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STATE OF THE FINE ARTS IN PARIS. 



Exhibition at the Louvre in 1834. 



In reference to the fine arts how rarely does genius experience 

 the fate to which its merit entitles it — nay, sorrow marks it for her 

 own in proportion to the splendour which irradiates from its lofty 

 brow. The lapse of half a century is required to hallow the worth 

 of genius, and in one night the mere organs — the instruments by 

 which talent is made manifest, are raised to the highest pinnacle of 

 fame and wealth. Poor Mozart walked backward and forward 

 from Vienna to Prague after his musical patron — Rossini was 

 constrained to withdraw the most perfect and beautiful of his 

 compositions, " II Barbiere," after its first representation at Rome, 

 because the public, adhering tenaciously to the old masters,were 

 incapable of appreciating this founder of a highly pleasing though 

 somewhat meretricious style. In England Shakspeare, in Spain 

 Cervantes, experienced the same fate, in Italy Alfieri, and in France 

 and Germany — but the melancholy catalogue of neglected genius 

 ■would more than fill these sheets ! The immortal Raphael, whilst 

 living, received not from the masters of Rome the homage due to 

 his acknowledged excellence j and the greatest master in colouring, 

 next to Titian, the gentle, the amiable Corregio, passed his whole 

 life a wretched villager near Parma, and at last succumbed, like an 

 ignoble beast of burthen, beneath the weight of copper coin.* 

 Pasta, Sontag, and Malibran have been idolized — Paganini has 

 been enriched, and Madame Mars has even been made the heiress 

 to great property, by enthusiastic admirers. Have those great 

 men who have delighted by their productions, not merely their own 

 but future generations, been thus rewarded ? Far from it ! The 

 world has always been ungrateful towards those to whom it owes 

 whatever tends to beautify and give a lustre to society, whatever 

 gives a zest to present existence, and spiritualizes even sensua! 

 enjoyments. What is necessary to call into action the powers of a 

 songstress or a fiddler ? a mixed assemblage of people bawling 

 bravo ! a collection of eyes and ears, and brawny arms to applaud 

 to the echos. But these suffice not for the creation of the Parthe- 



* Correg:io was employed to paint, in the cupola of the cathedral of Parma, a 

 representation of the Assumption of the Vir^n. This lask he executed in a manner 

 that has long been the object of admiration for the grandeur of its design, the bold- 

 ness of the foreshortening, and general excellence. On going to receive payment 

 for his labour, the canons of the church, through ignorance or avarice, found fault 

 with the work, and though the price originally agreed upon was moderate, they 

 reduced it to less than one half, wliich they paid in copper money. To carry home 

 this unworthy load to his indigent family, poor Corregio had to travel seven or eight 

 miles ; and the weight of his burden, the heat of the weather, and the depression of 

 his spirits, threw him into a pleuritic fever, which in three days put an end to his 

 life in 1534. [The above anecdote is extracted from " The National Gallery," a work 

 of very considerable merit, and deserving encouragement from its cheapness.] 



