— 
1828.] Modern Pictures. 369 
‘depends almost entirely on an optical illusion : as such, it is altogether of 
a mechanical nature, and does not appeal to, or in the remotest degree 
spring from, any one of those mental qualities or attributes to which 
the results of high Art should and do address themselves, and on their 
more or less perfect accordance with which the merits and value of those 
results depend. Thinking thus, we are pleased to observe that Mr. 
Martin has, in the work before us, placed less dependance on the effect 
in question than we had feared that he would ; and still more pleased are 
‘we to be able to state that he has succeeded better in proportion. The 
architectural details of this fine picture are sufficiently elaborate and 
extensive to convey a grand and gorgeous impression of the scene in 
which the events depicted take place ; but they are not made to overlay 
and extinguish any of the more important points of the subject. 
Perhaps something similar to the above may be said, in reference to 
the extraordinary effects of light, in this picture. There is nothing 
attempted of the super-natural ; and there is nothing produced that is 
either un-natural, or that falls strikingly short of the natural effects 
resulting from the extraordinary circumstances of the case. And per- 
haps this arises from the just and judicious manner in which the various 
lights that prevail in different parts of the scene are preserved separate 
and distinct from each other, and are thus made each to produce its own 
effect, without attempting the physical impossibility of uniting and 
blending them all into one, and preserving them all separate, at one and 
the same time. 
We must now take leave of this fine work, by stating our opinion, that 
it is one which would not have been deemed unworthy the very finest 
ages of Art—to which ages it would, in fact, have added a kind of lustre, 
which at present they are without ;—and, moreover, that the day which 
has given it birth is one which cannot in fairness be treated with disrespect, 
if it be but in virtue of this one picture alone. 
It will perhaps be thought that we have chosen an unlucky moment 
at which to illustrate our introductory observations, by critical references 
to works actually before the public eye. But the truth is, that if we had 
chosen that particular period of the year when the annual produce of 
British Art is open to public inspection, we should have had no.chance of 
- getting through our task within any ordinary limits, or of doing any 
thing like justice to the claimants upon our attention. Indeed, we are 
by no means sure of being able to do this even now ; though the objects 
demanding particular mention are but two more—one of which, by-the- 
by, does not come very strictly within the scope of our subject. We 
allude now to the great picture of Mr. Lane ; which is so entirely beyond 
all reasonable limits, in point of size, that it can scarcely be looked upon 
as a picture at all, but rather as a scene; and it will assuredly not long 
remain a picture ; nor would it even if it possessed ten times the merit 
that it does: because no gallery could receive it ; nor can it be used with 
any good effect even as the altar-piece of the largest church in the metro- 
polis. The truth is, that several of the most promising artists cf our day 
—and Mr. Lane among them—have fallen into the fatal mistake of sup- 
posing that greatness of size has some necessary connexion with grandeur 
of effect; whereas it might almost be stated that directly the opposite 
is the case. We do not of course mean that smallness of size is calculated 
to produce grandeur of effect: though it is by no means incompatible 
with it—as has been satisfactorily shewn by the example adduced in the 
M.M. New Series.—Vou. VI. No. 34. 3 iB 
