FINE ARTS. 



355 





It has nevertheless proved a substantial success, 

 from two to three thousand copies having been 

 sold by the close of the year, a number of which 

 were orders from England and America. 



GERMANY. The extensive series of frescoes 

 commenced years ago by Kaulbach, in the New 

 Museum at Berlin, is rapidly approaching com- 

 pletion. One of the smaller pictures gives a 

 curious illustration of the kind of humor in 

 which this artist occasionally indulges. It repre- 

 sents Germany absorbed in reading Humboldt's 

 " Cosmos," and letting the imperial crown fall 

 off her head in the abstraction caused by her 

 studies. Underneath, the various small States 

 that compose the Confederation are stretching 

 out their heads as far as possible, to escape from 

 under a hat which is coming down upon them 

 an allusion to the popular phrase of uniting 

 the whole of Germany " under one hat." A 

 new National Museum is to be erected in the 

 rear of the building which contains these works. 

 A monument has been erected at Harlaching, 

 near Nuremberg, in honor of Claude Lorraine, 

 who passed some time there. Statues of the 

 deceased architects Yon Gartner and Von 

 Kleuze are to be erected in Munich, at the cost 

 of the ex-king Ludwig ; and a mausoleum for 

 the body of the late king Maximilian, to be 

 executed by the architect Riedel, is to be placed 

 in the church of the Theatines. An important * 

 report has been made by a commission ap- 

 pointed by the king of Bavaria to test the pro- 

 cess proposed by Professor Pettenkofer for 

 cleaning pictures, and which consists simply in 

 exposing the canvas to the vapor of alcohol. 

 The defects noticed in old oil paintings, it is 

 now known, are due to the loss of molecular 

 cohesion; and the fumes of the alcohol, by caus- 

 ing the molecules to reunite, restore the optical 

 effect of the original. The result is that the 

 cracked and broken surface of the varnish is 

 replaced by a continuous one. The commission- 

 ers recommend the process, which they tried 

 upon more than fifty pictures, " as the rational 

 groundwork of the future means of regeneration 

 and conservation of the Bavarian State pic- 

 tures," and as a help to the restorer's art, rather 

 than a substitute for it. An equestrian statue 

 of Gen. " Stonewall" Jackson is in progress at 

 Nuremberg, by a young sculptor of that place, 

 named Volk, who was in the rebel service as 

 draughtsman during the late civil war in Ameri- 

 ca, and took a cast from the face of Jackson after 

 death. The destruction by fire of the ducal 

 palace at Brunswick, with all its magnificent 

 furniture and a large number of valuable pic- 

 tures and other works of art, involved also the 

 loss of Eietschel's noble bronze group of "Bru- 

 nonia," the patron goddess of the place, and a 

 present from the people of Brunswick to their 

 sovereign. It consisted of a colossal figure in a 

 car drawn by four colossal horses, and was 

 completed only a few months before its destruc- 

 tion. A statue of the late Prince Albert was 

 dedicated at Coburg on August 27th, his birth- 

 day, in presence of Queen Victoria and the 



principal personages of the royal houses of 

 England and Saxe-Coburg. The work was cast 

 in bronze at Nuremberg, from a design by 

 Theed. 



BELGIUM. Some of the principal Belgian 

 artists are now engaged in executing important 

 public commissions. De Keyzer, President of 

 the Antwerp Academy of Arts, is engaged upon 

 a series of pictures for the vestibule of that in- 

 stitution ; Baron Leys is decorating one of the 

 apartments of the Hotel de Ville at Antwerp ; 

 and Slingeneyer is at work on a series for a 

 public edifice in Brussels. In the latter city a 

 monument to Counts Egmont and Horn is to 

 be erected, to include four figures, the tw.o no- 

 bles and two soldiers. A statue of Teniers, by 

 Ducaju, is to be erected in one of the squares 

 of Antwerp, by command of the late King Leo- 

 pold. 



ITALY. Among the great works in sculpture 

 in progress at Rome during 1865, was Tenerani's 

 monument to the memory of Pius VIII., which, 

 by the close of the year, was nearly completed ; 

 and the colossal group, consisting of the Saviour 

 and the two chief apostles, with the Pope kneel- 

 ing in front, will shortly be placed above the 

 door, in the church of St. Peter's, leading from 

 one of the aisles to the sacristy. Another ex- 

 ample of sculpture lately erected in St. Peter's, 

 is a colossal statue of St. Angela Merice, founder 

 of the Ursuline nuns; a venerable and dignified 

 figure, affording a striking contrast to a young 

 girl standing near her. This group is by Galli. 

 Rome still continues to be the headquarters of 

 many foreign sculptors, prominent among whom 

 are W. "W. Story, Miss Harriet Hosmer, and 

 others from the United States. One of the 

 chief commissions with which Story is now oc- 

 cupied, is a statue of Edward Everett, to be 

 cast in bronze, for several gentlemen in Boston. 

 A colossal bronze-gilt statue of Hercules, lately 

 exhumed, it has been finally decided by the 

 Roman Pontifical Archseological Academy shall 

 be designated the " Mastai Hercules," in honor 

 of the family name of Pope Pius IX., and be 

 placed in the Vatican. It is supposed to be 

 identical with a famous statue of Hercules, 

 known as the Great Protector of the Flarcinian 

 Circus, and to which oracular powers were as- 

 signed. In respect of execution it is said to be 

 superior to any thing yet discovered in Rome. 

 Even the Apollo Belvidere and the bas-reliefs 

 of the Pantheon, though of a purer style, lack 

 the incomparable finish of this statue. Another 

 recent discovery is that of the foundations of a 

 temple of Jupiter in the garden of the Caftarelli 

 Palace. The Sciarra Palace was recently par- 

 tially destroyed by fire, but its fine gallery, con- 

 taining masterpieces by Raphael, Titian, Leon- 

 ardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, etc., escaped injury. 

 In Mantua, a celebrated picture by Raphael, 

 the " Madonna di Loreto," which has long been 

 missing, has been accidentally discovered in a 

 broker's shop. It measures three feet by four, 

 and when found was covered with a thick coat 

 of paint, apparently put on designedly. After 



