Decorative Arts in Germany and France. 2W 



" usque ad nauseam^'''' that they are mere imitators of the 

 very early masters. This is not true. I shall not enter at 

 large upon this subject, but beg to refer you, for what I believe 

 to be a true view of it, to Mr Eastlake''s admirable paper at 

 the end of the last report of the last Parliamentary Committee 

 on the Arts. 



In architecture, I am not disposed to consider our friends 

 so favourably ; — there is much genius evinced in their pro- 

 ductions, their conceptions are great, and magnificent works 

 are undertaken, and brought to a successful termination, but 

 their talent is chiefly shewn in very direct imitation, and that 

 imitation is not always discriminating ; there are many very 

 tasteful revivals of the middle age Tuscan, of the restored 

 Italian classic, of the Byzantine and Romanesque, but, at the 

 same time, there is also a revival of the principal defects of the 

 Italian architects ; and I do not think that much judgment 

 is always shewn in the choice of a style. The famous Lud- 

 wig Strauss is wholly ineffective as a street ; the style of most 

 of the buildings is that of the fortress palaces of Tuscany, and 

 the imitation is not at all times successful. The material, how- 

 ever, is excellent, and so is the workmanship ; the details are 

 generally in beautiful taste and admirably executed, and the 

 decorative completion of the buildings is ever in a style of 

 great magnificence. 



The few attempts in Gothic are coarse, and almost entirely 

 devoid of all true Gothic feeling ; and it is remarkable that 

 the details which, in edifices in other styles, are better than 

 the general designs, are, in the Gothic attempts, very indiffer- 

 ent and inferior to the conception of the mass. 



I do not think that the Bavarian School of Sculpture has 

 any very high claims to excellence. The word clever seems 

 to me the most applicable to the works which I saw at Mu- 

 nich. There is no want of employment however. In the 

 new throne-room of the palace, there are twelve colossal 

 portraits of ancestors of the king, in gilt bronze ; the Tym- 

 pana of the Walhalla, the Glyptothek, and portico opposite, 

 are filled with statuary ; and I might mention much besides ; 

 but the most extraordinary undertaking of all, is a statue of 

 Bavaria now modelling, and which is to be cast in bronze. 



