decorations of the Hall of David (plate 22), though given on rather a small scale, convey a most splendid idea of this beautiful vestibule; and in the arrangement of the Casino (plate 23) Giulio Romano has, in point of classical taste, exquisite execution, and unity, surpassed not only himself, but perhaps all other painters of modern times. This specimen of decoration is adapted to the limited size of modern town-houses, and the arrangement will admit the introduction of works in the higher branches of fresco and oil-painting in convenient positions. But we are most indebted to Mr. Gruner for bringing us acquainted with the old Ducal Palace at Mantua, the residence of the Buonacolsi and Gonzagas, and fraught with recollections of the amiable Isabella d' Este, whose apartment is still called 'il Paradiso.' It is an edifice of enormous extent, and an endless magazine of details, inestimable to the artist:

'In fact, for the grandeur of its masses, for propriety, invention, and decorations of every kind, for the solution of the most perplexing problems in architectural and pictorial arrangement, for the skilful adaptation of designs to the most uninviting and embarrassing spaces, we know no edifice of the kind either in or out of Italy which approaches this imperial residence, or which displays such varied resources to the student of decorative art; but, we lament to say, that none has been made so little use of for that purpose.'-p. 38.

One of its rich ceilings (plate 24) is painted by Mantegna, and accompanied with lunettes expressing the pleasures of the chace, which are among the most elegant inventions of Giulio Romano. The deer overtaken by the dogs while crossing a river reminds us how suitably such a species of decoration for some analogous locale might be confided to the unrivalled pencil of our Landseer. Correggio's fanciful bower in the Camere di S. Paolo at Parma (plate 28) is particularly valuable, as the previous well-known publications of it are inexcusably incorrect. The room of portraits in the Palazzo Martinengo at Brescia (plate 29) is inedited and singularly elegant; full-length figures of eight daughters of the family are represented, two on each wall of the room, sitting on a low garden-wall overlooking the country beyond-the work of the celebrated Moretto, of Brescia. This instance affords a beautiful model for imitation in a country in which the domestic affections render portrait-painting the most cherished branch of art. If the Vandyck room at Petworth charms us with its family assemblage of small oil-paintings, what should we say of fulllength portraits in fresco of those graceful ladies handed down to us in the very apartment they had inhabited?

Part II. is limited to decorations of sacred buildings. Of these there cannot be a more magnificent example than the Certosa of Pavia, founded by Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti, in 1396, but con

tinued,

6

tinued, improved, and embellished with equal taste, spirit, and means, through a space of more than three centuries, so as to become a practical history of the progress of the fine arts in Lombardy (plates i. to x.). On a critical examination of the interior, the traces of the various ages in which this edifice was erected become obvious. The most ancient portion dates from a period when the fundamental rules of architecture were by no means settled, and the romantic style was no longer satisfactory: then follows the style of the revival; then, as the building became more advanced, the proportions of Bramante were adopted, and more attention was given to the ornamental part; and thus, age after age, each leaving the imprint of its characteristics. But thanks to the ruling taste of the monks, this variety, far from producing the effect so often felt in works of different epochs, is an inexhaustible source of pleasure and instruction' (p. 54). The series of painters extends from Ambrogio da Fossano, Luini, and Pietro Perugino, down to Guercino. Endless are the arcades adorned with the finest terracottas; numberless the works of stained glass, Florentine mosaic, bronzes, carvings, and marbles. In short, there is such a combination of perfection in this Certosa, that, instead of being, as it too generally is, hurried over by travellers as the last object of their curiosity, or omitted altogether, it ought to be one of the chief points in a visit to Italy, and should be considered by artists a means of acquiring in many branches of art the utmost finish and refinement' (p. 52).

Plates iii. to vi. give admirably drawn and detailed views of the exquisite lateral vestibule, painted by Luini and others. The half-figures there introduced, and also the patriarchs in the ceiling (plate viii.), probably painted by the same hands, create a hold effect, which is quite startling. But the section of the transept (plate ix.), with its many painted openings, saints and angels standing on the entablatures, and mural decorations of the most fanciful kind, carries the romance of church architecture further than any example—even beyond a similar section (plate xi.) from the Monastero Maggiore at Milan, which is most elegant, and Bramantesque in the truest sense. The general interior view (plate ii.) is the least satisfactory, the unassisted outline being inadequate to the perspective effect, and the crowded minutia of the roofs deceiving the eye as to the real dimensions and distances. The exterior view (plate i.), though in outline also, has more air, and is splendid. After all, no such complete detail of the Certosa has ever before been given; and Mr. Gruner deserves the gratitude of every lover of the arts for rescuing this matchless monument from oblivion and barbarism.* The

* Let it never be forgotten that its dilapidation dates from the removal of the leaden

The series closes with two specimens by Pinturicchio-viz., the ceiling and accessories to that celebrated suite of frescoes representing the life of Pius II., in which Raffaelle assisted him, in the library of Siena (plate xiii.), and the ceiling to the choir of Santa Maria del Popolo, at Rome. In this last, sibyls, evangelists, and the fathers of the Church, enthroned in niches, are given with * striking effect and judgment; and it furnishes one of the richest pages of this rich and admirably executed work.

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It is evident that Italy is the only country from which such a volume could have been compiled. The art of fresco-painting, in all its styles, there reached its point of perfection; and thither must artists betake themselves for the best materials of study and improvement. Innumerable treasures are unknown and inedited merely because they lie out of the beaten track. The ordinary tourist devotes but a few minutes' observation to the cheerless dismantled walls of the Villa Madama and the old Ducal Palace at MantuaA fading fresco there demands a sigh'and nothing more. Yet no other country, however well-conditioned, can supply the artist with examples so teeming with instruction in Italy, beato chi ha un' occhio.' In France there is nothing to be gleaned. Little, if anything, remains of the original frescoes of Rosso and Primaticcio at Fontainebleau. We know them only from drawings and contemporary prints; for the French, qui n'ont soin de rien,' have let the works themselves go to ruin. Judging from a small portion which many years ago had escaped restoration, the mode of their execution is quite unsuited to our imitation: the adoption of stucco to give relief is there carried to an abuse; the image-painting, life size, is intolerably gaudy, and brought near the eye in an apartment, becomes overpowering. One of the latest considerable works in fresco which France possesses is the dome of the Val de Grace, by Mignard, a kind of apotheosis of Anne of Austria, consisting of many hnndred figures; but, although a noble work, and more worthy the title of La Gloire du Val de Grace,' than the verses of Molière in its celebration, it may be doubted whether even French vanity would again require any similar performance. The loss, through decay, of such examples as England possessed is not much to be regretted. At Magdalen Chapel (the Capella Sistina of Oxford) there existed within our memory a Last Judgment in fresco, entirely filling the eastern wall. It was celebrated in a poem by Addison; but, in common with other similar performances of Isaac Fuller, its merits were not such as to ensure its

pre

leaden roofs in 1797 by the French, who are said to have pocketed about three millions of francs by this piece of brigandage. Heidelberg and Batalha do not exemplify more happily their tact for destroying the beautiful.

servation.

servation. Whether the decorations, 'en grisaille,' from the life of St. Paul, by Sir James Thornhill, are among the non existentibus' or non apparentibus,' and whether it will ever be worth while to replace them a buon fresco,' is very doubtful. Many persons point to them in the dome of St. Paul's, but as for seeing them, the monster city

'Faucibus ingentem fumum

Evomit involvitque domum caligine cæcâ,

Prospectum eripiens oculis: glomeratque sub antro
Fumiferam noctem-

And this reminds us of the common remark, how unsuitable our damp climate is to fresco-painting *-particularly when, as in our great cities, smoke lends its aid to obliterate it. But surely this is rather an advantage than otherwise. The ceaseless demand for fresh efforts of genius to replace the departed shades will keep artists on the qui vive, happy and flourishing, and ready to begin over again: our public edifices will look smart and new at short and regular intervals; and as novelty is the soul of fashion, the patronage of the beau-monde will be kept in constant exercise. Of the propriety, under such an atmosphere, of covering exteriors with delicate sculpture there has never, within our recollection, been the slightest doubt. Have we not built twice over, or at least overlaid with a new black lace veil of elaborate pattern, King Henry VII.'s costly Chapel? And are we not offering up, hard by, a still more splendid holocaust in the shape of that cubic pile of profuse workmanship, that mine of future restorations, by which Parliament has provided for its own comforts and those of future carvers of heads and escutcheons, certain that in less than twenty years the storied exterior of Mr. Barry's really grand edifice will form one undistinguishable sooterkin of art? Meanwhile these lessons from the Architecture of the West have not been thrown away on the Painting of the East, where the gay hues of fresco, as offering a speedier destructibility than sculpture, are wisely lavished on the exterior surfaces of the new Royal Exchange. By such spirited, well-considered, and fruitful outlays have we earned the wonder of foreigners, and the gratitude, sua si bona nôrint,' of the artist tribe. No longer dependent on the impure breath of public favour, they will prosper as the sparks fly upward; the course of nature, the change of the wind, will waft them good-luck, wealth, and renown,

FUMUM et OPES, STREPITUMQUE Romæ.'

* The Venetians who, like ourselves, had damp to contend with, abstained from fresco in the great historical decorations of magnificent balls in the Ducal Palace, and ordered oil-paintings on a gigantic scale.

ART.

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ART. VII.-The Life and Correspondence of T. Arnold, D.D. By Arthur P. Stanley, M.A. London. 2 vols. 8vo. 1844.

WHEN

HEN I look round, there seems to me some one point or quality which distinguishes really noble persons from ordinary ones; it is not religious feeling; it is not honesty or kindness; but it seems to me to be moral thoughtfulness; which makes a man love Christ instead of being a fanatic, and love truth without being cold or hard.' This sentence of his own would give, indeed, a very imperfect idea of Dr. Arnold's character, but it may express, the first general view that serious and good men of every party will take of it, and the reason why a faithful Life of him should be extensively popular. Mr. Stanley has produced the loving and honest picture of a most amiable and most efficient man who, in the unconscious autobiography of a large correspondence, gives us without reserve his feelings on those four or five points of social and theological interest of which every one now is wondering what the end will be. Intense energy in a profession which, important as it ever was, he was the first to raise to its true dignity-an enthusiasm which, if sometimes restless, was never sentimental, but always practical in behalf of his church and country-the gentlest and warmest affections to his friends and family-and withal an almost boyish playfulness and freshness lighting up and relieving the naturally stern earnestness of an enthusiastic temperament-these are qualities which strike us at first sight, and which (whatever we may think of his opinions) ought to spur us to imitate his actions. The only question,' Mr. Stanley says, which I allowed myself to ask in each particular act or opinion, that has come before me, has been not whether I approved or disapproved of it, but whether it was characteristic of him;' and he has certainly steered himself ably between the Scylla and Charybdis of Aye and No,' as to expressing agreement or disagreement with any of the peculiar tenets of his friend. We cannot profess so complete a neutrality-but generally it is our wish, in this necessarily brief notice on a large and pregnant subject, to describe and develope rather than criticise; well content if our readers, finding our sketch most inadequate to the subject, shall be led to study for themselves in his own writings, and in Mr. Stanley's modest and elegant pages, the life and character of Dr. Arnold.

This character and life have no claims to the romance of passion, poverty, or ambition: but they have all that Dr. Arnold called the true poetry of common life. We have here the picture of a mind of great capacity and energy, but with an early stiffness and dryness which home affections transformed into poetry and

gentleness,