FINE ARTS.
PROPOSED REMOVAL OF THE CARTOONS OF RAPHAEL. WE are glad to find that the promoters of art are stirring in this matter. A ee titiun to the Queen is in course of signature for the removal of the Cartoons of RAPIIALL from Hampton Court to the National Gal- lery. We hope and trust that its prayer will be granted; and we are the more sanguine in our expectation that it will, knowing that it rests with the Queen alone to determine upon it ; for her Majesty has hitherto shown herself to be an enlightened patroness of art. What the Sculpture in the British Museum would be without the Elgin Marbles, is the National Collection of Pictures wanting the Car- toons of RAPHAEL. A series of the poets omitting SHAESPEARE, a niusical library without the works of HANDEL, would not be a more ridiculous absurdity than a public gallery of pictures from which the Cartoons are excluded. It is urged that they would be injured by the smoke and dust of Lon. don ; though they are now suffering from damp, which is far more de. structive to paintings in distemper on paper—for such the Cartoons are. 'Ibis objection, however, is easily disposed of : they might be covered with Riess. The dimensions of each Cartoon are about twelve feet in height by sixteen feet in length : four plates of glass of no very extra- ordinary dimensions would suffice ; and their junction might be nicely effected, as any one may see in the large mirrors of a saloon. The ap- parition of cross-bars, like the frames of sash-windows, conjured up by a contemporary, is a mere "shoy-hoy," as CoamsErr would say. But one difficulty remains—want of room in the paltry place that contains the National Collection. That such a difficulty should exist ! However, the Cartoons would be no worse off than the great picture by SEBAS- TIAN DEL Ploono : or there is light and room in the hall, as Mr. M- IMS says! So be it, then. Any thing is preferable to their being buried in a deserted palace, exposed to the constant action of damp, and the imminent risk of fire ; as if they were but costly lumber, only fit to be shown along with faded state. beds, and such like regal frippery, for the behoof of the housekeeper of that almshouse for Court paupers,— though the Cartoons are worthy to have a gallery built purposely for them.
Apropos of RAPHAEL. Those who have not yet seen his sketches and drawings at Messrs. WOODBURNS' have no time to lose: on Thurs- day the exhibition closes, to make room for others by ZUCCH Eno and Poessist. If the union of natural character with ideal beauty—the combination of profound knowledge and consummate skill with the most exalted genius—be rare and valuable qualities in art, then are these fragments—in which intense expression and substantial shapes of loveliness are indicated by a few rapid strokes of the pen—of inesti- mable wotth. These scattered atoms, like winged seeds, will implant the germ of all that is most beautiful in art wherever they fall.
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