It Is Easy To Suggest A Doubt, But I Have A Great Doubt Whether,
Sometimes, The Rules Of Art Are
Not too strictly observed, and
whether it is quite well or agreeable that we should know
beforehand, where this figure
Will be turning round, and where that
figure will be lying down, and where there will be drapery in
folds, and so forth. When I observe heads inferior to the subject,
in pictures of merit, in Italian galleries, I do not attach that
reproach to the Painter, for I have a suspicion that these great
men, who were, of necessity, very much in the hands of monks and
priests, painted monks and priests a great deal too often. I
frequently see, in pictures of real power, heads quite below the
story and the painter: and I invariably observe that those heads
are of the Convent stamp, and have their counterparts among the
Convent inmates of this hour; so, I have settled with myself that,
in such cases, the lameness was not with the painter, but with the
vanity and ignorance of certain of his employers, who would be
apostles--on canvas, at all events.
The exquisite grace and beauty of Canova's statues; the wonderful
gravity and repose of many of the ancient works in sculpture, both
in the Capitol and the Vatican; and the strength and fire of many
others; are, in their different ways, beyond all reach of words.
They are especially impressive and delightful, after the works of
Bernini and his disciples, in which the churches of Rome, from St.
Peter's downward, abound; and which are, I verily believe, the most
detestable class of productions in the wide world.
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