160 ART AND ARTISTS. 



parrots ; those gave place to the effigies of our immor- 

 tal bards, Shakespeare ard Milton ; \vhich, in time, 

 have yielded to a still farther improvement, arid are 

 supplanted by casts from the best Greek statues and 

 busts ; together with accurate casts of the great men 

 of our own times. 



A similar advance in the sister art of painting is not 

 less visible. Under the influence of that great encou- 

 rager of art, Alderman Boydell, engravings by native 

 artists, from some of the finest pictures in Europe, have 

 contributed to diffuse a better taste throughout the 

 country, and consequently an increased desire for 

 works of art. 



The. engravings of Strange, Woollett, Bartolozzi, 

 Vivares, Brown, Middiman and many others of nearly 

 equal celebrity, have driven from our walls the wretched 

 trash which, but a few years since, disgraced our dwell- 

 ings ; and the eternal Faith, Hope and Charity, "pub- 

 lished as the act directs, by I\ewbury, St. Paul's 

 Church Yard," have been superseded by the beautiful 

 productions of Raphael, Leonardo, Guido, Claude and 

 Poussin. 



It is quite refreshing to think that, notwithstanding 

 so large a portion of the last four reigns has been en- 

 grossed by foreign wars, the progress of a better taste, 

 although slow, has nevertheless been uniform ; and if 

 art may not be said to have invariably kept the same 

 steady advance, it must be recollected that the same 

 causes have produced similar retrogressions from the 

 earliest periods of the art to the present time : neverthe- 

 less we need be under no apprehension that it will per- 

 manently decline while the standard of public taste is 

 so far elevated as to relish only such productions as are 

 worthy of the patronage of a great, a brave, and an 

 enlightened nation. 



A. B. J. 



Printed and Published by G HEARDEB, 28 Buckvvell St. Plymouth. 



