sors, It may, however, be remarked, 
that the Cencert of the Muses, since the 
time of its being engraved (either by 
Gribelin, or some one nearly of that date) 
&ppears to have been cleaned, and per- 
haps repaired, with little mercy to its 
original charms. 
Of the great advantages of a collection 
thus offered to the wishes of the artists 
itis earnestly to be hoped, that the stu- 
dents in the different branches of paint- 
ing will not fail diligently to avail them- 
selves, and there is at present little rea- 
son to doubt their zeal. It has been 
said that, from peculiar motives, the stu- 
dents are prohibited from making more 
than partial copies from the pictures sent 
to the gallery. Such motives, it 1s to be 
hoped, do not influence the president of 
the Royal Academy, who is the pos- 
Sessor of the treasure of Titian above- 
mentioned, 
Equestrian Statue of William the Third, erected 
in the Centre of St. Fames’s Squares 
It has long been «w subject of com- 
plaint in England, that the public works 
of statuary in our squares are very 
madequate to the gencral reputation of 
the nation, The unwie'\ly clumsiness of 
the Hero of Culloden, in Cavendish- 
square, was justly ridiculed in an occa- 
sional production of the late Mr. Mason, 
on the Projected Improvements of Lan- 
don. Nor does the tame insipidity of 
bis Majesty’s Horse, in Berkeley-square, 
yield anatom of inferiority to the pre- 
ceding. The defects of these two statues 
are not counterbalanced by any striking 
beauties in others erected in various 
arts of the town; and the work of Mr, 
acon, newly placed in St. James’s- 
square, although not destitute of merit, 
is by no means calculated to bring down 
the creditable scale. It is executed from 
a design of the late J. Bacon, R. A. so 
that the present sculptor, from his well- 
known filial piety, will stand nearly ex- 
empted from the remarks which may be 
made onit. Jn all efforts at equestrian 
statues, the horse appears to be the 
rincipal* stumbling-biock of the artist. 
| pa William’s horse is a light dancmg 
courser, apparently designed to-be of the 
Arabian breed, with neck erect, and cur- 
Vetting pace. His form is slender; in 
Monthly Retrospect of the F ine 4rts. 
[O&. 1, 
some parts very questionably so, and par- 
ticularly in the Ainder parts. His action 
is graceful and fantastic. He does not, 
like the horse of Achilles, appear con- 
scious of the character of his: master. 
But why (it would” be asked) should 
horses be supposed to possess this pre- 
ternatural degree of intellect Horses 
(it may be answered) are not required to 
possess such knowledge, but sculptors 
are, Itis the business of the artist to 
diffuse over each of his works one homo-+ 
geneous sentiment, and that sentiment 
must be precisely appropriate to the cha- 
racter and the event which the work 
pourtrays, It is this merit, as every 
artist well knows, which we admire ia 
the Greek statues, far beyond the very 
subordinate consideration of execution. 
William the Third is in the costume 
of a Roman knight, with the excep- 
tion, that his head of hair, or wig, 
flows very fully down his shoulders. He 
extends, as usual, one hand, and holds 
the reins with the other, He affects an 
upright, easy air, a little too much ae- 
commodated to the precepts of a riding- 
school, This is his greatest fault; he is 
in other respects sufficiently answerable 
to the talents of the sculptor, 
Invidious comparisons haye usually 
been made between our native modern 
attempts at equestrian statues, and the 
well-known object of attention at Char- 
ing Cross, executed by Hubert Le Soeur, 
There is, hewever, less superiority in 
that work than is frequently attributed 
to it. It is wroughtin a hard and dry 
manner, and the forms of the horse are 
every where too square either for nature 
or beauty. But if it makes little pre- 
tensions to poetic or ideal character, it 
cannot be denied that it possesses, in the 
general deportment of both pause of the 
group, a species of historical sedateness, 
which awakens interest and respect. It 
is this historic character, which is prin- 
cipally deficient in the equestrian statue 
of Mr. Bacon. 
The Great Room, No. 22, Piccadilly, 
is opened as a Gallery of the Arts, | 
where paintings, drawings, and curiosi¥ 
ties, will be admitted for exhibition and 
sale, under the direction of gentlemen 
eminent for taste and judgment, 
REVIEW 
