met with in the collections of the curious: [care to hear. The editions, however, pubthe former was not devoid of merit in its lished by Sharpe of the Classics' and illustrations. A Prayer Book was also en-Poets,' are far beyond the others in taste graved by Sturt, having no other merit and beauty-nay, we think them not equalthan that, if it be any, which arises from led by any which have since appeared. the difficulty of execution. Sturt was a The beauty of these books rendered it not painful artist. There is in his book a por- beneath the dignity of any artist to engage trait of George I., composed of the Lord's in similar objects, and there are few who Prayer, the Creed, the Decalogue, and have not fleshed their pencils in illustrasundry Psalms. He has also reproduced tions.' The greatest, and also the most the old but always ludicrous error of the industrious, of living geniuses in art, Tur'beam' in the eye, represented as a log of ner, has, we believe, allotted a space of wood, at the least six feet long! In the last every day for many years past to the execentury, too, some books were published, cution of small drawings for the 'illustrawhich may bear comparison with any of tion' of books. He is said to receive 25 the present day. We may instance the guineas for the smallest; but the book'Voyages Pittoresques,' particularly that sellers often get more than that price for of Naples and Sicily by Saint Non, a book the drawing from a collector, after their well and splendidly illustrated, but sadly own purpose has been served. disfigured by immondices,* most needlessly At last arose the rage for Annuals, and as well as offensively introduced. In the for a time Art lay prostrate at the feet of case of our own country we may instance Nonsense. We cannot think of criticising 'Cook's Voyages,' and the truly magnifi- the Annuals-happily they are nearly excent plates with which, by the wise liber-tinct. ONE MILLION STERLING has, at the ality of the Government, they were en- least estimate, been wasted on their proriched. duction. Oh, that our readers could seeIn the latter part of the last century a as we have seen-all the Annuals which, great change a marked improvement over from the rise to the decline and fall of the the Haymans and Wales, et id genus omne imbecile mania, have appeared-in one -took place. There flourished at the small space of, perhaps, 8 feet by 6 feetsame time Bartolozzi and Cipriani, and- and moralize as we have done upon the a host in himself the late Charles Stot-public taste! That taste has of late been hard, R.A., a truly English artist-one to venting itself in part in Art-unions, not the whom little justice is done in this respect. Even his industry was remarkable, and could we enumerate the plates engraved from his designs, the numbers would, we think, astonish our readers. Many of his 'Illustration,' as now used by booksellers, designs, engraved by the elder Heath for and printsellers, is incapable of being defined. Harrison's Novelist's Magazine,' are of Every engraving, every woodcut, every orgreat beauty, though but little known.namented letter, however meaningless, howThis magazine is a work of twenty-three ever absurd, is an illustration; and provided closely-printed octavo volumes! We can- such things are rather numerous in propornot pretend to recount or even to know tion to the extent of the work, it is forththe existence of all the books which now with dubbed 'an illustrated edition,' and swarmed with illustrations. Shakespeare the public are good-natured enough to buy and the British Classics' (here understood it. Now a history may be well called to mean writings originally ephemeral), illustrated when, as in the case of accurate and the British Poets' and the British views or authentic portraits, the pictured Theatre,' were all published in an illus- representation conveys to the mind a trated' form by Bell, and Cooke, and others, more clear and accurate knowledge than we believe, of whom we never heard nor any verbal description could by any possibility communicate-when a single glance of the eye will at once impress on the mind that accurate idea of form which it is impossible for a blind person to obtain. A book of natural history is defective in one of its main objects when it wants such illustrations. It appears from Pliny (xxv. ་ *We must caution all parents against buying, without previous examination, any of the French 'illustrated' editions, even of their standard authors. The artists appear to wander willingly from their subjects in order to seek for dirt. Even their more scientific books are not free from this plague-spot. most objectionable of safety-valves; but this, it seems, is now closed by the fiscal hand of government. We wait to see the next direction of the pictorial energy. 'Ecce, manus juvenem interea post terga revinctum 24,) that Greek botanical works usually them only in being copied from better had the plants copied on the margin; and pictures-chiefly by the ancient masters as we have no doubt his own book had similar they are called. We rather doubt their 'illustration' when first published. Were tendency to promote Christian knowledge. the rule always followed, how much of It is often very difficult to ascertain with technical phraseology, compounded of a truth the scope of a picture: thus in the vile jargon, partly Greek, partly Latin, National Gallery is a picture by Claude le partly of some modern language with Latin Lorrain, described as 'Sinon brought beinflections (in fact macaronic), partly de- fore Priam;' but how it could be supposed rived from names of nobodies or noodles, to 'illustrate' the lineswould be spared, and how much more accurate would be our knowledge. We should be curious to see the best representation made by the most learned naturalist we know not. The 'pastores' are helmed from the most labored technical descrip- warriors! the juvenis' between them is tion of an object which he had never seen. offering water! It has been claimed, and A classic or ancient author of any kind justly, as illustrative rather of David, at the may be illustrated by coins or figures of cave of Adullam, with the three mighty any antiquities, as nearly as possible con- men who brought him water out of the temporary with the writer. What imagin- well of Bethlehem.' We are not about to ary figures by Prado or Villalpandus would discuss the propriety or impropriety of impress us so strongly as the representa- painting subjects from Scripture, nor gentions, no doubt drawn from the actual ob-erally the errors-the flagrant errorsjects, on the triumphal arch of Titus, of committed by painters of such subjectsthe sacred utensils of the Temple at Jeru- nor the merits of such paintings, old or salem? new, by living artists or by the great masWe altogether except against the mix- ters. We speak only as to the impropriety ture of the real with the imaginary, and of their introduction as illustrations,' calling the latter as well as the first, illus- which, if the term mean any thing as gentrations of the Bible.' Why place in the erally used, implies something which tends same category the figures on the Arch of to explain or throw light upon the text. Titus, the views of places mentioned in So with any history: what light is thrown Scripture, the Jewish coins-and (as in upon Hume's text by the magnificent nonthe Pictorial Bible') the Death of Sisera senses in Bowyer's edition? a book as suafter N. Poussin, who with truly French perb and as useless, and as devoid of real taste has represented the Canaanite Cap- beauty as Macklin's Bible. It outrages all tain as a Roman Centurion-the 'repentance of Israel,' after Canova; or] Prudence,' after Sir Joshua Reynolds? All Gravelot's, and Cochin's, and Boudard's Iconologies might, with equal right, have been introduced. In Westall's Illustrations to the Bible, figures may be seen, the exact counterparts of those in his Illustrations of the Lady of the Lake.' Macklin's edition of the Bible, on which vast sums were spent, is one mass of pictorial absurdity, unmingled with any redeeming quality of truth or probability, and where the labor of the most skilful engravers has been wasted on designs unworthy of their talents. The Family Bible' of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has 'Illustrations,' which are of as little use as those in Macklin's edition, and which excel probability, and sets at defiance all consistency in manners and costume. The Pictorial History of England' has at least this merit-we say this, because we never have read, probably never shall read, the work *-that it gives very numerous, and, so far as we can judge, accurate representations of persons, and things, and that a great proportion of the cuts are real illus trations of the text. In biography how much is the interest we feel enhanced by portraits and representations of places; but even here, where the opportunities for committing absurdities appear to be so few, what instances of every kind do we not meet with? We have now on our table Clarke and M'Arthur's Life of Lord Nelson,' a book published with every advantage of patronage, royal and official. * See the English version of that very valua- * We have read the same publisher's 'London' ble mannal of lore, and at the same time most-and in it there is a great deal of interesting entertaining tale, the Gallus' of Professor Beck-reading, as well as a world of apposite wood cuts. er (Lond. 1844), p. 244. It is a capital parlor-window book.' - We pass over the questionable taste shown us have as nearly as may be the real reflecin many of the plates, and we will give the tion of what the traveller sees. It would words of the authors themselves Arcades be endless to enumerate the excellent perambo-in explanation of the allegory which formances of our own time in this way. faces the title-page of the first volume. The designs of Mr. Brockedon for Italy The design-alas! for the Royal Academy and the Alps-those of the late Lord Mon-is by one of their Presidents-Benjamin son for the south of France-and those of Westt-we hope the 'description' was not Mr. Roberts for Egypt and the Holy Land, also contributed by himoccur to us as among the most satisfactory; but in these cases the letter-press is trifling in relation to the prints. What a pity that the beautiful drawings executed by, or at all events under the inspection of Bruce during his travels, and now in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Cumming Bruce, should never have been engraved! They represent many splendid architectural remains which since that day have entirely disappeared. 'The leading point in the picture represents Victory presenting the dead body of Nelson to Britannia after the battle of Trafalgar, which is received from the arms of Neptune, with the trident of his dominions and Nelson's triumphant flag. Britannia sits in shaded gloom, as expressive of that deep regret which overwhelmed the United Kingdom at the loss of so distinguished a character. In the other parts of the picture are seen the concomitant events of his life. The Lion, under Britannia's shield, is represented fiercely grasping the tablets with beaks of ships, on which are inscribed his memorable battles; and the sons and daughters of the Union are preparing the mournful sable to his memory At a distance on the left is represented the "wreck of matter and the crash of worlds." The winged boys round his body are emunderstand his author. Were we ill-naturblematic that the influence of Nelson's genius ed, we could point out many ludicrous instill exists; other figurative and subordinate stances arising from misapprehension of parts are introduced to give harmony and the meaning of a passage; one shall suffice effect to the whole composition.' by way of caution. We have before us Southey truly says, 'the daisies and dan-Gray's Elegy, and the first line of the epidelions of eloquence are strewed here with taph at the end, profusion;' we wish that we had room for the whole of his comment.* In illustrating poetry or works of fiction, the artist may be as imaginative and his fancy as unbridled as the poet's own: he has only to avoid the commission of solecisms or palable incongruities. Above all things it is necessary that he should clearly 'Here rests his head upon the lap of earth,' For books of Travels of course the prop-in full dress black lying-Lord Herbert of is illustrated by the figure of a gentleman er mode of illustration is obvious. We do not wish for fanciful embellishments-let Cherbury fashion-(or, as Partridge would 'patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi,') and literally resting his head upon a sod of turf for a pillow! *Nelson has been singularly unfortunate in his illustrators: the monument to his memory in Guildhall has been aptly described as 'a woman crying over a bad shilling;' that in St. Paul's is somewhat better, but-that in Trafalgar Square! We suppose that it is intended at some future time to perform, but we know not by what means, upon the dwarfish column the same operation as on the Penelope frigate-to cut it in half and to insert 30 feet of additional length in order that its proportions may be just. Even the armorial bear ings granted to his family in illustration of his services might be supposed to have been designed by West and blazoned by Clark and M'Arthur. Read-and honor duly the Heralds' College of 1805! Or, a cross patonce sable surmounted by a bend gules, thereon another bend engrailed or charged with three hand grenades sable, fired proper; over all a fess wavy azure, inscribed with the word "Trafalgar "in letters of gold; a chief (of augmentation) wavy argent, thereon waves of the sea, from which issuant in the centre a palm-tree between a disabled ship on the dexter, and a ruinous battery on the sinister, all proper! !' say,. Sundry new books of this class are very beautiful, abounding with engravings on copper and steel and wood, and in some instances printed in colors. Mr. Owen Jones's exquisite Arabesques from the Alhambra formed appropriate ornaments for a book of Spanish Ballads; but we have since seen the same sort of illustrations embroidering pages for which cartouches from the tombs of Memphis would have been quite as suitable. We daily witness abominations of this sort, and we would earnestly press upon artists the necessity of preserving congruity, of using a fit thing at a fit time for a fit object, and not to consider that the merely positive beauty of any thing renders its introduction always desirable. Its relative beauty must also be considered. We would have them avoid such errors as architects, for instance, have committed in putting, as formly-do really illustrate the text. How in Regent-street, the choragic monument of is it that a representation of the locality of Lysicrates as the steeple of a church, or in the scenes of Shakespeare* does not in St. Pancras, the Erectheium as a vestry-general so much interest us? Is it because, room, or in the 'City' the Temple of Ceres when reading Romeo and Juliet,' we are at Tivoli to round the corner of the Bank. satisfied (let some biographers dream and The works of Moore have received, as they say as they please) that Verona was as little deserve, great variety of illustration, chiefly, known to him as Sarra in the londe of and as necessarily arising from the nature Tartarie' was to Chaucer? It has been of his writings, imaginative. The scenes attempted to fix the scene of the Tempest' as well as the persons and machinery of at Lampedusa. Would it help us in any 'Lalla Rookh' and the Loves of the An- way to obtain a more accurate perception gels' are imaginary, and the artist may in- of the poet's meaning, or quicken our own dulge his fancy to the utmost in the creation imagination, if we gazed on the best picof ideal beauty without fear of transgres- torial illustration of the island? Does sion, save in departing from the words that Savorgnano's account of Cyprus in 1569-71, burn in Moore. Rogers, gifted with ex- the time when Othello is feigned to have quisite taste in art as in poetry, has had the been there, help us in any degree to undersingular felicity of will and power to choose stand Shakespeare, or does it in any way the illustrations to his own poems. They interest us? We feel differently respectare too well known and valued to want ing Herne's oak, and the Cliff at Dover. commendation from us. Byron and Scott are alike in this, that they give ample scope both for real and ideal illustration, and the opportunity has not been lost. We do not speak of all the portraits of all the Ianthes and all the Die Vernons, beautiful as many of the personifications of Byron and Scott's heorines are, any more than we do of all the Hamlets and Ophelias, all the Tom Joneses and Sophias. But is it possible to read Byron without wishing to see the scenes he describes? and if that wish be strong in our minds with regard to Byron, whose interests lie abroad-in fact are foreign-how far stronger is it in the case of Scott, whose thoughts, and words, and scenes come home to ourselves-to England-to Scotland; and in Scott it is not poetry only but prose also which enchants; we wish to see before us not only where 'huge Ben Venue Down to the lake his masses threw ;' not only where Even new novels now-a-days come out with their illustrations'-and the prints are in some cases much more meritorious than the text. We do not allude, of course, to Mr. Dickens (though some of his works have been very lucky in the adjuncts) — nor to those lively Irish drolleries (cleverly illustrated as they are) of' Charley O'Malley,' 'Tom Burke of Ours,' &c. &c. Five lustres since and a book, Smith's 'Antiquities of Westminster,' was advertised as possessing (apparently its greatest merit then) the stone plate,' a solitary specimen of lithography. Need we say to what an extent lithography is carried now? To what perfection it is brought is evident by a comparison of the etchings of Otto Speckler's designs to the German edition of Puss in Boots,' and the lithographed drawings in the English edition. We have now before us perhaps the only specimen of photography, strictly speaking, which exists; a bank note engraved by the action of light upon metal, and printed in our presence by the common process. Five lustres more, and in what terms may this specimen be mentioned? It opens a strange vision! Colored and decorative printing, which we remember as existing confined, and Preston Pans where only in the comparatively rude specimens Colonel Gardner was killed. It is this minute illustration, this transporting of our-writing 'Shakspere' is subsiding almost as rapid*We are glad to see that the affectation of selves to the actual locality of the scene ly as it arose groundlessly. Shakspeare' was bad that interests us, which makes us value as enough. Mr. Charles Knight must forgive uswe do the Abbotsford edition of Scott. It we think as highly as ever of much that he has is no fancy when we say that we understand him better in this edition, as the cuts -in general-we regret to say not uni The swan on sweet St. Mary's lake but also Bothwell Brig, where stern Balfour was done for our great poet; and wish him all success in the very useful Concordance,' of which two numbers have reached us. It seems done on a most judicious plan, and with exemplary care. given in Savage's work, is now brought to tumultuarie acommodatum, nihil profanum, great excellence and is common. We have nihilque inhonestum appareat; cum domum seen some specimens of a proposed work Dei deceat sanctitudo. Hæc ut fidelius by Mr. Humphreys, on illuminated manu- observentur, statuit sancta Synodus nemini scripts, which have surprised us by the licere ullo in loco vel ecclesiâ, etiam quo accuracy of their execution and the effect modo libet exemptâ, ullam insolitam ponere obtained by merely mechanical means. vel ponendam curare imaginem, nisi ab Episcopo approbata fuerit.'* We wish that this rule had been so far carried into effect, even in the English Church, that no statue nor monument, even although ordered and approved and paid for by parliament, should have been introduced, as from the nature of some we presume they must have been, into St. Paul's Cathedral, without the sanction of the bishop. We cannot avoid the expression of our wish that they might be transferred as so many 'Illustrations' to the new houses of parliament, unquestionably the fitter receptacle for monuments to the praise and glory of man, for such undoubtedly and properly, in their natnre, they are. One more instance of 'Illustration,' and we close this paper. A short year since and a church, we will not name its locality, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was re-opened. ILLUSTRATION is now about to be practised on a gigantic, at least upon a national, scale. We are to have a pictorial history of England on the walls of the houses of parliament. In the name of all the unities we hope and trust that no gross anachronisms, no real absurdities, may be perpetrated in fresco by any youth of twenty-two, or of the maturer age of forty-two, or of the too ripe age of sixty-two. Let us at the least avoid the errors of the French Versailles. Let us not represent the naked Picts' in 'painted vests.' In the very proper,most proper, wish to obtain excellence in art, let us not shock common sense. Wet know that we are not likely again to be presented with ceilings and walls ;' Where sprawl the gods of Verrio and Laguerre ; but we are naturally fearful that excellence of design or richness and depth of color may be allowed to cover defects. We have, however, great confidence in some of the commission. Some fifty, or sixty, or seventy years since an offer was made by the members of the Royal Academy (we are not sure whether in their corporate capacity or as individuals) to paint or illustrate the inside of St. Paul's Cathedral.f The offer was declined, but we know not with certainty upon what grounds. In the fifteenth century Jean Gerson, the chancellor of Paris, had good reason to object to the introduction of ridiculous pictures into churches; but still they existed in numbers, and of such a nature as, perhaps, to warrant the Genevese reformers in going to extremes, in wishing the destruction of the good or harmless-in fact of all-in order to ensure the destruction of the positively bad. The Council of Trent made one good regulation on the subject-the bishops were charged with the responsibility- Tanta circa hæc diligentia et cura ab episcopis adhibeatur ut nihil inordinatum, aut præpostere et * See Quarterly Review,' vol. Ixi. p. 1. The inside of the dome was painted by Sir James Thornhill, and is now in a sad state of dilapidation. His original sketches are still preserved, and might, if necessary, be used in the restoration of the paintings. Some stained windows had been added. The circular of the vicar stated, that the eastern window of this church, now completed with stained glass, is designed to illustrate the service for Trinity Sunday. The centre opening has reference principally to the Lessons, the side openings to the Gospel and Epistle.' The canon of the Tridentine' Council might have been useful here. These are not the 'Illustrations' we want. PEAL OF BELLS FOR YORK MINSTER.-The papers mention that a very fine and powerful peal of York Minster. They are the gift of the late Dr. Beckworth, a physician of York, who bequeathed £2,000 for the express purpose of furnishing the great northern cathedral with a suitalargest weighing 53 cwt., and being in note C; ble peal of bells. They are 12 in number, the the smallest 8 cwt., and the whole being upwards of 10 tons in weight. In addition to the above, a complete "monster" clock bell is about being cast for the Minster, which, it is stated, will be the largest in the world, and of the enormous weight of 10 tons, that of the great bell at Oxford being 7 tons; Great Tom of Lincoln 5 1-2 tons; and the great bell of St. Paul's 5 tons. It is to be paid for by subscription, £1,700 having been already collected.-Athenæum. of bells is about to be erected in one of the towers * Sess. xxv. Decretum de invocatione, veneratione, et reliquiis Sanctorum et sacris imaginibus. |