Cursory Slric'ures on Modern Arl. 1j3 



infected and prevailed over the Florentine and Roman 

 schools. He had studied painting, and seems to have beeu 

 enamoured with the works of Correggio, who, to avoid the 

 dryness of his master, Andrea Mantegna, gave prodigious 

 flow to the lines of his figures and redundance to his dra- 

 peries ; of which Bernini's statues are only caricatures, to- 

 lallv devoid of the painter's ecstatic grace and sentiment. 

 Before he was twoufv )'ears old he completed a marble group, 

 the size of nature, of Apollo and Daphne, at the moment 

 the nymph is changing into a laurel tree : the delicate cha- 

 racter of the figures, the sprightly expression, the smooth 

 finish of the material, and the light execution of the foliage,. 

 so captivi.tcd the public taste, that Michel Angelo was for- 

 gotten, the antique statues disregarded, and nothing looked 

 on with delight that was not produced by the new favourite. 

 It is true, Bernini showed respectable talents in the group 

 above nicnlioncd ; and had he continued to select and study 

 nature with diligence, he might have been a most valuable 

 artist: but sudden success prevented him — he never im- 

 proved; the immense works crowded on him made him 

 spurn all example, and consider only how he might send 

 out bib models and designs most speedily. The attitudes of 

 his figures are much twisted, the heads tufned wilh a me- 

 retricious 'grace, the countenances simper affectedly or are 

 deformed by low passion?, the poor and vulgar limbs and 

 bodies are loaded with draperies of such protruding or flying 

 folds, as cqiiallv expose the unskilfulness of the artist and 

 the solidity of the maierial on which he worked; his groups 

 have an unmeaning connection, and his b:i.sso relievos are 

 filled up with buildmgs in perspective, cloud;, water,, dimi- 

 liished fiijures, and attempts to represent such aerial eflocts 

 as break down the boundaries of painting and sculpture, and 

 confound the^vvo arts. Pope Urban the Eighth u.i.= paiiot^ 

 of this artist, and so passionately did he admire and jiromote 

 bis worksj that, not contented wilh spending immense 

 sums upon them, he took the antieut bronze ornaments 

 tron) the roof in the jiortico of the I^mtheon, to the amount 

 of lb(i,ou() pounds, for Bernini to cast his bizarre and 

 childish baldcquiu for St. Peter's, and then published their 



]iiutual 



