1828.] 



Fine Arts' Exhibitions. 



649 



opera ; and the French painter, however 

 subdued, is never much below the positions 

 of Talma and Duchesnois; he seems to 

 have a perpetual eye to the groupings of 

 the stage ; and the result is, that every 

 figure is urged to the very verge of extra- 

 vagance. Of all the excellencies of paint- 

 ing, the Frenchman knows the least of 

 repose. But, passing by this incurable 

 fault of the school, which, however, the 

 artist who desires to be popular in Paris is 

 perhaps not at liberty to abandon, Mons. 

 leThiere's picture is a vigorous, animated, 

 and faithful performance. The back -ground 

 is filled with the temples and architecture 

 of the city. In the centre of the foreground 

 is the elevated seat, on which the triumvir 

 is seen writhing with rage and terror at 

 the act of Virginius. Below, and close to 

 the spectator, is Virginius, rushing forward 

 with the knife, purple from the bosom of 

 his daughter. Groups of relations, and the 

 populace attacking the lictors, fill up the 

 canvas. The artist has improved in his 

 colouring since his Brutus; but still the 

 colouring is not dense enough for an 

 English eye. The picture wants the round- 

 ness and firmness of nature, and altogether 

 more resembles a finely-wrought piece of 

 tapestry, or a richly-stained silk, than the 

 forcible work of oil on canvas. It would 

 make a finer fresco than a painting. In 

 these remarks we have no national feeling. 

 We are gratified by seeing an accomplished 



native of a foreign country submit his 

 works to our patronage ; and feeling that 

 there is room enough for all, we think that, 

 so far from injuring the British artist, an 

 extension of this honourable intercourse 

 would be equally serviceable to all. Let 

 our artists acquire the learning, the keen 

 and accurate attention to classical costume, 

 and the narrative vigour of the French, 

 and they will have gained a prodigious 

 addition to their effect on the cultivated 

 mind of England. The popularity of mon- 

 key painting, kennels, and pig-styes, would 

 be no more a degradation to the pencil and 

 the public, and we should have the nobler 

 forms of man and nature, alone, brought 

 before us by the genius of British painting. 

 Lane's picture at the King's Mews we 

 unfortunately saw only at an hour when no 

 judgment could be formed of it. It is a 

 colossal grouping of the angelic figures 

 that might be supposed to have passed 

 before Joseph in his vision. It is said to 

 have occupied the artist during seven years 

 at Rome ; to have been honoured with the 

 plaudits of Cammuciniand the leading pro- 

 fessors ; to have provoked the alarm of the 

 Pope, who, being a celibataire, disapproved 

 of the idea of Mary and her husband asleep 

 on the same mattress, and to have pro- 

 cured the exile of the painter from Rome, 

 by the more formidable wrath of the 

 Inquisition. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



DOMESTIC. 

 B.OYAL SOCIETY. 



February 21, 1828. An account was read 

 of the accident to the packet ship the New 

 York, from lightning, by T. Stewart Traile, 

 M.D., of Liverpool. Of this circumstance 

 we gave a detailed account some time since 

 in this journal from a different source, and 

 it would be needless to repeat the particu- 

 lars March 20. A paper was read on 'the 

 phenomena of volcanos, by Sir H. Davy. 

 In a paper on the decomposition of the 

 earths, published in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions for 1812, the author offered it as a 

 conjecture, that the metals of the alkalies 

 and earths might exist in the interior of the 

 globe, and on being exposed to the action of air 

 and water, give rise to volcanic fires, and to 

 the production of lavas, by the slow cooling 

 of which, basaltic and other crystalline rocks 

 might subsequently be formed. Having 

 made some observations on the eruption of 

 Vesuvius in 1820, the phenomena which 

 presented themselves to the author afforded 

 a sufficient refutation of all the ancient hy- 

 potheses, in which volcanic fires were ascribed 

 to such chemical causes as the combustion 

 of mineral coal, or the action of sulphur 

 upon iron ; and are perfectly consistent with 



MM. New Series VOL. V. No. 30. 



the supposition of their depending upon the 

 oxidation of the metals of the earths, upon 

 an extensive scale, in immense subterranean 

 cavities, to which water or atmospheric air 

 may occasionally have access. 



ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 



February 8. This day being the anni- 

 versary, Dr. Olinthus Gregory, one of the 

 secretaries, read the report of the council to 

 the Eighth Annual General Meeting. The 

 Society, we are happy to learn, is increasing 

 its numerical strength, while the objects in 

 which it is engaged, and the labours which 

 it has performed, have attracted the admira- 

 tion of Europe. The President, J. F. W. 

 Herschel, Esq., then delivered a medal to 

 Sir T. Brisbane, and another to Mr. Dunlop, 

 accompanying the presentation with an in- 

 teresting and eloquent address. After which, 

 one of the Vice Presidents having taken the 

 chair, delivered to Mr. Herschel, as proxy 

 for his venerable aunt, Miss Caroline Her- 

 schel, a gold medal of the Society, for her 

 unceasing and valuable labours, continued 

 up to the present time, and which will 

 insure her name being transmitted with 

 honour to posterity, associated with that of 

 her distinguished brother, and of his highly 

 gifted son. 



40 



