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were fine , proportions excellent , and the differing expression of the countenances of the Christians and Saracens well kept up . The butcherly Richard wielded his war-axe with abundance of brute power , ready to strike down his Saracen foeman like an ox ; and Saladin , with his shield raised to the parry , stretched
out his right hand to make a sweeping blow in return . Will it be believed that , instead of the Eastern mace , effective for its bruising power on the close-linked hauberk of pliant rings , or the crescentform scymitar , so well adapted for dissolving the connexion between heads and their appropriate shoulders , the right hand held a weapon resembling a fencing foil ; and that nearly all the
Saracens were weaponed in the same fashion ? Even if the artist goes upon the supposition that the Saracens had abandoned their national weapon for the * spit' sword of the Christian knights , assuredly it was not a cutting weapon . In the exhibition of the present year there is a very fine picture , entitled c Archimedes / The head is magnificent , and indicative of high
intellect ; but the artist has introduced , as a sign of his calling , a globe , a book , and a pair of compasses . The latter are of a make such as the ruder artizans of Spain or Germany might have produced ; but the globe is such as may be seen in the shop of any optician about town , and the book is a veritable well-bound printed quarto of the last century . How came Archimedes by
such * appliances and means ? ' Let it not be said that ! am hypercritical in this . If a picture profess to delineate a certain period or subject , it should be perfect in all its parts ; or why give it a specific name ? Why not have called Richard and Saladin' simply * a battle / and * Archimedes' a * philosopher / In an undefined matter let the fancy have full play ; but , in all tnatters of fact , let the truth be closely adhered to . To do
otherwise in historic painting , is as absurd as to play Macbeth' in a court dress of the reign of the second George ; or , to put a roller cravat round the throat of a statue , while a Roman toga or Greek mantle covers the bust , as some 4 mason chiels' have done . In the slang of connoisseurship , this is , I believe , said to be ' out of keeping /
What a pity is it that our artists are not men of education , especially our historical painters ! I speak generally . Their enlarged minds would then eschew baleful envy , which makes them commit as absurd actions towards their fellows , as that of the savage described by Hudibras : —
* So the wild Indian , vrhen he spies A man that ' s handsome , strong " , and wise , Thinks , if he kills him , to inherit His wit , his beauty , and his spirit * But painters , to excel , should be chemists , anatomists , architects ,
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On the , State of the Fine Arts in England . 9
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/9/
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