VISITS TO THE. GREAT EXHIBITION.
OOMPABATIVE VIEW OF THE PEKE ART.
Wire= the industrial art of the Great Exhibition ends and the fine art begins, is a nice question to solve theoretically, and yet more difficult to act upon consistently throughout. Setting aside on the one hand the raw produce and on the other the sculpture, there are few classes of contri- butions some examples of which may not be found touching on both fino and industrial art ; so closely are the means of use blended with the re- finements of elegance. A complete view of fine art at the Exhibition of all Nations should comprehend not only our own fine-arts court and Mr. Pugin's medieval room and their parallels from other countries, sculp- ture, modelling, and photography, but some novelties of process, various chairs, tables, cabinets, and articles of household use, stained glass, gold and silver plate, and further yet than these. Though proposing to our- selves only a limited survey of the whole field, the field remains still so extensive that the hesitation as to where to begin yields only to the diffi- culty of leaving off Perhaps we cannot commence better than by glan- cing arsome of the chief works of sculpture in the nave and in the distinct national gatherings of the art.; where we may obtain materials for more general considerations.
Walking Eastward along the nave, and disregarding those works of which we have made mention already, we are first struck by the ad- mirable spirit and energy of Baron Afarochetti's colossal head of a horse. Lough's " Mourners," and a statue of Shakspere from the Stratford bust, 7 by Bell—a weak affair—come soon. after ; followed by M. C. Wyatt's Horse and Dragon,—a singular group, quaint and well-conceived in action ; and by Behaes's finely-modelled " Startled Nymph." Passing the transept, we arrive at the shield, termed the Buckler of Faith, presented by the King of Prussia to his godson the Prince of Wales. The designs are by Cornelius, and chiefly illustrative of Christian doctrine ; but an extraneous or royal (we don't mean kingly, but Frede- rick William) influence is felt in the allegory of the Prince's birth. Not far from two statues of Nymphs by the late Mr. Wyatt, is a massive group by the French sculptor Etex, apparently allegorical, flanked by two bas-reliefs from the same hand—the boyhood of the Medici, and Francesca di Rimini,—solid in character, but inanimate. The "Tor- ments of Cain," by Jehotte of Brussels, is rather more French than a Frenchman would have made it : Frenchlooking also is Pierotti's " Ma- zeppa," but bold and characteristic. Near this is the huge equestrian "Godfrey of Bouillon" by Simonis of Brusaela,—a kind of overgrown rival to Marochetti's "Coeur de Lion," losing in nerve, physical and intellectual, what he gains in mere bulk. Of the two bronze statues by Schwanthaler—"Libussa," and " George I. of Bohemia "—the first is an imposing German ideal, the second a Germanism outright. The same sculptor's " Boy with a Swan" is gracefully fantastic. Speaking merely in the positive degree, we cannot congratulate our- selves on the English sculpture-room. It contains one admirable week, the statue of Flaxman, by the late John Watson,—dignified, simple, and fall of intellectual repose. Some works by well-known artists are Isere also : as Foie s " Imo and the Infant Bacchus," Bell's " and " Do- rothea," IV °well's " Early Sorrow," Gibson 's Hours and Hems of the Sun" : but of these we would not willingly point to more than one or two. Of celebrities that are to be we find scarcely a hint; nothing, perhaps, more promising than Munro'a " Paolo and k rancesca' " which, without much excellence of form or style, possesses passion and feel- ing. Of the very bad works the majority are so absolutely incompetent that they may be thrown out of account altogether. Were they slightly more tolerable, we might be concerned for British art : as it is, we need only pity the Lecutive Committee for having had so much space at their disposal as to be (we presume) unable to reject productions of the calibre alluded to without an invidious exercise of their powers; a state of things not to be imagined as affecting the aspect under which other nations ap- pear. But let us turn to the so-called Austrian sculpture gallery, and see how we stand in a comparative point of view,—remembering from the outset that the title is a political misnomer. Italy claims to be at least an artist- ic as well as a "geographical expression " ; and here is the most com- pendious gathering of Italian art to be met with in the Exhibition. We do not hesitate to say that the comparison tells to the advantage of our own artists ; the heat specimens from whose lands—works already so familiar to the public as not to require individual mention—are to be found in the transept. The sculpture of the "Austrian room" is wanting in idea, and, with scarcely an exception, lax and nerveless in execution. Where it is not, it is worse. We know nothing more prepensely base in sculpture thanthe veiled figures of Monti and Ganda. : seldom has trick asserted itself with so much effrontery in an art whose essence, in its utter alienation from all tendency to trick, holds aloof even from the merely accidental. The " Leda " and " Danafi," also from Milan, but, as his name warrants us in assuming, by a German artist, display another and equally fatal kind of baseness. However, we are quite prepared to admit that few works indeed rival the "Ishmael" by Strazze,—a firm of a high class of truthfulness in action, expression, and modelling.
The difference ie far less sensible between British and Italian sculpture than is that between either of these and the French. The first is rather of degree than of kind. The same models in. the main guide both : Italy may perhaps affect classic subjects more ; but the amount of classicism in treatment—except so far as mere executive success counts—is much the same. In spirituality and individual study, much as this country has yet to strive for, we may be more than willing to abide the contrast. French sculpture is more satisfactory than either—more certain of itself. It would be hard to match the self-contained assurance, the supple com- pactness, of Pradier's " Phryne," out of France. There is here an evi- dently well-understood purpose, a definite starting-point of intention, distinctively French. The same is seen in even so doubtful a French classicism as the figure of Hero, in Lemaire's sculptures, in Etex's girl pulling a thorn from her foot, in Michel Pascal's charmingly artistic group of a Monk and Children, and in Farochon's Boy with Fruit. Be- yond rivalry the most perfect specimen of execution exhibited is Cor- dier's Moorish head in bronze,—a prodigy of modelling and nationalism, and of representative colour. The unity of the better French works, their completeness of idea up to the point aimed at by the artist, and the correspondence between means and end, are their great feature.
In one word, French sculpture is peculiarly characteristic. There may be in it even more to object to, but there is less to cavil at, than in our own. It occupies a distinguished and enviable rather than an absolutely high position.
To Germany, by common and well-earned consent,, belongs the first place, in virtue of the great work of the year, Kiss's Amazon. Another excellent work, of singular grace and sweetness, is Wolff's " Unschuld," in the North German court. There seems to be a strong bias, however, in German sculpture, to the peculiar and special, in preference to the ideal; as to the lower animals and semi-fantastic subjects and groupings. Even Kiss's work gives more importance to the quadrupeds than the up- holders of sculpturesque dogma would be content to see prevalently ad- mitted.
On the whole, England holds her own. Germany carries off the palm ; France is more characteristic and complete ; Italy enters tbe lists with her; there are competing marbles from Belgium, "nspecially the little boys " : but there is as much material for development in England, as intelligent a notion of what sculpture ought to be, as in any other country. We will not deny that a higher standard is conceivable than, save in ex- ceptional instances, any rivalry here suggests.
The merits of the competition between France and England in those works of luxury into whose composition art enters largely—such as gold and silver plate, bronzes, wood-carvings, and porcelain—are not to be set at rest in a sentence or an ipse dixit, still less in a tradition. The latter is against us, and we have been only too ready hitherto to bow to its au- thority ; or' at least, it has, been accepted without sufficient discrimirate tion. The impression left on our mind by the very extended opportuni• ties for comparison here afforded is, that in articles whose sole purpose is artistic, or in which use is made subordinate to art—and in such only-- our received inferiority is fitly declared. There is nothing which we can confront with the animals in silver by Odiot, with the hunting-bronzes of Nene, or the nest with birds fighting by Cain, or many and many others which in fancy and truth of action, perfection of finish, and exquisite study of texture, are unapproached. A taper-stand with three panthers as supports—having their tails curled round the stem, and leaping for- ward—though not by any means so elaborate as others, is an instance in point, which for design and telling truth of execution we might vainly seek to match. So again with the wood-carvings. That of last century by Dumontrueil, in the Fine Arts court, of young birds fed by one parent while the other glares defiant affright at a lizard, is literally unimproveable in the featherinem of its feathers, and its fidelity in every point of invention and working. We gladly admit, however, that the shade of difference between this and the neighbouring Hawk and Butcher-bird, in lime-tree wood, by Bataford, is slight enough : while other English specimens, such as 's luxuriant ornamental framework in cork, wonderfully varied in qualities of foliage, do all honour to our skill. The same terms of the comparison hold good in porcelain. The French are portrait-painters, historical. painters, landscape-painters, on porcelain ; and their efforts rival many a canvass picture exhibited at the Louvre or the Royal Academy. With these elaborate works of art-artifice the English (to their credit be it spoken) scarcely attempt competition ; and the few specimens which can be at all referred to the same class of attempt are of a quite other pitch of success. But not because of this will we allow that the English pores. lain yields to the French. Far from it : there are services in the gallery (and we may particularly name those of the Coalbrook Dale Company) which we are disposed to prefer to any of French manufacture, as even more thoroughly chaste and harmonious in union of colour, while not in- ferior in design of objects, where these are used merely by way of orna- ment. In silver plate, we would point to Attenborough's beautifully- worked vase with agricultural implements, to the delicate and fanciful services by Gough of Birmingham, and to two superb wine-flagons by Lambert, gilt with oak and vine-leaf ornaments, for richness and mal- leability of form. In these, as in numerous other specimens, an honest English love of natural forms, an admiring affection for leaf, flower, and tree, is cheeringly visible ; and no nation can adopt these into use more naturally, or compose them to the image of the object required with more grace and freedom, than our drilled designers. The contributions of its pupils in the Fine Arts court (especially, so far as form is concerned, a most elegantly felt and drawn ivy pattern for a table by a lady) prove that the Government School of Design fosters this tendency, and to good purpose. On the other hand, we are ready to admit that English orna- mentation—the arbitrary patterning of curves, brackets, and so on, geome- trical figures, and their products and combinations, natural or forced—is very generally cumbrous, overcharged, and florid. An English arabesque is to its prototype as a dray-horse to an Arabian. But we are far from complaining of this • rather, we believe that it is the outspeaking of a native non-adaptability, and that the sooner it declares itself the better, leaving the field clear for the far truer and more rewarding style conge- nial to us. Meanwhile, we heartily wish not only the French, but all other nations that may fairly claim it, joy of a superiority which they may turn to valuable account.
In speaking of the works in precious metals, we should not omit the artistic and humorous groups in silver from Russia,—the finish of which, however, is in some points much neglected ; or, among our own contri- butions, the exquisitely fine silver gauntlet in niello after Mediae's de- signs. One department of strictly ornamental art in which we cannot be said to yield to France is that of flower-modelling. The wax flowers of Messrs. Minton, or those by Mrs. Temple and other ladies, may be fbar- lessly matched with the cambric flowers of Constantin ; and both are de- ceptively perfect. In. stained glass, as in porcelain, the boldest innovators are the French. The tendency to the higher developments of art seems irresistible in them, and the material becomes a matter of secondary consideration. Glass is proposed as the vehicle for a life-sized Raffaelesque cartoon ; others of their works display even a certain artistic sketchiness : light is admitted, without doubting, through a classical composition of an ex- treme unction. Of this work we can scarcely speak too highly as a spe- cimen of execution, and of scientific adaptation, so far as possible, to the material ; but no amount of excellence should reconcile us to the con- fusion- of styles- and the disregard of the broad line of distinction which separates each branch of art. Another example in this kind is-Bertini's painted window of Dante and some of his ideas,—a most skilful union of brilliant colour and clever design, carried as far and made as attractive as a mistake can be. Our own attempts in the same line are insignificant in comparison. Perhaps the most successful and well-considered orna- mental designs are sent from Prussia, by Zebger : the Austrian specimens are spotty, and in other respects inferior. The English designs stand well, especially those by Gaunt on imitation-glass. Others are too ka- leidoscopic; and the glowing copies from York Minster remind us that the art is not what it once was.
Among the specialties in art by which some countries aro distinguish- ed, we cannot avoid numbering the stuffed animals from Wurtembarg. The art and sense of character and humour are so exquisite here, that the element of actual nature in their composition becomes scarcely more than the material- upon which the artist works, rather testifying to his fine judgment in choice than detracting from the credit which the result confers-upon him. The comedy of the groupings after Kattlbach from Reineke der Fuchs, of the hare-chasing, the duel, the owls' nests attacked by martens, and indeed of the whole series, is irresistible. The art of China is in its- quaint and richly-formed wood-carvings, and in the jewelled vessels.and ornaments of precious metals, gauzelike in. the deli- cacy of their beauty. But even in remote and stationary- China the an- cient landmarks begin to be moved forward : a copy from an English print is among the Celestial contributions ; and, a figure of a bathing- woman painted on ivory—not a professed copy—is well done in the European sense. Tice pith figures-from India are delightfully executed ; and the-sober yet elaborate effect of the vessels in iron-work inlaid with silver might teach a lesson to be laid to heart in many quarters.
In illustration of new processes connected with art, Parrott's oil and water-colour designs in brown colour, derived from the blight of barley or other grain, is to be noticed. The effect• bears some affinity to'the istflo seen more especially in mezzotint& after Constable„ tad with-swum/6
pleasant clamminess superadded. From France is a comparative example of the use in painting of white lead and- of Borers patent for white zinc exposed to the same action of injurious gases : and the usefulness of the innovation is not to be contested. Another very ingenious invention is the so-called metallography of Signor Abate,—a chemical process for the spontaneous printing of inscriptions and ornamental designs on metals, capable of any extent of variety, and of manifold application.
Photography is the fine art of America ; an art which, so far as por- traits are concerned, the Americans carry to greater perfection of develop- ment, and to more artistic bringing out of light and shade, than anyother nation, and that on an unusually large ewe In the examples coming direct from the United States, the very rare employment of colour is to be noted, moreover, as a healthy sign ; although the extreme advance ef- fected in this respect is prominently marked in several English and French enamel daguerreotypes and calotypes ; colour being now employed with the utmost skill and to the production of charming results. The calotypes from Scotland, by Hill and Adamson, and those by Ross and Thomson from albuminized glass negatives, are peculiarly pictorial in treatment : the view of Edinburgh in the latter series is one of the most perfect of pictures. The scenes from nature among the English and American pho- tographs in the gallery are admirably complete and of enchanting beauty. Of Continental nations, the French, by their excellent specimens, main- tain their credit as the discoverers of 'this delightful process, which marks a supremely important epoch in art. Not so the Germans, who exhibit but sparingly, and with a faint smudgy effect. Where colour is employ- ed, there is too much of mechanical stipple ; and a portentous solecism is committed by the Austrian exhibitor who has supplied sepia backgrounds to his portraits. Judging from these specimens, the art must be pro- nounced capable of great advance among its German professors. What, finally, are the art-teachings of the Great Exhibition ? We re- cognize—what has been ably enforced by a oontemporary—that its chief lesson (a warning, not a precept) is the chaotic condition of the civilized mind in respect to canons of taste. Materials, styles, purposes, are con- founded and confused ; with so excellent a skill very often, that the theo- rist is fain to slur over his protests in defence of a due discrimination be- tween the several departments of art, and that no style lacks its votaries. Ruskin rests the possibility of a living architecture on the universal adop- tion of some one style, new or old : and the same holds good, in its de- gree, of all art. To all, eclecticism is fatal.
The nations of the earth have now an opportunity such as never offered before of comparing and ascertaining their several tendencies and capeo bilities, and of learning from each other; to their mutual instruction, be it hoped, but not to the abnegation of one tittle of their distinguishing national features. In the unavoidably incomplete view which we have taken of the art of the great rivals France and'Wand, we see reason to designate the genius of the first pictorial; of the second, perceptive and adaptive, with a sense, when left to develop itself freely, of moral and natural propriety. The gain of each will be to enter- more thoroughly into the other's. spirit and apply its manifestations in subservience to her own; but to gird up her loins in her own cause, and aspire still to her own goal.
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