Cwsery Slricliircs on Motlern Art, 155 



prodigious number of bronze statues and busts of the finest 

 Greek sculpt .ire. 



The succe!^s of these discoveries, and the interest they 

 excited, stiiiudated the pupes, Roman nobility, and anti- 

 quaria'ns, to make excavations wherever there was a proba- 

 bility their labours would be rewarded. These researches 

 fortunately recovered IVom oblivion innumerable pieces o* 

 exquisite sn-.lpture; nianv of the most preciov.s formed 

 the Ciemeniuje nnsu-uni; many enriched the B';rghe.«e, 

 Albani, and other collections ; several parsed into Germany, 

 Holland, Sweden, Russia, France, and Spain : England u'as 

 not insen.iib!e to the ojiporttmity, and several intelligent 

 and spirited individuals profited by this jirofusion of antient 

 treasure. .Sucli acquisitions roused attention from all quar- 

 ters ; thev were eagerly visited, greedily examined, disser- 

 tations and niemoirs were written concerning ,them, and 

 systematic inquiries into their principles published. During 

 all this research and anaiysi?, frequent comparisons were 

 made with the modern works, the remains of the bad taste 

 abov- mentioned, and which were found so deficient in every 

 excellence that they were universally abandoned to contempt. 

 The interested antiquarian, with sordid cruelty, and to raise 

 the ]ince of his o.vii conmiodity, whispered that nioderu 

 talents were unequal to the meanest of these productions, 

 and sometimes he found a senseless purchaser, whose only 

 measure of intelligence was the abundjncc of his wealth ; 

 who would pay dearly enough for any thing that was called 

 antient, to be received into the number of the cognoscenti, 

 and join in the outcry against modern ability. 



All this, however, brought in a new and severer mode of 

 study among the artists, with a more diligent attention to 

 nature and tlie antique, and has enabled some of them to 

 exhibit performances much more on a level with the merit 

 of those works than the insensible can feel, or the interested 

 choose to own. 



Having marked these phsenomena in the hemisphere of 

 art, we should now turn our thoughts more panieularly to 

 England, and sec in uhat manner our own country was 

 aifected by their influence. Previous to the Reh)rmatioti, 



allliouuli 



