328 IDENTIFICATION OF THE ARTISAN AND ARTIST. 



liung up so that the i^eople could gaze on them ; and Pliny gives us a 

 long list of paintings put up by different emperors; and, byway of 

 showing what was thought by the Eomaus of our uorthe'rn ancestors, he 

 says, that among those paintings on the walls of the- Forum there was 

 one of a shepherd ; antl when a German ambassador came to Eome, he 

 was asked at what price would he value that picture'? — which shows 

 that it was considered by the Eomans to be worth a high price, quite 

 beyond a German's estimate; he, having so little idea of art that he did 

 not consider that question applicable to any possible artistic merit, said, 

 "Why, I would not have the man, if he were alive and breathing, if you 

 would give him to me," — he considering it was the value of the man, as 

 a servant, and not of the picture, that he was to regard. In a later age, 

 at Florence, Yasari tells us how he and Michael Angelo, and other 

 artists, used to meet together, and then go from church to church to 

 see tbe beautiful w^orks of art in each, and then to discuss and criti- 

 cise them. In the middle ages it was the CJmrch, no doubt, ^^hich gave 

 to public admiration the specimens of fine art, and kept them before 

 the minds of all, and, in fact, made the people be artists. The conse 

 quence of this was, that, as Cellini tells us, when his statue of Perseus, 

 after having been finished, was put into a public i)lace, and when he 

 uncovered it for the first time, "It so i^leased God, that, as soon as ever 

 my work was beheld by the populace, they set up so loud a shout of 

 applause, that I began to be comforted for the mortifications I had 

 undergone; and there w-ere sonnets in my praise every day fastened up 

 on the gate, and the very day I finished my work twenty more sonnets 

 were set up, with the greatest praises of the work, and Latin and Greek 

 X)oems were i)ublished on the occasion." So well had the Italian i^ublic 

 learned how to appreciate a noble work of art! 



]^ow, I look forward wnth no small expectation to what will be done 

 by the new exhibition which is ])repariug, (this refers to the Manchester 

 exhibition,) because I know that great pains have been taken to collect 

 casts and copies of whatever is most beautiful in every department of 

 art, beginning with the most remote period, down to the present tiuie; 

 and if it be really open to the public, and if, especially, it be open for 

 some portion, at least, of that day on -which alone the artisan can enjoy it^ 

 then I am sure it will do more toward raising the feeling of the people 

 for art, and consequently toward introducing an improved practice, 

 than any set of lessons or any teaching could do. A very strong remark 

 is made by Dr. Waagen, before that committee, when asked if they shut 

 up the museum at Berlui as they do in England, at certain times, to 

 enable iirtists to copy; he says, "By no means, because I believe art is 

 far more promoted, by the people seeing it than it is by any number of 

 artists making copies." But it appears to me there has been a deficiency 

 in the general education among us in the matter of artistic culture. I can- 

 not but be struck with this when I see that among all the colleges and 

 schools belonging to this country, so respectable and richly endowed, 



