ON THE GENIUS OF JOHN MARTIN. 33 



the art he follows ? We believe this latter argument to be the 

 correct one ; we have seen many attempt the same supernatural 

 style in painting and conception, but, in the general effect, they 

 have fallen most immeasurably short of that richness, extent, 

 and magnificence of design, which are inherent in all the pictures 

 of John Martin. Every picture of this artist may be truly 

 looked upon as a separate invention ; and we claim for him, 

 therefore, this faculty, in its highest sense of interpretation, without 

 the fear of one dissentient voice. Genius, rich and abundant as 

 his, could never have stooped iofolloio in the footsteps of greatness ; 

 he has chosen a high path in art, and he has led the way in it. 

 The late venerable Benjamin West was among the first to perceive 

 the great originality of our artist's genius, and, with a noble 

 frankness, which did as much honour to one as it served for 

 inspiration to the other, he predicted (and truly so) his future 

 high career in art. There is a stamp of originality impressed 

 upon the paintings of our artist there is a greatness and a gran- 

 deur depicted on them which have never been achieved, or even 

 portrayed, by any other artist, and which were never even dreamed 

 of by men until they first flashed with electric splendour upon 

 the unexpecting public. 



His pencil and his brush appear dipped in colours of fire ; and 

 whether the scene represented be of Earth, of Heaven, or of Hell, 

 the same supernatural and magnificent effect is thrown over the 

 whole. His cities, his towers, his walls, and his palaces, are of 

 such wide extent, such height and breadth, that the spectator 

 who gazes on them, for the first time, involuntarily calls up and 

 associates them in his mind with the splendid imagery of 

 some Arabian tale, or with the dreams he has dreamed of 

 Memphis, Tyre and Thebes of old. The boundaries of space, 

 extent, and dominion, which have been assigned to the usual 

 rules of art, have been broken down by John Martin, and wide 

 as his pencil has traversed the canvass, new forms and new cre- 

 ations, of supernatural glory and beauty, have sprung up beneath 

 it, until the whole canvass has glowed with the lightning of some 

 mighty and magnificent creation. 



The subjects of his pictures are not taken from the common 

 every-day scenes of life ; his name is never attached to any 

 u portrait of a gentleman," or to any picture of " still life ;" the 

 scenes which inspire his pencil are the vast, the terrible, the 

 gloomy, the grand, the awful, the powerful, the supernatural, 

 the mighty, and the magnificent; and these are as diversified as 



VOL. I. 1833. THIRD EDITION. E 



