154 Cursory Strictures on Modern Arl . 



mutual shame in a boasting Latin inscription affixed to the 

 building he had robbed so shamefully- Thus the pope and 

 the sculptor carried all before them in their lime, and sent 

 out a baleful influence which corrupted public taste upwards 

 of one hundred years afterwards. 



Rusconi, Mocho, Eolgio, Quesnoy (commonly called 

 Fiamingo), and the inferior sculptors of the time, adopted 

 the popular taste, which their scholars continued, and its 

 last puny and insipid effects are to be seen in the statues at 

 the Fountain of Trcvi, and monument of Benedict the Four- 

 teenth, exeguted by Bracci and Sybilla, in St. Peter's church, 

 about fifty years since. 



Nearly the same taste in the arts of design which prevailed 

 in Italy prevailed also in France, as the latter country was 

 supplied with arl, or artists, from the former: thus, when 

 Lewis the Fourteenth invited Bernini to come into France, 

 Bernini answered, " that he had no need of him, whilst he 

 had such a sculptor as Puget." Puget's works were some- 

 what more drv and detailed than Bernini's ; Girardon's (his 

 cotemporary) were more heavy ; but they were all of the 

 same school. The opinion of Bernini confirmed the mo- 

 narch, and the same bad taste was cultivated in France with 

 as much zeal as it was fostered in Italy; as we see by the 

 works of Bouchardon, Boucher, &c., who continued it tq 

 the same time which extinguished its last feeble efforts ir^ 

 both countries. 



Spain, Germany, and the other nations of Europe, re- 

 ceiving their supplies of fine art from the two countries 

 above mentioned, were consequently influenced by the same 

 motives and trammelled in the same taste, which was at this ■ 

 period become so degraded as to be at the point of utter 

 dissolution, had not some controlling circumstances arisen, 

 which a'isisted in its revival. 



The king of Naples had, in part, cleared the ruins of 

 Herculaneum and Pompeii, which e.vposed to view streets, 

 dwelling-houses, temples, theatres, baths, and jiublic places, 

 nearly in the same state as when they were inhabited 1700 

 years before: these discoveries brought back to the light of' 

 dav, as it were by miracle, 700 antient paintings, and a 



prodigious 



