POETS AND PAINTERS—TEE PANDEMONIUM.
Mr. BURFORD, in opening a representation of Mierox's Pande- monium to the public as' a panorama, has ventured on a bold step; and Mr. SLOUS, the gentleman who has furnished the design for the painting, a still bolder. The Pandemonium, that MILTON has invented for admiring ages, is perhaps one of the most poetical
conceptions that ever entered the head of man ; and we may there- fore, within the fair rules of criticism, be allowed to inquire how far the painter's brush is capable of illustrating the poet's imagery, before we notice more particularly the leading traits of this new exhibition.
The question as to the superiority of poetry or painting has long been mooted by their respective partisans, but we believe that the real force of the argument leans in favour of poetry: it , is within the scope of words to describe justly the most beautiful or the most sublime effort that a painter ever produced ; while on the other hand there are many subjects set out by the poet which the artist dares not come near, because he knows that no expression of the pencil or detail of execution can tell the story to the full intent of the poet's meaning. Let us illustrate these points by a well-known example or two. In support of the first proposition, we ask which picture of RAPHAEL or what design Of MICHAEL ANGELO is Of such a nature as to have been beyond the reach of a SHAKSPEARE to have described to the very soul of all the painter intended ? If you tell us of the fairy forms that RAPHAEL has placed in air so gracefully, as if they were really innate there, and no heavier than floating gossamer, we bid you read Midsummer Night's Dream, and then contend that there was anything in RAPHAEL'S Mab and fairy elves beyond the reach of SHAESPEARE'S touch. If you tell us of the evTilence with which MICHAEL ANGELO has depicted man with the majesty of God, we bid you study the features of Hamlet before you imagine that the poet would be baffled. In support of the second propasition, we ask as confidently- where is the painter that could express the prayer of Pericles Y- " ThoU God of this great vast, rebuke these surges,
Which wash both Heaven and Hell; and thou that bast Upou the winds command, bind them in brass, Having call'd them from the deep ! 0, still Thy deafening, dreadful thunders ; gently quench Thy nimble sulphurous flashes!"
Or tvho shall place on canvass Lear's tribute to the silver tones of sweet Cordelia, while pressing her dead body to his heart ?- " Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha I
What is't thou sayest? Her voice was ever soft, Gentle, and low ; an excellent thing in woman?'
We have been obliged to say thus much on the relative position of poets and painters, because our own feelings on the subject have led us to the conclusion that MILTON'S Pandemonium is not a legi- timate subject for the painter. The poet is able to enlarge his bounds of length, and height, and depth, and distance, far beyond anything that the painter can do ; as the only resource of the latter is comparison,—which, where eveiytluntr, as in this case, is to he preternaturally enormous, necessarily fails. But MILTON, in treat- ing this subject, has possessed himself of a still higher power : he makes Pandemonium of interest because it is the assembly-hall of the spirits to whom so much of the early part of the poem be- longs ;—thus far the painter goes along with him ; but when the various passions that are to mark the individuality of each of the chiefs of these spirits are to be described, the artist is at fault, and his Pandemonium appears merely as an extraordinary building, in stead of the haunt of the myriads whose deeds are to cause the main action of the poem.
Magnitude, boundless and immeasurable, is the essence of 'MIL.. TON'S creation " And here let those, Who boast in mortal things, and womPring. tell Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings, Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, And strength and art, are easily outdone By spirits reprobate, and in an hour What in an age they with incessant toil And hands innumerable scarce perform."
It is, therefore, not enough that the pile of building should stretch from side to side in huge masses and endless repetitions, but the !'viog agents of the s!mft! riecoin.•,":,. it in its overwhelming
she evidently, the art si has not been el de to nee:mulish, and
the difficulty still remains, IOOif l -kve hat. Mr. BITRFORD has endeavoured to fore"1"il criticism for the cir-
cumstance in his accompanying pampillei.
With the resolution, however, to fori';e1 that it is at a representa- tion of Milton's Pandemonium lie is locking, the spectator will find much to admire both in the design and execution of the pano- rama ; the former, however, having the error of inconsistency to strugg-le against (for no eye sensible of harmony can tolerate the se;rnient of one circle Si,: out of the segment of another, and striking out in an entirely dit-iertint direclion, as is the case at the bridge that leads across the stream to the edifice) ; and the latter that of extravagance in colour,—which we fear was hardly to be avoided in such a subject without sinking into the tame. Some parts of the architecture are finely imagined ; and the gradual toning front sickly sulphur to a sort of white heat, as exhibited in that portion of the structure which stands behind the Dragon, is both well- imagined and well-executed. The figures likewise are for the most part thrown hi at pictures:Fie oHicrtunities, though in the main irroupe they are almost 1( inili,tinct in their outline to tell with adequate effect. Silent Lethe would have been better if it had been brought more forward by way of repose; but even where it is, it affords an agreeable relief horn ;he startling "toil and trouble" of the rest of the scene.
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