THE GREAT ARTISTIC WANT OF ENGLA.ND.
[SECOND LETTER) [TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPICTATOR."]
Sllt,—In a former letter I endeavoured to show the great advan- tages which would accrue from the formation of such a Museum of Casts from the antique as our most enlightened neighbours in Europe already possess. I proceed to mention some of the princi- pal representative works of different periods which ought to find a place in our collection. The space allowed inc will only enable me to do this in a very imperfect and superficial manner. Without entering into the controversy on the question of the origin of Greek art, whether it was in some measure derived from Egypt, or Assyria, or some other Asiatic source, we may assume as granted that there is a striking analogy between certain Egyptian and Assyrian statues and reliefs and the earliest essays of Grecian artists. A small selection, therefore, from the former would rightly occupy the first place in our Museum, and be immediately followed by the earliest specimens of Hellenic workmanship, such as the reliefs of Assos and the Apollos of Thera and Tenea, and others. Next to them would come representatives of the Archaic period, anterior to the golden age of Phidias and Polycletus, among which the Aeginetan's pedimental group at Munich would hold the first place, surrounded by the frieze of Assos (in the Louvre), the Selinuntian metopes (in Palermo), the colossal seated figures from the Sacred Way of the Dindymman Apollo at Miletus, and the singular but very beautiful reliefs of the Harpy monument of Xanthos (in the British Museum), and other works of doubtful origin, but tolerably certain date.
For the golden age of Pericles, we should require in immediate proximity to one another the matchless sculptures of the Par-
thenon ("the Elgin Marbles"), the caryatids of the Erectheum, the metopes and friezes of the Temple of Nike Apteros (Wingless Victory) and the Theseum (at Athens), and from the Temples of Olympia and Phigalia, in the Louvre and British Museum respectively. In the same room with these architectural sculp- tures we should place the Discobolus and Marsyas after Myron, the Doryphorus and Diadumenos after Polycletus, with a selec- tion from the very. important and beautiful sepulchral, votive, and decretal reliefs of the same period from Athens.
As illustrations of the later Attic school, we should need the Niobe groupe of Florence, the Barberini Faun, Eirene with the infant Plutus (formerly known as Leucothea), and the marriage of Neptune and Amphitrite, all in Munich ; the rich collection of Xanthian marbles, and the sculptures of the Mausoleum at Hall- earnassus, in the British Museum, those on the Choragic monument of Lysicrates, still in their original place in Athens, and the chief statuary types of Scopes, Praxiteles, and Lysippus.
The next stage would be occupied by the productions of the age of Alexander's successors,—the Farnesian Ball at Naples, the Laocoon, the Apollo Belvedere, perhaps the Capitoline Venus, all at Rome ; and the Gallic statues of Venice, Rome, and Naples, among which the wrongly-named "Dying Gladiator" in the Capitol, "The Gaul killing his Wife" in the Villa Ludovisi, and "The Knife-Sharpener," at Florence, hold a conspicuous place.
No previous period would furnish so many generally popular works as that of the revival of art in Asia Minor, the Eclectic school in Rome, and the "Attic Renaissance," from the end of the Republic to the time of Tmjan and his successors. To this period we owe the enchanting Venus de Medici, and the great mass of beautiful works which adorn the galleries of Europe,— the portraits, the reliefs on the sarcophagi and on the triumphal arches and pillars at Rome. The portraits, statues, and busts of heroes and distinguished men especially cannot fail to excite the interest of every educated man. Such works are extant in surprising numbers, and are many of them of extraordinary merit. We need only remind our readers of the Vatican and the Capitol at Rome, the Museum at Naples, the Louvre, and the British Museum, to convince them of the abundance and variety of these remains ; and of the noble draped statues of Sophocles in the Lateran, of Aeschines and Agrippina at Naples, and of Augustus at Rome ; and the busts of Themistocles, Pericles, Alcibiades, Socrates, Alexander, the young Augustus, &c., as proof of their surpassing truth and beauty.
The general arrangement of the casts would, of course, be chronological, but some very interesting subsidiary departments might be formed according to other principles of classification. For example, the representative beings from different provinces of external nature might be arranged in very interesting special groups. The sea would be represented by its now sad, now wild and turbulent denizens,—its Neptunes, Amphitrites, Tritons, Nereids, and Hippocampi ; the forest, by its Pans and Satyrs, Fauns and Wood-nymphs.
Nor should we forget to form a Hall of Animals, in the por- traiture of which both Greeks and Romans display such marvel- lous skill. No one who has seen them can ever forget the Florentine boar, the Molossian watch-dog in Florence and Rome, the exquisite playing greyhounds in the Sala degli Animali of the Vatican, or the marble Horses of the Balbi at Naples.
With regard to ways and means, we think that the task of form- ing the Museum ought to be undertaken in this country, as it has been in all others, by the Government ; and nothing is more cer- tain than that if the lamented Prince Consort had been spare d to us, our Government would long ago have consented to perform the task, and we should not now be worse off as students of plastic art than fourteen towns in Germany alone. The State does recognise the duty of educating the people, and if it be urged that the object of art is only pleasure, we answer that pleasure is as necessary to man as bread, that men constantly prefer it to bread as more necessary, and that if they cannot have it in any better shape, they will seek it in the excitement of debauchery. Men of all classes frequently become vicious because they are not better amused.
Nor can a Government shirk this duty by saying that such undertakings lie within the proper sphere of private speculation or voluntary contributions. Madame Tassaud's may safely be left to support itself, but not a gallery of Greek and Roman sculp- ture. What we want is not to pander to, but to raise and guide the public taste ; and private speculation (as we see in the case of many theatres in Paris and London, where actors and audience mutually corrupt each other) must pander to the lowest tastes, to be "successful"
Nor would the cost of such a Museum be very great. Six or seven thousandpounds (the cost of a single picture!) judiciously expended would suffice to procure and set up the necessary casts. The chief difficulty, of course, would be in finding a central and suitable lo- cality. Toallow for the natural growth of such a collection in future years, we should need an area of from 10,000 to 12,000 square feet.. But space and light are almost all that we want, for anything like splendour in the adornment of the room in which the casts were placed would be almost an evil (as is felt in some degree at Berlin), because it distracts the eye, and leads to a decorative rather than a scientific arrangement of the works of art. Within certain limits, of course, the simpler the rooms the better, and surely these might be either found or erected by our Government,. for so desirable and so truly national an object.—I am, Sir, &e.,
WALTER C. PERRY.
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