140 Royal Academy. 



ROYAI, ACADEMY. 



Monday, 16th February, Mr. Fuseli delivered his first Lecture 

 upon Painting. The Professor observed that as liistory, by de- 

 viating from its proper object, degenerates into biography, and 

 swells to a huge catalogue of individual men ; so art, by a similar 

 perversion, has its general process and advancement absorbed 

 in the contemplation of particular genius, the nurselings of dif- 

 ferent schools. The same process that distinguished the schools 

 of Greece, marked the Italian j it was the universal process of 

 nature ; — preparation, establishment, decline. 



We owe the restoration of style to has-relievo. It first pended 

 between a copy of barbarity and an impotent imitation of the 

 antique, till it found a basis in Massaccio, though it continued to 

 totter till the appearance of Leonardo da Vinci. The powers of 

 this artist were never consistent. Sometimes he attained the sum- 

 mit of excellence in character — sometimes was content with me- 

 diocrity — sometimes degenerated to caricature : his province was 

 confined to the expression of male forms : the female was not 

 within the scope of his genius. The ever exact similarity of all 

 his women makes them to appear daughters of one common 

 mother. It was in Mich-icl Angelo tliat art attained its full es- 

 tablishment. Whether his encomiasts or his critics were most 

 capable of judging of his powers, is not determined ; yet both 

 date from him the full perfection of art. His were the stamina 

 of nature ; his the real feelings of humanity: — as sculptor, as 

 architect, he attempted, and, above every other man, succeeded 

 in uniting, magnificence of plan and endless variety of subordinate 

 parts with the utmost simplicity and breadth. The ch.ild, the 

 female, meanness, deformity, were by him indiscriminately 

 stamped with grandeur; a bejrgar rose from his hand, the patri- 

 arch of poverty; the hump of his dwarf is impressed with dig- 

 nity ; his women are moulds of generation ; his infants teem 

 with man; his men are a race of giants. Sublimitv of con- 

 ception, grandeur of form, breadth of manner, are the elements 

 of Michael Angelo's style. 



The milder genius of Raphael succeeded to the inspiration of 

 Michael Angelo : the latter had no infancy, or, if he had, we are not 

 acquainted with it; like an oriental sun he burst upon us, in all 

 the splendours of perfection. Raphael we view in infancy; P^'o- 

 priety rocked his cradle. Character ennobled his limbs ; by pro- 

 found, precise, acute observations upon the antique, and by sub- 

 sequently as admirable application, he erected liis fabric of excel- 

 lence. Raphael's was the unrivalled province to embody cifulgent 

 goodness, in the person of our Saviour. Roundness, mildness, 

 and insipidity characterize his Madonas; transcripts of the nur- 

 sery, or servile copies of a face he liked. When Raphael at- 

 tempts 



