THE ARTS.
PANORAMA OF THE NILE.
AT the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly a moving panorama of the Nile is ex- hibited. The spectator begins his sedentary voyage at Cairo; ascends to the second cataract, surveying the right or Eastern bank of the great river; and returns in view of the Western bank, ending with the head of the Sphinx. Occasionally the course leaves the river, to display some traits of desert life, It is a highly interesting survey of one of 'the most interesting re- gions in the world, and cannot fail to attract numbers in search-of instruc- tion no less than amusement: it is full of merit as a work of art; but it has also grave blemishes. We shall describe the blemishes as well as the beau- ties; because our duty' o our readers is to prepare them for what they will find, and also because the defects are not, we should think, entirely with- out remedy. The picture is a transparency; a style of painting capable of consider- able effect under an artificial light, and arm presenting a somewhat greater economy of surface since the picture can- pass close to the open space or. sight " of its framework. It is executed by gentlemen quite competent as artists, but not, we should judge by the internal evidence of this work, practised in transparency-painting. A want of mastery over tile material seriously mars the effect.. The tissue on which the painting is executed is painfully apparent throughout; its texture sometimes is more obvious, especially from the front seats, thanthe painted objects; a subtile network of shade, from the threads dilutes the lights. The consequence is,
that, here and there, the picture seems half washed out Again, some of the darker pigments are too opaque, acting more by their body as screens against the light than by their tints. Generally it may be said that the picture wants a just balance of chiaroscuro; and in many places it needs greater emphasis, especially in the salient points and "depths" of the shadows.
Some faults also we notice in the composition—chiefly of omissions. ions. We find fewer traits of Nilotic life than might have been expected in a voyage of seventeen hundred miles. Not that such traits are wholly wanting; but they are unquestionably so few as to baulk expectation. One incident is so apocryphal as to make its admission very questionable—the scene of a caravan overtaken by the simoom. The pillars of sand are rising in terrific solidity. Hot winds, flying dust, confusion, thirst, and panic, may have destroyed armies in the desert; but the accounts of the most recent travel- lers cast discredit on the fables formerly current about the " pillars of sand"; and although the artists were not bound to exclude everything that they had not seen, they should have admitted nothing that was not as well authenticated as every real phsenomenon of Egypt may be.
With due allowance for these faults, the exhibition.is one of the most interesting ever opened to the public. Many of the objects have been familiarized to the spectator by the works of Roberta, Prism, and others, and have even been more minutely illustrated; but the relations of the whole have never been thus set before him—the succession of Egyptian landscapes; the general aspect of the great river; the general tone of the climate; the relative positions of the cities, the ruins, and the pyramids. Among the most popular scenes, were evidently those exhibiting the human life of the Nile—such as the Nubian women, the trial of an Arab depre- dator, and even the apocryphal simoom. The passing scene is explained by a viva voce description; a mode much more convenient to the spectator than that of a catalogue which importunes his eyes. A few specimens of dress and utensils from the banks of the river are in the room, for in- spection after the panorama has run its course.
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