108 CORRESPONDENCE. 



can think that there is no information, nor instruction, conveyed by 

 Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, at Milan; Michael Angelo's 

 sublime frescos in the Sistine Chapel ; RafFaelle's biblical series and 

 additional historical works, in the Vatican, &c. ; by Poussin's Seven 

 Sacraments, Bourdon's Works of Mercy, and all the splendid histo- 

 rical and poetical pictures painted in the last four hundred years." 

 Now, though I am far from doubting myself to be a very " consi- 

 derate person" where art is concerned, yet I cannot bear witness to 

 any " information, or instruction," literally so called, received from 

 the sources he has named, though most of the works are known to 

 me. Pleasure, delight, and high veneration of art and the gloiious 

 sons of genius, arise from the contemplation ; but for information, 

 instead of studying Leonardo's Last Supper, I should read the Gos- 

 pel, and for biblical subjects, go to the same fountain-head as 

 Raffaelle himself; Poussin's Sacraments would direct me to a like 

 study : and I much doubt if Bourdon's Works of Mercy have yet 

 eflfectually instructed any spectator to imitate her gentle deeds. (I 

 speak now as a vulgar looker-on, because it is self-evident how 

 much instruction and information an artist gains from such works.) 

 Hogarth's works are great moral lessons, intended as such, and easily 

 read. They are written in characters so plain, that they illus- 

 trate themselves, and stand alone in art, forming a class of their own ; 

 no other pictures can be judged by the effect they produce, because 

 there are none of the like kind. After these examples, Mr. Carey 

 asks — " Is there no information to be gained from all the works of 

 Reynolds — from West's Battles of the Boyne and La Hogue — and 

 Cromwell dissolving the Parliament ?" I answer, — much illustra- 

 tive, but no original, information can be drawn from any such sources. 



The next several pages are occupied in defending that splendid 

 production of Mc'Clise, " The Installation of Captain Rock," against 

 the ridiculous attack of some scribbling pretender, who perpetrated a 

 criticism upon it to the effect that the women introduced are " too 

 beautiful !" Mr. Carey has treated the superficial hyper-critic with 

 a far more gentle hand than some pens that we wot of would have 

 felt disposed to do, and cites abundant evidence to support his praise 

 of that grand, and glorious, and truly wonderful picture. 



I have given my grounds of dissent from Mr. Carey's assumed 

 theory, and shall not further extend this paper, which has already 

 taken a more lengthy form than I originally intended ; as I merely 

 wished to place Dr. Johnson's opinion in a correct point of view, as 

 expressing his conviction that painting did not convey original in- 

 formation, though valuable illustrative knowledge may frequently 

 be gained from it. L. T. 



