l88 The Fine Arts. 



both for the benefit of nuific and of the arts in general, have 

 judged it proper that the French governnicnt Ihoiild purchafe 

 It at the price of 1 2,000 francs (500 1. lierling). 



THE FINE ARTS. 



The firfl: ntmiber of Tifclibein's Graphic Illuftrations of 

 Homer, a work long expected, has nf)\v appeared. This ce- 

 lebrated engraver, no lefs diltinguiflied by his talents as an 

 arlill than bv his claHical talie, having !)ecome an early 

 admirer of the poetical beauties of the Iliad and Odytrcy, 

 refolved to examine all thofe remains of autiquity which 

 have any relation to the poems of Homer, and, in order to 

 give to his countrymen who had no opportunity of feeing 

 thofe niafter-pieccs of art themfelves, at Icall fome idea of 

 them, to make a colleAion of accurate drawings from the 

 originals, and then to»iengrave and publilh them. A re- 

 fidence of ten years in Italy, to which he was invited by his 

 Neapolitan majefty to be director of the academy of paint- 

 ing at Naples, and the actpuiintance which he there ioriTied 

 with thofe great patrons and promoters of the arts, Iialinfky 

 and Sir William Hamilton, procured him a connexion with 

 the firft artifts of Europe; by which means acccfs was opened 

 for him to objects in different countries, and he was thus 

 enabled to carry his long-projeAcd plan into execution, not- 

 withllanding the multiplied reprefcntations which were made 

 to him refpecfing the difficulties to be encountered in fuch 

 an undertaking. Tilchbein began his work, on which he 

 inceiTantly laboured for fcveral years, with uncommoti zc;al, 

 patience, and affiduity, and at a verv confiderable exnenfe. 

 In this manner he formed a valuable fcries of drawings, 

 relating to, and illuftrative of, the poems of Homer ; and 

 they no doubt would have been long ago publifhed, had he 

 not been interrupted in his peaceful occupation by the tu- 

 mult of arms, and obliged, in confcquence of the taking of 

 Naples by the French, to abandon Italy. Fy making great 

 facrifiees, both in regard to la!)onr and money, he carried off 

 in fafety his valuable treafure, among which was one of the 

 firil maller-piecus of Rap!iael, a painting of St. John ; to- 

 •rethcr with ids drawicigs for Homer, and fuch of the plates 

 as wee a'renlv eiKjraved. In the courfe of his pallage by 

 lea, from Naples to r/j::horn, a pafl'age which carried him 

 pad fevera! of ihofe idands celebrated in fabulous hiftory, he 

 experienced a violent ftorui in the verv place where the draw- 

 ings of Leonardo da \'inci, and thofe of JVJichael Angelo 

 which he had executed for Dante, were f«)rmerlv lo(t ; and 

 the (Iiip.being unable to weather the ftorni, was driven on the 



fliores 



