EXHIBITION OF RoliERTri'S SKETCHES.
DAVID ROBERTS'S Sketches in the Iloly Land, Syria, and Egypt, have been privately shown at Mr. RAINY'S Gallery in Regent Street ; and will be exhibited, by tickets, at Mr. MooN's in Threadneedle Street, who is about to publish the whole of them, three hundred in number.
Having a few months ago attempted to give an idea of the beauty and interest of these masterpieces, we need not again enter upon their merits ; but we arc now enabled to indicate the range of subjects, and the extent of the whole work, with more exactness than when we looked over them in the artist's portfolio. The series will consist of three grand divisions, each division forming a separate work com- plete in itself ; the views of the Holy Land, Palestine, and Edom, forming two folio volumes, to be published in twenty monthly parts ; those of Ancient Egypt and Nubia also forming two volumes of cor- responding size and extent ; Modern Egypt making one voltune of ten parts.
The Holy Land, which will be first published, includes sixteen views in the Wilderness of Sinai, showing the Sacred Mount and its approaches, the plain where the Israelites encamped, Horeb, the rock and well of Moses, and the chapels and convents erected by devotees ; as many more of Idumea or Edom, representing the rock-hewn city of Petra, with its cave• like dwellings excavated in the sides of the cliff's, its temples carved out of the living rock, its theatre, and the sur- rounding scenery ; the remainder showing Jerusalem, as seen from difl'erent points of view, Bethlehem, Bethany, and Nazareth ; Cana, Tiberias, and other places on the Sea of Galilee.; Tyre, Sidon, Gaza, Askelon, Joppa, and other cities ; Mounts Tabor and Lebanon ; the tombs and wells of the Prophets and Patriarchs ; and interiors of the chapels which are erected ovtr the supposed sites of the birth, crucifixion, and burial of Christ. The views of Jerusalem , in par- ticular, are strikingly beautiful, regarded independently of the asso- ciations connected with them ; Bethlehem also, and the ruined cities, are attractive from the severe classic beauty of the scenes. The Ruins of Baalbec, of which there are six views, have an air of melancholy
splendour : the grand doorway of the Lesser Temple at Baalbec—its dimensions twenty-five feet in height by twenty wide, and which is surrounded by an architrave of the most exquisite Greek carving— presents a striking instance of the massive strength as well as elegance of these edifices of the antique world. The scenes in Ancient Egypt and Nubia comprise views from dif- ferent points, near and remote, of the Pyramids of Ghizeh, Sakkiira, and Dashour ; the Temples of Denderah, Luxor, Karnak, Herment, (the ancient Hermenthis,) Edfou, (the ancient Apollonopolis,) Ibsam- bul, and the island of Phihe ; the Menthonium, and various lesser temples ; the two Memnons, the head of the Great Sphynx—in short, of all the colossal remains scattered on the plains of the Nile. Modern Egypt, Cairo especially, furnishes some very curious examples of Byzantine architecture ; and represents the streets, shops, and dwellings of the modern Egyptians, us well as their mosques and tombs.
The masterly skill and dexterity of hand with which Mr. RoBER78 has delineated the characteristic features of the scenery and the mi. nutest details of the architecture—combining breadth of effect and gnu. deur of size with precision and neatness of outline and local colour_ are the theme of universal admiration : it is surprising to observe the largeness of view which takes in with a comprehensive eye the brood masses of' such stupendous subjects, united with the most careful exact. ness in delineating every hieroglyphic on the walls, and the coloured pattern of each individual capital. The artist has felt the semillion of the scenes with the mind of a poet, and depicted them with the accuracy of a draughtsman : and we think it will be acknowledged that the stu- pendous proportions of Egyptian remains have never been adequately represented till now. The magnitude and importance of the work, and the surpassing excellence of the sketches, have induced Mr. HARDING to forego his intention of confining his practice of lithography to his own produc- tions ; and he has undertaken to render the pictorial effects of Mr. Romaers's drawings, by means of a new application of lithography peculiar to himself, which, by the employment of three stones in pro- ducing every impression, will give to the prints the appearance of original drawings. Three of these large views, with descriptive letter- press by Dr. CROLY, ornamented with vignettes drawn by Mr. Ramie, in the most finished manner of ordinary lithography, will form each part ; one of which will appear monthly so soon as a sufficient number
M of drawings are done to insure regular publication. Mr. Moos, in sparing no pains or expense to bring out the work in the best s3 the aid of the first talent, is taking the surest means of deserving the extensive encouragement that is necessary to make so immense a spe- culation successful.
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