No artist that I
have ever seen, not even Raphael, has more power of glorifying the
human face by an exalted and unearthly expression. His head of Joan of
Arc, at Versailles, is a remarkable example. It is a commentary on
that scripture - "And they beheld his face, as it were the face of an
angel."
Schoeffer is fully possessed with the idea of which I have spoken, of
raising Protestant art above the wearisome imitations of Romanism. The
object is noble and important. I feel that he must succeed.
His best award is in the judgments of the unsophisticated heart. A
painter who does not burn incense to his palette and worship his
brushes, who reverences ideas above mechanism, will have all manner of
evil spoken against him by artists, but the human heart will always
accept him.
LETTER XLIV.
BERLIN, August 10.
MY DEAR: -
Here we are in Berlin - a beautiful city. These places that kings
build, have of course, more general uniformity and consistency of
style than those that grow up by chance. The prevalence of the Greek
style of architecture, the regularity and breadth of the streets, the
fine trees, especially in the Unter den Linden, on which are our
rooms, struck me more than any thing I have seen since Paris.
