopted would bes ov ^ t pf i ^ li e question , if indeed it Wf > ut 4 be thought necessary tp , pi ^ tinguish them . HpllJ ^ jiJa- ^ s ot an age rather later th ^^ sui | - able for our parallel , ^ em
an adherent , tp . t ^ . e , pn ^^ ye method sopiewhaL . past its era ; but stijl tye comparison is one wfycji ^ iU d p ^ 11 ; , t ? 'sho \ v us , hc > w ^ iff ^ r ^ t ^ r ? knp ^ l ^ d ge : Ud th ^ u ^ e ; ^ f knowled ge aqd , W w differenQe ^ of mtpnt ^ o ^{ the ^ are in 4 afe , \ yorks ., r ; /( lfn ^ .
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Hints towards a ^ g ht ^ j ^ r ^ cifltipn of ^ . % QQ
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 1, 1837, page 269, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1836/page/44/
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