112 BIRMINGHAM SOCIETY OP ARTS. 



rich effect of light and shade ; and the winding road and brawling 

 stream are painted with great truth and beauty. 

 361. Belinda. — Miss Sharpe. 



" This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, 



" Nouris'h'd two locks which graceful hung behind. 



« « « «°« « • 



The adventurous baron the bright locks admired. 

 He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired — 



Just then Clarissa drew, with tempting grace, 

 A two-edged weapon from her shining case ; 

 He takes the gift with reverence and extends 

 The little engine on his fingers' ends ;" — 



Pope's Rape of the Lock. 



Miss Sharpe's favourite subject is here treated on a larger scale 

 than we have yet seen it, and most beautifully painted in every 

 part. The figures correctly and gracefully drawn, and draperied 

 with grace and richness : — yet is the picture far from our taste. 

 We cannot admire the shoals of little pink-skinned imps which are 

 crowding around Belinda, 



" And, flying 'mong laces, and gauzes, and lawns, 

 " Come floating about her like so many prawns." 



Over her head they are plunging and frisking like motes in the sun- 

 shine, only very plump and corporeal ; and they literally swarm on 

 the hem of her garment, forming a flouncing termination thereto : 

 while a trio are bathing in Miss Belinda's cup of warm coffee ! 

 Others are swinging in her hair, and the whole troop of tiny sans 

 culottes exhibiting the most ingenious variety of attitude and con- 

 tortion, that can enter into the fancy of man to conceive, or the 

 freakish whim of fair lady to execute. In Pope's description of 

 the sylphs attendant on Belinda, we find them mentioned as 



" Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight, 

 Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light." 



It, therefore, seems a stretch, even of a painter's license, to clothe 

 these aerial beings in such full, florid, and substantial shapes of 

 flesh and blood as they here appear in. The light sylphs of Pope 

 were never intended to be impersonated by plump-bodied Cupids : 

 at least, such is our opinion of the ideal portion of this highly-fi- 

 nished picture, which, in every other respect, we very much admire. 

 385. Seville — Procession of the Host.— J. F. Lewis. The priests, 

 bearing the sacred emblems, are pausing opposite one of the Ma- 

 donna shrines, which so frequently occur in Spanish cities ; and all 

 the passers-by and inhabitants are reverentially kneeling around. — 

 The pretty mantilla'd belles gracefully bending, with evidently as 

 much regard to beauty as piety j while some of the rougher sex per- 

 form the required obeisance as a mere matter of ceremony ; and 

 others with all the fervour of enthusiastic devotees. The perspec- 

 tive view of the street, terminated by a lofty tower, is very finely 



