352 Dissertation on the Painti?igs of the middle Age. 



and graceful. But not only did Raphael, in his best in- 

 spirations, and the immortal Poussin arrange like the an- 

 cients, and like the most excellent painters of" the middle 

 age; — the most eminent painters oi' the present day have 

 followed the saiT)e method : the picture so justly celebrated 

 of the Horatii, for which we are indebted to the pencil of 

 the first painter among the moderns, astonishes by the sim- 

 plicity of arrangement. The pictures of Phffidra, of Pyrrhus, 

 of Psyche, Atala, and so many others, which have embel- 

 lished the public buildings of Paris, received much of their 

 ^clat on this account : in a word, all the sagacious artists in 

 Europe have addfd to their reputation by imitating the 

 maxims of the ancients*. 



Of the Expression. 



Let me be permitted to mention here the character of th« 

 figures, before speaking of the action. - 



We cannot hesitate to recognize, in the greater mosaics, 

 the figures and even the most shapeless sculptures of these 

 times, that noble taste and grave simplicity of ancient 

 Greece, as well as that poetical style which we endeavour 

 to gather from ancient mythology ; and notwithstanding the 

 perspective of the extremities of these figures, which hurts 

 an exact geometrical eye, the air of these divine and 

 apostolic heads, their dress, the form and masses of their 

 traits, the svisdom and dignity of their appearance, although 

 lessened by the feebleness of the art — every thing imposes 

 upon criticism ; and the Saints so adroitly painted, so care- 

 fully represented by the pencil of so many inoderns, cannot 

 support these grand comparisons. Let it not be thought 

 strange, if in speaking of an art which so many persons re- 

 gard as a simple amusement, I boast of that gravity, a little 

 removed from our manners it is true, but which instead of 

 excluding expression permits it to appear with more unity 

 and force ; that calm gravity, which among the most anj 



* I cannot refrain from remarking here the fine arrangement of a paint- 

 ing whicii i-anta Bartholi has substituted for anotlier, wiiicli is almost de- 

 stroyed, in the p'cture of tlje Nnsos : it represented a boar hunt, and was 

 found by itself upon Mount Cxlius near the Colyseum. I mention it, be- 

 cause it exhibits several personages grouped. As to arrangement iu the 

 paintings of the middle age, Bosics, who hm shown this quality in a great 

 number of Roman sarcophagi, furnishes us also with examples in various 

 paintings. I shall quote among others that of the ceinetery of Sania Ca- 

 lixta, tome i. p. 467. Another in the .same volume, p. 5ii9: two other 

 paintings of the Portico of the Vatican, tome i. p. 2'29. I shall also refer to 

 Ciampi'ii, tom^ iii. pp. 16 and 17. Wc may also quote as models of good 

 arrangement, several pictures of the collection of M. Artaud, among others 

 that of Dello, No. 1 10, which unites several figures. 



cicnt 



